Page 41 of Hunting the Truth
Abigail gazed out the window and then turned back to Maya. “I wanted to help people. I wanted to solve crimes and put the bad guys away, but I was naive. At the time I entered law enforcement, there weren’t as many women as there are now and things were different. I wanted to quit several times because of the harassment, but I made it through the academy and started to prove myself, and now almost thirty years later, here I am trying to solve this last big case so I can retire.”
“Women like you helped pave the path for my generation. Thank you.”
“Oh, don’t thank me. There’s still a long way to go. The glass ceiling is still there for us.”
“But you made detective,” Maya said.
“True, but how many female chiefs of police do you see? Or sheriffs? Not many. Now it’s your generation that’s in charge of breaking through.”
“I feel pretty fortunate,” Maya said. “I served in the Marines, and I was given respect. I earned it, but everyone had to. As a Forest Service officer, things have been great too. I went through the training in Georgia at the federal law enforcement training center and was treated with respect there too. I never had any issues, so things have come a long way.”
Their food arrived and Abigail waited to answer until after their server was gone. “Then you’re lucky,” she said. “I’m glad you’ve had a great experience. It wasn’t the same for me and I’ve talked with other women in law enforcement. Some are lucky like you, but some still have issues in their departments.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Maya said.
They started eating in an uncomfortable silence. Maya wanted to ask more about Abigail’s time at the academy but refrained. She knew she was lucky. Even in the military, she never had any issues, but other women had and often things were covered up. Maya’s PTSD didn’t involve rape or other types of assault, and for that she was grateful.
They finished lunch making small talk and then each went their own direction. Maya was glad that someone like Abigail was the one investigating her mother’s and Nana’s deaths. It seemed like she understood how important this was, not only to catch a dangerous criminal, but also how personal it was to Maya and Pops.
Chapter Nineteen
Maya spent the rest of her day catching up on her duties for the Forest Service. She spent some time investigating the booby traps. Daryl told her that he hadn’t found any receipts that would help her. No one had bought that many stakes in bulk. She had noticed Daryl’s son, Ethan, hanging around, but the kid seemed shy and just shook his head when she asked if he had any information. He didn’t show any signs of being high either, but that didn’t mean he didn’t like escaping to the woods to smoke. Maya made a mental note to see if Miranda had been able to get a fingerprint off the pipe or containers. Probably not with how busy they’d all been.
She called their local parks and wildlife officer and asked if he needed help checking hunting tags and making sure no one was poaching. She helped with that for a few hours and then, exhausted, she headed back to her cabin. She couldn’t remember if Josh was coming over for dinner or not. Maya sent him a text and he responded that he had some more paperwork to finish up but could come around 20:00 if that worked for her. She figured that was good. It gave her time to see if Juniper found anything around her cabin and then shower before they ate.
“Okay,” Maya said to Juniper, who continued to pout in the back. “I know you think we’re done for the night, but we’re going to work. I’ve promised you that all day and I’m keeping that promise.”
Juniper lifted and tilted her head at the mention of the wordwork. Then she jumped to her feet and started a little jig with her front paws dancing up and down. Maya smiled, happy to see her dog looking joyful again.
She figured she’d take Juniper back to where they found the foxes a few days ago. She’d made a mistake assuming that’s what Juniper was barking at. There was a good chance Kendra or even Eric was watching her that day and the foxes just distracted Juniper at that moment. If Maya had been thinking, she should have cast Juniper out to see if she could find a human scent once the foxes left. Even though the scent would now be a few days old, Maya thought she’d give it a try again.
She came back around to the door to Juniper’s compartment, and Juniper started some high-pitched yips. Maya waited for her to settle down and then let Juniper out of the vehicle. Juniper spun in circles, but she finally settled down and Maya snapped the leash on the tracking harness.
She continued to ask Juniper to settle until she felt the dog was ready to focus. Then they went over to where they had run into the foxes. How close had Kendra been to take pictures? Maya closed her eyes and visualized the wall with all her pictures. It seemed like most of them had been taken outside of the large picture window where Juniper would lunge and bark.
Feeling that Juniper was paying attention, Maya took her over to outside the window and started casting Juniper out. She would direct the dog in different directions, trying to read her body language and see if she was in odor.
“Go find ’em. Seek,” Maya said.
Juniper, happy to be working, put her nose to the ground, but she continued to wander, which meant she hadn’t found a good odor to track. Maya worked her way toward a stand of pine trees that could be a spot where Kendra would have hidden. Seeing her from inside the cabin would have been impossible. It would be hard to be much closer than that as Maya had cleared trees out to have defensible space around her cabin in case of a fire.
Juniper kept her nose to the ground and a few times brought it up to air scent. Maya had encouraged Juniper to do both. Some trainers wanted the dogs to track with their noses on the ground and not air scent. This meant the dog would follow the exact footsteps of the person they were after. The problem with that was the suspect could come back around and ambush a dog and handler, so Maya had worked with Juniper to put her nose up in the air too. That way if someone was hiding, they had a better chance of finding them. Juniper had been a superstar at figuring that out. Especially if it meant she could take a bite at the end of the track.
They continued their way back through the woods surrounding Maya’s cabin, getting further away. All of a sudden Juniper paused. She whipped around and her tail poked straight up. Maya’s heart rate picked up. She tried to remain calm so her dog wouldn’t cue off her, but she really hoped they could find something. She knew that if they found evidence, she’d have to call Josh, Lucas and Miranda, but for now, it made Maya feel like she was still helping with the investigation and she wanted some sort of clue that would help them find Eric Torres and put him away for life.
Juniper put her nose back on the ground, making snuffling noises. Maya was ready to go. She knew once Juniper had the scent, she would shoot off like the fur missile she was. Sure enough, a few seconds later, Juniper headed east toward the road. Maya let the leash out, jogging to keep up with her. Juniper stayed on the track, keeping her nose to the ground, although she’d stop and air scent every now and then.
The thought occurred to Maya that she needed to be careful as Torres could be in the area. They suspected he was still in Colorado and wouldn’t leave until he had what he needed which was probably the evidence Maya’s mother had stashed. She was doing this track with no backup officer, and while Juniper would happily apprehend someone, Maya had to keep in mind that Torres was armed and dangerous.
Maya continued following Juniper, realizing they were headed toward the road. The track might end where Torres parked his vehicle, but that information could be helpful. She and Josh could set up surveillance for that area and see if Torres showed up. They might be able to catch him that way. Maya worked to keep her excitement about a possible trap under control. She couldn’t interfere with Juniper’s work.
They wound around and headed in the direction of a slow vehicle pull-off area. It would be a great place to park and hike to Maya’s cabin. Juniper paused for a moment and started working a scent cone back and forth. Maya gave her more leash so she didn’t pull her off the scent. Juniper went over to a tree and then went up on her hind legs, nose up in the air sniffing. She stayed up for a moment. Then she came off her hind legs and lay down, staring straight up.
“Good girl, Juniper. Way to find it,” Maya said. She went and inspected the tree. There weren’t too many branches at the bottom, but as she moved around, trying to figure out what Juniper had found, she saw the sun glint off something caught on the branch. It looked like a bracelet.
Maya continued to praise Juniper and pulled her favorite ball and rope toy out of her pocket. She threw the toy to Juniper, who joyfully latched on and ran around in a circle, squeaking it.
“You’re going to kill that squeaker,” Maya said. “Good thing I have some extra toys back at home.”
