From Down Here Chapter 5

Kojo smells something he's only smelled once before. It was coming from the house across the street from Tim's that made the terrible noise. And now he smells it at the house Lucy brought him to. He barks and tugs on the leash.

Lucy holds the leash tightly while turning to a human who came with them. Kojo had never seen him before Lucy brought him along. He never came to Tim's house. Kojo heard Lucy call him Leland and she said something about the BDU. He doesn't know what that means, but Lucy seems to think the strange scent is important to him.

"I'll suit up and let the dog lead me in," Leland says.

Kojo knows the word "dog" usually means him. And he recognizes the word lead. He waits with Lucy while the man goes to the car and comes back with a lot of stuff on. Kojo can barely see him under all of it, but he can still smell him. The male human and Lucy both have the scent humans get when something scares them.

Lucy hands Leland Kojo's leash. "Find it, Kojo. Find the bomb," Lucy says.

Kojo doesn't know what she means by "bomb," but she seems to want him to find the strange smell. The way Leland is holding his leash, he can't go very fast, but his nose brings him to something like what Genny calls a bookcase. Nolan built one for her when Tim left Kojo to visit with Genny and her little ones.

Leland pulls out a thing like Kojo's seen Tim and Lucy use and shines a light on what Kojo smells. "Is this it, Boy?"

Kojo barks his answer.

"Good, good Kojo," Leland says. "You did your job. I'm going to take you back to Officer Chen and then I'm going to check this out."

Kojo strains at Chen, Lucy's other name, but Leland still holds on tight and walks slowly back to where Lucy is. "Take the dog and wait at the end of the block, just in case," he says. "I'm going to call in some backup and then take a look at that thing to see if I can defuse it or we'll need to get it out and blow it safely."

Kojo doesn't understand a lot of that but he sees Lucy look very unhappy when Leland says "blow."

"If you blow it," we'll lose any forensics on it," she says, sounding mad.

"That's why I'm going to try to defuse it," Leland tells her.

Lucy looks happier when he says that and takes Kojo for a walk away from Leland while he talks on his phone. She dips into her pocket for one of Kojo's favorite treats. "You did great. And if Leland can defuse the bomb, you may have broken the case."

Kojo's not sure what that means, but he likes the treat a lot and hopes that maybe when Lucy takes him back to Tim's house, she'll give him a chew bone. He watches as what Tim calls a truck drives up and more humans with things like what Leland has on come out of it. One of them goes with Leland toward the thing that Kojo smelled.

Lucy gives him another treat, but it still seems like a long time to Kojo before Leland and the other human come out of the house with the thing that he smelled. He's too far away to see their faces through some of the stuff they have on. But he doesn't smell as much of the scared smell anymore from them. And Lucy seems to be happy too. She scratches Kojo behind the ears. "Tim's never going to believe this. But I don't know when he'll come home. Metro will still be on high alert until we get the guys who planted the bombs. The division will be too. But maybe I can figure out how to make that Tim dinner you like. After finding that bomb, you deserve it."

Kojo's not sure what he did to earn a Tim dinner, or if Lucy can make one. But he's hopeful.

Kojo tries to cover his ears with his paws to block out the awful noise coming from the thing above the kitchen. Lucy is saying words like she's mad and trying to climb up where the noise is coming from. Kojo hopes she can stop it.

As he cringes from the sound, Kojo barely smells Tim coming in. He can't hear him. But he sees Tim hold Lucy in his paws and put her down on the floor, before stopping the noise himself. Tim grabs what Lucy had on what they call a stove, puts it in the sink, and runs water over it. Kojo uncovers his ears in time to hear, "What were you doing, Boot?"

Kojo knows when Tim calls Lucy "Boot," she doesn't like it. She moves close to her mate. "I'm not a Boot! But you never showed me how to make Tim Kojo Dinner Two. I didn't think it would burn so fast."

Kojo recognizes the words "Tim Kojo Dinner Two. Usually, they mean he's going to be happy. But he's not happy when Tim and Lucy are making mad sounds at each other. He rubs up against their legs and whimpers. Tim reaches down to pat Kojo's head. "It's not your fault, Boy. Good dog! I heard you were a hero today." Kojo barks his happy response. "And I'll make Tim Kojo Dinner Two for you." Kojo yips, his tail going full speed.

Lucy makes her happy face. "So you know about the bomb. Did you hear if the lab got any prints or DNA off of it?"

Kojo watches as Tim starts cleaning what Lucy was cooking in. "Last I heard, partials but no match, and DNA's still running. They've never seen that explosive before. It's a good thing you brought Kojo to the scene because LAPD's dogs aren't trained on it." Kojo yips again at the mention of his name and more familiar words. "Now that they know what they're looking for, BSU is going through every house that was ripped off."

Lucy gets down on the floor to give Kojo a belly rub. "Any idea why someone would rob houses and plant bombs?"

Tim opens what he calls a fridge and grabs things with delicious scents. "Not that I've heard so far. But Lieutenant Pine was going to some meeting with the brass. Anyway, right now, BSU has to find any bombs that are left. We can figure out motive later."

Although he's heard a lot of the words before, Kojo doesn't understand much of what Tim says, but as long as Tim keeps cooking, and Lucy stays on the floor to pet him, he doesn't care. But Lucy gets up and starts to walk back and forth in the kitchen. "If we don't know the motive, we can't figure out what they'll do next – or where."

Tim keeps cooking, but talks to Lucy anyway. "Maybe they won't do anything next. Maybe, whatever they wanted to do, they're finished."

Lucy stops walking. "You don't really believe that. The motive for robbing a bunch of homes is easy – money. But for blowing them up, there's got to be something else, something bigger. We're just not seeing it. And before we figure out who these people are and why they're doing this, they could do something worse."

Kojo watches as Tim turns around to look at Lucy. "So what do you think we should do?"

Kojo can see the water in Lucy's eyes she gets when she's sad. "I don't know."