Page 20 of Hunting the Truth
“Come over here. Take a look at the body from this angle.”
Josh followed Maya’s instructions and stepped over beside her. “Holy shit,” he said. “I think you’re right.”
“I guess we know why she didn’t show this morning,” Maya said. “But who would do such a horrible thing to her, and why?”
Josh stayed silent for a minute and then said, “I don’t know, but we can’t ID her for sure until the coroner comes. If that’s her, then there’s a lot of questions to answer.”
“You can say that again,” Maya muttered. She reached down and petted Juniper, trying to calm her nerves. How could she have just lost another friend? Who would have done this? Maya wanted answers.
Eric slunk back into the stand of trees. He was a good distance away and hoped he was far enough back and had the wind direction in his favor to not have the dog catch his scent. The deputy and Maya had arrived on scene. He should have known Maya would be dispatched out to this with the sheriff’s office. This was Forest Service land. The FBI could even be called in, and that would not be a good thing for him.
He had talked with Kendra early this morning. He needed information, and from what he had found, she was the one who could give it to him. Eric was still debating the best way to get Maya alone when she would be the most vulnerable. That might make things easier, although the more he watched her, the more he realized his task ahead of him would not be easy.
But with his informant now dead, he knew that he had no time to wait.
Eric needed to get out of the area—he’d seen enough to know that soon the trail would be shut down and the crime scene would be swarming with techs and deputies. At least he knew where Maya would be for now. Maybe he could get her alone at her cabin tonight, but every time he’d come closer, the dog had noticed him and started barking.
He had to get rid of the dog. He needed Maya on her own so he could control her.
Yes, it was time to go back to get his vehicle stowed off the side of the road and get to where he was camping out. He had to think through some new plans. Getting to Maya needed to happen sooner rather than later.
Eric turned and as he walked back toward the trail, he stepped on a branch.
The twig snapped underneath his boot. Crap. He had to get out of here.
The Malinois whipped around growling. Eric sprinted off and as he dashed up the hill, already breathing hard in the thin, high-altitude air, he heard Maya say, “Let’s go get ’em.”
Chapter Ten
Juniper put her nose to the ground and at first seemed to have a hard time catching a scent. Maya took her toward the area where she thought she heard the twig snap and started casting her out. Juniper followed her direction, making a louder noise, sniffing and sucking in air. Maya could see she hadn’t caught a scent yet and continued to cast the dog out in different directions, looking for any signs of a human being in the area recently. If Maya saw a footprint or a snapped branch, she could help her dog pick up the track. They could also place a piece of sterile gauze over the shoeprint to not only help preserve it for Miranda to get a cast of it later, but the cloth could become a scent article to use with Juniper. Maya kept packages of sterile gauze in her BDU pockets just in case.
She and Juniper continued to work the area. Maya was concerned that they were tracking at a difficult point in the day because as it warmed up, the scent would dissipate.
Just as Maya was worried that they wouldn’t find a solid trail, Juniper’s body tensed. Her tail poked straight up in the air and her body language switched to an intensity that Maya knew well. Her dog was in odor.
Maya let Juniper work out the scent and then followed her as the dog took off, putting slack in the leash so Juniper didn’t yank her off her feet. Maya scrambled to keep up, slipping on some of the loose rocks in the area. She and Juniper headed off in the opposite direction of the trail they had used to come down to the crime scene.
“This is Deputy A1. I need immediate response to Big Gulch including medical, coroner and crime scene,” Josh said.
Hearing Josh’s call, Maya knew it wouldn’t be long before there were more deputies, firefighters, search and rescue volunteers and the coroner. They really needed to have someone secure the scene, but with Juniper in hot pursuit, the priority had changed to finding the suspect.
Josh was behind Maya as her backup officer. He would cover her so she could watch and work her dog without worrying about the suspect ambushing them. They’d been practicing some scenarios like this since Maya returned from certification, so they were all a better team. Josh fell into place behind them and followed her and Juniper off toward a stand of pine trees.
Juniper came into a small area in the middle of the trees and Maya pulled her up.
“Footprints,” she said to Josh.
“Got it,” he said, placing a marker.
Maya stopped Juniper for a second and took the gauze out of her pocket and handed it to Josh. “Let’s put this gauze over these shoeprints and see if they can be used for a scent article later on.”
This area would now be part of the crime scene and hopefully Miranda could get a good shoe imprint to use for when they caught this killer. She gave Juniper the command to keep tracking. Juniper took off on another trail in the opposite direction of the trailhead parking area.
“Where does this trail go?” Josh asked.
“It wraps back around to Little Gulch Meadow. There’s a parking area there too, but it’s a lot smaller so most people drive to Big Gulch.”
“How far?”
