Page 69 of Present Danger (Rocky Mountain Courage 1)

THIRTY-ONE

Standing at the trailhead, Terra breathed in the scent of pine and juniper and hoped peace would settle her tumultuous thoughts.

Terra had gone into the office this morning to make an appearance and fill out paperwork. She’d bumped fists with the likes of Case Haymaker and her other forest service coworkers for the area, and then with her duty there accomplished, she’d headed out to the national forest.

Yesterday might have been a colossal waste of time. The jury was still out.

Come on, Joey. Give me something.

But today she would make up for that. She determined to find something to connect Jim Raymond with Neva Bolz and the cache. The archaeologist should be reviewing the items soon, and she would know more about their origins and to where they should be returned.

Crouching, Terra pressed her hand against the hardened trail as though she could take the pulse of the earth. Here, the ground felt cool and damp from recent rains.

The thought of rain made her think of Jack the evening he stopped by the ranch and got drenched, when he’d proclaimed earlier that he never got caught in the rain. The image of him soaking wet just so he could talk to her warmed her insides.

She shook off the feelings flooding her.

Jack was supposed to meet her here.

But he was late, so she decided to hike up the trail a bit. Head to Jim’s cabin. After a few minutes walking the path up Maverick Trail, Terra stood in the thickly wooded area and absorbed the nature around her.

This was unadulterated beauty at its finest. She soaked in the sounds and scents and gloried in the greenery, enjoying the peace she so often found while in the woods. Being out here close to God’s creation—the air, the trees, the birds and animals—cleared her mind like nothing else.

She needed time alone to gather her thoughts, so maybe it was a good thing that Jack was late.

Terra continued up the trail, feeling more at home than she had in a long time. Because she was actually close to home, after all, unlike her time with the National Park Service when she lived in southwest Colorado, where she nabbed Joey.

What did Joey know about what was going on here, if anything? Or was she reaching too far—a long shot, as Jack had said about yesterday’s venture to the federal prison.

This investigation was becoming complex in ways she hadn’t anticipated.

And at the end of the day, when she couldn’t shut down her mind to sleep, her thoughts always went to her mother. Her mother’s heroism. And Terra never measured up.

To ever truly do that, she would need to die in the line of duty.

Sweat beaded on Terra’s back as she hiked the incline, then finally turned off the trail toward the cabin.

What am I missing here?

“Think bigger,”Joey had said. Or was he only trying to put her off?

Through the trees in the distance, Terra spotted Jim’s cabin. The windows had been boarded up. Had Jack’s deputies done that? For what purpose? Everything in the cabin had been removed and taken in as evidence.

Terra leaned against a tree and let nature calm her mind. Let God rein in her thoughts. The rain had poured down at Gramps’s ranch and at the bottom of this mountain. But up here, it was dry and hadn’t been cleared out—there simply weren’t enough resources to clear the forest, and kindling rested everywhere just waiting to catch fire.

Jim had been sitting on a metaphorical tinderbox that had exploded and backfired on him.

Think bigger.

Bigger.

Bigger.

Terra pushed from the tree and approached the cabin. She found the door unlocked and stepped inside. The deputies had boarded the windows but left the door unlocked? Terra took a closer look at the knob but saw no sign of forced entry. Someone else with a key to the cabin had come back and didn’t bother locking it? Jack had mentioned getting cameras up in these woods near the cabin, but she doubted that had been done yet.

She walked the perimeter on the inside, then stood in the middle and stared up at the ceiling.

Think bigger.