Rusty and I had the sexiest shower this side of the Mississippi. It was large, with glass walls and had a bench positioned right in the middle. There were two shower heads: one normal one and one on a long hose that could be used almost anywhere in the shower. It had been made for a disabled man and we put it to good use. The widow who had sold us the house was moving to senior living apartments and wanted her home to go to someone who would liven the place up again. Rusty and I definitely livened up the shower. Any time the bathroom door was left open it was an invitation for shower play. Sometimes it was play. Other times it got hot, steamy and sweaty and we ended up in the bedroom in a tangle of bed sheets and limbs.
I awoke with my hair sticking out in all directions. So much for my shower. Now I needed another one. Instead I rolled over and snuggled closer to Rusty’s side.
“Look what you did to me. I’ll never get my hair to stay down. I’ll have to shower again. We’re in a never ending cycle. We’re going to make love and shower for the rest of our lives and it’s all your fault.”
He lazily turned over and wrapped his arms around me. My hair tickled his nose.
“Sounds good to me. But it’s not all my fault. You lured me into the shower.”
“I lured you? You were the one who said I needed help showering.”
“You lured me all the way from the den to the shower to the bed.”
“I led you into a trap.”
“The most wonderful trap. How did I live without you for so long?”
“Patiently.”
Landon had only spent one day at home in his cast and he already had cabin fever. Rusty and I stopped by for a visit on our way to dinner and ended up taking him along. He already had a stack of pizza boxes by his chair in the living room although it didn’t make any sense how he could eat more than one pizza in a day. Rusty offered to take him to Zeke’s but he quickly turned down more pizza. We settled on Trujillo’s, an old standby frequented by most of the members of the police force.
“Hey Landon!” Benny Trujillo called in greeting. “What did you do to your leg?”
“I fell on it rock climbing,” Landon answered.
“Can I sign your cast?” Benny asked.
“Sure, why not?” Landon said.
Benny disappeared then returned, not with a marker, but instead carrying a business card covered in clear package tape which he stuck to the back of Landon’s cast.
“There. It’s like a bumper sticker.”
I read the card aloud, “Trujillo’s Bar and Grill serving lunch and dinner daily 11AM-11PM.”
“Great, I get to be a walking advertisement,” Landon said.
“You’re not even walking. You’re a crutching advertisement.”
“Yeah,” Benny said, “but Landon knows lots of people. I can count on him getting around, you see, so everybody will wonder, what’s that thing on the back of your cast? And so they’ll read it.”
“Yeah,” I said, “he knows the whole police force, the ambulance company and ER at the hospital, but they are already your most faithful customers.”
“You’ll see, he’ll reach more than you think. You just watch, he’ll run out of clean clothes and he’ll go out and buy shorts that fit over his cast. He’ll get around.”
“Oh shoot,” Landon said, “that reminds me, I have uniforms at the cleaners.”
“You see?”
“How bad do you want to get out of the house?” I asked Landon.
“I’d hitchhike.”
“Do you want to get out bad enough to go talk to a class of kindergarteners?”
“After what happened last time I’m surprised you’re ready to go back.”
“Yeah, but this is Alisondra’s class. She was rather disappointed to be rescued by me. I thought she might like to meet the other half of the team. I think this talk is going to be a little different than usual. I expect it to be more storytelling and tracking demonstration than the usual safety lecture.”
The next day I dropped off the groceries at Landon’s apartment and we drove to the school. Ally’s class was still out for recess so we were able to find her on the playground easily.
“Oh! I’m so glad you came!” she said enthusiastically. “And this must be the other half of my search party.”
“Ally, this is Landon Wilson.”
“It’s too bad about your leg,” she sympathized.
When recess was over she gave two sharp blasts with her whistle and the kids all lined up.
“Boys and girls we aren’t going back inside to do math today. Instead my friend is here to tell you about her job so we’ll stay outside a little while longer. Follow me. We are going to find a place where she can show you what she does.”
Ally led the way to a large sandy area of the playground and had the kids all sit cross-legged on the ground. She sat down too and began addressing her class, “Last weekend my husband Peter and I went up to the mountains. You know how I get curious about things. Well, I found out my last name means deer meadow and I was so excited to know my last name had a meaning that I wanted to actually find a deer meadow. I was looking on a map and I saw that up in the nearby mountains there was a campground called Elk Meadows! Peter and I decided to go camping there so we could see if there really were elk in the meadow. We didn’t see any but we did some hiking around and guess what I did.” She waited a short time for a response. Several hands shot into the air. “Devon?”
