Chapter Fourteen
Maya trekked through the snow and mud back to her vehicle.
As she came over a small hill, she heard the shrill sounds of yipping and howling.
Juniper. She was mad that Finn had worked first and was giving her opinion about being left in the compartment.
Juniper’s wish to work would soon be answered.
Maya wanted to take her back to the area where they’d found the blood spots and see if Juniper could find evidence or maybe even follow a track.
There were several sets of footprints, so there would be several tracks to pursue.
But her concern was with what Josh had told her.
Amber had called him about Sydney Bradford’s death.
He had agreed to meet with her, which made Maya annoyed that he’d done that, but she also understood that maybe he was trying to recognize Amber could change too.
If he had cleaned up his life, why couldn’t she?
So maybe he was trying to give her a second chance.
And if he really did have evidence in Sydney’s case that could help exonerate someone who was innocent, Maya knew that would be important to Josh too.
But why hadn’t he mentioned the evidence sooner?
But now they had a probable homicide victim in the same spot where Josh was supposed to meet Amber. But Amber never showed up.
Not good. Maya’s anxiety started to build. You’re overthinking this. Just work Juniper, see if there’s evidence, and this is all probably still a coincidence.
Arriving at her vehicle, she opened Juniper’s compartment and the Malinois came flying out, landing in a snow spot that had water around it from melting. She shook, spraying Maya with slush.
“Thanks a lot,” Maya said, standing back so Juniper could shake again. “I just had this uniform dry-cleaned. Any chance we could give it some time before you get me dirty?”
Juniper sat and cocked her head, her pointy ears poking straight up. She had an innocent look on her face.
“Okay, let’s get you ready to work. You need to burn off some energy.”
Maya put on Juniper’s tracking harness and pulled out the long leather lead.
Sometimes she let Juniper track off leash.
They’d worked together long enough that Maya trusted her dog to wait for her if she was too far ahead.
But they were close to the road and Maya didn’t know where this track would take them.
If Juniper was hot on a scent, she could go out on the road without noticing a car coming. It was better to be safe.
They headed up the hill where she could see Miranda working hard to gather evidence. At the moment, Miranda was making a cast of the footprint. It appeared Lucas was helping her. Rory and Josh were waiting for them.
“Okay,” Maya said. “I think I’ll start in the area where we found the most blood. I’m guessing that’s where our victim died. I hope we can find some evidence in that area. Ready, Rory?”
“I’m ready,” Rory answered.
“I’m going to come too,” Josh said. “I don’t like this, and maybe having an extra officer wouldn’t be a bad thing.”
“Okay,” Maya said. They all headed back to the area where Finn had found the blood. The day continued to warm up and more slush splashed onto Juniper. Maya would probably have to give her a bath soon—not Juniper’s favorite thing.
Maya started closer to the road. She had marked an area with footprints that they needed to preserve, but those footprints ran toward the mountainside. They were petite compared to the others and Maya wanted to see where they took Juniper.
“Seek,” she told her dog, casting her out near the first foot mark. From what Maya could tell, these prints were small and the tread looked like a tennis shoe. Miranda would be able to make a cast and then they’d know more. “Let’s go find ’em.”
Juniper put her nose on the ground, sucking in air, and then started along where Maya could see the impressions.
Once they got toward where the terrain dropped off, the footprints disappeared, but for Juniper, the scent would still be good, especially this time of day with a little more humidity in the morning air.
They were going straight down a steep hill and Maya fought to not slip and slide.
She could hear Rory and Josh behind her also losing their footing.
Maya wasn’t sure what would possess someone to run down this hill except for one thing—they were trying to escape. There was no other reason. She pulled Juniper up.
“I don’t like this,” Maya said to Josh and Rory. “I know this area. There’s a big drop-off not far from here. If one of us slips, we’ll go right over the edge and there’s a good chance none of us would survive that fall.”
“I’m fine with going back,” Josh said.
“No complaints here,” Rory said.
“Okay, good girl, Juniper.” Maya wanted to let her dog know she wasn’t pulling her off the scent for lack of hard work. They carefully climbed back up to where they’d started.
“If someone went down there, then maybe we need to get a deputy to the bottom of that area,” Josh said. “There’s a road to there, right?”
“That’s correct,” Maya said. “Whoever goes there will have to enter from a campground down in that meadow. Probably on foot.”
“I’ll call Deputy Wilson,” Josh said. “He’s already out on patrol.”
Maya nodded and waited for him to radio the deputy who was no longer the only rookie in the department since Rory had joined.
If someone went down this steep slope and risked the cliff, they must have been terrified.
Maybe this is someone trying to run away.
Like a witness? Hopefully there’s not another body at the bottom of this cliff.
After Josh was done, Maya said, “Let’s go back up on the ridge, past where we found the blood, and start there. I think there were tire tracks and more footprints.”
“Sounds good,” Josh said.
Maya took Juniper around the area of the bloodstain, making sure to stay far enough away that they didn’t ruin any evidence.
There were several larger footprints that were maybe from boots.
The prints were about Josh’s size. She found what she thought was a good spot to start the track and cast Juniper out.
“Seek, go find ’em,” Maya said.
Juniper put her nose to the ground and started sniffing around.
Her tail was in a neutral position, even a little droopy.
That usually meant she wasn’t in the odor of the person they wanted to track and was maybe even smelling an animal.
Maya cast her out again in a slightly different spot, giving her the same command.
This time, Juniper’s body language changed as she tensed her muscles and her tail came up higher.
Then the Malinois took off like a racehorse out of a starting gate.
When Maya was first getting to know Juniper, she’d been surprised by the way her dog took off when she caught a scent, but after almost a year together, Maya was prepared to follow.
She lost her footing a little bit in the snow but managed to put some slack in the leash so Juniper could stay on the track.
Juniper went down the road at a solid clip, stopping every now and then to air scent.
This side of the road had more sun and it was a mix of dry ground and mud, but overall better traction for Maya to keep up.
Rory and Josh followed, each positioned to help Maya if someone tried to ambush them, but also making sure they were in a position where if they had to draw their guns, they wouldn’t shoot each other.
With her body language telling Maya that Juniper was staying in odor, they continued on before Juniper veered off the road.
The Mal tracked parallel to some more imprints and Maya made sure she stayed away from them, since it was possible for Miranda to cast footprints in snow. Miranda was going to be busy today.
Juniper went over to an old tree that had fallen over and put her paws up on the log. She air scented, her nose twitching, and then hopped over the log, turned around so she was facing Maya and lay down—her alert for evidence.
“Attagirl,” Maya said peering over the log.
There was a gun tucked under the branches, but sticking out enough Maya could see that it was a Sig Sauer. She was about ready to reward Juniper and then get her away from the weapon when it hit her. No way. It can’t be. Can it?
“What did you find?” Josh asked.
Maya’s breath tightened. “I think we found the gun Amber stole from you in January.”
What was going on? What had Josh gotten himself involved in?