“You’re hiking again,” Edi said.
“Yeah.”
“Glad to see you out. I know you always loved the woods.”
“Thanks.”
Brooke looked from Edi to Tyler. She’d been attracted to this man. Maybe she still was, despite her reservations over the terrible timing for a new relationship.
But watching him now, tense and guarded around a local deputy, red flags were starting to wave. Brooke knew better than to ignore red flags, especially after what happened at Bearwater. What had started as a simple training run in the Absaroka Mountains with friends had turned into a life-and-death situation. All because she’d ignored warning signals that she should’ve recognized.They’d been subtle, sure, but in hindsight, they were so obvious.
Kelsey had been her friend. Someone Brooke had run with so many times and trusted completely. Sweet, nervous Kelsey, who always brought extra energy bars and asked if anyone needed anything.
And she’d also been stealing files from her law firm and making illegal drops under the cover of the running club, putting all of them in danger because she’d been too scared to ask for help. Because she’d made choices that seemed reasonable to her at the time but had nearly gotten them all killed.
Brooke had completely missed it. All of it. The signs that something was wrong, the tension that must have been there, the lies Kelsey had been telling. Brooke trusted her judgment, and her judgment had been catastrophically wrong.
She couldn’t make that mistake again. Shewouldn’tmake that mistake again.
The problem was Brooke knew herself, knew her patterns. When she focused on something, whether it was a training plan, a race, or a person, she fixated. Obsessed. She couldn’t let go even when she should.
It nearly destroyed her last year when she’d been forced to drop out while running the Moose Range Run 100. She’d spiraled, unable to see past that one failure, letting it consume her until she’d driven herself and everyone around her a little crazy.
Then, earlier this year, when training for a second try at the race, she’d put together an insanely aggressive training plan, planning every run down to the nth degree and refusing to back off when her body or her mind had hadenough. She’d come close to making herself sick and then almost getting herself and others killed.
She’d promised herself she’d work on that—on giving herself grace, on not letting single data points define everything, on recognizing when her brain was sliding into unhealthy territory, and on keeping herself safe, as well as those who mattered to her.
Getting involved with someone she couldn’t trust would be exactly the kind of thing she’d obsess over, the kind of thing that would consume her. And right now, watching Tyler’s interaction with Edi, alarm bells were going off. The kind she wished she’d had with Kelsey. The kind she planned on paying attention to now.
Whatever was between Tyler and this deputy, it wasn’t good. The strain was obvious in the careful way they spoke to each other and in the things not being said. And Tyler’s whole demeanor had changed. The reliable, confident man who’d talked her down from panic on the trail was now replaced by someone guarded and closed off.
She didn’t know what it meant. But she knew it meant something.
“You all were together when the bodies were found?”
Brooke shook her head.
Sue and Robert both pointed at her as Robert said, “She found them.”
“I think it might be one body in two caches,” Sue added.
“What makes you say that?” Edi turned to face Sue directly.
“The way the remains were positioned. The, um...the separation point.” Sue’s face went pale. “I used to be an EMT, a volunteer. I’ve seen trauma before. That didn’t look like two separate people to me.”
Edi made a note. “We’ll know for sure once we get the team out there. I was hoping they’d be here by now. But that’s helpful context. Thank you.” She glanced at her watch and made a face. “All right, I’m going to need statements from all of you. Who wants to go first?”
“I’ll go,” Brooke said. Might as well get it over with and get off this mountain, away from the man who unsettled her in ways she didn’t trust. Away from the man who had danger written all over him.
Edi nodded and gestured toward her vehicle. They walked over together, leaving the others by the trailhead.
“This is pretty far out for a solo hike,” Edi said once they were out of earshot.
“I know. My friends canceled at the last minute. I should’ve canceled too.”
“But you didn’t.”
“I needed to be out here.” Brooke heard the defensiveness in her own voice and tried to soften it. “I know it was stupid. But I needed it.”
