Nine of Stars by Laura Bickle

Author:Laura Bickle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-12-27T05:00:00+00:00

Yellowstone was a vast place. One could easily disappear into the wilderness, never to be seen again. Dozens of men and women had disappeared here, likely rotting beneath tree roots and stream beds. Others had slipped through the forest’s fingers, lured to the other side and new lives, shedding their identities behind them like snakeskin. Once the park had swallowed a person, they could very well be gone for good.

But Owen knew how to improve his odds.

It took him only two phone calls to figure out which station Petra Dee used as a base for her work as a geologist. Owen showed up at the Tower Falls Ranger Station with less of a hangover, owing to the espresso finally kicking in. His left eye was twitching and he felt like fucking Superman. The station was empty, except for a single ranger peering up into the rafters with a flashlight.

Owen flashed his badge. “I’m wondering if you’d seen Petra Dee lately. And if she was alone.”

The ranger at the station regarded him with suspicion. Owen and the Feds had an uneasy working relationship. He knew they tended to view his department as a clusterfuck of parochial hicks playing rock-paper-scissors for turf. Which was pretty much true. But he also knew that the ranger couldn’t outright lie to him, and he was counting on that.

“I saw her. She came in to work today, and she was alone,” the ranger said.

“Do you know where she’s headed?”

“Why?” The ranger leaned nonchalantly on the counter. “Anything up?”

“I just want to ask her a couple of questions about a man she’s been keeping company with. The man’s a subject of interest in a murder investigation.”

The ranger looked at him with skepticism. “Ms. Dee is a straight shooter.”

“Well, she may be under the unwilling influence of this guy. He is most definitely not a straight shooter.”

The ranger frowned. Appealing to his damsel-in-distress instincts seemed to work. “She’s been working around Mammoth Springs. I expect her back before dark, if you want me to have her call you when she returns.”

“No need. I’ll head up there myself and see if she’s available to chat.” Owen tipped his hat and turned to leave the ranger station.

But he felt eyes upon him. More eyes than the ranger minding the station and the ghost who sometimes turned up to bother Owen. He glanced around, then up. A half-dozen bats were perched on a roof truss, staring down at him.

“Looks like you got yourself a bat infestation up there, Ranger,” Owen said.

“It’s for an education project,” the ranger responded, sounding nonplussed.

Owen nodded and let himself out. Not his problem.

But he still couldn’t shake the sense of eyes on him, not even after he’d gotten into his car and headed down the road. Whenever Owen felt that prickle on the back of his neck, he knew someone was gunning for him. It was his spider sense. Some might call it paranoia, but it had never been wrong.

He tuned his police scanner to the channel the rangers used.

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