Page 52 of Chasing Justice
Maybe he could take the boards off and pry open a window. How much noise would that make?
Wayne went to work, but the boards were stuck. He took his pocketknife and worked on scraping them to see if he could wiggle them loose.
He was working so hard he didn’t hear the footsteps behind him until a voice said, “I thought you were awake.”
He turned around, seeing his captor, but before he could say anything, he was shot with a taser. Electricity coursed through his body, dropping him to the floor.
He felt the pinprick of a needle and a rag over his mouth. His captor tied him back up, and before he blacked out, he heard the words, “Nighty night, Sheriff.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Maya sat in her office flipping through the notes from Pops. Juniper, tired from trailing, sat on her dog bed, head on her paws, watching her.
Going through each page, Maya hoped she would find something that would indicate his kidnapper. Apparently, Doug had visited her grandfather about a week before the explosion. In her grandfather’s writing, the notes read:
Bribes for past year; working with traffickers.
Drug production.
Informant in sheriff’s office providing law enforcement information to suspects.
On patrol elsewhere when drugs were trafficked. Verified by CAD.
All these notes did was confirm that Doug really was involved somehow, including the CAD, or computer-aided dispatch log. On the dates mentioned to move the drugs, Pops had verified the dispatch report showed Doug was always on patrol on the opposite side of the forest. He was deliberately staying out of the area so the drugs could be moved.
Maya wanted to punch something, but that wouldn’t help, and she’d have to explain a hole in the wall to Todd. She stood up and started pacing. If only Pops had written down “the Rays” as the main suspects in his notes. That would make it easier to get a warrant. Right now, they didn’t have anything concrete, just lots of circumstantial evidence.
And who could be the informant in the sheriff’s office? There weren’t that many deputies, and most of them had been around a long time. The only outsider was Josh, but he didn’t seem like the type, and Pops had trusted him enough to promote him.He’s easy to talk to and has helped me out on this investigation. Of course, how well do I really know him? Maybe he’s helping out for a reason.
It appeared the Rays were smart about who they put on their payroll. In her mind there was no such thing as a coincidence. She wouldn’t put it past Cody Ray to do something stupid like trafficking drugs or kidnapping the sheriff, but Maya also knew it was a long shot that a judge would give them a search warrant. Josh was right—there was no evidence other than a K-9 who wasn’t even certified with her handler yet, tracking to a road that ran near the Ray Ranch. The fact that Josh would even ask a judge meant a lot to Maya.
A knock at the door made Juniper lift her head and give a low growl. Maya saw it was Josh and let him in. Juniper leaped off her bed, tail wagging as she pranced around.
Josh leaned down and petted Juniper, scratching her behind the ears. Juniper let out a low groan of happiness.
“Good grief,” Maya said. “She is such a flirt.”
“I told you, girls like me.”
I’m beginning to see why girls like you.Seeing Josh glance at her, Maya blushed and then composed herself. “Yeah, yeah. What did the judge say?” She knew the answer as soon as Josh’s smile disappeared and disappointment crossed his face.
“You knew it was a long shot,” he said. “And the judge denied it. We need more evidence.”
“I still think the Rays are behind this. And look at these notes.” Maya handed Josh the notebook. She wanted to see his reaction to the note about the informant. She studied his expression as he read through the bullet points. His face remained neutral. She’d hate to play poker with him.
Maya couldn’t stand the silence anymore. “What do you think? Don’t you think it’s the Rays trafficking drugs? You could call the judge again.”
“I think these notes point to Doug giving your grandfather information, but nothing in here says it was the Rays. We still need more evidence.”
“What about a deputy giving information to the suspects? Any idea who that would be?”
Maya watched for a reaction again, but Josh only shrugged. “No idea.”
“Basic police work then. We need to do surveillance. We need to catch them in the act of loading and transporting drugs, or maybe we’ll even see them holding Pops.” Maya started to pace around her office again. Juniper followed her.
“That would be good, but from where? It’s not like we can go park a car on the street and watch them.”
“No, but we can sit on a mountainside,” Maya said. She went over to her map of the national forest that hung on the wall behind her desk. “The Ray Ranch sits right here, but we can sit up on this mountainside, which is Forest Service land, and watch them from there. Nothing illegal and there’s enough tree cover here that we should be able to hide pretty well.”
