“Is that Tate Morris?” I asked Bobby, keeping my voice low and angling my head in his direction.
“Yeah,” he said. “Weird, right?”
Sure is.
I was pretty certain the last time I’d seen Tate, he was a short, scrawny freshman smoking weed in the back of the high school parking lot. His hair was dyed black, then. Other than his face, the kid I remembered looked nothing like the filled-out, boy-next-door blonde quietly making his way to a corner booth.
“I guess we all grow up,” I commented, taking a drink of water.
“Wonder if he still has a crush on you,” Bobby teased, elbowing me.
I shot him a deadpan look. “Yeah, that’s likely.” A freshman mooning over the only out senior in a teeny, tiny mountain town was hardly groundbreaking. I wasn't interested then, and I certainly wasn’t interested now.
Not in anyone.
As if he’d heard our whispered conversation, Tate peered up, eyes immediately finding mine and widening in surprise. Before I could react, though, the waitress arrived with our appetizers, followed by Leonard scooting in next to Dad with a sigh, a pint glass of whatever was on tap in hand.
Just as he settled in, a grim-faced man wearing a pink shirt approached our table. “Hey, Mike. Leonard,” he greeted. Ivaguely recognized him from around town. “Just wanted to say thanks for your help the other day. It means a lot.”
Dad nodded. “No problem, Ray. Wish we could’ve helped more. How’d the search go today?”
“Nothing yet,” he said with a shake of his head. “But we’ll keep looking. They deserve to be found.”
Found.Not saved.
The man thanked Dad and Leonard again and left, rejoining his group.
“What was that about?” I asked.
“Somehow, Leonard swung it so I could fly out a couple of people to do an aerial search using the Forest Service helicopter a few days ago, after that last hiker went missing,” Dad said lowly, aware of how many people might be listening in.
“What about the others? Weren’t there two more before her?” I asked, confused.
Dad grimaced. “There wasn’t as much attention before her. You know how these things go.”
“That’s fucked up,” Bobby commented through a mouthful of fried mozzarella.
“There are a lot of people out looking for the three of them, now,” Leonard said. “If it was foul play, they’ll find something. Hopefully, they were just caught in bad weather and will come stumbling down the trail in a few days.”
I was skeptical of his optimism.
The wilderness surrounding Ponderosa boasted the largest stretch of uninterrupted forest in the lower forty-eight—and the most remote. On its own, the national park was massive, and it was only a piece of the vast expanse ofNowherethat stretched for millions and millions of acres. Whatever—orwhoever—had happened to those poor people, the chances of finding them were slim to none.
Unfortunately, that was already proven by the other six missing hikers who’d never been found nearly forty years ago.
Bobby and I dove into the chip basket while they were still hot and fresh, practically elbowing each other out of the way for that first steaming scoop of cheesy goodness. I’d always thought calling it spinach and artichoke dip was sort of like saying pizza was a salad.
“Well,” Leonard said, smiling and shaking off the weight of the previous topic, “it’s great to see you, Reece. I’ll admit I was relieved when you agreed to help us out for the summer. I know your Dad’ll be glad to have you nearby, too.”
I nodded. “No problem. I’m taking a sabbatical for the academic year anyway, so it’s good timing. The truck’s all packed and ready to drive up to the lookout on Sunday.”
He blinked at me and then swore. “I’m so sorry, I forgot to tell you.”
Dad frowned. “Forgot to tell him what?”
“I’ve had a hell of a time lining everything up for this season, and it completely slipped my mind. We’ve got double the amount of volunteer firefighters on call in case we need them—scheduling the training alone has been a nightmare—and all of the towers in our district are in service, even the ones usually on standby.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, eyebrows creased.
