Page 61 of Hunting the Truth
“What makes you think I’m nervous?” she asked.
“You keep rubbing your necklace. It’s your tell.”
Maya dropped her hand, realizing she was doing exactly what Josh had just said. She added, “Just remember, when Juniper chews something up, you invited us.”
Chapter Thirty
Maya went into the front lobby of the sheriff’s station, tired from the day’s events. Pops was standing there speaking with the front desk deputy. She headed his direction.
“Hey, Pops, you have a minute?” she asked.
“I do,” he said. He finished his business with the deputy and then said, “Let’s go to my office.”
“Okay.” Maya followed him, feeling like a teenager again. He’d caught her once in high school making out in a truck with one of the football players and that relationship had come to an end quickly. She didn’t know what Pops said or did, but the boy would hardly ever look at her again. But she was an adult now and could make her own decisions. She’d never mentioned the guy she dated when she was in the military, although she’d talked about him with Nana. Did Nana tell Pops? It just seemed weird to tell your grandfather relationship stuff no matter what your age.
They went into Pops’s office, and he shut the door. “Maya, what the hell were you thinking?”
“Pops, I think I’m in love with him, but I don’t know for sure. I mean, how do you really know?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
Maya stopped and then said, “What were you talking about?”
“I was talking about going out on a ‘hike.’” Pops raised his fingers and made air quotes. “But really going after Eric Torres on your own. I really hope the guy you’re in love with isn’t Eric Torres.”
“What? No. Just forget what I said about being in love. I thought you were talking about something else. As for Torres, I had him, but he got away. Pops, I think there’s more to this.”
“Great. That means you’re going to keep investigating,” he said. “We both need to step out of this or we’re going to give the DA a nightmare. Torres will walk if we keep messing with this case, not to mention it won’t help the investigation into me either.”
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking about that.”
“That’s the problem,” Pops said, his face turning red. “You need to stop and think, Maya. You’re an amazing officer and K-9 handler, but if you keep acting impulsively, then you’ll get yourself in trouble. You’ll end up under investigation, just like me. I don’t want you to be just like me.”
Maya sat down on the chair near Pops’s desk. “I’ve always wanted to be like you, Pops.”
“I know,” he said, leaning back on his desk. “I’m so proud of you, but I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you too. I don’t think I could handle it, so keep yourself safe. Be smart and take an officer with you when you’re tracking. Will you do that for me?”
“I will,” she said. “I have a favor to ask, though. You may not like it.”
Pops sighed. “What is it?”
“Torres told me that I should investigate some of the murders he’s wanted for, especially the one of two cops and a judge. I don’t think I’d be able to get those files, but maybe you can, and we can look over them together.”
“I don’t know. We could just mention this to the Montana detectives. See what they know.”
“I don’t think we should. Based on some information I’ve received, I believe Blake Conner could also be involved with the murders,” Maya said, filling Pops in on what Denise told her. “We need to be careful who we talk to in that department. Mom had evidence. She hid it somewhere. That’s the one thing that everyone seems to agree on. Do you have any idea where it would be?”
“No, I don’t. I should have been there for your mother, but I was angry at everything she’d put us through. Your nana talked with her more and knew more. That’s probably what got her killed too. As far as where the evidence might be, I wouldn’t even know where to begin looking.”
“Maybe if we can find out more about these murders, it’ll give us a clue. I wonder if Miranda has even had time to process the evidence from Kendra’s crime scene,” Maya said.
“I don’t know if Miranda has or not. She’s been very busy these past few days and processing all the evidence might take a while. It’ll probably be quicker to get information from the files. I’ll make the call to the Montana department, see what I can find out, but the files need to go to Josh since he’s the lead, and probably to Lucas too. We need to stay out of this.”
“Great. I’ll head on down to the meeting room so we can fill everyone in and figure out the next steps to finding Torres. I mean, I won’t be involved, but I’d like to listen in.”
“I think we also need to keep the information from Denise between us and Lucas and Josh. The less people who know, the better. If we can keep the information quiet, then maybe Blake will slip up and we can have some stronger evidence against him. Right now all we have is a person who refuses to testify.”
“That sounds good,” Maya said. “We can fill in Josh and Lucas after the meeting about our plan.”