“What did you see instead?”
“I saw lots and lots of countryside because…I got lost! I know I’ve told you before, how to be careful and never get lost, but I did it anyway. I just kept seeing interesting things until I didn’t know where I was anymore! Then I tried finding my way back. I did that until night came and I had to stop.”
“What did you do, Mrs. Rawleigh?”
“I found a place to sleep and the next day I did what I always tell you to do. I waited for help. And do you know who my help turned out to be?”
“Him and her!” the kids said, making the connection.
“Yes, Cassidy found me. She followed my tracks all the way from Elk Meadows through the mountains. She knew exactly where to look for me because she followed my tracks on the ground. As we were walking back to Elk Meadows we got to talking and I found out she is a very interesting person so I thought you might like to meet her!”
“Good afternoon boys and girls, I’m Cassidy and this is my tracking partner, Landon Wilson. Landon is an EMT. Does anybody know what an EMT is?”
“He’s like a fireman except he doesn’t put out fires.”
Landon smiled at that. “It stands for Emergency Medical Technician. I go with Cassidy on search and rescue calls in case somebody gets hurt. I patch them up and get them the help they need. If they need to go to the hospital I call an ambulance or a helicopter and I go with them to the hospital.”
A hand shot up. “Yes?” I asked.
“What if you get hurt? Then what do you do?” a little girl asked, eyeing Landon’s cast.
“Then Cassidy patches me up and sends me to the hospital.”
“Did you get to ride in an ambulance?”
“No, but I got to ride in a helicopter. I ride in an ambulance every day for my normal job and I ride in helicopters a lot for our search and rescue job.”
“Lucky!” exclaimed several boys at once.
“Cassidy, tell us how you became a tracker,” Ally said.
“Well, when I was five or six years old, about the same age that all you kids are, I was very curious about everything and one of the things that fascinated me was tracks. I would study them and try and figure out what made them and I would follow them to see where they went. I grew up on a quarter horse ranch and there were lots of people on the ranch. I got so used to following tracks that pretty soon I could tell you who on the ranch had made each track. I knew which dog had walked where and I recognized each workhorse’s track by the angle of their horseshoes. When I got a little older my parents let me explore the hills near the ranch too. There I got to track deer, coyotes, foxes and rabbits. When I went to school I tracked the kids on the playground and even animals that had crossed the playground. A time or two I got into big trouble because I was so interested in the tracks that I followed an animal right off school grounds and to its house! I should never have left the grounds during school hours. I was sent to the principal’s office. Over the years my tracking got better and better until I could follow most people anywhere they went as long as it wasn’t on cement or rocks. As long as there is dirt I can pretty much stay on a trail until I find the person. One day a detective found out I could track and he sent me on a long search for his friend who had been missing for a week up in the mountains. I had to follow his tracks for four days before I found him and even met a bear on that trip that chased me up a tree. At that point I didn’t know about getting involved in search and rescue so I just went out looking for this guy alone, just like I had always tracked. But when I found the man he needed a doctor. He had been shot and tossed over a cliff, and all I could do was give him food and water and call on the radio for help. I am glad to say that man lived and he is now a very good friend. That trip taught me the value of teamwork.”
“Who shot him?” a boy asked.
“There was a farm up in the mountains that grew marijuana and made drugs, something you should never get involved in. It is bad news. The people at the farm were scared of being discovered doing illegal things up there and they thought the man would send in the police so they tried to kill him.”
“Just like on TV?”
“Can you tell us what you had to do to be on a search and rescue team?” Ally asked, dodging the TV issue.
“I had to go to school and study really hard. Landon went to the same school. It’s called Police Reserve Academy. It is almost like being in the Army or the Marines. I know because I have been in the Marines. We had to do exercises and run obstacle courses. We had to learn to shoot accurately. We had to learn a lot about the laws and how they work. We had drills where we practiced all kinds of police activities: knocking doors in, subduing suspects, arresting people. The people in the drills were just other officers but they acted like real criminals and sometimes they resisted arrest and we had to figure out how to handle the situation. It was a tough school.”
