Page 70 of Chasing Justice
Juniper leaped forward, barking and scrambling to get good footing on the wood floor. She burst into the room, Maya behind her. The room was pitch-black and while Maya’s eyes adjusted, she could only hear the sound of Juniper’s nails clicking again on the floor, along with her sniffing.
Maya pulled out a flashlight, holding it underneath her gun with her left hand. She watched Juniper work the room clockwise. Juniper stayed on the perimeter and stuck her nose up against the wall. At times she went up on her hind legs to scent higher. Maya followed Juniper’s search with her flashlight although that made her an easy target because she was backlit. Juniper too. Then she realized something.
Josh had slipped ahead and was between her and Juniper. A cover officer should never get between a dog and handler. It kept the handler from reading their dog’s body language and risked the dog biting the cover officer.
“What the hell?” she muttered. Sam’s warning of Josh not properly backing up his partner flashed through her mind. “Get back by me or behind me. I don’t need Juniper biting or distracted by you.”
Josh glanced over his shoulder and, realizing he’d stepped in front of Maya, followed her orders.
Thump. Thump.
Maya spun around to her right, gun out in front of her but still trying to watch Juniper. Josh stayed by her side. The thumping noise was a loose board covering a broken window. A breeze was blowing the board out and back. Josh headed over to inspect the board.
“Let Juniper work,” Maya snapped. “Get out of the way.”
“I’m clearing the area by this window and loose board.”
“Let Juniper do it. That’s why we have a K-9. And right now, since I’m the K-9 handler, I’m the officer in charge. You need to listen to me.”
Maya thought she heard Josh mutter an expletive under his breath, but he backed away from the window. She didn’t care. He needed to keep his ego in check.
“You going to back me up the right way?”
“Yes. Let’s just get on with it. I got it. You’re in charge. Now let’s see what Juniper found.”
“Okay,” Maya said. “Just don’t mess up again.”
Juniper was sitting over by a corner, staring intently. Maya kept her gun out and stepped toward her dog. She shone the flashlight toward the area Juniper was alerting on and called her off. She asked Juniper to come sit by her side. “You can go see what Juniper found now.”
“Gee, thanks,” Josh said, getting down on his knees. An object was wedged back in the corner under the baseboard. He put on gloves and then began wiggling the object until it came loose. Her breath caught for a moment.
Josh must have heard her. “What is it?” he asked.
Maya didn’t answer but threw Juniper her toy as a reward.
“That belongs to Pops,” she said, staring at the engraved pocketknife Josh held in his hand. “My grandmother gave it to him. He never went anywhere without it.”
“You think he left it for us to find?”
“Or he was trying to hide it. I’m not sure, but he was here, and his scent ties in with the track from Juniper.”
“Okay, so this is all linked together. Let’s get the money back to the lab for some fingerprinting and whatever else we can figure out. I can get some crime scene techs up here and start processing this cabin,” Josh said. “Unless you want the FBI and your boss involved?”
“I’m guessing we are actually on private land right now.”
“Really?”
Maya shot Josh a look. “Yes. Like I said before, I’d need to look at my map to tell for sure, but I think this is private. That means you have jurisdiction and I’m just along for the ride.”
“Okay, I’ll get a warrant since we know the sheriff was here and we haven’t searched anything else. We’ll tear this place apart and see if we can find more that will help us find your grandfather. Let’s get this evidence to the lab. I’ll put it on priority.”
“Thank you,” she said. Juniper came up and pushed her head into Maya’s hands. She responded by scratching her ears and studying Josh’s body language.
Did he really make honest mistakes as my cover officer? Or was he trying to get ahead of me and find evidence first? Whatarethe odds Josh is working with the Rays?
Maya vowed to find out more about Josh. If he was behind the disappearance of her grandfather, then she needed to find out why and who Josh would be giving information to—quickly.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
