Page 7 of Scent of Peril

There was a long moment of silence as Logan stared at her. She stared back, unwilling to back down. Finally, he rose to his feet. “Let’s keep going. The sooner we get back to civilization, the better.”

She nodded and stood. Logan hung back, clearly expecting her to continue taking the lead. “Come, Teddy.”

They walked in silence. Mostly because that made it easier to hear anything unusual, but also because Logan was not happy about her plan to return with Teddy.

Her thoughts went back to the rusted plane part they’d found. Her oldest sister, Maya, had married Doug Bridges a month ago, but they’d delayed their honeymoon until after Chase and Wynona’s wedding. Doug and Maya were spending a week in Hawaii on their honeymoon but were due to head back to the ranch today. Doug was a former federal agent who currently worked for the CDI, Criminal Division of Investigations for the state of Wyoming. She had no doubt her brother-in-law would know who to contact about testing the chunk of rusted metal to see if it could have come from their parents’ plane.

And if not? No, she wasn’t going to think about that possibility. Sure, the location was miles from where they’d originally searched. That search had been done according to the original flight plan. But who knows what really happened that fateful day.

She and her siblings had waited five years, and counting, without getting answers related to the plane crash that killed their parents.

If this piece of tail fin was from their plane, then she knew the entire Sullivan crew and their respective K9s would head back out to search the area.

But they couldn’t do that, she realized grimly, if a shooter was hanging around.

Jess was so lost in her thoughts she tripped over a branch, nearly tumbling to the ground. She caught herself in time, then frowned. “Logan?”

“What is it?” He was at her side in a heartbeat. “Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m fine.” She’d twisted her ankle a bit, but it wasn’t serious. She gestured to the left. “Do you see the tracks?”

He followed her gloved hand, his expression going hard. “I don’t remember seeing those on the way up.”

“I didn’t notice them either.” She grimaced. “Although to be fair, I wasn’t really looking for anything like that.” The footprints seemed to lead the opposite direction.

“Stay here.” Without waiting for her to reply, Logan veered off their path to cut over to the new set of footprints. She watched as he crouched down to examine them more closely. Then he stood and looked around. “They look relatively recent, maybe from earlier today even. And they’re heading away from the area where we found the tail fin.”

The knot of tension in her stomach loosened. “So probably not the shooter.”

“Probably not.” He didn’t appear convinced. After another long moment, he turned and hurried back to where she was waiting. “Either way, I think we need to get out of here.”

“I’m with you on that.” She pushed forward, following their earlier tracks. But as they walked, she couldn’t help glancing over her shoulder, hoping and praying that whoever left those tracks wasn’t hiding back there, watching them.

Logan didn’t likeany of this one bit. And it grated on his nerves to know that it had been his bright idea to come here today. To locate and retrieve the piece of tail that was currently sticking up out of his backpack.

Not that he could have anticipated someone shooting at them. He had a sidearm in his plane. He should have grabbed it for their hike. A handgun didn’t have the range of a rifle, but it was better than nothing.

He hated knowing this was just the beginning. Of course, Jess would offer to return to the area with Teddy to see if they could find drugs. Or the gunman.

If not for the idiot taking potshots at them, he’d have taken the time to spread out and search for more plane debris. He knew Jess and her siblings had spent hours desperately seeking answers after the pilot of their parents’ plane had issued a Mayday call only to then go radio silent.

Never to be heard from again.

Oh yeah. It was only a matter of time before the Sullivan siblings would converge on this area to begin another search.

He didn’t want any of them to be in danger, especially not Jessica. He reminded himself that Maya was a former cop married to Doug who happened to be a current criminal investigator. They should be able to keep the younger siblings from making any hasty decisions.

Or so he hoped.

Logan alternated between scanning their surroundings and watching Jess’s K9, Teddy. He knew the dog would pick up on any unusual scents or threats before he would.

When Jess slipped again, he lengthened his stride to catch up to her. “Time for another break.”

“But we’re so close,” she protested. “Isn’t that the clearing up ahead?”

“Yes. This distance can be deceiving, though.” He nudged her toward a fallen tree. “Just sit down for a few minutes, okay? We’ll be on our way out of here soon.”

She sighed and nodded. Despite her desire to push forward, she looked exhausted. They’d come down the mountainside at a quick pace. He turned to stare behind them. There was a slim chance the shooter had kept pace, looking for an opportunity to take another shot.

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