Page 21 of Hunting the Truth
“About a half mile.”
Maya continued jogging to keep up with her dog. Juniper had a solid scent and her nose stayed on the ground. Maya was always amazed at what the dogs could do when it came to tracking. Juniper was following the “hottest” scent, or last scent left along with any ground disturbance. For this type of work, she didn’t need a scent article.
They continued on the trail that wove around and started an uphill ascent. Juniper didn’t seem tired at all, but Maya’s lungs burned as her respiration increased. Josh was huffing and puffing behind her. Maybe their morning coffee and doughnut habit was catching up with them. They continued climbing uphill. At least this part of the trail wasn’t as rough as the previous one.
She could hear someone ahead of them running. Another branch snapped, and Maya heard a person swear.
We’re getting close. We can catch this suspect.
Adrenaline fueled Maya as she and Juniper continued on the trail. Tree branches smacked Maya in the face, and she tried to warn Josh, but words were hard to get out as her breathing elevated. Juniper picked up her pace even more while her body language showed that her full attention was on this one track.
We’re going to catch this killer. We’re going to get justice for Kendra.
Juniper followed her nose, tail staying straight up in the air. When she was on an odor, she often kept her tail up even when she was tired. When she was sniffing the scent of another animal or distracted, her tail would droop.
As they approached the top of the trail, a vehicle started and pulled away.
Damn it. That’s probably our suspect escaping.
They arrived at the small parking area, if you could even call it that. It was more of a pull-off with maybe room for one or two vehicles at the most.
The area was empty.
Maya pulled up Juniper. They’d lost Josh behind them. Maya doubled over, a stitch starting in her side, and fought to catch her breath. Juniper put her nose under Maya’s face and stared at her, asking if she was okay.
“I’m good, girly,” Maya said, still trying to catch her breath.
Josh came up behind her and placed his hand on her back. “You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah.” Maya gulped in more air. “Just need to start jogging on trails so I can get in better shape. You good?”
“I am,” Josh said, also breathing hard. “I think I should join you jogging.”
“Let me see if she can find the scent trail here again,” Maya said. She caught Juniper’s attention and started casting the dog out in the area where she last had the scent.
Juniper tracked over to the front part of the pull-off and her tail dropped a bit. She began working back and forth, sucking in air and at times putting her nose up to try to catch the odor by air scenting.
“I think she’s lost the track,” Maya said, watching her dog weave back and forth searching for the scent.
“I bet the person had a car stashed here.”
“I heard it leave when we approached this area. I think Juniper has lost the scent for now.”
“I’ll look around and see if there’s any good tire tracks or shoe prints that we can match to the other ones,” Josh said, examining the area.
“Sounds good,” Maya said. “I need to get Juniper some water, so once you mark anything you find, we can head back to the vehicles. If we walk along the road, it’s not that far.”
“Okay.” Josh slowly walked around, careful where he stepped so he didn’t contaminate anything. “I have some good tire tread marks here and there’s an oil leak that looks fresh. I’ll put some markers down and I’ll have a deputy mark this area off with crime scene tape. Hopefully by now the cavalry has arrived at the other parking area and our main crime scene is being secured. I’m going to call for another deputy to come and stay at this scene.”
“I hope so too,” Maya said. “Once Juniper has some water and a break, I want to go back to the crime scene and do an evidence search with her. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
After Maya got Juniper comfortable in her compartment, she grabbed crime scene tape and checked her phone to see if Lucas had called. Nothing. Maya walked back to the pull-off where Josh waited. Together they strung the yellow tape around a large area. She knew that when it came to a crime scene it was better to tape off more area than you might think you’d need. It was better to discover evidence within the crime scene rather than taping off a small area and realizing important evidence could be outside the crime scene. Defense lawyers could have a field day with that.
“By the time we get done stringing this up, Juniper should be rested, and we can do an evidence search in the area,” Maya said.
A sheriff’s patrol car pulled up and a young deputy stepped out of the patrol vehicle.
“Hey there, Deputy Wilson,” Josh said, then nodded toward Maya. “Have you two met yet?”