“What was the hardest part of academy?” Ally asked.
“For me it was studying the laws and procedures and participating in the drills. I knew I was never going to be a real policewoman so I never cared for the drills. I just had to get through it so I could track for the police.”
“Landon, what about you?” Ally asked.
“It was the physical conditioning. I hated the running and we ran for miles. As a guy I really got into the drills and could handle the academics but I hated the constant exercise and running. You didn’t mind the running?” he asked me.
“I knew there would be exercises and running so I trained for that. I made sure I could run the five miles even before I started academy.”
“Can you tell the kids what procedures are?” Ally asked, zeroing in on a new concept.
“Procedures are like a recipe. It is a given set of instructions designed to bring about a positive goal. All the police have procedures that they have worked out for different situations. It’s a set of actions. It helps the police in two ways. One, it has been proven successful and two, if they are working in a group everybody knows what everybody else’s job is, so there are no surprises. You have procedures at school. If everybody just did whatever they wanted it would be confusing. So your procedure for talking is to raise your hand first and wait to be called on. Your procedure for recess is to line up calmly and walk in a line. It works and if you didn’t have those procedures then everybody would be talking at once and kids would come and go as they pleased and Mrs. Rawleigh couldn’t keep track of you.”
Ally stood and then announced, “Cassidy promised to do a tracking demonstration so we need two volunteers.”
Hands shot up.
I’d been watching the kids as they lined up and observed them as they walked and I talked. I chose a little girl who was a natural born dancer and a boy in a black jersey.
I explained how the demonstration worked. “I’m going to hide my eyes and I want you both to lay a trail for me. You can do anything you want, walk, run, skip, do handstands, or crawl. It doesn’t matter. Then when both of you are finished I will follow your trail and tell the class what you did.”
“That’s no fair! He can tell you what we did,” they said pointing to Landon.
“I wouldn’t do that,” he said. “I want to see if she can do it too. I’ve seen her follow tracks but she’s never told me what they mean before.”
I hid my eyes and let the kids go to work. There was some giggling and snickers before I was allowed to turn around.
I glanced at the area. I knew to the class it just looked like dirt, especially since there were a hundred footprints on the ground before the two kids had even laid their trails. I decided to do the boy’s trail first. I pointed to the boy and asked, “What is your name?”
“Michael,” he said simply.
I studied his tracks picking up mannerisms and forming patterns in my mind, then I profiled as I went.
“Michael did a good job,” I told them. “He tried to trick me a time or two but I bet I can figure it out. First Michael ran from this spot to right about here. Michael, do you like hockey?”
“Yeah, but I’m not old enough to play,” he said.
“But you practice on the street, right?”
“Yeah, with the neighbor kids. How did you know?”
“Your footprints told me. You run almost like you are rollerblading. You push out and back when you run. I bet when you get on a team you’ll skate really fast!”
Michael looked smugly at the other boys.
“After Michael stopped running he turned, well, not really turned, he twisted, like this,” I said turning on one foot and leaving a well defined matching twist in the dirt. “Then he hopped on one foot for one, two, three hops. That’s when he lost his balance and fell a little bit. He put his hand out to catch himself and then scrambled to a standing position right here. He stood and thought about what he was going to do next. Then he took really long steps, across the field in this direction, all the way over to here.” I looked at the trail leading back to the group. “He took a run and then leapt as far as he could, which was pretty far, and he landed in a cloud of dust, then he walked backwards trying to make me skip over the jump. He wanted me to think he ran and then walked but he ran and jumped, then backed over his jump. Then he stepped to the side and very carefully tried to trick me again. He tiptoed around this way and hit the end of his trail and then went and sat down in the same spot where he had started. Then he ran around to another spot to see if that would trick me too.”
“Wow! How did you do that?” a boy asked.
“Your footprints are like stories in the dirt. All I have to do is read them.”
“Now do Rachel’s!” a little girl in pink cried out.
I walked the area, careful to not disturb any footprints.
