“What the dogs did, Dr. Scarpetta, “she began, picking at her salad. ” Can you offer an interpretation?”
I could, but I did not want to.
“Obviously, the one dog got upset. But the other one didn’t?”
Her observation was posed as a question.
The other dog, Salty, had indeed reacted very differently than Neptune had. After he sniffed the driver’s seat, Gail hooked the lead on his harness and commanded, “Find.”
The dog took off like a greyhound. He snuffled across the exit ramp and up through the picnic area. Then he tugged Gail across the parking lot toward the Interstate and would have gotten a nose full of traffic had she not yelled, “Heel!”
I had watched them trot along the wooded strip separating west lanes from east, then across pavement, heading straight for the rest stop opposite the one where Deborah’s Jeep had been found. The bloodhound finally lost the scent in the parking lot.
“Am I to believe,” Mrs. Harvey continued, “that whoever was driving Debbie’s Jeep last got out, cut through the westbound rest stop, and crossed the Interstate? Then this person most likely got into a car parked in the eastbound rest stop and drove away?”
“That is one possible interpretation,” I replied, picking at my quiche.
“What other possible interpretation is there, Dr. Scarpetta?”
“The bloodhound picked up a scent. As for the scent of who or what, I don’t know. It could have been Deborah’s scent, Fred’s scent, the scent of a third person – ”
“Her Jeep was sitting out there for hours,” Mrs. Harvey interrupted, staring off at the river. “I suppose, anybody could have gotten in to look for money, valuables. A hitchhiker, transient, someone on foot who crossed over to the other side of the Interstate afterward.”
I did not remind her of the obvious. The police had found Fred Cheney’s wallet in the glove compartment, complete with credit cards and thirty-five dollars cash. It dd not appear that the young couples’ luggage had been gone through. As far as anyone could tell, nothing was missing from the Jeep except its occupants and Deborah’s purse.
“The way the first dog acted,” she went on matter-of-factly. “I assume this is unusual. Something frightened. Upset him, at any rate. A different smell – not the same scent the other dog picked up. The seat where Debbie may have been sitting…”
Her voice trailed off as she met my eyes.
“Yes. It appears that the two dogs picked up different scents.”
“Dr. Scarpetta, I’m asking you to be direct with me.”
Her voice trembled. “Don’t spare my feelings. Please. I know the dog wouldn’t have gotten so upset unless there was a reason. Certainly, your work has exposed you to search-and-rescue efforts, to bloodhounds. Have you ever seen this before, the way the dog reacted?”
I had. Twice. Once was when a bloodhound sniffed car trunk that, as it turned out, had been used to transport a murder victim whose body had been found inside a Dumpster. The other was when a scent led to an area along a hiking trail where a woman had been raped and shot.
What I said was “Bloodhounds tend to have strong reactions to pheromonal scents.”
“I beg your pardon?”
She looked bewildered.
“Secretions. Animals, insects, secrete chemicals. Sex attractants, for example,” I dispassionately explained. “You’re familiar with dogs-marking their territory or attacking when they smell fear?”
She just stared at me.
“When someone is sexually aroused, anxious, or afraid, there are various hormonal changes that occur in the body. It is theorized that scent-discriminating animals, such as bloodhounds, can smell the pheromones, or chemicals, that special glands in our bodies secrete – ”
She cut me off. “Debbie complained of cramps shortly before Michael, Jason, and I left for the beach. She had just started her period. Could that explain…? Well, if she were sitting in the passenger’s seat, perhaps this was the scent the dog picked up?”
I did not reply. What she was suggesting could not account for the dog’s extreme distress.
“It’s not enough.”
Pat Harvey looked away from me and twisted the linen napkin in her lap. “Not enough to explain why the dog started whining, the fur stood up on his back. Oh, dear God. It’s like the other couples, isn’t it?”