“You don’t look old enough to shave,” Dalton said.
“He’s traveled all over the state,” Jack said, “working as a storyteller.”
“Storyteller!” Dalton said, but catching Jack’s eye, kept any further comment to himself. He turned to Frank. “You must be the cop.” There was no rancor in it, though, and his handshake was firm, his smile welcoming.
“Stinger taught me all I know about dog training,” Jack said. “He’s met Deke and Dunk when we stopped by here on our way to go camping and fishing. He’s also the best helicopter pilot I know of, and protected my butt on more than one occasion when we did a little riding together. Now he protects me from the fiercest opponent I’ve ever encountered.”
Dalton smiled. “I’m his tax accountant.”
“Tax accountant!” Travis said. “How many people come all the way out here for tax advice?”
“Besides the ones that live out here or who contact me by fax or modem?” Dalton asked. “Just a bunch of old bastards on Harleys.”
Travis looked stunned.
“Not everyone on a hog is a hell-raiser these days, you know. Bunch of CEOs on ’em now. And as for hell- raising, a lot of us just got tired of that shit. Plenty of cops ride,” he added, casting a glance at Frank.
“Sorry, not this one. But we’re not here about—”
“My apologies about the welcome,” Stinger said. “I just happen to appreciate privacy. Come on in.”
Just before they walked through the door, though, Frank’s cellular phone rang. He excused himself and stayed on the porch to answer it, uncertain about being able to pick up a signal inside Dalton’s fortress.
When he rejoined the others, they were seated around a plain, thick oak table at the center of a large, open room. The few other furnishings were equally spartan.
Jack took one look at his face and said, “What’s wrong?”
“That was Pete. The group up there is getting smaller — a little while ago, a botanist and a ranger hiked out with a body bag — Julia Sayre, as far as anyone can tell at this point. These two said the others in the group were going to work on finding a second grave. Seems Parrish hinted there might be as many as eleven others up there —”
“Eleven!” Jack said.
“Yes. Pete didn’t have too many details, but I guess they had just come out of one meadow and were up on a ridge when Parrish started hinting about more bodies being up there. Thompson thought Parrish was playing games, until the cadaver dog reacted to a change in the wind.
“So the others went down to check out this second meadow, while the botanist and the ranger hiked out to the plane. The ranger radioed for a helicopter to pick him up so that he could show the chopper where to find the others — including Irene. But by the time the helicopter came to the landing strip for the ranger, the weather was bad. The chopper pilot said they’d have to go after the others later — they’d have problems just making it back to the ranger station.
“Storms are supposed to get worse during the next twenty-four hours. They won’t send a chopper in today — the pilot of the plane said if these two guys had come out an hour later, they wouldn’t have been able to take off at all.”
“Fucking wussies,” Dalton grumbled.
“I’ve told him the basics,” Jack said, “as you can tell, he’s already got some opinions on the matter.”
“Fuckin’-A,” Dalton said, crossing his arms over his thin chest. “How long ago did these two leave the rest of the group?”
“This morning. The rain and hiking with the body slowed them down. My partner’s going to try to talk to them, but it doesn’t look likely. He learned as much as he could from the pilot of the plane.”
When he didn’t go on, Travis said, “You looked upset when you walked in here. I take it there was more to it than that?”
“I don’t know,” Frank said. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s nothing, but — more than a fourth of the people who started out on this project are no longer with the group. And Pete said the pilot told him that these two were real unhappy about taking off. The botanist had promised to stay with the body, but he still protested about leaving the others. The ranger was even more adamant. When the pilot asked the ranger what the big deal was, since the group had enough food to be out for another couple of days, the ranger said that he thought the guards were fatigued.”
“Hmm,” Jack said, frowning. He turned to Travis. “Why don’t you take out those topo maps we marked up? It won’t hurt anybody if some extra campers show up in the area, right?”
“Free country,” Dalton said with a grin.
“Hell of a thing for a tax accountant to be saying,” Jack muttered.
Travis unfolded the maps and on one of them, pointed out a location on a western ridge. “That’s where the makeshift airstrip is.” He moved his finger along a line that connected a series of dots. “That’s the trail we think they were on when the lawyer was injured.”
Dalton nodded. “How many days ago you say that was?”
“Tuesday,” Frank answered. “Two days ago.”
“Hmm.” Dalton frowned over the map. “How many folks you say were on this star voyage?”
“Originally, or after the lawyer was taken home?”
“After.”
“Twelve people and a German shepherd. The ranger was gone for a day or so, then rejoined them after getting
