Page 67 of Shephard

I’d been anxious the entire four days, taking extra precaution when heading up the trails for my day job. I’d also locked my doors at night, keeping the front porch light on. There was a strange feeling of being watched that I couldn’t get over.

There were no new dead bodies, but I honestly believed whoever was responsible was close. Too close.

Here I was sitting in my office lamenting on the time spent with Shephard when I should be handling paperwork. In the four days, Cane and I had tracked and successfully discovered three lost hikers and a child who’d walked away from a birthday party.

No blood.

No destruction.

Normalcy.

Bullshit.

With the resort and surrounding hotels full, the town was hopping with tourists. It was good to see so much business activity, but just walking the crowded streets was a pain in the ass. I’d purchased groceries, a few toys and treats for Pepper at the small pet store, and had decided to hibernate inside my cabin after work at least for now.

I’d also continued checking on Shephard and his family, learning everything I could about his brothers. The three of them were amazing. That was my final determination. All decorated in the military. All disappearing into some clandestine action before resurfacing in what some might consider dead-end jobs. An entire family? Who the hell was his father and was he an influence?

And I continued going back to what the reporter had alluded to. Even if I hadn’t heard the question directly, it had set Shephard off. I’d almost called the guy, but that would betray what tiny bit of trust the mountain man and I had developed.

The funny thing was that Dexter wasn’t easy to discover any information on either. What I’d learned was enough to frustrate me without providing answers.

I’d made the promise to myself to just stop before I became lost in the task that had no possibility of a good outcome.

“Let’s go, Pepper. I have a feeling it’s going to be a very busy day.” The office was quiet, more so than usual. As I walked by Cane’s office, I realized it was empty. I thought I’d seen him earlier, although keeping tabs on the jerk wasn’t in my job description. We’d been civil, but that’s all I could say at this point.

I was out the door and all the way to my Jeep when Greg was suddenly right behind me, huffing and puffing.

“You need to stop smoking,” I told him as I opened the passenger door, allowing Pepper to jump in.

“Not at this point. Too much crap going on in this little town. Cane is down,” Greg struggled to say. He’d obviously run from his office.

“What do you mean down?”

“He made a report and his communicator went dead when I asked him to repeat it.”

We had walkie-talkies to use given the areas of sketchy internet reception. The last thing I wanted to do was to find Cane with some chick on the trails. “Where?”

“Rough Rider.”

It was a nickname for one of the most beautiful hiking sites in the Shenandoah, the area considered for experts only. It alsobacked up to an access road that led to the interstate within a few miles. Every sign leading up to the trail had the letters indicating in bold lettering how dangerous it was. Sadly, we couldn’t keep novices from the area and I’d heard a hiker had died three years before after losing his footing.

I had to consider the possibility he’d heard a scream or had been tagged by another hiker to help.

“What was he doing there?”

“I don’t know,” Greg admitted. “I was attempting to find out when he went silent.”

Well, fuck. This was the reason I’d pushed for additional park rangers to be hired. It would still be two days before our third ranger was back on duty. That was two days too long. We needed more so we could return to traveling in pairs. Not that I’d experienced that since arriving. All the excuses about the lack of a budget meant the team had a higher percentage of failure.

And accidents.

Days off at this point were all denied unless there was a serious need for one.

It came with the job, or so I’d heard, but the recklessness of the decision had pissed me off since the beginning.

“I’ll head up there, but you need to listen to me. We need help. You know that. You need to talk to the mayor, the governor, whoever can help us.”

“My hands are tied.”