The courtroom smelled of polished wood and fear. Morning light cut through the blinds in thin golden stripes, landing on a small boy named Noah, only eight years old. His small hands twisted the hem of his white shirt, eyes fixed on the floor.

Across from him sat the defendant — Mark Leland, a man in his forties with a hollow stare and a smirk that didn’t belong there. The whispers in the crowd weren’t about him though. They were about the dog sitting quietly by the prosecutor’s chair, tail still, head slightly tilted — a golden retriever, six years old, named Scout.

He’d been the search-and-rescue dog who found Noah that night in the woods — trembling, half-conscious, clutching a broken flashlight. And somehow, this very dog had also led officers to the suspect.