Chapter Nineteen
Going back outside, Maya peered around, debating where to ask Juniper to start her search. There was a good chance the person, if they were scared and fleeing, had run back toward a familiar area.
“Let’s return to the first house, closest to the road, and see if we can find footprints leaving the area,” Maya said.
“You and Juniper lead the way,” Josh answered as he followed Maya with Deputy Wilson right behind them.
Maya worked to make sure she didn’t step on any of the previous tracks. They took a slightly different route back to the first house. She saw the footprints that went up to a window. It appeared that someone had been looking inside.
Maya stopped and peered around. Sunlight created a shadow of some imprints in the snow going away from the houses.
The footprints were spaced differently, like maybe the ones going to the house, the person was walking and the ones going away from the house, the person was running.
She had worked with some tactical trackers in the military.
They would know for sure if a person was running, walking and even how much they weighed or if they were carrying anything.
Maya had always been fascinated by their abilities.
She’d always thought a perfect scenario to find someone would be a combination of a K-9 and man tracker.
There were also more tire tracks along the street. Miranda would need to cast those if they didn’t melt. Luckily there was some shade keeping a portion of them intact.
“Let’s start over here. Wilson, will you radio and let Miranda know that she has more prints and tire tread to cast here?” she said as Juniper stayed by her side, waiting for her command. “You’re getting tired, aren’t you, girly?”
Juniper gave a little hop with her front end as if she was telling Maya she was still good to go.
After Wilson radioed Miranda, Maya directed Juniper out near the footprints going away, and she picked up the trail right away.
Following her dog, Maya guessed the person they were tracking had indeed been scared and fleeing from something, as Juniper took them off the road, through some thick brush and back into rugged terrain with no trails.
Maya allowed Juniper to follow the scent for a while, but she also knew her dog was wearing out.
It was important to rest her for many reasons including she didn’t want her to get exhausted.
A tired dog and handler might make a mistake—something that Maya never wanted to have happen again after her experience of losing her military K-9 in a tragic accident. He’d been fatigued that night too.
Slowing down, Juniper stopped and peered back at Maya, asking if they should continue.
“You’re so good. You’re such a good girl, but we’re going to stop here,” Maya said, rubbing and patting her dog on her sides and stroking her thick fur on her back.
“She did great,” Josh said.
“She did. Let’s mark this spot on a map, hike back, and get Finn. I’m guessing this person was moving at a rapid rate, and they’re probably dehydrated and tired. I want to see if we can find them.”
“Or the people pursuing them,” Josh said.
“That too,” Maya said.
“I have some flagging so we can mark our trail back to the road and find it that way,” Deputy Wilson told them.
“Perfect,” Maya said as they started the long trek back to their vehicles.
* * *
They all returned to their vehicles to switch out dogs, refill water bottles, and grab some granola bars.
Maya put a blanket in Juniper’s compartment.
The Mal often became a Maligator and loved to rip up the blankets.
Working dogs didn’t always get pet perks like blankets.
Not because their handlers didn’t love them, but because the high-drive dogs might either eat them or decide they didn’t want to work.
A K-9 was a large investment for a department, and having a dog that no longer wanted to do their job would be a big loss.
Maya wasn’t worried about either of these things with Juniper.
Yes, she had ripped up blankets and even her dog beds, but she had never eaten any of the pieces. And the day Juniper didn’t want to work meant there was something seriously wrong.
Getting Juniper settled, Maya made sure the compartment had a good setting for temperature since the sun was out.
It was going to be a nice spring day, although another big snowstorm was forecast for later in the week.
March was the snowiest month in Colorado, with April usually coming in a close second.
By the time Maya was finished, Josh had Finn out ready to go.
Deputy Wilson patiently waited for them all.
Hopefully Pops would arrive soon. Since it was forest service land and Josh had a potential conflict of interest in this case, Maya felt like she needed to be in charge for now.
She didn’t mind it except for the obvious factor that she was in a relationship with the number one person of interest. If Josh wasn’t her boyfriend and the undersheriff, with the evidence they’d found, any other suspect would be handcuffed and heading to the station for interrogation.
Maya supposed Pops also wouldn’t be able to work this investigation.
Maybe Lucas should take over. Or the FBI.
“What a mess,” she muttered to herself, joining Josh and Deputy Wilson.
“What’s that?” Josh asked.
“Nothing,” Maya answered. “Let’s go and see what Finn can find.”
They all made their way to the area on the road where Deputy Wilson had tied flagging on a tree. The pink tape billowed in a slight breeze, helping them spot it.
“Why don’t you start him here where there’s a good shoe print?” Maya said, pointing to the snow. “Hopefully this breeze doesn’t turn into gale-force winds. That will only make things more difficult.”
Despite the mess of the situation with the potential victim being Amber, Maya watched Josh and Finn start their track, and she was pleased with how they were working together.
It could take a while to really get to know a dog, and Josh and Finn only had a couple months together under their belts—that wasn’t much time for a new team, especially when you had one handler who was inexperienced.
Although Josh had picked everything up quickly after being Maya’s backup officer, and he’d helped with the K-9 unit in Chicago.
He was great at being a decoy, and nothing made Juniper happier than seeing Josh put on the bite suit.
Finn hesitated slightly, but Josh did a good job of directing him back out and waiting for the Lab to catch the scent. All of a sudden, just like Juniper, Finn’s body language changed, but unlike Juniper, he didn’t shoot off. He started the track at a reasonable pace.
“You’re lucky,” Maya said to Josh. “He’s not going to dislocate your arm like my dog.”
Josh laughed, but didn’t answer as he watched his dog work.
Finn was on the same path as Juniper, which was good, although with a young dog Maya knew that he could also be smelling Juniper’s scent and following that.
But when they came to where they’d stopped earlier, Finn kept going.
Maya worked to not be distracted by watching the Lab too much, since her job as a backup officer was to keep an eye on the surroundings and make sure no one was ambushing them.
They continued in silence. The only sound was the occasional breeze whispering through the trees and Finn’s sniffing. He’d caught the scent and was tracking with confidence. Josh pulled him up as they came to a steep slope.
“I don’t think we should go down that,” he said.
Maya peered over. “I agree. It looks like someone slid down it, maybe on their butt.”
“That would be the safest way to do it. You’d have to be really scared to go down this slope.”
“If you’d witnessed a murder where the victim was shot and then burned, wouldn’t you go down it? I would take my chances on breaking a leg over being shot and burned.”
“Good point,” Josh said.
“I know roughly how to get to an area near the bottom of this, but it’s a long hike and I don’t know how much snow there will be.
I say we mark this and call the track here.
Finn did great, but he’s young and we don’t want to overdo it.
Maybe we can get some more search-and-rescue volunteer dogs and a team to respond.
They can start at the area at the bottom of this slope,” Maya said.
“Works for me,” Josh said before praising Finn and telling him how good he was.
Maya pulled out a portable bowl and made sure Finn got a drink. He happily lapped up the water, some drool rolling off his lips. “You can take care of the drool. He’s your dog when he does that.”
“Thanks,” Josh said with a chuckle.
They started the long hike back. As the day warmed up, Maya was sinking down in the snow, making her legs tired and getting the bottom of her pants wet.
But she still had a bad feeling that even though they had an idea of where their missing person had fled, things were not good for Josh and the person on the run might be the one who had answers.
Plus, even if they were able to get in a search-and-rescue team, they only had so many hours of daylight left.
How long could someone from the city with most likely no outdoor survival skills make it in these unforgiving and rugged mountains?