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'Good girl,' I said and patted Alice's head and handed her a treat. 'You, too, Rex.' I tossed him a doggie snack.

Whatever Alice alerted to was anything but fresh. No soil had been overturned, no uneven smears of dirt, no disturbance in the matting of leaves - the ground my bloodhound patted looked exactly like the rest of the forest floor. The nearest tree was thirty feet away, far enough where one wouldn't spend hours chopping away at thick roots.

Alice and Rex orbited away from me, both sniffing the ground as though they were still on the clock. They were likely inhaling remnants of their discovery, but I tossed a hand in the air and issued the command, 'Find.'

I could whistle them back if they strayed too far off the beaten path, but I was more interested in marking the spot they'd just uncovered. I needed a branch, preferably something with a little strength and less like kindling. It took thirty seconds to find the perfect stick, about two feet in length. Then I kicked at the topsoil with the heel of my hiking boot. After loosening the dirt, I corkscrewed the branch into the ground until it was standing upright of its own accord. Then I dragged my heel in an oval around the perimeter of Alice's find. There was now no way their discovery could be lost in the shade and gloom of the forest canopy. Even if I got twisted around as the police and medical personnel arrived, I could tell exactly where I'd have to drag the lead officer to and inform him or her they'd best call in shovels or some kind of ground-penetrating radar.

I was returning to the maple tree where the old man sat alone with his note, hoping Stretch would return soon with reinforcements, when I heard Alice bark again. I squinted harder this time as the pups now seemed a football field away, two dark shapes off in the distance. Alice sat pawing at a new spot on the forest dirt as Rex stood close by and sniffed at the ground.

'What?' I said. If my jaw dropped any further, it'd bounce off the woodland floor. I scratched at my cheek. 'Now you're just showing off.'

I began heading toward my dogs, glancing about for another branch I could use to mark their second discovery.

Stretch and his HRD dogs found the old man. 

But Alice and Rex found the graveyard.

CHAPTER TWO

Are you making bacon, lettuce, and tomato?' Crystal asked. She'd just arrived home.

'No.'

'Scrambled eggs and toast?' 

'No,' I repeated.

'Just a package of bacon for dinner?' 

'You say that like it's a bad thing.' 

'Not the most nutritious of meals.'

'I'm in my twenties,' I said. 'I'll worry about that when I'm fifty.' 

'Save a few slices for my BLT, would you?' Crystal looked at Alice and Rex, sitting at the border of where the kitchen connects to the living room, smelling bacon smells, thinking bacon thoughts, and surveilling my efforts with ever-hopeful eyes. Then Crys spotted my near-empty can of Rolling Rock on the countertop as well as a completely empty one sitting in the sink. 'That kind of day, huh?'

I nodded.

I'd been at Kankakee River State Park until two in the morning, got home around half past three. Then I couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned, eventually began to fret about school until I rolled out of bed at six and paged through my data structures and UNIX assignments. It wasn't keeping up with homework that had me tossing and turning all night, rather certain visions - of anything but sugar-plums - that danced in my head. Visions of what the Bourbonnais PD had uncovered last night after a couple of their beefier cops dug deep enough into one of the spots where Alice and Rex had alerted me regarding human remains.

What the diggers uncovered looked like something out of Tales from the Crypt.

Like me, the dogs were exhausted, and when Rex gets pooped, he tends to snore like a whale clearing its blowhole. I'm surprised neighbors from two suburbs over didn't call the cops. I'm toying with getting the goofball a sleep apnea machine for Christmas. 

Fortunately, Harper Community College is in Palatine, just a hop, skip, and jump from Casa-de-Pratt in Buffalo Grove. I can even sneak home for a sandwich at lunch, like I did today. I let the dogs out and then sacked out on the couch and rested my eyes a half-hour before zipping back for my afternoon course.