They mixed in some of their own clothes and some they’d bought at the local Goodwill, along with any books, handbags, backpacks, and personal items they could scrounge from the local grade school. Then they brought in Mr. Maxwell to play his favorite game: tracking down a scent in exchange for a biscuit. “Okay, boy, here you go.” Sarah opened the plastic bag and let him sniff the last straw, the ultimate straw taken from Blake Hornsby’s locker. Then she turned him loose and he bolted for all those wonderful, smelly things arranged in neat rows on the motor home floor. It wasn’t a very challenging game. Max found the scent on the first article he encountered, Crystal Sparks’ leather handbag. He found it on Amy Warren’s jacket, on Jim Boltz’s shirt, on Leonard Baynes’ wallet. He found it on shoelaces, handkerchiefs, notebooks, a hairbrush, a few magazines. Nate and Sarah almost thought he was bluffing them, but noted that he did not find the scent on any of the “neutral”
