Page 35 of Hunting the Truth
Juniper had slept the entire drive, but when the vehicle turned off, she jumped to her feet and started spinning in circles, yipping in excitement.
“Geez,” Maya said. “You go from comatose to a hundred miles an hour. Calm down, girl. You’re going to get to work again.”
Juniper shook and grunted. Maya went around to her compartment, glad Juniper’s tracking gear was still on, and got her out. The pair went over to where Josh and Lucas were looking at a map. Josh was also holding the plastic bag that Miranda had placed the gauze in from the shoeprint. Maya hoped there was enough scent, but the good part of this search was that the temperature was dropping and humidity would slightly rise, which would start to bring scent out more for Juniper. Anytime the ground was warmer than the air, a scent trail became stronger.
“I have no idea where to start,” Lucas said.
“Let’s start on the path with Juniper,” Maya said. “I’ll let her work on the long leash and see what she can find. I don’t want to let her off leash since we’re near the road.” If Juniper caught a good track or scent for evidence, she’d have tunnel vision and not worry about crossing the road with an oncoming vehicle.
Josh and Lucas agreed to Maya’s plan and she took Juniper over to the start of the path, which wound its way to the reservoir. Josh opened up the bag with the scent article and let Juniper take a good sniff.
“Let’s find it, girl. Seek.”
Juniper immediately put her nose on the ground and Maya let the leash out. She watched her dog for the telltale signs that she was in odor. Josh and Lucas stayed back, Josh still in position to be her backup officer while Lucas made sure he didn’t get in the way of Juniper working. He had often worked with Maya and Zinger in Afghanistan, so he understood the protocol.
At first, Juniper went off the trail, but then stopped, whipped around and came back to the path. Her tail went straight up and her body tensed. Then she took off down the middle of the footpath.
“I never get tired of seeing the dogs work,” Lucas said.
Maya smiled. She never tired of it either.
Juniper went down the path straight toward the reservoir, and as they approached the shoreline, she suddenly veered off to some bushes. She went back and forth, working a scent cone, and then off to the side of the bushes, she lay down and stared at the ground.
“Good girl,” Maya said. She wanted to reward Juniper, but she didn’t know yet if there was anything in the bushes. “Release. Come.”
Juniper stood up and came back and sat by Maya’s side. Lucas put on gloves and started carefully inspecting the area where Juniper had indicated. A smile spread across his face.
“It’s a cell phone,” he said, taking some pictures and making notes before he removed it. “Hopefully it’s Kendra’s.”
“I hope so too,” Maya said. “I’m going to cast Juniper out again and make sure there’s not anything else around this area.”
“I’ll back you up,” Josh said. Maya thought he seemed quiet, but she was exhausted after this long day; Josh was probably really tired too.
She had Juniper sniff the scent article again and then started casting her back out. Almost immediately, Juniper’s tail went straight up and her nose went to the ground, following the scent trail. Juniper headed back toward the reservoir shoreline.
As her front paws hit the water, Maya pulled her up. She didn’t want Juniper heading into the reservoir, not only because she didn’t want to smell wet dog all night, but also because she didn’t know what Juniper might be smelling in the water. There could be something out in the middle of the reservoir and the odor could be coming back to them.
Josh and Lucas came up beside Maya. “I don’t know what to tell you,” she said. “She tracked to this shoreline.”
The sun started to dip below the mountains, casting an orange hue across the water. The change in color highlighted something just below the water’s surface. Maya squinted, peering harder.
“Is that...”
“I think it is,” Lucas said.
Josh nodded in agreement. “That’s definitely a vehicle.”
“Kendra had a blue Jeep,” Maya said.
“Looks blue to me,” Josh said. “I’ll call Miranda and a towing company. I’ll see if I can get some lights out here too. We have a long night ahead of us.”
Chapter Sixteen
Early the next morning, Maya and Juniper headed to town. Once again, she was short on sleep, because she hadn’t made it home until midnight. They hadn’t found any more evidence around the reservoir but had managed to pull the Jeep out of the water. The plates were still on the vehicle, so it was easy to verify that it belonged to Kendra.
Miranda would be spending today processing the entire car. Maya was hoping they’d find something more that would answer some questions about why Kendra was spying on her and who had killed her. But first, they were meeting with the Montana detective Abigail Harper, and she couldn’t wait to learn more about Eric Torres. Hopefully, something beyond the information that they already had.
Maya had left Todd, her patrol captain, a voice mail and filled him in as best as she could on both the task force and the booby traps. She knew he was out on some investigations, so she’d probably hear back from him later.
