They all turned at the sound of her footsteps, her eyes gravitating first to her father, then to the man standing beside him, who came only to his shoulders. His head was smooth-shaven and his beard, just beginning to fade in, matched the gray of his deep and thoughtful eyes.
“Emmett Tozer,” he said as they shook hands. “Guess you could say we’re responsible for this outing. Lawrence was nice enough to agree to take us out, share his expertise.”
“Abigail Foster, freelance journalist.” She turned to the woman holding Emmett’s arm. “June Tozer?”
June’s face lighted up and she took Abigail’s hand in both of hers. “Pleasure to meet you, Abigail.” She stood just over five feet, with a streak of white running down the middle of her chin-length brown hair. A sweet energy seemed to exude through June’s fingers. It made Abigail’s arm tingle, as if a gentle current were passing through.
“And I’m Scott Sawyer. I own Hinterlands, Inc. I’ll be your guide for this trip.”
Abigail shook the calloused hand of the beautiful man in a Phish T-shirt and torn khakis, instantly liking what she saw, a feeling she sensed he reciprocated. He was young, his hair bleached, probably just shy of thirty, and she discerned beneath his faded clothes the body of a seasoned outdoors-man.
They rode up toward the mountains in the dark, and Abigail was dreaming again before they left the city limits of Durango.
She slept soundly, and when she woke, the Suburban was ascending a steep, rocky road. Scott and Lawrence talked in the front seat, but their conversation seemed muffled. She swallowed. Her ears popped. The sounds of the straining engine and tires crunching over rocks came rushing in. Abigail sat up, rubbed her eyes. The dashboard clock read 6:01 A.M. The sky had lightened into dawn, and they were climbing through a canyon, the one-lane road following the path of a stream.
Scott finally pulled over onto the edge of a meadow and parked beside a dinged and rusted Bronco that had long ago ceased to be one discernible color. But despite its state of disrepair, it had somehow managed to drag a trailer up the road. Abigail climbed outside after Emmett and June, heard the chatter of a stream.
They huddled between the vehicles, their breath steaming, the air redolent of spruce.
The driver’s door of the Bronco squeaked open, and a man stepped down into the frosted grass. He was tall, his beard thick save for a few bare spots, his walnut hair drawn back into a ponytail.
Scott said, “Meet Jerrod Spicer, my trustworthy assistant. He’s an excellent outdoorsman, so you should know you’re all in capable hands.”
Jerrod let slip a yawn, said, “Sorry. Still waiting for the coffee to kick in.” He walked to the back of the trailer, unlocked the doors. “Gunter, Gerald, time to go to work.”
Abigail smiled when two llamas stepped down into the meadow and began munching on the grass. She approached them, reached out to pet the black one, but it pulled away, affronted by the familiarity.
“I’d rethink that, Abigail,” Scott said. “Gunter spits.” He opened the back hatch of the Bronco. “Now if you’ll step over here, we can start getting you all fitted for your packs.”
As Abigail watched Scott cinch down the llama packs, she heard a car coming up the canyon. A moment passed, and then a hunter green Ford Expedition appeared around the bend. It veered off the road and pulled up onto the meadow, a rack of sirens mounted on top, SAN JUAN COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT emblazoned on the driver’s and passenger’s doors. A woman climbed out and approached the group, which had gathered by the llama trailer. She was petite and pretty, with bright, friendly eyes and long brown hair split into braided pigtails.
“Morning,” she said, and tipped the brim of her Stetson. A sheriff’s star had been embroidered into her black parka. “Y’all about ready to shove off?”
“Yep,” Scott said, pulling the strap to tighten the hip belt of his pack.
The sheriff pointed to Scott, said, “I see you’re taking a fly rod. You wouldn’t mind letting me have a peek at your fishing license?”
“Not at all.” Scott walked down to the sheriff and pulled his wallet out of his fleece pants. He flipped it open. She nodded.
“Y’all look like you’re headed in for the long haul.”
June said, “Well, we’ve got a ways to go. . . . How far did you say, Scott?”
“Seventeen miles.”
“Yeah, a seventeen-mile hike into this old ghost—”
“What’s your name, Sheriff?” Lawrence asked. “I feel like we’ve met before.”
“Jennifer. And yours?”
“Lawrence Kendall. Get down to Durango much, Jennifer?”
“Not if I can help it.” She cocked her head. “Where’d you think we’d met?”
“I don’t remember, but you look familiar.”
“Don’t think we have, and I’m pretty good with faces.” She addressed the group: “Well, I assume you all purchased backcountry insurance.”
“They did,” Scott said. “I’m the guide. I insisted they buy it.”
“Where you taking them?”
“Grizzly Gulch.”
“I thought she said you were headed to a ghost town. There are no ruins in Grizzly Gulch, at least that I know of.” She leveled her gaze on him, unblinking.
Abigail watched Scott. His Adam’s apple rolled in his throat.
“Actually, we’re going to Abandon,” Emmett said.
Without averting her eyes from Scott, the sheriff asked, “And what are you planning to do there?”
“Take some pictures. My wife and I are paranormal photographers. Depending on what we get, we may do a show in San Francisco this winter.”
The sheriff said to Scott, “No call to lie to me if all you’re gonna do is take pictures.”
He nodded.
“That is all you’re planning on doing?”
“Of course.”
“And you’ve got the permits to visit Abandon?”
“They do.”
The sheriff looked at June and Emmett. “Could I see them, please?”
Emmett reached into his jacket and pulled out an envelope, which he handed to the sheriff. She thumbed through the papers.
“Wow, a group permit. They don’t give out many of these.”
Emmett said, “We’ve been trying to score one for three years.”
The sheriff gave the envelope back but lingered a moment longer, her brown eyes passing over each member of the group as if taking some kind of mental inventory. “I hope y’all have a real safe trip,” she said, then tipped her hat again and strode back to the Expedition.