“I think Carmen forgot. She only told me five minutes ago.”
“I heard your bow hunting trip went well.”
“Yep.” He smiled. “Now onto rifle season.”
Most of the rangers hunted. That’s why they kept the summies on the schedule into the fall.
“What’d you find?”
I pointed in the direction of the little box on the tree. “I don’t know what it is. It kinda looks like a camera. Probably some perv trying to get pictures of women running.”
“That?” He let out a belly laugh. “I’ll let Seamus know you think he’s a perv.”
“Seamus?” Now I was thoroughly confused.
“He got a grant for these cameras about a month ago. They’re supposed to capture photos of wildlife habits and park violations.”
Of course. Trail cams. “Okay. Sorry about calling you out here for this.”
“It’s no big deal. Nothing is going on now that the dead bodies have been carted away.” He nudged my shoulder with his arm. “You know, if I didn’t know any better I’d say you were—”
“If you call me a shit magnet, I’ll have another dead body on my hands.”
He put his hands up in surrender. “Whoa, sorry.” He laughed. “Is snake wrangler any better?”
I lunged at him, and he ran back to his truck laughing. “I won’t forget to tell Seamus you think he’s a perv.” He yelled out his window as he drove past me.
Trail cameras. “Wait!” I waved my hands to get Ben’s attention. The brake lights lit up, and the truck came to an abrupt halt.
I ran to his window.
“You’re not going to attack me are you?” He laughed again.
“Are the trail cameras always on?”
“Yeah. They’re motion activated. It keeps the batteries from wearing out as quickly, and Seamus is pretty good about changing them out when they’re low.”
“Is Seamus working this morning?”
“He’s out by Area Twelve. Why?”
“I need to talk to him.”
It took Seamus and Brock forty-five minutes to make it to the shop where they met Ben and me in the office.
“This had better be good. We were taking down a homeless camp,” Brock said as he walked in after Seamus.
I ignored him. “Seamus, I found one of your trail cams.”
“They’re not exactly hidden, Blondie.”
“I know, I know.” Come on Rylie get to the point. “Do you have a map of where they’re all located?”
“Map’s in me head.”
“Are there any over by Golden Rock Pond?”
“Not really . . .”
“But there’s the one here, by gate three.”
“Yes.”
“How often do you check it?”
“Every week or so.” He tapped his foot on the ground. “Why? What’s this all about?”
“Maybe they can tell us—or the police—who killed that lady.”
Seamus slapped himself on the forehead. “Yer a genius. Why didn’t I think of that?”
I shrugged and smiled from ear to ear.
“I’ll go get the memory card now,” Seamus said.
“Can I come with?” I asked.
“Isn’t today your day off?” Brock asked, his arms crossed over his chest. “And what about the homeless camps?”
“We can get the card and bring them back here. The homeless camp will have to wait,” he said to Brock who was pouting like a two-year-old.
“Better call that cop boyfriend of yers,” Seamus said. “He’ll want to see this.”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I said.
“That’s right.” A hiss from behind me knocked the smile right off my face. “He’s my boyfriend.”
We all spun around to find Nikki standing in the doorway. “What are you going on about anyway?”
“Rylie just had a brilliant idea,” Ben said. His face was lit up like the Christmas tree he apparently kept up in his house year-round.
“She did, did she?” Nikki looked down at her pretty pink nails. “And what’s that?”
“She thinks there might be pictures of the murderer or murderers on the trail cam by gate three,” Seamus said. “It’s bloody brilliant.”
“Or common sense,” Nikki said.
Common sense? She hadn’t thought of it.
“We need to get these murders solved. I have my first event coming up this weekend, and I don’t want it spoiled with news of a murderer leaving dead bodies all over my parks.”
Her parks? And, sure, we’d get right on solving these murders so her little event wouldn’t be affected.
Nikki had gotten the full-time job that included managing events to promote visitor growth and produce income for the parks. I’d interviewed for the job but couldn’t quite figure out the correct way to get out of a blender.
“I’ll get the memory card and meet yeh back here in a little bit. Is Shayla closing tonight?” Seamus ran a hand through his hair.
“Yep. In fact, I’m supposed to meet her in about five minutes to work out before her shift.” My stomach grumbled. I hadn’t had a chance to go home since my morning run. I stunk and was starving. “I’ll see you later.”
“Don’t forget to call yer boy—” he looked at Nikki’s glare, “Er, friend, and let him know.”
11
After grabbing a protein bar and applying an extra coating of deodorant to my armpits, I texted Luke.
You free this afternoon to come out to the reservoir?
Yeah, Nikki told me about the trail cam footage.
Of course she had.
K.
I shoved the phone into my work bag and headed up to the loft where Shayla waited for me.
“I hear you made a break in the case,” she said. Her long blonde hair was curled and in a ponytail and she’d lined her eyes with a perfect cat eye. If only I didn’t sweat so much when I worked out, I’d be able to look cute too.
“Not exactly.” I wrapped my hands in boxing tape. “Not yet anyway. We’ll see what the camera shows.”
“I really hope we can figure out who’s been doing all of this. That girl probably has a family somewhere worried sick about her.” Her eyes welled with tears. Hopefully, she’d gone with waterproof eyeliner.
“I hope so too. And maybe if it is Boy Boy, we can get a feel for his movements so we can catch him.”
“We? No. We are not going