“Rachel has little feet and she is very quick and graceful since she has had gymnastics and dancing lessons. I can tell because when she stands her feet are in ballet positions. And she walks with her toes pointing in the same direction she wants to walk. Her toes lead the way. She almost comes down toe first when she walks. Rachel started out right here, the same place where she finished. She didn’t try and do sneaky tricks like Michael did but she tried some gymnastics stunts so let’s see if I can figure it out.” It was really just a matter of puzzling everything out. The kids always thought that doing tricks would confuse me but the movements to do them were very distinctive and upset the normal pattern. So any tricks the kids played actually made my job easier. “This is almost like a floor routine in the Olympics,” I told the class, making Rachel feel very proud of herself. “She went step, step, step, turn, step, step, step, leap! She came down on one foot and skipped across the playground until she got up enough speed and then she did a cartwheel, not quite landing right, but a good cartwheel nonetheless. Then it looks like she twirled around and around maybe six times. When she stopped to think of what to do next she stood heals together, toes apart. She ran this way, then dove into a somersault so she’d have enough momentum for a good leap at the end. Then she walked in and out of Michael’s trail on the way back to her spot.”
“That is so cool, how did you know Rachel walked on Michael’s trail? Maybe Michael walked on Rachel’s trail.”
“Good thinking. That shows you were paying attention. If Michael had gone over Rachel’s trail his footprints would have been on top, but they weren’t. Rachel’s footprints overlapped Michael’s so I knew Rachel was the last person over that spot.”
“What about him?” a girl asked, pointing to Landon. “Can you track people on crutches?”
“That’s even easier. The points of the crutches are small so all his weight is on a small area. That pushes the ends down harder than just a simple footprint. With a footprint the weight is divided over a larger area. So the prints of the crutches show up easier. Also, you can tell what direction a person on crutches is going because their body is always between the two points.”
“Okay, boys and girls, everyone sit back down cross-legged in a group,” Ally said. “Does anybody have a question for Cassidy or Landon?”
“How long does it take to find a lost person?”
“That depends on how long they have been missing and how far they traveled. I have been on four day searches and searches that only took three or four hours. When Mrs. Rawleigh got lost it took me a day of actual tracking and then I had to camp out because it got dark. So I was on the trail a day and a half.”
“Do the men give you a hard time, since police and searches are mostly done by guys?”
“Not since I proved to them that I know what I am doing and that I stick to only things that I know how to do. I don’t try to be a policewoman. I am a tracker and occasionally a scout.”
“What does a scout do?”
“A scout checks things out, like a spy, except from a distance.”
Landon added, “In the woods Cassidy can almost disappear. She knows how to hide so that people can’t see her and so when she scouts she stays out of sight of the thing or person she is scouting, then she comes back to the officers and tells us what’s going on.”
“When you were a kid on a ranch did you get to ride horses?”
“Yes, I rode horses a lot. I still have a horse at my parent’s ranch. He is gray and his name is Shasta.”
“That is so cool! I ask my parents every day for a horse but they won’t get one.”
“Horses take a lot of upkeep. The ranch is set up specifically for raising horses so it’s easier for my parents.”
“How many horses do they have?”
“Oh, golly, I’ve never counted. They have twelve in the barn and several more out in the paddocks.”
“What do you do when you’re a policeman?”
“I have been through police school, but I leave the police work to the real officers. I don’t have the right mind-set for police work. I am too tenderhearted. When I have to be tough I just can’t do it. And if I ever have to hurt someone it hurts me worse and I feel sad for a long time.”
“Are you sad now?”
“Lexie! What a thing to ask!” Ally scolded.
“What? She was the one who was at my sister’s class when we had lockdown. Ashley said the lady that was there had to shoot the bad guys.”
Ally looked at me apologetically.
“Yes, Lexie,” I choked out, “that day still makes me very sad. I was happy while we were having fun with tracking but that day did make me very upset. Every time I remember it I get sad. It was a choice I had to make and I hope you never have to make a decision like that as long as you live.”
Ally decided it was time to change the subject and said, “When I got lost and Cassidy found me she had a little stove and packets of food to cook. All she did was add boiling water and it made lasagna in a pouch. We didn’t even have dirty dishes to wash. She brought me water. She taught me how to find my location on a map. Not only did she find me when I was lost but she stopped those bad men from hurting more people at the school and I will always be thankful to her for that. Does anybody have any tracking related questions?”
