They all wrote down my answer, which I thought, for once, was pretty good.
“Okay, last one.”
Only four questions? What about my strengths and weaknesses?
“If the park had 2,000 visitors and a storm was coming where you could only save 500 of them, how would you choose who gets to live?”
Holy crap. How was I, or any ranger, qualified to choose who lives or dies? Most people would probably say women and children, right? Or maybe they’d choose the doctors and teachers?
“I—I’m sorry. I can’t make that decision.”
“So you would just let them all die?” Ursula’s bulldog face smooshed into an evil smile.
“No, of course not.” What would I do? Think, Rylie, think. “Assuming, I as a ranger, can save 500 people, would it be fair to say that another ranger would be able to save another 500?”
Ursula looked up at me with her brow furrowed. “I suppose, yes.”
“So I’d just need four rangers to save them all. And what kind of storm is coming?”
“Let’s say a lightning storm.”
Ooh lightning, that’s a tricky one. It could come out of nowhere, or I could have time to prepare. “Well, in the summer, we staff at least two rangers at all times, and since lightning typically hits in the summer and in the afternoon in Colorado, we’d likely have at least three to four due to shift overlap. If we had four, we’d be able to save them all. If not, I’d call in the trail ranger to help.”
“And how would you evacuate 2,000 people from the park?”
“Well, I wouldn’t have to evacuate the park, necessarily. I’d just have to get people off the lake and in places where they couldn’t get struck by lightning. So I’d send two rangers out on boats to warn the boaters before the storm came, and other and I would get people out from under trees, off the beach, and to the safety of their vehicles or inside a building.”
They furiously scribbled in their notes.
“Thank you, Rylie.”
They all shook my hand before I let myself out of the room. At least I didn’t suck at the last question.
Shayla, Brock, and Nikki stood in a group in the plaza discussing their answers.
“Can you believe those questions?” Shayla asked when I walked in. “How’d you do?”
I shrugged. “Okay, I guess.”
“Well, I rocked it,” Nikki said inspecting her perfectly manicured nails. How did she keep them nice being a ranger?
“How did you answer the blender question?” Shayla asked.
“I said I’d punch through the damn glass,” Brock said, his chest puffed out.
Nikki rolled her eyes. “If you were the size of a pencil, there’s no way you’d be able to shatter glass that thick.”
I wanted to ask how she’d answered, but at that moment Ursula walked out of the banquet hall with the rest of the panel behind her.
“We will deliberate and let you know our decision in a few days. Thank you all for coming.” She looked at me and smiled what seemed to be a genuine smile. Maybe I’d done better than I thought. My heart leaped in my chest until I saw the murderous look on Nikki’s face. Why did she have to be so mean? I turned and walked back to my truck. It wasn’t like it was my call anyway. If they wanted to hire some wench like Nikki, they could deal with the attitude. I had a park to patrol. At least for the rest of the summer.
After walking the beach and shoreline for over an hour, checking on swimmers and fishermen, I decided to take one more patrol loop around the reservoir before I headed to the shop to clock out.
Opposite from the morning, now the bike path was completely packed with joggers and bikers, moms with strollers, and fishermen retiring for the day. Muddy Water Cove was completely empty. Apparently Kyle decided to pack it up before the sun hit its peak.
I glanced in the direction of where Ronnie’s body had been found in the trap. The water was completely undisturbed. Maybe Ronnie had been the MWB and someone stuffed him inside his own trap.
Could it have been Dave? Was Carmen lying to protect him?
The part of me that had been so sure it wasn’t him was now faltering. Everything pointed to Dave except my suspicions, that niggling little voice in the back of my mind. But there wasn’t another trap, there wasn’t any indication that the MWB had been back, and Dave was still sitting in a jail cell awaiting his time to see the judge.
When I circled back through the plaza on my way to the shop, the sight of Nikki talking to a very familiar figure almost made me drive straight into an oncoming car. And when I say talking, I mean flirting with every bit of effort in her body. She was touching his arm, giggling mercilessly, and flashing her great big model-esque smile. And Luke smiled right back at her like a big, stupid idiot.
I pulled into the ranger parking, threw the truck into park, and stomped over to them.
“Hi, Luke.”
He spun around, surprised.
“Nikki.” I crossed my arms over my chest.
Nikki glared.
“Hey, Rylie,” Luke said as if him flirting with Nikki was a normal, everyday occurrence.
“Luke was just telling me about the case.” Nikki reached out and squeezed his bicep. My hands clenched at my sides. If only it wasn’t socially unacceptable to claw someone’s eyes out.
“I thought the facts of the case were under lock and key,” I said through gritted teeth. He wouldn’t even tell me about Ronnie’s phone messages, he’d hidden something from me on our drive back from the mountains, and here he was spewing all the details to some bimbo because she smiled at him. Some investigator he was.
Luke looked annoyed. “I was actually here to talk to you. But then I saw Nikki and—”
“It had been so long, we had to catch up.”
Who was she to finish his sentences?
