Page 10 of Lion's Share
He picked up his fork. “I’m not sure, but if they’re simultaneous, then that would mean the anomaly is affecting everything equally. If it hits someone on this side of town but not the other, then it would seem as if the instability isn’t constant, and it’s more a matter of timing than anything else. Or maybe location as well.”
I wasn’t sure which was worse. However, if everyone was affected at the same time, at least it would be easier to pin the problem on something purely mechanical rather than some kind of weird shockwave bouncing around and causing havoc wherever it was closest.
All this was yet another reason why I was glad I’d bought the trail cameras with storage in the cloud. I wouldn’t have to worry about my cellular connection glitching at exactly the wrong moment, or even having a brownout fry an SD card just as I was putting it in my laptop.
Maybe that last scenario was a little improbable, but I still figured it was better to be safe than sorry.
“Well, I know this one hit at eight forty-four,” I said. “So when I’m at work later today, I’ll try to ask around and see if anyone else experienced the same thing.”
“Good idea.”
We returned to our food after that, both of us eating quickly because I could tell we wanted to get breakfast over with so we could take a look at the footage the cameras had recorded the night before.
If they’d even gotten anything.
Ben and I put our dirty dishes on the counter next to the sink and headed into the living room, where my laptop waited for us on the coffee table. I sat down and reached for it, quickly entering my password so we could get down to business. He settled himself on the sofa as well, just close enough that I was all too aware of his presence, of the dark shadow on his chin that signaled he’d gotten ready so fast this morning that he hadn’t bothered to shave, a faint clean scent that I guessed was either his soap or his shampoo…the way he seemed so reassuring, so real, a reminder that I wasn’t in this alone, even if nothing remotely romantic had passed between us.
Yet.
Since the cameras we’d set up were from two different manufacturers, I had two different web portals to navigate. I chose the one where the videos from the oak grove were stored, figuring I needed to start somewhere, and since the carvings in the clearing where Victor Maplehurst had met his fate were so fresh, maybe the vandal would have gone back to make some more markings in the place where it seemed he might have started out.
However, those videos didn’t reveal anything more interesting than a few deer who moved through the grove a little after midnight, as well as a couple of owls who flew low over the meadow grass, clearly looking for prey.
“So much for those cameras,” I remarked as I navigated away from the oak grove feed.
“That’s fine,” Ben replied. His hazel eyes were alight with interest, even though we hadn’t captured anything of note. “Let’s check the ones from the next clearing over from the place where the fresh carvings were made.”
Since that had been my thought as well, I only nodded and maximized the window from the other camera manufacturer.
Just like with the other feed, this one didn’t show a whole lot except the trees moving faintly in the night wind and the low swoop of another owl before it disappeared into the deeper woods.
And then….
A tall figure dressed entirely in black entered the clearing. I thought it was probably a man based on his height, but since the person’s face was covered, I couldn’t say for sure. At once, he — or she — moved to the tallest coast redwood, made a few quick movements that I guessed were probably him scratching an Ogham letter into its bark, and then moved on to another one.
“Interesting,” Ben murmured.
Well, I supposed that was one word for it. “Suspicious” was the one that came to my mind.
Something about the stranger’s movements, the swiftness and precision in the way he went from one tree to another, carving his markings into their bark, made me think he was a professional of sorts. This definitely didn’t look like careless vandalism to me, even though I couldn’t conjure a single reason why someone would be on a mission to scratch Ogham letters into various trees in the forest.
“Feels military to me,” Ben remarked after we watched in silence for another moment, and I turned to look at him.
“What makes you say that?”
“The gear he’s wearing,” he replied. “If it’s a man at all, but that doesn’t look like a woman. Also, the way he’s moving. Very efficient, no wasted movements. I have no idea why he’s doing what he’s doing, but that doesn’t sound like someone going around carving symbols into a tree just because he felt like it.”
Since I’d had about the same impression, I only nodded. “But why would the military have someone carving Ogham letters into those trees?”
“I have no idea,” Ben said. “But we need to find out.”
Chapter Four
Ben figured the best thing to do was to go back to the forest while Sidney was at work, so he could gather any additional evidence that the black-clad stranger might have left behind. No point in keeping his plans from her, and although she looked less than thrilled at being stuck at the pet shop while he went adventuring, she didn’t protest.
“If things weren’t so busy, I might consider closing up for the day,” she told him. “As it is, I don’t think that’s a very good idea. Also, if I get too flaky, people might abandon me for the PetSmart in Eureka.”
He hadn’t thought that was too much of a possibility — from what he’d been able to tell, the people in Silver Hollow did everything they could to shop local and keep their cash in the community — but he only nodded. “I don’t even know if I’ll find much,” he said. “The guy we saw on the camera didn’t look like the kind of person who’d be careless about that sort of thing. But it still feels better to take a look around in daylight before we head out there tonight. Also, Marjorie Tran said she’d be here around two, so I have to be back in town by then anyway.”