“If we wanted to be a tracker how would we learn how to do it?” a little boy in a red shirt asked.
“Well, start out by noticing anything that makes tracks. If you are watching the person or animal actually making the tracks, go look at the results. Match the tracks you see with the motion you remember. Later when you see a track try to decide what made it. Is it an adult or a kid? A man or a woman? If you stay interested in tracking one question will lead to another and then just try answering as many as you can. In time your brain will start sorting the information when you see a track. You’ll look at a track and narrow down your choices really quickly. It’s like identifying birds. If you see a bird there are certain characteristics that bird watchers notice automatically: size, mannerisms, markings, color, what kind of things it eats. All these little facts get categorized and then all of a sudden ding! Your brain comes up with the name of a bird. Well, the same thing happens with tracks. Who has a dog?”
Half the kids raised their hand.
“You,” I said pointing, “what kind of a dog do you have?”
“A beagle.”
“And how do you know it’s a beagle?”
“It looks like a beagle and it sounds like a beagle and it acts like a beagle.”
“So, tell me, what does a beagle look like?”
“They have long ears and big brown eyes.”
“And?”
“And it’s not big and it’s not small.”
“So far you’ve only narrowed it down to half the dogs in existence. What makes a beagle a beagle?”
“Its nose. Beagles have a nose for sniffing and they follow their nose all the time.”
“What color is a beagle?”
“He is white and black and tan.”
“Short-haired or long?”
“Short.”
“So a beagle is a medium-sized, short-haired, white, black and tan dog with long ears and big brown eyes and he follows his nose everywhere. And he sounds like…what?”
“He howls at fire trucks and he has a long, sad bark.”
“Wow, that’s a lot to remember just to identify a beagle, but you kids do that all the time and the same kind of thing happens in tracking only it is more subtle. Tracks are big or small, wide or narrow, slow or fast, sad or happy, fresh or worn. They have patterns and different kinds of animals make different shaped tracks. All these things need to be taken into consideration when you track and it takes time to learn to identify them.”
“Well, boys and girls we covered a lot of territory today. We talked about getting lost, tracking, the school shooting, beagles, and birds. I think it’s time for us to get back to our lessons and let Cassidy and Landon go back to work.”
Ally ducked into her classroom for a minute, then a young woman followed her back to the playground and instructed the class to line up. They followed the aid into the school, waving to us as they left. Ally then led us to the office where we checked out.
“I’m sorry about the shooting coming up. I know that was awkward for you.”
“It’s okay. It is hard on me to remember it, but each time I do I deal with it a little more. The loss of life is what hurts, but the guy that got away is what worries me. I got the impression they were looking for someone here. And I worry for that person.”
A hand appeared gently on my shoulder. “No need to worry,” a voice said next to me. I turned and there stood Kima Tumibay. If anybody should worry it would be her.
“I’ve been helping the detective assigned to this case,” I said. “Since I let the man get away I feel it is my duty to do what I can to bring him in. I may not have much jurisdiction but I’ve got a sharp eye and discerning mind.”
“The detective will get nothing from me,” Mrs. T said.
“Why? You don’t want to help the police?”
“No,” she said simply, “I don’t agree with his tactics but McPherson is only following his heart like I must follow mine. The fact that we disagree means little.”
“Even when he harms others to ‘follow his heart’? What kind of a heart does this guy have that he’s willing to shoot up an elementary school?”
“He thinks of himself as a patriot. Is there anything wrong in that?”
“There was as soon as he fired a shot in this school,” I said resolutely.
“I have seen worse,” she replied. “It is why I do what I do. So others may escape what I have seen.”
“What is it that you do?” I asked. I was curious what she could possibly do to set off this McPherson guy, but I was also curious about Mrs. T as a person.
“I help people,” she said simply, “and he helps people in his own way, yet we disagree.” Then she gathered up some mail and papers and quietly left. I wanted to chase her down to ask more questions, but I knew she had to return to class, so I stood there watching my only chance at new information walk down the hall and disappear around the corner.
“Cassidy, thank you for coming. The kids enjoyed it or they wouldn’t have asked so many questions. Many times I end up asking all the questions that I think they would like to ask. How did you know Michael was a skater and Rachel was a dancer?”
