Daniel stepped down into the boat first and Annie climbed in after, taking her seat on the bench facing him as he untied the rope and nudged the dock with an oar, sliding them out into the lake.
He rowed swiftly and steadily, the silence only interrupted by the sound of water breaking over the oars. His eyes stayed cast down at his lap as they left the boathouse behind, and Annie, catching herself staring at the coiling muscles in his arms as he rowed, turned to look at the dark woods instead.
A full moon was rising—broad and golden behind the trees. She gazed at it as they moved stroke by stroke farther out into the lake. The air was cooler up here, fragrant with the perfume of the pines that pressed in on all sides, and even as her eyes stayed trained on the forest, she felt Daniel watching her as he rowed.
They hadn’t said two sentences to each other yet, and Annie was starting to feel the silence as it swelled between them like an overinflated balloon.
She cleared her throat. “When we get close, I’ll flip on the headlamp and see if I can catch eyes. On the off chance I’m able to see and shoot him from the boat, I’ll collar him, but my guess is that he’ll see us coming and take off, so I’ll head into the woods and set up these traps before we go.”
The oars dipped beneath the water again, sliding through and emerging with a little splash.
“All right.”
Annie cleared her throat again and turned away. Fine. If he wanted silence, he could have it.
The southern woods were drawing near, rising up to meet them, and she squinted at the darkness beneath the trees, scanning for movement.
“How can I help?”
Annie turned in surprise, finding Daniel’s gaze fixed intently on her face.
She considered him for a moment, his expression unreadable in the darkness, then she pulled her headlamp off and placed it on the bench beside him.
“You know how to flip a switch?”
His chest rumbled in a deep laugh. “Yes.”
“Okay. Just turn the light on when I tell you and sweep it back and forth across the trees.”
He pulled the oars twice more through the water before he spoke again.
“You need to swear me in for the line of duty?”
She blinked at him and saw the hint of a smile on his lips. He was joking. This man was actually telling a joke.
“Okay.” She nodded seriously. “Do you solemnly swear to keep your mouth shut and not row away screaming if we see the cougar?”
He returned her nod. “I do.”
“Congratulations, that’s all there is to it.” She smiled as she turned back to watch the shore.
Daniel slowed the boat as they approached the southern rim of the lake, and it glided on its momentum to the bank, beaching itself quietly on the soft soil. Annie glanced up at the wall of pines before them. The trees were so tall here, a fortress of black shadow. They could hide anything.
She held a finger in the air, warning Daniel to keep quiet as she strained to hear any out-of-place sound in the darkness. The shrieking screams that most people associated with cougars were far less common than their other noises; sounds that were sometimes mistaken for the chirping of birds, or the song of someone whistling in the woods. Unwitting hikers were sometimes even surprised by the throaty rumble of a purr.
“Watch the woods,” she said quietly, lifting the tranquilizer gun to her shoulder and settling it there. “When you flip the switch, look for eyes between the trunks. Chest height. Go ahead.”
Daniel flipped the headlamp on, bathing the nearest trees in anemic light. He swept the beam back and forth along the lakeshore and Annie followed it, searching the gaps between pine trees for a pair of glowing yellow eyes, but finding only darkness.
An animal, far too small to be the cougar, scampered into the undergrowth with the flick of a well-tufted tail, but other than that, all was still.
For several minutes, Annie kept her vigil, straight-backed in the boat, tranquilizer gun aimed and ready, swiveling her upper body with the slow rhythm of an oscillating fan.
“Anything?” she murmured.
Daniel swept the light across the trees again. “Nothing.”
Annie lowered the gun into her lap with a sigh. “Okay.” She took the headlamp from him and secured it back over her head with a snap. “I’ll go get some snares laid down.”
