5. Toren
Toren
The soft sand shifted beneath my boots as we made our way away from the plane toward the riverbank. Walker had picked a good spot to land. The sandbar connected to the shore with a thin strip. I was happy not to test how waterproof Lana’s boots were just yet.
As we pushed into the forest, the sound of the river faded, and the plane disappeared from view.
I set a steady pace, slower than what I would go alone, but still quick enough to cover ground.
We had maybe six hours of decent weather left, and I wanted to make it to the area where Dustin’s first camp supposedly was before we started battling rain and wet snow.
Glancing back, I checked on Lana. She’d unzipped her coat but hadn’t shed any layers yet. It was coming, though. The red tinge to her cheeks told me she was getting warm.
“Did you bring a rain jacket?” She’d need the protection once the skies opened, but that heavy parka would be too much.
“The liner comes out of this coat.”
“Good deal. If you need to shed layers, just say the word.”
She stopped. “It probably wouldn’t hurt to do that now.
” Unfastening the waist strap on her pack, she let the bag drop down her shoulders to the ground, then shrugged out of her coat.
With a couple of quick zips, she had the liner separated from the jacket shell.
Laying out the former on the ground, she folded it, then rolled it up and stuffed it into a carrying sack she took from her backpack.
That got tied onto her bag. She shoved the jacket shell down inside her backpack, then lifted it over her shoulders.
“Okay, let’s go.” She tipped her head toward the forest in front of us as she reattached the waist strap.
Impressed by the speed with which she did that, I nodded once and turned around, setting off again.
The terrain rose gradually as we moved inland and transitioned from sandier soil to a rockier forest floor, covered in moss and pine needles. Fallen logs lay scattered like pick-up-sticks all around, creating a maze that required constant adjustment to our path.
I kept my eyes on the ground, reading the landscape for not just signs of Dustin but for any place that might be a bit more hazardous than a fallen tree.
“So, why did you really agree to this trip?” Lana’s question broke the silence.
I shot a quick glance over my shoulder. “Because I think you’re right. Something happened to your groom, and the cops aren’t going to take it too seriously until he misses his return date.”
“Right, but you also could have pointed me toward someone else. Someone who wasn’t so busy this time of year. But you didn’t. Why? And don’t feed me that bullcrap about rescuing Dustin.”
My mouth tightened. She was getting into motivations I didn’t want to examine too closely. “I don’t know what to tell you, then. Why did you come?” I turned the tables on her, steering the conversation away from myself.
Her brows knit together in a tight frown. “Tina and Dustin are my clients.”
“Yeah, but you’re a wedding planner. Search and rescue isn’t part of the package deal.”
A quick smile flashed on her face. “You don’t know that.
Maybe I write a line item in for some of my more adventurous clients.
” She held up a hand, tracing a line in the air.
“In the event either party gets lost in the wilderness, I, Lana Decker, Wedding Planner Extraordinaire, will mount a search party and haul you back to civilization so you may pledge yourself for eternity to your betrothed.”
I couldn’t hold back the chuckle. “There are probably some who need that clause added.”
“That’s no lie. And not because they go off and do things like this.” She waved a hand at the forest. “Some of them get cold feet and decide to go white-water rafting or mountain biking the day before as a sort of last hurrah.”
“Seriously?” My wife would have killed me if I took off the day before our wedding. There wouldn’t have been one, because I’d be six feet under.
Truthfully, it had never crossed my mind to do such a thing. Cara had been my world, and I couldn’t wait to marry her.
But that was a lifetime and a lot of heartache ago.
“Yep. I’ve stopped more than one groom from disappearing from wedding preparations. A couple of brides, too, actually.”
“Maybe you should add that feature, then.”
She chuckled. “Maybe.”
“You deflected well with your answer, but you didn’t tell me why you agreed to go with me,” I continued.
The look she gave me would have withered a lesser man. “Would you have gone if I said no?”
I lifted a shoulder, biting back a smile, unwilling to admit anything to her.
Her eyes narrowed, and she paused for a moment before continuing.
