Page 90 of Hunting the Truth
“Did you tell Torres about this?”
“No,” Maya said. “It’s my secret. Well, ours now. If he comes back to this area and goes to the old mine, he might just think that the evidence was gone or destroyed. I’m pretty sure that mine is flooded now anyway. He won’t make it too far in there.”
Pops smiled. “That’s my girl.”
Maya stopped at the brown gate that closed the access road to the fire tower. She unlatched the lock with her key and then hopped back in the truck and drove to the fire tower parking area. Not too many years ago, a Forest Service employee would live up there for the summer. “I’ll go with Lucas and check it out,” she said.
“I’ll stay here with Juniper. Call me if you need anything.”
“Okay,” Maya said.
Lucas stepped out of his vehicle and joined her. Maya really wanted to go through all the evidence, but if she wanted a court conviction to stick, she needed to have Lucas properly collect and document everything for chain of custody. They stared at the steps in front of them.
“How many stairs am I climbing tonight?” Lucas asked.
“I’m not sure. A lot.”
“I thought I was over this PT shit when I left the Marines,” Lucas said.
“Well, you know what they say, ‘Once a Marine, always a Marine.’”
“Yeah, whatever.”
Maya and Lucas began the climb up. Her legs were burning by the time she reached the top. Luckily, her key worked in the door. She walked in and saw that the place had been shut down for the winter. Since no one stayed here to watch for fires anymore, tourists were allowed up in the summer.
Nana had brought her here on their last camping trip before Maya left for boot camp and shown her a special compartment where extra equipment and supplies could be stored. She’d been friends with the volunteer here for many years.
Maya went over to the compartment door and opened it. She peered down inside and saw a black duffel bag with the initialsZ.T.embroidered on the end. She smiled.
“Thanks, Nana, thanks, Mom,” she said as she stepped aside so Lucas could photograph the bag and wiggle it out of the tight space to lug back down the stairs. They made the trek back down the stairs and he held the bag up for Pops to see and then put it in his vehicle. He would take it to the sheriff’s office to log the evidence with Miranda and hold it securely until the FBI arrived.
She opened the driver’s door and climbed back in.
“I can’t believe it was there,” Pops said.
“I know. I can’t believe it either.”
“Let’s go celebrate. Maybe dinner?”
“Agreed,” Maya said. “Then I better go visit Josh. I haven’t seen him since he was flown out of the meadow.”
“I hope you can take tomorrow off,” Pops said. “Maybe spend a little time with Josh.”
Maya shrugged. “I need to work for a little bit. I have an arrest to make. I know who made the booby traps.”
Eric stood on a ridge in the distance, watching through binoculars. His truck was parked at a pull-off about a half mile away. He’d picked it up from where he’d left it before meeting with Maya. He’d gone into the mine just far enough to know that if there was a duffel bag full of evidence in there, it was long gone. Then he’d thought about the coordinates Maya had.
He’d found a map and looked at them himself. Sure enough, she had duped him. The coordinates went to a fire tower, not the mine. But they were all in the same area.
He was proud of her, and now he watched as Maya came down the stairs of the fire tower, with the other investigator who had the duffel bag in hand. He had to give it to her. She was tenacious.
He’d wanted to clear his name. Pull out some of the stuff he knew Zoey had on him. She hadn’t really wanted to get him into trouble, but she had wanted to make sure he kept his promise to keep Maya safe.
Eric peered up at the sky and said, “Hope you’re happy with what I did and what I told her, Zoey. You should be proud. She’s a lot like you—a fighter.”
He hiked back to his truck and headed out of town. He’d watch the news and see the fallout from all of this. He knew he could never head home again, so instead, he just drove west, destination unknown.
Chapter Forty-Six
