“Okay, that works for me,” Kessler said. “I’ll come up with something to tell everyone else about what you’re doing so there’s no questions asked. Texting is unreliable up here.”
“I know, although if the fire hasn’t taken it out, there’s a cell tower near the lodge. They put it in last year so guests could have reception,” Maya said. “I can get a text out to you.”
“What if the tower is down?”
“Then I’ll radio. If we spot Abigail and Hope, I’ll say that Josh and I have been called back to Pinecone Junction for additional fire response.”
“Okay,” Kessler said. “It’s as good a plan as any. Get going and let me know what you find.”
“You got it,” Maya said. She was happy that this was all between them. Maybe they would finally have a shot at being one step ahead of Abigail rather than the other way around.
Chapter Thirty-Six
As Maya and Josh were getting ready to leave the break room, Maya paused. Kessler was back to staring at the bloodstain on the floor like it would give him answers. He’d have had better luck with tea leaves.
Realizing Maya had stopped, he asked, “Did you think of something else?”
“A couple things,” she said. “There’s a campground not far from here. It’s the opposite direction of the lodge. I think that would be a good spot to relocate the guys and have Nick start his search there.”
“He won’t find any footprints or other signs someone was there unless it’s left over from hikers. But then the tracks would be old. I bet he can tell that,” Kessler said.
“Exactly. Maybe you can say you saw some footprints and they were heading in that direction. You can keep him busy looking in that area,” Maya said. “He’s a smart guy, but maybe it’ll take him a while to figure out he’s been duped.”
“Why not stay here?” Kessler asked. “Last I checked on the fire, it was still holding off just enough for us to not leave.”
“I’m worried about the fire on the road up to the Old Stone Lodge,” Maya said. “It’s not a direct route.”
“Nothing in the mountains ever is,” Kessler muttered.
Maya ignored him and continued, “The fire has burned on one part of the road heading toward the lodge. The road could be hot enough to pop tires and there could be rocks too. Sometimes they explode with the heat. I think if we can park up the road a little bit but not drive all the way to the lodge, no one will be able to see our vehicles. It makes the story about responding to the fire more plausible.”
Kessler nodded. He seemed to be thinking things over. “True. If someone sees your vehicles, then they know I’m lying. This is why I hate lying.”
“I know,” Maya said. “I understand. I’m terrible at that too.”
“Are you going to hike into the lodge then? Will that be too much on Juniper?” Kessler asked.
“If we park up the road, there’s a spot where we can cut across diagonally,” Maya said. “It’ll shorten the distance for her. It’ll help that she’s not tracking and using herself that way. I’ll make sure I’m careful. I have a cooling vest for her. It’s not her Kevlar vest, so I don’t use it often because I usually want that protection for her. But I’ll use it today.”
“We’ll take plenty of water too,” Josh added in. “If we can give her lots of water breaks that’ll help.”
“Exactly,” Maya agreed. “We’ll hike back there, do our recon work and report to you. And...”
“I always get nervous when you say ‘and,’?” Kessler said.
“I understand,” Josh added.
Maya shook her head. They were both right, of course. She did have a reputation for a reason. “I figure if we do this right, then maybe we can flush out Abigail’s partner. If her partner thinks that everyone is going away from the lodge, then maybe Abigail will relax.”
“You never know, the partner might be calm,” Kessler said. “Or I can see who comes and asks me the most questions. I wish we knew for sure if we could trust your brother.”
“Why?” Maya asked.
“Because if I could talk to him, he could help me with my lies. He could pretend to see some sort of track that would lead away from the lodge. Might help with believability. What do you think? Should I try talking to him?”
“Give us twenty minutes to get into position,” Maya said. “Then talk to him.”
“Why?” Kessler asked.
