Wilderness Pursuit. Michelle Karl
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ground. He couldn’t see anything of note—it just looked like a large patch of tossed soil to him—but the expressions that flitted across her face were fascinating. One moment her brows furrowed in concentration, and the next her lips parted in surprise. Then she’d purse her lips and stare at the earth, then sigh, then smirk. It was as if she was having a conversation with herself, and to his bewilderment, he felt a sudden tug in his gut.
He wanted to be a part of that conversation. But no, that was ridiculous. She’s doing her job, the way I should be doing mine. Stop letting the past creep in and focus on the present.
He wrenched his eyes away from her and began studying the ground at the edge of the clearing, searching for any remaining hints or clues left behind by the previous day’s attackers. A footprint, fibers from clothing, a piece of dropped paper...anything at all.
He’d just finished a preliminary search of the perimeter when the horses began to shift their weight back and forth, shaking their heads. Brenik snorted and stamped his feet.
“What’s up, buddy?” He took the reins and stroked the animal’s neck. “Hold tight, we’ll be done soon—”
The crunch of movement across the forest floor froze Sam’s hand midstroke. Who else could possibly be out here? There were no cars allowed on the road, and he didn’t figure grizzlies would be awake and wandering around at this time of day—plus, it wasn’t as if he’d been quiet while trampling around the site and searching for clues.
The crunching noise was joined by a low, rumbling hum that quickly grew louder. An engine? Was someone riding a dirt bike on the trails at seven in the morning? He glanced at Kara, who stood and looked at him, perplexed—and then as suddenly as the sound began it stopped. Sam touched the Taser on his belt, but his shoulders dropped with relief as a familiar face walked out of the trees’ shadow.
“Foreman Helfer!” Kara’s jaw dropped. “You’re all right? What are you doing out here? I assumed you’d take a few days off to rest, at least.”
The foreman smiled, and Sam’s stomach twisted. Something wasn’t right. “I’m perfectly fine, Ms. Park,” the man said. “Unlike you, despite my best efforts.”
“Excuse me?” Kara tucked her phone into the back of her pants pocket. “Look, I’m glad you’re here. I went to speak with Ed Tigh yesterday, and he refused to believe that I saw bone in the disturbed earth—the phalange I pointed out to you. With my camera missing, I didn’t have proof to show him, but I think I’ve got enough in these new shots to convince him that this is definitely a First Nations burial site. I don’t know who disturbed it or doesn’t want me conducting the proper procedures for a find like this, but with these new photos and your personal testimony of what you saw—”
The foreman sighed and rubbed his hand across his face. “I’m very sorry to hear that. I wish you’d have come next week as you were supposed to, instead of showing up early.”
“What?” Kara narrowed her eyes at him and laughed. “No, I mean there really is something here. We should start the requisite procedures immediately. I can ask some of my team to come today instead of next Tuesday—”
“That won’t be necessary, Ms. Park.” Sam saw the foreman’s hand creep to a bulge beneath his coat before Kara did. Sam grabbed for his Taser—only to feel the pressure of a barrel between his shoulder blades. He raised his hands and prepared to flip around to incapacitate the person behind him, but the foreman’s gaze suddenly snapped to the side, meeting Sam’s eyes.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Officer.” The foreman pulled the edge of his coat back to reveal the handgun shoved into his waistband. “There are more of us than there are of you.”
Kara’s eyes widened and she swung her attention from the foreman to Sam and back again. “Wait, what? I don’t understand. What are you doing?”
“What am I doing?” The foreman crossed his arms and sighed. “I’m doing my job, Ms. Park, which just so happens to be preventing you from doing yours.”
“But your injuries—”
“Weren’t as they appeared. Weapons on the ground, Officer. We didn’t count on your involvement, but now that you’re here, we’ll have to figure out what to do with the both of you.”
“You’ve got to be joking,” Kara said. “You’re not serious. I’m here by government mandate. You need this survey completed and submitted by a registered professional.”
“And we will,” the foreman said, his voice growing hard. “It just won’t be you. If you’d arrived next week, you wouldn’t have found a thing and this would have been wrapped up within a few days, weeks at most. But now... I’m sorry, but Gaida Industries isn’t willing to sit around for years while the land is tied up in red tape. And we can’t have you running back to civilization and telling everyone about what you saw here. That goes for both of you.”
Sam’s mind raced. How could they get out of this? From the corner of his eye, he spotted at least three additional men trying to blend into the brush around the site. Undoubtedly they, too, were armed. He mentally kicked himself for not investigating the engine sound the moment he’d heard it. They must have come in on dirt bikes or ATVs...why didn’t I think of that?
“You don’t need to do this,” Sam said, hoping to buy time. Whatever the foreman had planned, it wasn’t going to turn out well for Gaida Industries. “A government contractor and an RCMP officer go missing, and more than a few people are bound to notice.”
The foreman turned to him with a smile, and Sam’s stomach sank at the confidence he saw reflected there. “Of course they are...but we’re out in the wilderness, Officer Thrace. And people go missing all the time for a variety of reasons. Thanks to Ms. Park’s insistence on invading our company’s space before we’d prepared for her arrival, you’ll both be joining those ranks.” This time, the foreman drew his weapon from his belt and leveled it at Kara. Slowly and deliberately, he pulled back the safety. “Permanently.”
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