Page 106 of Lorenzo

“You are easily distracted.”

She rises and steps close enough that her shoulder brushes my chest.

Her eyes lift to mine.

Then she opens the door and slips inside.

I follow her inside and close the door behind us.

The room smells faintly of stale air, bleach, and damp carpet. Housekeeping has made the bed and emptied the trash, but the place still feels very used.

Donna pulls two pairs of gloves from her pocket and hands one to me.

“You really do carry everything.”

“Almost.”

We put them on.

Mocha stands just inside the door, alert, his nose already working.

Donna opens a small clear bag and removes a folded piece of paper.

“What is that?”

“I swiped a piece of paper that Rachel wrote on from Elaine's house.”

Impressive, I didn't even notice it.

She crouches in front of Mocha and holds it beneath his nose.

He sniffs once, then again, longer this time.

Donna lets him take in the scent before folding the paper back into the bag.

“If I send him in without something specific to focus on, he’ll get distracted by every scent in the room.”

“There must be plenty.”

“Probably. And there may already be a lot of Rachel’s scent in here.” She glances around. “I can’t imagine housekeeping did much beyond changing the sheets and wiping down what they could see.”

She gives Mocha the command.

He moves immediately.

His nose lowers toward the carpet as he works around the bed, along the wall, and past the small table near the window.

Donna watches him for a moment, then turns to me.

“We check where housekeeping wouldn’t.”

I start with the vent near the floor while she drops to look beneath the bed.

The screws have not been disturbed. I remove the cover anyway and check inside.

Nothing.

Donna runs a gloved hand along the underside of the bed frame, then moves to the dresser.