Page 65 of Hunting the Truth
“Good point. I’m lucky to have a Forest Service employee here to help me with these things. See, you staying here is already working out,” he said, as he checked the potatoes and then threw the steaks on the grill. The sizzling sound made Juniper pause and look their direction.
“Don’t even think about stealing our dinner,” Maya said to her. “Just keep exploring.” To Josh she added, “I’m happy to help.”
She scrolled through Josh’s email until she found one from the Montana police department that Abigail and Blake worked for. Maya opened the attachments and started reading, but didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. The report was pretty straightforward and went through what had happened based on witnesses’ testimony when the judge and cops were murdered.
It listed the evidence collected and how fingerprints and DNA left at the scene matched Eric Torres.Similar to our crimes here. Is that a coincidence?Maya skimmed through more of the report, but it revealed very little.
“Is there anything that screams that Eric Torres is innocent?” Josh asked, flipping the steaks.
“No, not yet.”
She continued reading and then she saw the name of the first officer on scene—Harold Conner—and signature of the detective—Blake Conner.
“I think I just found something.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Maya stared at the phone, rereading the report just to make sure she had the information correct. She thought about her memory of Blake coming to her mother’s house a few nights before her murder. Could Blake be in charge of the crime ring? Did he convince his cousin to come after her and set up Eric?
“What is it?” Josh asked, putting the meat and potatoes on a plate.
“The lead detective on this case was Blake Conner. The first officer on scene was his cousin, the person Eric shot today. Along with the information from Denise, I had another memory at the meeting today. I know this sounds weird, but it happened when I smelled Blake’s aftershave.”
“Let’s go inside and eat while you tell me about your memory.”
“Okay,” Maya said. Juniper was still running around the yard, now pouncing on grasshoppers.
“Leave her,” Josh said. “She’s good.”
“I don’t know. I don’t think we should leave her unsupervised.”
“She’s enjoying the yard and we can see her from the sunroom. Let’s sit there and eat. We’ll keep an eye on her.”
Maya wondered if there was anything in the yard like a hose that Juniper might be inclined to chew up, but decided Josh was right. They could watch Juniper, and it was good for her to run around and relax.
They sat down and Maya told Josh about her memory. She was now certain Blake had been to see her mother before she died. “I think he was lying about not keeping in touch with his cousin too. He’s acted suspiciously since he arrived here.”
“We could talk to Abigail about him,” Josh said. “See what she knows.”
“I don’t think we should trust anyone from that department,” Maya said. “But I also don’t think this will all be over even if we do catch Eric Torres. There’s this evidence my mother supposedly had. It must be damning if everyone wants it. Maybe we need to focus on finding that.”
“Any ideas where it might be?” Josh asked.
Maya shook her head. “I’ve been thinking about that all day, and I have no idea, but I think Nana must have known. That’s probably why their deaths tie together.”
“But then why would their deaths be so far apart? Why not kill both of them at the same time?”
“I don’t know,” Maya said.
“Back to Eric Torres. So maybe he’s just a pawn too, but if we can catch him, maybe we can get him to tell us more.”
“I agree. You have any ideas on how to find him?” Maya asked.
“None at all. I was trying to make it sound like we had some good leads today, but Miranda called me when we were heading home. They really didn’t find anything that would tell us where Torres might be going or staying. That truck is our only lead, so I put out a BOLO on it, but as you know, it’s not the big city up here. We’ll have two deputies on duty tonight and there’s a ton of places he can go hide.”
“If we get any leads, we can use Juniper to track him,” Maya said.
“I’ll let you know if that happens. And hey, I don’t have to call you now. I can just come wake you up.”
