It’s dark in my small bedroom when I awaken with a sense that someone is watching me. I lie still, pushing away the night terrors that have haunted me lately, ghosts from my past that come to me in wisps of memory or dreams—images that are hard to sort into what is reality and what isn’t. In the few seconds it takes to orient myself, I realize I am being watched. This feeling is real.

I reach out to touch my patrol dog, Robo, who is standing next to my bed with his nose pressed against my pillow as he stares me awake, an experience that isn’t all that unusual. I’m Mattie Cobb, a deputy sheriff in the small mountain town of Timber Creek, Colorado, and Robo and I make up the entire K-9 unit at the Timber Creek County Sheriff’s Department. He’s a high drive, alpha male German shepherd, and he’s always eager to go.

When the community banded together to purchase a patrol and narcotics detection dog to combat drug trafficking through the national and state forests that surround our town, I earned the opportunity to be the first K-9 handler in the department by beating my colleagues in a cross-country foot race; an honor for which I’m eternally grateful, because this dog has changed my life.

A glance at the clock tells me it’s ten minutes before the alarm will sound. I hit the off button and toss back the covers to sit on the edge of the bed, which sends Robo into his happy place. His toenails skitter across the wooden floor in our little adobe house that I rent on the west side of town as he whirls and dances to the doorway, barely able to control the energy that his night’s sleep has restored. Me? Insomnia kept me awake half the night, so I’m not as much of a morning person as my dog.

I follow Robo through the house to the backyard access from the kitchen. The sun is barely topping the horizon as Robo patrols the perimeter of the seven-foot high chain link fence that the county installed to keep my dog safe from those who might wish him harm. Our sleepy town has become perhaps the most dangerous place in Colorado during the past few years, and I stand on the porch to watch over him until he’s ready to come inside.

Nowadays, it seems there’s always a murder to solve or a missing person to find. Robo is trained in narcotics detection, fugitive tracking and apprehension, evidence search, and search and rescue. According to his trainer, he’s one of the most talented dogs in the region, and I’m lucky to have him as a partner. But probably the most important thing Robo has done for me is: he taught me how to trust others.

Robo has opened doors for me to establish friendships for the first time in my life, perhaps the most important one being with Dr. Cole Walker, the only veterinarian in our mountain community. Cole is a divorced single parent of two daughters, and I love his kids as if they were my own. He runs his busy practice, works hard to take care of his children, and volunteers on the sheriff’s posse to help us with wilderness investigations. Truth is, I’m smitten with Cole, too.

Robo finishes his business and we go inside to get ready for a run. I start each morning with exercise, because as everyone knows, a tired dog is a good dog. After that, Robo and I will go into the station to see what challenges our day will bring. Maybe routine patrol, a roadblock out on the highway for drug sweeps, a report of a missing child, or the investigation of a homicide—whatever it is, there’s never a dull moment in Timber Creek.

And Robo and I will be ready to protect and serve.

You can read more about Mattie in Tracking Game, the fifth book in the “Timber Creek K-9” traditional mystery series, released November 12, 2019.

Two brutal murders, a menacing band of poachers, and a fearsome creature on the loose in the mountains plunge Mattie Cobb and her K-9 partner Robo into a sinister vortex.

An explosion outside a community dance sends Mattie Cobb and Cole Walker reeling into the night, where they discover a burning van and beside it the body of outfitter Nate Fletcher. But the explosion didn’t kill Nate–it was two gunshots to the heart.

The investigation leads them to the home of rancher Doyle Redman, whose daughter is Nate’s widow, and the object of one of their suspect’s affection. But before they can make an arrest, they receive an emergency call from a man who’s been shot in the mountains. Mattie and Robo rush to the scene, only to be confronted by the ominous growl of a wild predator.

As new players emerge on the scene, Mattie begins to understand the true danger that’s enveloping Timber Creek. They journey into the cold, misty mountains to track the animal–but discover something even more deadly in Tracking Game, the fifth installment in Margaret Mizushima’s Timber Creek K-9 mysteries.

Purchase Link
# # # # # # # # # # #

Meet the author
Margaret Mizushima is the author of the award-winning and internationally published Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries. Active within the writing community, Margaret serves on the board for the Rocky Mountain chapter of Mystery Writers of America and was elected the 2019-2020 Writer of the Year by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. She lives in Colorado on a small ranch with her veterinarian husband where they raised two daughters and a multitude of animals.

She can be found on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram and on her website at margaretmizushima.com.

All comments are welcomed.