“So what’s going on?”
“Dead body. Decapitated,” Jerry said. “The snake wrangler over there found it.”
Shit magnet and snake wrangler. I was getting quite a name for myself. And not one that was going to help me get the full-time job.
Luke and Antonio both burst out laughing.
“I don’t know what the big deal is,” I said crossing my arms over my chest.
“It’s not every day people get to see a hot park ranger get bested by a harmless little snake,” Luke said.
“He wasn’t so harmless.” I rubbed my thumb over the nearly non-existent bite marks, trying not to think too much about Luke calling me hot. “And definitely not little.”
“She has a point, that snake was huge,” Antonio said.
“Eh, I’ve seen bigger,” Shayla said in a small voice.
Everyone stopped and stared at her before we all doubled over in laughter. I couldn’t believe sweet Shayla would say such a thing.
“Hey, we got a dead body over here,” Jerry shouted over our laughter. “Show some respect.”
His tone was non-negotiable.
We stopped laughing.
“I hear you had a date the other night,” Luke said.
“Where’d you hear that?” I asked. Was he going to come clean that he’d seen me?
“I hear everything.”
“She met him on Tinder,” Antonio chimed in. They both stood in front of me with their hands on their hips.
“So what if I did?” I mirrored their stances. “He’s a great guy.”
“He’s taking her to the Broncos game this weekend,” Antonio said.
“And he kissed her today,” Shayla added.
“Shayla!” I shot her a sideways glare.
“What? I thought we were sharing what we knew.” She shrugged. “Maybe I’m still in shock?”
Uh-huh, shock.
“Wow, first kiss, huh?” Luke said.
“How’s Nikki?” I blurted out.
“She’s fine.” He looked down at his shoes that still had bits of regurgitated Salisbury steak on them.
“Ah that’s right, you’re Nikki’s new flame,” Antonio said. Antonio and Nikki went way back, but I didn’t detect much jealousy in his voice.
“Did she say something about me?” Luke asked.
“Just that she’s a bit irritated with you.” Antonio seemed to be enjoying this way too much.
“Why’s she mad?” I asked nonchalantly.
“I’m going out of town the next couple of days. Down to Winslow, Arizona—”
“Are you going to stand on a corner?” Shayla asked.
Luke grinned at her. “No, I have to talk to the police down there about Boy Boy’s escape.”
“So she’s mad that you’re going out of town?” I asked, trying to bring the subject back around to him and Nikki.
“That and we had a crappy date the other night,” Luke said quickly.
A crappy date?
“You couldn’t stop staring at some other girl,” Antonio said wiggling his eyebrows at Luke.
Luke’s face paled.
I turned to Shayla, “I think it’s time we head home.”
Shayla looked up from her pants, now covered in vomit and dirt. “Good idea.”
10
Thursday morning I woke up early to run still in a state of disbelieve that we’d found two dead bodies in a matter of four days. I drove to Alder Ridge Reservoir and parked outside of gate three. Was I secretly hoping Luke was still there? Maybe.
But he wasn’t. In fact, no one was. Oh well.
I tucked in my earbuds and blared old Brittney Spears music.
My pace and overall fitness had drastically improved over the course of the summer. The vacant full-time position drove me to work harder and more diligently. If I didn’t get the job, I’d probably wind up overweight and unemployed.
A complete loop around the reservoir was fifteen miles, but I hadn’t quite built the stamina to go that far so when I reached Muddy Water Cove, I turned and ran back towards gate three.
The higher the sun rose, the more sweat accumulated on my brow. It may have been fall but the weather hadn’t gotten the memo.
The trees stood lifeless in the still air. Their leaves just waiting for a cold snap to turn copper and fall.
As I rounded the last corner, I saw a tiny black box mounted with a black strap the width of a man’s belt to one of the tree trunks. It could have easily been missed, especially driving in a truck.
I slowly approached and inspected it. It looked like a camera of some sort.
I had to let the ranger on duty know. I punched the number of the park office into my cell.
“Alder Ridge Reservoir, this is Carmen,” a bubbly voice that matched its owner in every way said.
“Hey Carmen, it’s Rylie. Who’s working this morning?”
“Ben and Greg,” she replied. “They just got back from their big bow hunting trip. They were saying they got two big bucks and—”
“Carmen?”
“Yeah, sorry. What did you need?”
“Can you send them back to gate three? I need to show them something.”
“For the love of God tell me you didn’t find another dead body.”
I sighed. “No.”
“That’s good ‘cause they’ve been calling you the shit—”
“I know what they’ve been calling me.” I steadied my voice. “Can you please just ask them to come back here when they get a chance? Please?”
“Sure thing sweetheart.” Her voice lowered to a whisper. “Did I tell you I stopped seeing Dave?”
“No.” Dave was her disgusting lover with whom she cheated on her wealthy husband.
“It’s for the best.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Her voice came back to full strength. “I’ll get them to head back as soon as they can.”
“Perfect. Thanks,” I said, but she didn’t hear me because she had already started greeting a guest.
“Hi there,” she said before she slammed the receiver down, disconnecting the call.
I inspected the little box again. Who would want to film this trail? Probably some pervert who got off on women jogging. I wrapped my arms around my chest suddenly feeling like I needed a shower.
Nearly thirty minutes later a ranger truck came around the corner. I was sitting on the side of the path on a log checking my Tinder results. Sure, I had a date with Garrett, but that didn’t mean I was off the market.
“It took you long enough,” I said when Ben stepped out of
