"Army. Fifteen years. Three deployments."
She doesn't do what most people do, which is follow up with questions about the deployments. She just nods and writes something down like I've given her a data point she needed.
"What are you writing?"
"A list."
"Of?"
"None of your business."
I huff. She grins at her notebook without looking up.
The grin's going to be a problem too.
I set the rifle down. Ghost is at her feet. He's been at her feet for three days. He's supposed to be my dog. Traitor.
"Sheriff called while you were asleep this afternoon."
Her head comes up. Pen stops.
"And?"
"Crestview Resource Partners filed the original claim under a parent LLC registered in Delaware. Parent LLC is a shell. Board members are all corporate aliases. Parker pushed it to the state AG. They opened a file."
"That's fast."
"Parker's good. He hears mining and fake he starts calling people. Too many bodies come off these mountains every year already. He doesn't want one more."
She closes the notebook slowly. "Any movement at the site?"
"Two trucks in and out yesterday. One last night. Parker's got a deputy running plates from a distance. Nobody's knocking on any doors yet."
"Do they know I'm alive?"
"They know you're not dead on that slope. Rifleman came back down. I had eyes on him from the truck. He didn't find a body. He didn't find your pack. He knows you got picked up. He doesn't know by who or where."
"How can you be sure?"
"Because if he knew where, he'd already be here, and he isn't."
She lets out a breath she'd been holding. Shoulders drop half an inch. It's small. It's the first time in three days I've watched her body stop bracing.
And something in my chest does something stupid.
I go back to the rifle so I don't have to look at her.
"Can I make dinner tomorrow."
"No."
"Why."
"You can't stand."
"I can stand if I lean."
"You can't lean on a stove, Delilah."
