Page 46 of Hunting the Truth
“Be careful,” Maya said to them both. “I believe the suspect had a long gun.”
Josh and Deputy Wilson pulled their guns from their holsters and headed toward the east side of what used to be Maya’s cabin. She watched them use trees to help conceal them as they walked deeper into the woods.
Pops hugged her again. “I thought I’d lost you too,” he said. “You know how to give an old man a heart attack. It reminded me of the night I heard the call about your mother’s house up in flames.”
“This has to be Torres,” Maya said, hugging Pops back. Juniper stuck her nose in between them wanting attention. Maya stepped back and loved on her dog. “If you hadn’t warned me, I could be dead. She barked and lunged toward the window. I was able to get down and pull her out of the way before the shooting started.”
“I’m just so glad you’re okay.” Maya thought she saw some tears in the corners of Pops’s eyes.
They stood together and watched as Josh and Deputy Wilson came back from clearing the east side, radioing the firefighters that they hadn’t found anything. The firefighters drove down the road, parked and went to work, but Maya knew it was too late. Her cabin was gone. Her home was demolished.
Part of her wanted to cry, but the other part of her was pissed off beyond belief. Anger coursed through her veins. She wasn’t just going to find and arrest Eric Torres. She was going to destroy him and make him pay for everything he’d taken from her.
Chapter Twenty-Two
A few hours later, Maya and Juniper stood in the same spot. Her cabin was gone except for the stone fireplace which somehow looked awkward and out of place without the house around it. The firefighters had been able to contain the fire. Maya had heard Josh and Pops directing several deputies to tell the neighbors to be on alert to evacuate. Around this area, neighbors were a good distance away and behind some of the ridges. Some of them might not even know what was going on until it was too late.
A headache threatened to come on and she finally moved over to Pops’s sheriff’s vehicle and leaned against it. Juniper came with her and plopped down on the ground. Maya rooted around in Pops’s patrol car until she found a water bottle and a cup. She poured some of the water into the cup and Juniper lapped it up, drinking a couple rounds.
Maya took a swig out of the water bottle and then put it back in the vehicle. She closed the door and leaned back, staring away from her cabin. She couldn’t look anymore. It was too painful. Instead, she started focusing on plotting. She wanted revenge. She wasn’t going down without a fight.
A vehicle pulled up and Miranda hopped out. “I’m so sorry, Maya. I’ll do everything I can do to find evidence so that we can figure out who did this.”
“I’m pretty certain it was Eric Torres.”
“Probably,” Miranda said. “But you never know. He could be working with someone.”
“True,” Maya said. “It sounds like this crime ring is bigger than we realized.”
Miranda tried to give Maya a reassuring smile. “Well, I guess I better go get to work. From the sounds of it, I have lots of brass to process.”
“That’s for sure,” Maya said. “Let me know if you need help. I have some contacts in other counties from working the national forests in their areas. They might be willing to lend a hand.”
“I appreciate it, but I think I have it handled. If not, you’ll be the first to know. I may have to talk to your grandfather about hiring another CSI tech if crimes keep happening around here at this rate,” Miranda said, picking up her case with all her supplies. “I’ll let you know if I find something you don’t know about.”
“Thanks,” Maya said.
Miranda headed off toward the smoldering cabin. She would probably start to process the scene from the outside in and only once the firefighters told her it was safe. Pops and Josh were walking in Maya’s direction. Pops placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed.
“It’ll be okay, Maya,” he said. “The main thing is that you’re okay.”
Josh studied her, and Maya had to look away. She had a feeling he knew what she was thinking about: finding Torres and getting revenge. He would definitely try to talk her out of it, but Maya didn’t want to hear it right now. Her temper was as hot as the fire that had just blazed through the cabin, only her fire was still burning.
“I know, Pops,” Maya finally said. “I just feel like I lost my life down there though. The only good thing is I had just picked up my uniforms from the dry cleaners and they’re still in my patrol vehicle, so at least I don’t have to ask my boss for more. But I lost everything else. At least Lucas has the evidence that Juniper and I found today.”
“What did you find?” Josh asked. “I’m sorry I missed your call.”
Maya hesitated. It seemed like Josh was missing a lot of her calls lately. What was he up to? Of course, why did she care so much and what did it matter right now?
“I did a track with Juniper,” Maya said. She saw the looks both Pops and Josh gave her and knew they weren’t happy she had gone on her own. “I realized we’d never treated my cabin like a crime scene and yet we know for sure Kendra was here watching me and probably Eric Torres too. I thought I’d do a track and see what I could find.”
Josh put his hands on his duty belt. It was the cop equivalent of crossing your arms, only cops didn’t do that because they needed their hands free to protect themselves. Josh was definitely not pleased with her. She didn’t care. She could take care of herself.
Maya took a deep breath and continued. “Juniper alerted on a tree, and I found a bracelet. It was silver with a lucky horseshoe charm. I called Lucas and he came out and gathered it for evidence, so I didn’t process it. I remember that bracelet, though. It belonged to Mom. I remember it and it triggered another memory from that night.”
“Your grandmother and I gave her that bracelet,” Pops said. He stared off in the distance. “She wasn’t wearing it when she died.”
“But she was,” Maya said. “I remember it because I was always fascinated with it. She’d let me try it on sometimes and tell me when I was older, she’d get me a bracelet just like this one. I remember seeing it dangle by my face the night she died when she grabbed my shoulders and told me to go hide. Torres must have taken it off her. I remember him there that night too.”
