“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.
Chapter Nineteen
Maya paced around the front of the sheriff’s office, waiting for Hope’s family to arrive. Her family.
When Kessler had told Eric about his conflict of interest, she figured he’d pull her off too, but he hadn’t and for that she was grateful. There wasn’t much she could do until she had a scent article for Juniper and Finn to use to track. The wind had died down and air support was coming in. Juniper was good in her compartment and with the heat, she didn’t want to waste time and energy searching for Hope without an exact odor for the dogs to work. Plus, the only place that they could start tracking that might still have a hot scent was shut down due to the fire spreading into that area.
Josh had made some calls in regard to the fire response and was doing other tasks. Maya figured he was trying to keep busy too. She was about ready to head to her office and do some paperwork along with calculating how long it would take to get from Montana to Colorado when Kessler came to the lobby. He was by himself.
“I wanted to give you an update,” he said.
“What’s up?” Maya asked.
“The prison investigated more and they linked Abigail to a guard named Alexa, aka Lexie Reed. Officers went to her apartment and when they entered, they found her strangled to death.”
Maya felt like someone had punched her in the gut, but she knew she shouldn’t be surprised. Knowing Abigail, the guard had probably been manipulated and didn’t even realize who she was dealing with. When Maya had first met Abigail, she too had believed what Abigail had told her. Eventually Maya discovered everything was a lie.
