“Yes and no. As customers, they were damn near perfect. Paid their deposit. Showed up on time. Didn’t make any demands. The problem is inexperience. Oh, sure, they’ve done plenty of backwoods hiking at home. But they don’t understand the sheer scope of this wilderness. Part of me always wants to refuse to fly people like them. But if I did, someone else would. As long as they have some experience and proper equipment, I can’t rightly say no. Doesn’t keep me from worrying they’re making a huge mistake. I lost a couple of Germans about five years back. Ever since then, if they don’t have a satellite phone, I bury the rental fee in my charge and insist they take it and call me every forty-eight hours. My buddies joke I’m a mother hen but…” He shrugs. “I haven’t had so much as a scare since the Germans. Until now.”
“When did the Danes stop calling?”
“I last heard from them six days ago. When they didn’t make their next call, I wasn’t too worried. They were late with the first call, too. I gave it forty-eight hours more. Then I called them. I hate doing that. It crosses a line, you know? Treating clients like children. Also, the last time I did it, the people complained on their online reviews. That’s a lousy excuse but…” Another shrug. “Every little bit counts.”
“So you called the Danes, and they didn’t answer?”
“It went straight to the warning message. There’s no voice mail, but a message will tell me if it’s powered off. I told myself not to overreact. Yesterday, though, was the day they were due to be picked up, so I flew my ass out here damn quick.”
“And they weren’t there,” I say.
“We had a midafternoon pickup. That gave me a few hours to search after I was sure they weren’t just running late. I slept in the plane and headed out first thing this morning. It was maybe noon when that … person attacked.”
Colin pauses, his gaze lifting in Dalton’s general direction. “You are tracking my clients, right? Please tell me yes.”
Dalton grunts. The guy takes that as confirmation and nods.
“We’re losing our light,” I say. “I’m going to stay with you while Eric picks up the trail again. Storm?”
Colin blinks. “Shit. That’s right. There’s a storm in the fore—”
The dog brushes against him, and he jumps.
“Sorry,” I say. “There’s a dog here. Storm. Our tracker.”
He gives a shaky laugh. “I thought I smelled a pup, but I figured I was hallucinating.”
“There’s another person here, too.”
“Paula,” Petra says.
I nod. “I’m going to leave Paula with you for a minute while I speak to Eric.”
I’ve been picking up the hints that Dalton wants to talk. I tell Storm to sit beside Petra, and then I slip off with Dalton, getting far enough away that we can still see them, but they can’t overhear us.
“So…” he says. “He seems okay?”
“Physically? Or his story?”
“Story seems legit. Matches what we can see—clothing and whatnot. I’d like to check his pack…”
“Easy enough to do when he can’t see you.”
A short grunt of a laugh. “Yeah. You think the blindness is temporary?”
“Only April would know, and even then, it’d be an educated guess. I want to say it could be temporary damage to the optic nerve, but I’m not sure that’s an actual thing or just me quoting a line from a novel.”
Another snort as he smiles. “Yeah. I was thinking the same thing. Must have read the same book. I’ll check his pack. I meant, does he seem okay physically? I know you’d say if he didn’t. I’m just…” He rubs a hand over his beard. “I don’t like leaving anyone alone in the forest, after what happened to him.”
“I know. I’ll remain behind, but Petra can stay with me. We also have the blind guy.”
“I trust him more.” He shakes his head. “Nah, that’s not true. Petra saved you from an arrow last winter. You’ll be fine. I’m just fretting.”
“He is injured. Maybe we should take him back to April. I could be underestimating the damage. Especially with that blow to the head.”
“Now you’re just humoring me.” He slings an arm around my neck and leans down to press his lips against my cheek. “You have Petra. I have Storm. We’ll both be fine, and the longer I fret, the less daylight I’ll have.” He squints into the sky. “I keep telling myself those dark clouds aren’t moving closer
.”