Page 38 of Hunting the Truth
So many memories washed over her, and Maya rubbed her temples, working to pull herself together.
“That’s why we continued this investigation.” Josh. Maya was relieved to hear him speak. He probably had sensed that she and Pops were starting to feel overwhelmed with how personal this had become.
“When Sheriff and Officer Thompson told me about the cases,” Josh continued, “I was with them, I didn’t think everything added up. I’ve been helping with the investigation since I’m not family and with recent DNA evidence, we can at least place Torres at the crime scenes.”
“I would not be surprised that he killed them both and tried to confuse the investigators, but when we catch him, we can interrogate him and find out more.”
“What makes you think he’d talk?” Josh asked.
Abigail shrugged. “He may not, but if we can get some sort of plea deal to get him to give us the name of the person in charge of this crime ring, then he might rat them out. Eric Torres is a snake. He’d kill his own mother if he needed to. He even worked at the station for years while committing these crimes. Had us all fooled.”
“Did he come back to work after he killed my wife?” Pops asked.
“No. We had started to investigate him and internal affairs was getting ready to arrest him, but then he didn’t show up for his shift. Didn’t even clean out his locker. That was around the time your wife was murdered. He just disappeared and we couldn’t find him. Until now.”
Pops spoke up again. “I can see why you want this guy and why you were willing to come to Colorado. We will do our best to cooperate with you. I’m assigning Undersheriff Josh Colten as lead investigator for our department. Colten worked in Chicago on many murder investigations and has the most experience.”
Maya took a deep breath and sat back in her chair. Abigail had certainly provided more information. Now they just needed to catch the man responsible, and Maya had a great way to find him: Juniper.
Juniper had already tracked Eric Torres once. She could do it again.
Chapter Seventeen
As thoughts swirled through Maya’s head about how she could find a good scent for Juniper to track, her phone buzzed. It was Todd.
“Excuse me,” she said, stepping out of the meeting room and answering her phone. “Hello, sir.”
“Thompson, sorry I couldn’t get back to you until now. I was out on some other investigations but got your messages. Fill me in.”
Maya took a deep breath and recapped everything Abigail had said. She also updated Todd on the booby trap investigation, which in Maya’s mind had taken a back seat to this one, but she knew she couldn’t let her other work slide just because of the Torres case.
“Okay,” Todd said, after remaining quiet for a moment. “Good work on the booby traps and finding the drugs. Maybe they’re connected, maybe not. Keep following up with that lead from the hardware store. I’m also guessing it’s someone local. Hopefully, the hardware store can find the receipts so we can figure out who bought those stakes and question them.”
“I’ll let you know as soon as I have more information, sir,” Maya said, pacing up and down the hallway.
“Good. As for this other case, even though it happened on Forest Service land, I need to pull you off.”
Maya stopped and gripped her phone until her fingers hurt. “Sir?”
“Look, Thompson. I know this is tough and it’s difficult for me too. I don’t know what I’d do in your shoes, but this is your family, and you can’t be on this case. Why do you think your grandfather put Colten as lead investigator? He really can’t have anything to do with this either. If I had an extra officer available, I’d send them down to help, but you know that we’re short-staffed so let the sheriff’s office and CBI investigator do their jobs.”
Maya pinched the bridge of her nose. This wasn’t happening. A few months ago, she probably would have punched something. Today, she worked on her breathing and staying grounded, but it wasn’t easy. She knew she’d been walking a fine line with investigating on her own time. Todd had talked about this with her before. She needed to let Lucas do his job, but it wasn’t easy. “I understand, sir, and you’re right.”
“You want to nail this guy?”
“Yes.”
“Then don’t get involved more than you have. You and I both know a defense lawyer would get this case thrown out, and that’s the last thing you want. You have to think ahead about this going to court. I know that’s hard and it’s not what you want to hear. You can still help with anything that doesn’t have to do with the main investigation. And if you see that son of a bitch while you’re out on patrol, arrest him. But then call in Colten or the CBI to take over and step away. Got it?”
“I got it, sir,” Maya said. She knew he was right and that only made things more difficult.
“Good. Keep me posted on these booby traps, and Thompson...”
“Yeah?”
“Stay out of trouble. There’s only so many times I can smooth things over with the higher-ups. You’re a great officer and K-9 handler. I need you.”
“Yes, sir,” Maya said, saying goodbye and hanging up. She knew that he was talking about a few months ago when she’d used Juniper to apprehend some of the drug traffickers that had kidnapped Pops. She and Juniper weren’t certified yet, but Juniper’s help had led to taking down a big drug operation with a Russian mobster, which helped to defuse Todd’s bosses.
