Chapter Eighteen
Maya leaned against the doorway, thinking things through. Abigail was out. Did she know what Eric was investigating? Was that
one of the reasons she decided to escape? Or was it purely revenge? Had she flipped out that much? Maya knew they’d have to
catch Abigail to answer any of these questions—if Abigail would even tell them the truth.
Kessler was sitting back in his chair, not moving. Eric was staring at the table. Lost in thought, Pops also didn’t say anything.
Josh, standing near Maya, broke the silence. “I know there’s all hands on deck for the fire response, but part of that response
will be finding Hope Dawson and Abigail before she can hurt anyone more. If we can figure out who Abigail’s partner is, that
would help. This partner could have information that would help us.”
“True, assuming that person would cooperate with us,” Kessler said. “What are you proposing?”
“That you use Eric’s information and track down Marcus’s girlfriend. Then tomorrow, Deputy Wilson and I will drive to Wyoming
to see if we can locate her. Maybe she’ll talk.”
“I already texted the details to my resources at the FBI. They are working on locating her now. Once they finish, I can give you her phone number. You could save yourself a trip and try calling,” Kessler said.
“That might tip her off,” Josh answered. “If she’s been in hiding all these years, someone figuring out where she is might
just scare her. She can hang up and leave.”
“True,” Kessler said. “I was just thinking about the fire response and what needs to happen there.”
“This fire is to the point there are multiple agencies responding,” Pops said. “Josh and Wilson can go tomorrow and we’ll
be okay. I’d rather see if we can figure out who Abigail’s partner is anyway. Plus, we’ve had to continue patrols during fires
in the past. Forest fires don’t mean that criminals evacuate.”
Maya noticed Eric hadn’t said anything. He stared at the wall in his own world.
“Juniper and I can start tracking tonight once Hope’s family arrives with the scent articles. I can take Rory with me for
backup. Josh, you and Wilson could work Finn. If we look over some maps, we could probably figure out where Abigail would
go. It’s not like there’s a lot of routes through the mountains and I know where the couple were camping that had Hope. As
long as the fire doesn’t stop us, we should be able to come up with some possible places to have the dogs search. Heat is
the other factor, but if we wait a little bit, the sun will start going down and it’ll cool off. We’ll just have to be careful,
we don’t want to overdo it with the dogs.”
“That’s a good idea,” Josh said.
“I’ll come up with something to tell the other agents,” Kessler said.
“I really don’t believe either of them would work with Abigail, but for now, I’m good with keeping everything that was said here between us until Josh and Deputy Wilson can hopefully find and talk with this girlfriend of Marcus’s. ”
“Okay,” Maya said. “Let’s get going then.”
“I’ll have to put you back in holding,” Pops said to Eric. “I’ll bring you some books so it’s not too boring back there.”
“Thanks,” Eric said, standing. He stopped and turned to look at Maya. “Be careful, okay? I don’t want to lose you.”
“Yes,” Pops said, with a concerned look. “Be careful out there.”
“Always,” Maya said, knowing that was true. But even if she was careful, she knew that Abigail was a formidable opponent.
One of the things that made it difficult with Abigail was the fact that she knew police tactics. She knew Maya would use Juniper
and depending on who her partner was, they might already know that Josh had Finn. Finn, being a Lab, wasn’t trained in apprehension
like Juniper. He was strictly a search and rescue dog trained on live scent and human remains. Josh needed to be careful too,
but this was also their job.
As Pops and Eric headed down the hallway, Maya thought about the other challenging opponent—the fire. It was hard to know
if the people who had kidnapped Hope would know about the fire or not. And there was a good chance, they wouldn’t know where
to go to stay out of its way.
Maya turned to Josh and said, “Let’s go look at a map and see if we can figure out some spots to search with Juniper and Finn. Then we can head out to those locations when Hope’s family arrives with scent articles.”
“Good idea,” Josh said.
They went down the hall to the conference room that had a large map of the county and surrounding area.
“I wish we knew what kind of vehicle she had,” Maya said, thinking that could change where Abigail could get to. An off-road
vehicle like a Jeep could get to a lot more locations.
“Let’s assume she has a vehicle that can go up some Jeep rated roads,” Josh said.
They both stared at the map.
Maya pointed to the edge of the map where the features changed from mountains to more residential terrain. “The federal detention
center is over here. If she wanted to get to Pinecone Junction fast, she’d drive up I-25 and get off in Fort Collins. That
would put her coming into the edge of town from Highway 14, but Hope was sighted with her kidnappers on the opposite side
of the forest.”
Josh nodded, hands on his duty belt. “If they’re on the south side, then it might make sense for Abigail to come up I-70 and
take some back roads. She doesn’t know Colorado well, but she does know police response. She’s already been listed as an escaped
felon and every law enforcement officer on main roads will be watching for her.”
“True,” Maya said, studying the map and roads that Abigail would have to take to get to the south edge of the national forest. “I’d guess based on Hope’s last known location and the best back road route, we should start searching in this area.”
She pointed to a spot on the map and Josh agreed.
“Once her family arrives,” he said, “we can start working the dogs. We know the kidnappers have a van, so what if I started
here and you began over on this side?”
Maya followed where Josh was indicating on the map. “I think that’s our best guess and there’s a couple spots where trails
and roads on these two areas might lead us back together. We’ll have to be careful that we announce ourselves for officer
safety so no one is caught in cross fire. And if the dogs take both of us there then . . . well, Finn is trained on human
remains too.”
She didn’t want to finish the thought, but knew Josh understood. If something had already happened to Hope, Finn would be
their best bet for finding her body. Juniper would be their best bet to help find and apprehend kidnappers and both dogs would
track on a live scent.
“Let’s go up front and see if anyone has arrived yet,” Maya said, feeling anxious. The longer they waited, the more likely
it was Hope wouldn’t be found alive.