Page 45 of Fire Peak

“Ah,” said Nick. His lips twitched, meaning he probably felt just as silly as Charlie. Two city folk lost in the wilderness. “Okay, go on.”

“All I found was dead juncos. They’re another kind of bird.”

Nick exchanged another glance with Charlie, an uneasy one this time. “Sick? You didn’t eat them, did you?”

“No, and I wouldn’t let my hunting dog eat them either. They looked strange, like they just toppled over for no reason.”

“You’ve never seen that before?” Charlie asked him gently.

He shook his head, then turned back to Nick. “Do you think you can solve that?”

“I don’t know. I’d have to collect a sample and send it to a wildlife biologist, perhaps.”

“I’ll take you there,” Elias said promptly. “It’s about six miles past the Fire Peak turnoff, three switchbacks in, on the other side of Copper Creek.”

“Just drop a pin,” Charlie said, in a joke that went right over Elias’ head. Nick laughed, but Elias just blinked at her in confusion.

“If I drop a pin, do you think you’d find it in the underbrush? That’s extremely unlikely,” he said.

Charlie restrained herself from looking at Nick, but she could sense that he found Elias’ very natural question just as perfectly hilarious as she did, but neither of them wanted to offend the boy by laughing.

Hailey came waltzing back onto the deck just in time to catch the tail end of that conversation. “Please don’t pollute Elias’ brain with any internet stuff. He’s the only person I’ve ever known who knows zero about social media, and I’m rooting for him to stay that way.”

“It was a dumb joke,” Charlie admitted. “I’m sorry. It would be impossible anyway, what with no cell service out there.”

Nick nodded to Elias. “I’ll take a look at the scene, but you’ll probably have to take us out there. Can we take a four-wheeler or is it a hiking situation?”

“You have to leave the four-wheelers at the head of the trail. They scare the birds. The ones that are still alive.”

“Fair enough. Who’s up for a hiking trip?” He shot Charlie a glance that she chose to interpret as pleading.

“Sorry, this is my only day off. I’m back on shift tomorrow,” she told Nick.

He waited until Hailey had dragged Elias off to show him her loft. “We’re supposed to be investigating together, remember?”

“Sure, the smoke bomb. Not a bunch of dead wildlife.”

“Don’t you think it’s connected?”

She blinked at him in surprise. “You do?”

“It’s another suspicious event that took place in the same general area. I think there’s a good chance there’s some kind of link.” He flashed a wide grin at her. “Enough to drag you off into the wilderness with me.”

A thrill swept through her. The thought of being out in the woods with Nick Perini was surprisingly appealing. She could probably switch shifts with someone. Monday was always their slowest day.

Nick was watching her closely. Before she’d even rolled her eyes in surrender, he said, “That’s a yes, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but don’t be thinking you know me that well.”

“Never,” he swore, holding up boy scout fingers. “Until I do.”

Charlie refused Nick’s invitation to eat dinner with the family. She wasn’t sure why, except that a part of her wouldn’t relax until she had answers about Hobbs. And being with Nick and Hailey felt so normal it was surreal to her.

It’s not real, she kept telling herself. She barely knew Nick, and he barely knew his own daughter. They were all new to each other—Elias, too. They had no reason to feel comfortable together.

Before she left to track down Big Eddie for her ride back to the lodge, Nick placed a call to his primary contact at Hobbs Financial, someone named Mark Jones. She listened as he left a message on secure voicemail.

“I stumbled on an unexpected break in the Santa Lucia case. Are you still looking for information about her? I may be able to contact her too, if that’s of use to you.”

---