Page 28 of Hunting the Truth
Hearing only silence, Lucas said, “Are you still there?”
“I am,” Maya finally said. “It’s just that...”
Josh, sensing her shock, said, “Lucas, we had a murder yesterday in the national forest and got a fingerprint hit off of what could be the murder weapon. That fingerprint matches an ex-cop from Montana named Eric Torres.”
Lucas paused for a second too and then said, “Well, I guess he’s here in Colorado then. Catch him and it looks like we can tie him to two more murders. Keep me posted. If this ties in with your family cold cases, then I’ll be coming up to your area to help investigate.”
“Thanks, Lucas,” Maya said, finding her voice again.
“You’re welcome, and keep me posted on this new investigation. I’ll email you both the DNA report.”
“Thanks. I’ll keep in touch.” She ended the call and flopped back in her chair, suddenly exhausted. “I was not expecting this. I thought I’d be happy when I received DNA results, but all this has done is gone from bad to worse. Who is Eric Torres and why is he in Colorado killing more people? Kendra, of all people?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t like it,” Josh said. “Maybe you and Juniper should come stay with me until we figure this out. I have a guest bedroom.”
“No, I’m good. Your house is really nice. You’ve worked hard redoing it. Juniper could undo all your work in a short time unless she’s crated, and I don’t think she’d be very happy to live in a crate.”
Plus, I haven’t lived with anyone in years and I need my own space. Not to mention, I’m not sure I trust myself to stay only friends if I’m living with you. I don’t know how to handle a relationship right now.
“I have a yard.”
“Not one set up for a Maligator. You have a nice lawn and landscaping. She’d ruin it in a heartbeat,” Maya said. “I was going to head out on patrol, but now I’m wondering if we should head to Kendra’s apartment and see what we can find there. Maybe Lucas should join us too. I think the drive time would be about the same. You want to call and see if you can get a search warrant and I’ll send Lucas a text?”
“Yeah, let me do that now.” Josh got on the phone and contacted a local judge. Maya only halfway listened in as she thought about Eric Torres while she texted Lucas. Who was this guy? The only connection she could think of was that her mother ran away to Montana when she was a teenager. Maya knew her mother had been arrested. Maybe Eric Torres was somehow connected that way.
“I was able to get one,” Josh said, hanging up. “I’ll call Fort Collins PD and let them know we’ll be there in case they need to get involved.”
“Okay,” Maya said. “Juniper isn’t going to be happy if she doesn’t get to work, but I want to see if we can figure out any connection between Kendra and Eric Torres. If there’s not one, then maybe he’s a serial killer and picks random people. Maybe my mother and Nana were random victims.”
Josh sat back and put his hands behind his head, interlacing his fingers. “But a serial killer who just happens to kill two people related to each other twenty-four years apart? I think there’s more to this. I’m going to stop by Miranda’s office on the way out and have her come with us. That way she can process the apartment and log any evidence we find. Let’s get going.”
“Agreed,” Maya said, standing up. “Lucas is going to meet us at the apartment.” Her mind was racing, but there were only questions, no answers.
About an hour later, they pulled into Kendra’s apartment complex parking lot. They all drove separately in case Maya was called to something else in the national forest. Juniper was in the back circling and whining, letting Maya know that she didn’t like being stuck in the vehicle. Often when out on patrol, Maya would let Juniper out in safe places to burn off some energy. Today, that wasn’t going to work since they were in Fort Collins with traffic and everything that came with being in a city environment. Maya knew she better plan on doing something with Juniper later or she’d pay for it by Juniper chewing and ripping something up. Maybe they could go for a run this evening.
Maya opened the door between the cab and Juniper’s compartment. Juniper stuck her head through and gave her a few slurps on the face. Maya scratched her behind the ears.
“Sorry, girly. We’ll do something fun this afternoon. I promise.”
She waited for Juniper to pull her head back through into her compartment and then she shut the door. She made sure the air-conditioning was on in Juniper’s area because being down in Fort Collins at a lower elevation meant hotter temperatures.
As Maya stepped out of her vehicle, Josh stood in the shade talking on his phone. He motioned for her to come over and join him. As Maya approached, Josh switched his phone to speaker. “Detective Harper, I just wanted to stop you for a moment.”
Maya stepped in closer to him so she could hear.
Josh continued, “I’m being joined by U.S. Forest Service Officer Maya Thompson. She’s helping with this investigation since we found one of Torres’s victims on national forest land.”
“Hello, Officer Thompson.”
“Hello,” Maya said.
“As I was saying,” Detective Harper continued, “I received the results from CODIS this morning. I have it flagged to alert me for anything to do with Eric Torres. I’ve been trying to locate him for a while now and bring him back to Montana where he’s wanted for many crimes, including murder. Then you called and left your voice mail. At least we have an idea of where he might be.”
“Sounds like we all want him,” Josh said. “Are you interested in joining the investigation here in Colorado? You can always extradite him back to Montana.”
“I’d love to come to Colorado and help you find him. I know him better than anyone. In fact, we started out our careers together. Torres is cunning and, being an ex-cop, he knows how the system works and how to elude you. He’s dangerous and would think nothing of shooting another officer or killing another person. He’s even gone after witnesses. How about a multi-jurisdictional task force? My partner can come too.”
“That sounds good. I ran it by the sheriff and he gave his okay for doing something along those lines,” Josh said. “Just know that if Torres is arrested here first, we’ll keep him until he can have a trial.”