“That’s what I thought even before I studied their tracks and then their tracks confirmed it. With Michael it was either hockey or football and his tracks leaned towards skating so I went with that.”
“But how did you know?”
“Like I said, I have a discerning eye. Things like that just stand out to me. There was a little black girl in pigtails. She is an artist. And there’s about four of the girls who are horse crazy. There’s a boy who is into dirt biking. School’s almost over. You better get back to class.”
We departed amongst more thanks from Ally, then Landon followed me on his crutches to the Jeep. I got in and started the engine as he finished loading his crutches.
“We’re not going home, are we?”
“I’ll drop you off there if that’s where you want to go.”
“We’re going to the station, aren’t we?”
“I’ve got a name for Tom.”
“You could just call him.”
“I thought you wanted to get out.”
“You’ve got an appointment with the punching bag, don’t you, only now its name is McPherson. I could see the punching bag coming as soon as that little girl asked if you were sad.”
“It’s just a form of exercise. I could do the same thing running. The punching bag just happens to be handier. If I run I find myself three miles from home. If I use the punching bag I’m still near the Jeep.”
“Makes sense.”
“I don’t want to fight McPherson. I just want to find out what this is all about and send him to jail.”
The station was a beehive of activity and I snuck through the crowded lobby leaving Landon behind. He had many friends at the station and would make the rounds of those who weren’t neck deep in work. Later he’d find me in either Tom or Rusty’s office or in the gym. I peeked in Rusty’s window to see if he was busy but he was meeting with someone so I went on to Tom’s office. Rusty was quick, though. Before I could get to Tom’s office he was standing in the hall.
“You’re busy, I’ll let you work,” I said.
“It’s okay, what’s going on?” he asked, knowing I didn’t make a trip to the station for just anything.
“Nothing, I finished at the school and managed to get another little tidbit of information for Tom so I came to deliver it. When can you make it for dinner?”
“It’ll be a few hours.”
“That’s fine. I don’t know how long I’ll be here and then after that I’ll still need to cook it.”
“I’ll see you then.”
“Okay.”
I continued on to Tom’s office. Tom was busy, too, but he nodded so I opened the door and stuck my head in.
“I’ll be around for a little while. I have a name for you.”
He bolted out of his chair, “What?!”
“I don’t know if it’s an important name or not. It’s just a name.”
“What is it?”
I stepped out of his office and he followed.
“I spoke at the school again. The subject of the shooting came up and the teacher followed us to the office and was apologizing that the kids connected me with the shooting. I told Mrs. Rawleigh I was more worried about the guy that got away and Mrs. Tumibay told me not to worry about it. We got into a little bit of a discussion that didn’t yield much information but she did say that McPherson thought of himself as a patriot and that there was nothing wrong with being a patriot. When I steered the conversation around to ask why McPherson was after her she said simply, because she helps people. She said that McPherson thinks he helps people in his own way. She doesn’t agree with his tactics but she isn’t going to help the police because McPherson is just ‘following his heart’ just like she does herself. So you see, I didn’t get any really useful information but I thought you might want to look McPherson up in the computer and see if there is anything linked to him. If something turns up give me a call and I’ll try and identify him for you.”
Tom scratched his head thinking over what I’d told him and maybe fitting it with things he already knew. “Us? You said the teacher followed us to the office. Who else was there?”
“It was Mrs. Rawleigh, Mrs. Tumibay, Landon Wilson and I. Strict had a call to find a missing person over the weekend, so I was sent out. Landon was my partner. Turned out to be a kindergarten teacher at the school. Landon fell off a rock, broke his leg and had to be airlifted out so when I found my ten sixty-five I was alone. Ally was disappointed to be rescued by a woman so I brought Landon along for the talk so he could get out of the house and she could meet the guy who was supposed to have rescued her.”
“How’d the talk go?”
“Fine, except the kids linked me to the shooting. I gave a tracking demonstration and talked about how I got into tracking. There were lots of questions.”
“So word has gotten around through the kids?”
“I don’t know how much. Mostly it was kids who had siblings in the higher grades in the classrooms near the shooting. Or older siblings in Mrs. Peabody’s class.”
“Mrs. Peabody?”
“That’s the class I was speaking in when the shooting started. I didn’t mean to take you from your work. I’ll let you go. If you have more questions give me a call.”