★★★

An instinctual drive came over me. José's scent was faint at first. It mingled with the grass and dirt. But soon, it became the center of my thoughts, driving me forward, rendering me completely oblivious to my surroundings, shifting my focus solely on the trail.

My nose to the ground, I chased the scent up the hill. Winnie, who seemed overcome with the same obsession, trailed steadily by my side.

The officer, Mr. Rose, and Lance were doing their best to keep up with us. The officer wheezed as he struggled up the slick hill, his lungs failing him, probably a result of years of chain smoking. Winter and Sheldon brought up the rear, Winter clutching Sheldon's hand tightly, her face covered with concern.

We followed the scent past the horse field, our noses pressed down among the weeds. Old Earl watched us cautiously with his one good eye as we hurried by. We barely noticed him. As if deciding we weren't there to terrorize him, he bucked and whinnied,  chasing us as far as he could go to the far edge of the fence, his good eye wide as he watched us make our way towards the barn.

The evil one was in the barn... His thoughts trailed off as we traveled too far to read them anymore. So focused on the scent, neither of us paid attention to the old horse.

The scent grew stronger as we made our way towards the barn. It tore at our noses, practically overwhelmed us, and drove us crazy with anticipation. So focused on scent, we nearly ran face first into the bolted barn doors.

Barking in frustration, longing to catch the scent that permeated beyond the bolted doors, I turned to see where the humans were.

Lance was the closest, sweat laying his brown curls flat on his head as he rounded the fence towards the barn.

"Hold on! Hold on there," the officer panted gruffly, a few feet behind him, hands on his knees. "Let me go first."

He reached down, grappled his revolver, and pulled it out of its harness. Winter inhaled sharply, her eyes resting on the gun as she and Sheldon pulled up at that exact moment.

"Just in case." The officer turned, gun in his hand, to reassure her.

Lance lifted the heavy latch on the barn door for the armed officer, and threw them open dramatically. Winnie and I flew in ahead of them, following the trail like possessed bloodhounds.

All of the animals had been let out to graze in the field earlier, shortly after Winter had discovered the letter. Lance and Mr. Rose had already inspected the barn at that time, one brandishing a pitch fork and one a shovel, but they'd found nothing.

It was stuffy inside, and eerily quiet. We rushed in after the scent, the others following close behind. The barn seemed to be laced with José's scent, so we chose the strongest path which lead us to the ladder of the loft.

Winnie, blatantly ignoring all dog normalcy rules, set to climbing the ladder, paw over paw, just like a human. Driven almost insane by the pull of the scent, I followed after her, ignoring my normal tendency to avoid doing unnatural things.

"What in the—?" The officer's voice trailed off as he watched us climb the ladder, his mouth left hanging open.

"Now that's somethin' you don't see every day." Mr. Rose whistled as he came to stand next to the officer. "What the hell is going on here?"

"What are you waiting for!" Lance cut in, pushing past them."José could be up there!"

Jerking out of his daze, the officer grabbed the ladder with one hand and hoisted himself up, his gun gripped tightly in the other. About two rungs from the top, he lost his grip and tipped backwards, reaching helplessly for a handhold. He swore as he lost grip of his revolver, and it tumbled to the barn floor,  spinning on its side, causing the group to instinctively dart away from it.

"Jesus," Lance spat at the officer. "How long has it been since you've seen any action?"

Ignoring him, the officer recovered and hoisted himself up on top of the loft floor with a burst of energy that only comes from the embarrassment of dropping your gun on the job. Lance followed closely behind him, his strong arms gripping the ladder easily, the recovered gun in his other hand.

Winnie and I reached the loft floor and made a beeline to the far right corner. We circled around a pile of loose hay surrounded by stacks of tidy hay bales. The smell was so strong, I found myself racked with uncontrollable barking spasms. Every bone, every muscle, every organ in my canine body was in tune with his smell. It was painful.

Winnie dug anxiously through the hay with her front paws, her eyes wild with excitement. The officer and Lance made their way up the ladder and over to us, cautiously surveying the stacked hay bales along the way, half convinced a shadowy figure would jump out from behind at any moment.

"Whatever they're after, it's right in here." The officer bent down with a grunt and sifted through the hay.

Lance's eyes darted around the room, the gun hanging loosely in his hand. It took a few moments of digging for the officer to find it. Buried beneath the hay, he revealed the handle side of a wooden baseball bat. He turned his head and stifled a rattling cough, fumbling in his pocket and drawing out a handkerchief. With a little hesitation, he used the handkerchief to pull it out of the loose hay, exposing the end, caked with dried blood.

"Still think it wasn't him?" Lance muttered under his breath.

"Give me back my gun," the officer commanded, grunting as he got to his feet. 

"So what are you gonna do?" Lance handed the him the gun.

Ignoring him, the officer placed his weapon in its harness and pulled out a large, antique looking cell phone. Cursing under his breath, he dialed a number.

"Billy?...yeah...no I don't have time for that today, I'm working an assault case over here at the Rose's place...yeah that's right the Rose's. Anyhow, I need some backup over here, so we can do a full search of this place...come as soon as you can."

He flipped the large phone closed, and wiggled his white mustache, surveying the barn loft.

"What is it? What did you find?" Mr. Rose hollered anxiously from below.

***

Freed from my fixation on José's scent, I sat, focusing on the dark crusted blood that spread along the baseball bat. Winnie perched herself next to me. My eyes flew to hers. Why didn't he hurt her if he was here this morning? Why leave the bat here, so easy to find?

Winnie's blue eyes pierced into me, as if willing me to answer my own question. Frustrated, I growled. If there has ever been a time to tell me what I am doing here, that time is now.

Winnie sniffed. I've already told you. I can't. But, I'm trying to show you. You will have the answer—soon.

Hello there! I just wanted to say, thank you so much for your support of my story! It really means a whole lot to me. Please vote if you love it and comment so I know what your thoughts are :) any advice would be great too!