He winked at me. “Nothing strenuous, Birdee.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” I teased.
He left, leaving the door open as he went.
When I got to the living room, it was only Bernice and me.
“Tell me everything,” she said as soon as she saw me.
So I caught her up on it all, starting with when I left her at the hotel weeks ago.
Twenty-Six
Due to not wanting to, I will not. Thanks.
—Creed’s secret thoughts
Creed
“…Over.”
I pulled up the mic and said, “Can you repeat that?”
“No sign of her to the right of the trail,” Odin repeated. “Climbed up the entire fuckin’ mountain.”
“That’s what we thought would happen,” Koen pointed out. “That’s why we sent you the short way so you could go home.”
“Well, I didn’t see her. So I’m coming back down. I’ll wait in my truck in case you need me.”
I hooked the radio back to my belt and headed to the right on a hunch.
The bottom part of the trail led to a really great meadow that I’d seen several animals drinking out of the creek beside it.
Maybe she was…
My snowmobile coughed, sputtered, and died.
“Fuck,” I grumbled as I tried to start it up.
It didn’t so much as catch.
“Fuck.”
The state issued us all snowmobiles to use while working, and the one I’d gotten had been the shittiest of them all. It died on a regular basis, and was so inconsistent that there were times that I felt it was easier to set out in waist-high snow than hop on this machine.
Now was one of those times…
“Dammit to hell,” I sighed and got off.
It was a good thing that it died, though, because had I not been contemplating my life, I wouldn’t have seen the fresh tracks through the snow leading to where I knew the best crossing of the creek was located.
I followed the tracks and came to a standstill when I saw Cody standing there, unharmed and aimed at a moose, standing there as pretty as could please, drinking water from the creek. That moose was very unaware of being watched, so focused on drinking that it didn’t see the danger.
Even worse, Cody had a spotlight on the moose, and she was pulled back, ready to shoot it.
“Do not shoot that,” I growled loud enough that she jolted.
The moose took off into the brush, heading straight for the light.
