Page 68 of Chasing Justice
She and Juniper went over to where Josh found the footprints. Maya started casting out her dog, telling her to “track.” Juniper stuck her nose to the ground, sucking in air and taking in all the scents around her. She ran a couple circles, and just when Maya was ready to bring her in, settle her down and cast her out again, she snapped around, nose staying to the ground. Her tail went up and her body paused for a second. Then she took off.
This time Maya was ready for Juniper’s sudden leap forward, sprinting to keep up.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Juniper tracked near the footprints. Maya made a quick note in her head that they appeared to be boots. They were close to her foot size. So maybe female?
As she followed Juniper, she thought back to the day of the explosion. The suspect at the cabin had appeared to be a skinny male, but maybe the person was instead a tall female.
Juniper kept her nose to the ground, sucking in air and sticking with the scent. The track ran parallel to the footprints, and Maya knew this was because of the way moisture affected the scent. Juniper wouldn’t care about the footprints—she only cared about the smell of the person. Juniper saw the world through her nose.
Juniper wound her way through the woods, and at one point the mud changed to dirt where rain hadn’t fallen. The footprints were no longer as visible. At a divide in the trail, Juniper stopped and put her nose up, air scenting. That could mean that she was losing the track, so Maya cast her back out in different directions until Juniper put her nose to the ground and followed the trail again. This part of the trail was rocky and a little harder to navigate, slowing the trio down. It also made it harder for Josh to cover them the way he needed to, and for Maya to keep track of him.
Maya pulled Juniper up. “You doing okay?” she asked Josh. “What do you think? Can you still cover me here?”
“It’ll be fine. I’ll stay off to one side and it won’t be a problem.”
“Okay,” she said, glancing back. She wanted to be able to see Josh in case he was setting her up. “Juniper, track.”
Juniper put her nose back down and continued. She took Maya by surprise by veering off to the left toward a chokecherry shrub. Juniper’s body language didn’t indicate a person could be hiding, but Maya kept an eye out. Juniper pulled on her harness and took Maya over to the bush. She started working a scent cone back and forth and then, toward the right side of the plant, she sat and stared at Maya expectantly.
“What is it, girl?” Maya asked, proud of the way the dog was tracking.
Lodged back in the bush, intertwined with some of the red berries at the end of a branch, money fluttered in the slight breeze. Maya took a closer look without touching anything. It was a hundred-dollar bill.
She praised Juniper and gave her the toy as a reward. As Maya inspected the bush further, she noticed the sun glinting off something shiny—a knife had been dropped on the ground.
“You got something?” Josh asked.
“Yeah, she found some possible evidence—a knife and hundred-dollar bill. You have gloves and a bag?”
“I do. Good girl, Juniper.”
Juniper responded with a tail wag and squeaked her toy harder.
“Good. Let’s bag both items. Maybe we can pull prints off it or something,” Maya said. “Maybe this was the knife the person pulled on us.”
“We can hope.”
“I know.” Maya stepped closer to the evidence. Could it be some of the money from Doug’s house? She wished Juniper could talk and tell her the answer.
Josh gloved up and put the hundred-dollar bill in a brown paper bag and then sealed it. He repeated the process with the knife. Once he finished, Maya asked Juniper to track again. Juniper put her nose to the ground and shot forward.
After about a half mile, the trail opened into a clearing, but Juniper didn’t waver. She continued, tail pricked high in the air, sniffing away. Maya allowed her out on the leash. They hiked through the clearing diagonally, and Juniper went off in a direction where there was no trail. She leaped over a log, and Maya scrambled behind. She heard Josh behind her do the same.
“You okay?” she asked him.
“Yep, just keep going.”
“Okay.” Maya continued to follow Juniper, who paused for a moment and then took a sharp left. The deeper off-trail they went, the more the danger increased. If Josh tried anything, Maya would be hard-pressed to protect herself or Juniper. Definitely no cell phone signal in this area, and they were probably out of radio range too. Juniper was tracking a strong odor, though, and maybe that would lead to Pops.This is worth the risk.
“I just hope we can find our way back out of here.”
“Isn’t that your job as the Forest Service person? To know your forests?” Josh said, his breathing a little ragged following them at the pace Juniper was setting.
“Sounds like you need less doughnuts and more hikes. And remember, this national forest is over a million acres and I’m the only law enforcement officer. I can’t be everywhere at once and I don’t know every inch. Makes it easy for people to hide and do what they want to do—legal or illegal.”Maybe I shouldn’t have told him that.
“That doesn’t make me feel better,” Josh said.