“Anyway, even if you hadn’t insisted and only asked me to come, I probably still would have said yes.
Despite all the preparation left for Tina and Dustin’s wedding, there won’t be one if we don’t find Dustin.
I was also a bit worried Tina would find a way to come out here herself if I didn’t go.
She wants regular updates and knows she wouldn’t get them unless someone she trusted was here. ”
“I’m relying on that connection to get us information if we need it, too, don’t forget.”
“I know.”
Falling into an easy silence, we continued our trek through the undergrowth, following the path of the river as we headed northeast toward Dustin’s camp. After an hour, I found the first sign that someone had recently been in the area.
Pausing, I crouched to look at a patch of dirt near a fallen tree.
“What did you find?” Lana came up next to me, a curious frown wrinkling her forehead as she looked down.
“A boot print.” I pointed at the ground, where someone had left a partial imprint in the loamy soil. “It’s a couple days old.”
“How can you tell?”
“The rounded and slightly feathered look to it. Whoever left this climbed over this tree trunk.” I rose, patting the tree. Bits of bark crumbled off in my hand. “We’re not too far from Dustin’s camp. Maybe another hour, so they could be his. Let’s keep walking.”
Moving around the root ball sticking out of the ground, we continued along the faint game trail. I found a few more partial prints, both going northeast and southwest. Whoever walked this trail had done so more than once.
The river curved, and so did the landscape, leading us through the valley between the mountains.
As we walked, the terrain grew steeper. Along the banks, the ground dropped off sharply to the river below.
Tree roots stuck out of the dirt, the pines attached to them clinging to the hillside for dear life.
Some of the exposed roots looked fresh, which meant a lot of water had come through here recently.
That didn’t surprise me. We had a snowy winter, and temperatures had been consistently warm lately.
That also meant the ground was likely saturated. Any rain or snow that fell with this system moving in wouldn’t have any place to go except into the rivers. This section of the river wasn’t any place I wanted to be in for long.
Thankfully, the wash basin didn’t stretch on forever, and soon, we were back on more flat land, staring at a fork in the river.
“Is this the eastern fork Dustin’s fiancée talked about?” I asked.
“Maybe. You’re the expert. Is it?” she retorted.
Offering her a dry look, I motioned to her backpack. “Let me see that map.”
She dug it out and handed it over.
Unfolding it, I found the circled area, now a bit smudged, but still marked well enough.
“Where are we?” Lana peered at the map.
“About here, I think.” I tapped a spot in the circle. “Hang on.” Fishing my GPS unit from my jacket pocket, I pulled up our current coordinates. “Yeah. That’s about right. Dustin’s camp is close.” In fact, we were almost upon it.
I folded the map up and gave it back to Lana. Once she stowed it, we set off again.
Ten minutes later, we found the site.
He’d done a good job of erasing his presence, but there were little things that weren’t so easy to get rid of. Like the trampled vegetation and the holes in the ground from tent stakes. Or the charred remnants of a campfire.
“This looks clean.” Lana turned in a circle, surveying the area. “He didn’t leave in a hurry.”
“No. He was here, and he was fine when he left.” I moved around the perimeter of the site, looking for anything that said otherwise, like a bag of trash left behind, or a piece of gear, but there was nothing. Just a stack of firewood he never used.
“So, what now?”
“Now,” I paused, blowing out a breath. “Now, we need to figure out which way he went to go to that next campsite.”
One of her eyebrows rose. “How? There are footprints everywhere. Including ours.” She waved a hand at the ground.
“Tina said he wanted to check out an area near the eastern fork in the river, right?”
She nodded.
“Then, let’s go back to that fork we passed. I’m betting he took the same path we did to get here to go down there. It’s too steep and treacherous to go that way.” I pointed into the trees, where the terrain rose sharply.
I was also willing to bet he stuck close to the river most of the time, anyway. There was no need to go deep into the bush. The river was a great water resource, and the bears would go to it.
Lana adjusted her pack. “Lead the way.”