Bloodshed at the Owl Blind by Bellamy Beck

Author:Bellamy Beck [Beck, Bellamy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-04-03T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

Maddie and I nursed steaming mugs of coffee at her kitchen table. The layout of the cabin she shared with Liliana was identical to mine. The only difference was that their cabin reflected the decorating style of nature-obsessed twenty-somethings. It was a homey clutter of houseplants and wildlife art, with eclectic throws and cushions creating a laid-back, bohemian feel.

The centerpiece of the cabin was a large Queen of the Night cactus in a corner of the living room. A gift from Maddie’s botany professor, the Queen of the Night bloomed just once a year, typically from dusk till dawn. It was a magical display that was easy to miss unless you were looking for it.

Maddie rubbed her forehead in frustration. “It doesn’t make sense for Twilla to just vanish like this. I know she’s been acting a little odd lately, but to leave without even saying goodbye? That’s not her style. She’s not responding to my texts either.”

I stood up and refilled our mugs. “It’s really odd. You’d think she’d have given us some kind of warning. Do you think she might have said something to Liliana?”

“Nope, not a peep,” Maddie sighed, her shoulders drooping. “I called Liliana at the Hop House, and she’s just as clueless as we are. It doesn’t make sense.”

I tapped my fingers on the table uneasily. “While we’re on the topic of things that don’t make sense, Sam and I ran across something kind of disturbing at Sunset Ridge. Sam seems to think it’s called a Bal-chatri trap. Ever heard of it?”

Maddie said she remembered seeing photos of Bal-chatri traps during her ranger training. They were complicated devices, not the kind of thing you could slap together on whim. Designed to ensnare raptors, they required the right materials, the right bait, and the knowledge and experience to know where to place them.

When I added that Ollie had purchased a supply of hardware cloth and wire from the mercantile a few days before his death, Maddie nearly fell out of her chair.

“Wait a minute. So, you think the trap belonged to Ollie Harlow?”

I shrugged. “It’s possible. And Evie thinks there could be more traps out there.”

“She’s probably right,” she said.

I shared that the timing of our discovery led me to believe someone was intentionally targeting snowy owls. “Sam floated the idea Ollie was trapping snowies for close-ups, but we decided that doesn’t make any sense. Ollie had a long lens for his camera, so trapping them would’ve been a waste of time.”

She shifted her weight in her chair. “It’s possible Ollie was moonlighting for a university or a research group.”

“What do you mean?”

“Universities sometimes get special permission to trap wildlife for research purposes. As a wildlife photographer working in the area, Ollie obviously knew where to find snowy owls. It’s conceivable that he hooked up with a university or research organization that paid him to trap birds for a scientific study. If he had cash flow problems, he might have been relying on research gigs to pay the bills.

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