Page 57 of Chasing Justice

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Great, now Josh is keeping secrets too.Maya, thinking about the fact Carson had sent a text message to someone, stood and gathered Juniper’s leash. Could Josh be the recipient and that’s why he didn’t want to tell her what the message was about? Did he only kiss her to distract her? “Why won’t you tell me about your text?”

“It’s nothing, okay? Just leave it alone.”

Annoyed and now suspicious, Maya and Juniper turned away from Josh and started on the path back to the vehicles. So far everything was a dead end and frustrating.

They hiked back over the mountainside to where they’d parked, and Maya loaded up Juniper. Josh got in his patrol vehicle, following as they took the back road into town. Maya wanted to find the truck Bobbi was driving, but there was no way to know which direction she was headed from the ranch.

Maya pulled up behind Josh’s sheriff’s vehicle at an intersection stop sign. The SUV with the rental plates flew by on the road. She picked up her radio. “You see what I see?”

“I do,” Josh said. “I think they are definitely speeding.”

She agreed. “Let’s pull them over. I’ll back you up.”

“Ten-four.”

Josh flipped on his lights and Maya followed suit. Juniper became excited and started howling. “You like running hot, girly?”

Juniper answered with a sharp bark. Josh pulled up behind the SUV and called the vehicle plates in to dispatch. Maya heard over the radio that the plates did come back to a rental agency.

The SUV pulled over to the shoulder of the road. Josh pulled up behind at an angle and Maya did the same. Juniper continued to whine and spin small circles in the back.

“I wish I could have you run this vehicle,” Maya said to her. “We’ll get through certification and then you can go back to having fun.”

Maya stepped out of the vehicle, approaching the opposite side from Josh. She could hear Josh asking for the driver’s license, registration, and insurance. She took note of the back of the car and the back seat, looking for any kind of weapon or anything that could cause them danger. The car was clean, though. Not even much dust had settled on the outside. That meant they hadn’t been in town for long.

Maya approached the passenger window, making sure she stayed close to the vehicle for safety. This made it more difficult for someone from the vehicle to shoot her.

The driver saw her and rolled down the window. “Two officers? Did I do something serious?” the woman asked in a Russian accent.

Maya peered over the seat and took note of any areas she could inspect for a weapon or anything to give them probable cause to search the vehicle. “You’re from out of town?” she asked.

“I’m visiting from California.”

“But I’m guessing from your accent that you are from Russia originally,” Maya said.

“Good guess. How did you know?” the woman said sarcastically.

“I spent some time in the military and learned many different accents,” Maya said.

Josh interjected, “Do you know why I pulled you over?”

“No, I do not,” said the woman.

“You were going pretty fast on these back roads. The speed limit is thirty and I clocked you going about fifty.”

“So in America it takes two officers to pull over a vehicle for speeding,” the woman asked.

“Actually, I’m law enforcement for the U.S. Forest Service. While I am providing backup, I’m also looking for some poachers that supposedly shot a couple bull elk recently. Have you been around here for long? Have you seen any signs of hunters or anything suspicious going on?”

Maya caught the raised eyebrow Josh was giving her. “I’m going to go run all this information through dispatch,” he said, heading to his vehicle.

The passenger turned back toward Maya and said, “I know nothing about this, what do you call them, poachers?”

“You haven’t seen anything suspicious then?”

“No. Not at all.”

“Would you mind if I took a quick look in your car? Just to cover my bases. Have to do my job,” Maya said.