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?
CHAPTER TWENTY
When they all arrived back at what had become the main operational center of the crime scene and now a missing person case, Maya saw Pops’ vehicle parked with all of theirs. She was glad to see him and relieved he could help. He would have answers to the questions she didn’t want to face.
While Josh was putting Finn into his vehicle and making sure the dog was comfortable after doing such a great track, Maya peeked into Juniper’s compartment. Juniper raised her head, saw it was Maya, and then went back to sleep. The blanket so far appeared to have made it, although she kept extras in the back both for Juniper and in case she was ever forced to stay the night out in the wilderness.
In fact, Maya had more than blankets. She had a whole survival pack to keep her going through the night if need be. Who knew what the missing person had. Based on the tracks, she was wearing tennis shoes, which were far from ideal to travel the backcountry this time of year.
As Maya approached Pops, she saw Rory’s cruiser parking next to their vehicles. Hopefully Rory had found some information.
“Hey, Pops,” she said to her grandfather as she gave him a hug.
When they parted, Pops put his hands on her shoulders. “You okay? I will never turn down a hug from my favorite granddaughter, but you don’t usually do that when we’re working.”
