“Well, I’m not. It takes four hours to hike from the trailhead up to my tower, one way. Hers is a drive-in, so I’d have to take the service road that circles all the way around to reach her. Another hour, maybe two? I didn’t sign off until close to midnight last night. She and I spoke for a few minutes on a private channel before I went to sleep. There’s no possible way I could’ve made it there and back for our nine a.m. shift.”
“What did you two talk about on the private channel?”
I gave him my bestfuck youeyebrow. “Raccoon shit.”
A book, which had been propped up against the wall on my desk, tipped over. If I didn’t suspect there was a ghost lurking nearby—a cheeky ghost, apparently—I wouldn’t have thought twice about it.
Rocky stood and padded over to sniff the fallen book, before placing his head in my lap for pets.
I took a deep, steadying breath. “Hi, buddy,” I said, scratching behind his ears.
“Everyone always prefers him over me,” Tate said with a sigh.
“He didn’t imply I had something to do with Janine going missing,” I grumbled.
Tate dragged a hand through his hair. “This is a shitty situation, alright. But I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t ask.”
My shoulders dropped. “Sure. Look, could she have just taken a day off and forgotten to tell Leonard? Or maybe she went on a hike and fell? Or got turned around?”
Neither of those was a great possibility, but it’d be better than the alternative.
Tate shook his head. “I can’t say much, but there’s reason to suspect she didn’t intend to be away from the tower for very long, if she left of her own free will at all. Have you seen or heard anything unusual in the last forty-eight hours? Or at all since you came out here?” he asked.
“Um…”Of the alive person variety?
And then I remembered.
“She saw someone driving an ATV on the trail near her lookout. Or maybe she only saw the tracks? Not sure. But I also saw tracks down by the lake on my hike in, a week and a half ago.”
Tate’s gaze sharpened. “When did she see them?”
“Yesterday? The day before? I can’t remember.”
“Do you think she would’ve confronted them, if she saw them again?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know her well enough to say, but she was pissed about it. She may have.”
“Have you seen any since your hike in?”
I shook my head. “No. I’ve seen a few hikers pass by on the stretches of trail lower on the mountain. I think I noted them in my observation logs. You can look, if you want. Otherwise, it really has been calm. We only had our first storms in the last couple of days.”
“Yeah, if you wouldn’t mind, I’ll take a look at your logs so I can cross-reference where the hikers went with other towers.”
“Sure thing.”And then you can leave,I thought.
I stood and shuffled through the folder before passing him the completed stack. “I have to keep those to turn in at the ranger station on my next supply run, but feel free to take pictures.”
“Thanks,” he said, and pulled out his phone to do just that.
My stomach growled. “Mind if I start making lunch?”
He waved me on. “No, not at all.”
I pulled out a few pieces of bread and buttered a side of each while a pan warmed on the stovetop. When I opened the cheese bag and peeled off a few slices, I looked down to find Rocky sitting at my feet, giving me the biggest, saddest puppy eyes I’d ever seen.
“You’d think you’ve never been loved a day in your life with those eyes,” I said down at him.
Tate chuckled. “You can give him a bit of cheese if you want. He’ll love you forever.”
