Barley sighed deeply, he looked at his phone, time to meet the others at the starting point, about to turn around, he stopped, something shiny caught his eye. It would of almost been invisible if it wasn't for the moon shining on it. Walking over towards it, he realized it was a whistle of some sort. Dusting it off, he brought it to his mouth and then blew in it. Nothing, it was busted, probably just some trash-
Then he heard it, the dogs were going crazy, did they find something?! Bringing his walkie talkie to his mouth he spoke to one of the dog owners.
"Michals, did you find anything?" He asked the officer in an urgent voice. He was quickly met with a response.
"No sir, the dogs are having a fit, but there is nothing to be found, the ground isn't disturbed in anyway, there is no trash on the ground, nothing that could point to finding the children." Michals said and Barley frowned just a bit. He looked at the whistle in his hand and brought it up to his lips once again, then, he blew into it once again, he heard no sound, but could hear the dogs in the background going ape crazy.
Before he could say or do anything else, Mr. Peabody came crashing out of the bushes, his fur fluffed out a bit, Barley noticed that Peabody was on all fours. He took one look at Barley and seemed to relax a bit, he then stood on his two hind legs and smoothed his razzled fur out.
"I-I heard Sherman's whistle..." Peabody breathed out, straightening his bow tie and glasses.
"Whistle?" Barley asked him gently, there was a silence between them, Peabody gulped a bit.
"I gave Sherman a dog whistle a while back."
Dog whistle, that's why the dogs went crazy.
"Was it this one?" Barley asked the dog, dangling the whistle in front of Peabody's face. The dog blinked once, then, before he knew it, the whistle was snatched out of Barley's hands and the dog was sniffing it.
"Yes, this is Sherman's, it has his scent all over it." Peabody said. Not even a second later, Barley was talking to all the other officer's on the walkie talkie.
"We found an item of Sherman's, southeast of the starting point, any and all officers should follow." Barley said and then grabbed Peabody's damp arm.
"Can you sniff him out from here?" Barley asked urgently, there was a silence, Barley could see Peabody's nose twitching.
"It's scattered, the rain making it that way, but, it's not impossible to find, follow me!" Peabody yelled, yanking his arm out of the officer's grip, he followed the scattered scent, hoping he was going the right way, all the while, Barely followed behind the dog, giving instructions to the other officers with the walkie talkie. After a few twists and turns, Peabody skidded to a halt, Barley did the same and spoke though the walkie talkie.
"We have stopped, I repeat, we have stopped, southwest from where we originally took off, between a clutter of rocks and trees." Barley spoke and then put the talkie up on his belt, he, Barley, looked at Peabody.
"Didja lose his scent?" Barley asked the dog. There was a silence, the only thing Barley could hear was just a few crickets and the searching dogs off in the distance. He looked at Peabody, the dog's ears were perked up, he looked stiff as if he was listening to something. Then, with little to no warning, Peabody got down on all fours and ran forward, Barley quickly followed the dog, but found himself no match for the dog's impressive speed. Even the smallest dogs were faster than him. Barley pulled on his pants as he ran, he really should get tighter pants.
"Peabody!" Barley growled at the dog in a hushed whispered as he weaved in and out of the trees, he could only briefly see the white dog's tail as Barley tried to follow. Barley grunted as he now used his two hands to keep his pants up. After a few minutes of running, Barley came to a very abrupt halt, almost running into Peabody.
Peabody was crouched down behind a tree, again on all fours. Barley slyly peeked around the tree that Peabody was hiding behind. He, Barley, froze and then growled.
A house, it was a wooden house, a few windows, by the looks of it people were inside by the fact that lights looked to be on. Slowly, Barley brought his walkie talkie up and whispered into.
"This is Lionel Barley, I am here with Mr. Peabody, we have found a house, I believe that the children are inside, I'm going to check." Barley whispered, then put the walkie talkie down next to Peabody.
"You, stay put." Barley told Peabody with a slight growl in his tone. Peabody answered back with an equal growl.
"No, my son is in there-"
"-You don't know that. Look, I don't want to risk you getting hurt, you are a civilian-"
"-I am a father! I literally fought in a war for him!" Peabody barked back standing on his toes and glaring at Barley. The officer let out a low sigh, he knew there was no way for him to win this argument.
"Fine, but stay close and low." Barley hissed, grabbing his gun from his holster. Peabody looked at the gun and his fur bristled once more. Barley looked at the dog then his gun and sighed. He placed his gun back in the holster.
"If I get shot, I'm blaming you." Barley muttered. Staying low, the two of them darted towards the house. Peabody growled, he was quickly met with a bop on the nose.
"Be quiet." Barley hissed. Peabody's nose twitched a bit at the sudden smack on the nose. Peabody then glared at officer. Barley had his back against the wall of the house and Barley started to shift along the wall in an almost crab walk like movement. Peabody shifted along with the officer, right before they rounded the house, Barley came to a halt and so did Peabody, both could see a light. Taking a deep breath, Barley moved his head and peeked around the corner.
The light he saw was from a truck, the truck was running, it looked empty though. Taking a deep breath, Barley made his way towards the truck and opened the front door, Peabody not too far behind. Opening the truck door, Barley looked around just to make sure nobody was around, he then proceeded to go inside the truck. Once inside, he instantly opened the compartment door and looked though the papers of the truck.
"Stolen, I should of guessed." Barley hissed. Placing the papers back in the compartment, Barley looked at Peabody to say something, the door to the house then opened cutting Barley off. Thinking quickly, both Barley and Peabody ran back towards the side of the house, luckily, unnoticed.
Both of them took a deep breath and listened, they could hear the muffled sound of someone talking, followed by a deeper voice talking.
"Stop kicking me, Runt."
Barley had to guess that it was Carmin talking, he also had to guess that the muffled sounds was either Sherman or Penny. He noticed that Peabody looked like he was about to get up and walk over towards the man, quickly Barley grabbed him and forced the dog down.
"No." The officer hissed quietly at Peabody.
"Dammit, Jesse! did you leave the truck door open!? You that could attract bugs!" Carmin yelled, Barley put his palm to his face, in their haste they forgot to shut the door.
"Of course I didn't." Came a female voice, also followed by another muffled speech.
"Yeah, Casper just decided to open the door of the truck for no reason." Carmin said sarcastically. They both heard the sound of two things being thrown into the bed of the truck, followed by the sound of car doors opening and slamming shut. Barley felt his blood run cold when the truck started to move, He grabbed Peabody and lead him back in to the forest, all the while talking into the microphone.
They had their truck, their suspects, and the children, but, they had to chase them down first.
Whew! that was a little hard, oh well, next chapter is a car chase! yay!