AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter One
Malachi sipped his lukewarm coffee and watched a group pull into the lot in a 1970’s lime-green Volkswagen bus. He’d seen a few in car shows, but this was the first brightly colored one he’d spotted in the wild since his boyhood. In anticipation of a check-in, he headed to the front desk. There was a familiarity to them, so he searched his memories for a reason, but came up blank. They may have camped there before. That would explain it. One guy entered the office while his friends stayed outside. “Camping reservations?”
“Yeppers.” A slow smile crept across his face as he handed him a cell phone with reservation information displayed on the screen. Name on the booking was Reece Mclean.
“Seven days?” Malachi studied the man’s face. There was nothing remarkable about his features, but he had a quiet presence about him that seemed at odds with the crowd outside. Something nagged at the edges of his consciousness. Why did he feel like he should know who this man was?
“That’s the plan.” The slow cadence of the stranger’s lazy speech brought back a time he’d rather forget. Evenings spent with the other children chasing fireflies. A childhood that should’ve been magical, but became a nightmare.
He shook away his past and forced his focus back to the man. “You from West Virginia?” Malachi took a long draw from his coffee and waited for an answer.
“I stayed there a while.” The man smiled. “You been there?”
“A lifetime ago.”
Malachi handed him the keys to cabin seven and circled the location on a map. “You’re all set. Enjoy your stay.” The guy studied him a moment before turning to leave.
He shrugged off his uneasiness and watched through the window until the group’s van pulled out of the lot.
Frost crunched beneath his boots as Malachi followed the blood trail through the woods. Poachers likely snagged a deer. He crossed Loyalsock Creek and picked the trail up again on the other side. If he found the gut pile, it would confirm his suspicions. A blatant disregard for game regulations, but there was little to be done. Park rangers and game wardens handed out citations. But more than half the time, the offenders didn’t pay their tickets nor did they bother to buy a hunting license in the first place, so restricting them was less than useless.
The sun glinted off an empty chip bag, and he shook his head as he bent to retrieve it. When he stood, he noticed a patch of black fur caught on the bark of a hemlock tree. Could be from a bear. Or even a dog. Hard to tell from the tiny clump. His brow furrowed as he inspected the ground for drag marks and found more blood. He took in the surrounding area hoping to discover where the injured animal had been taken when he spotted the rocky outcropping. A bear den.
Without even looking, he knew he wouldn’t find the bear inside. It’d been shot right inside the den. Closing his eyes for a moment, he braced himself for what came next. Hopefully, the bear who’d been shot and dragged from this den hadn’t been a pregnant sow. Malachi peered into the opening. Empty. Stuffing his hands in his pockets to keep them warm, he took a deep breath of pine-scented air.
After an uneventful hike back to his truck, Malachi tapped his fingers on the wheel as he started up the engine. Why would anyone purposely harm the wildlife roaming these hills? Encountering a bear in the wilderness was a dream that remained unfulfilled for most people. Working at Worlds End State Park, he’d had his share of bear encounters, but for folks who worked nine-to-five jobs in the city and came out here once or twice in their lifetimes … for them, those encounters were nothing short of miraculous. And someone had taken the life of one of their bears. He huffed out a breath, more than ready to unravel the thin threads he’d found and identify the person responsible for the loss. When he arrived back at the office, he hurried inside, hung his jacket on the back of his chair, and logged into some hunting forums, hoping the poacher had been stupid enough to post a trophy photo. No such luck. Not a bear to be found. He discovered posts about trophy bucks that might be worth looking into, but they often didn’t amount to anything more than fish tales accompanied by stolen pictures. He’d take a look at the EXIF data to determine whether any were legitimate and worth taking the time to investigate.
A burst of cold air hit him as the door swung open and a young woman with ginger hair braided in pigtails walked in. Judging by her khakis and the green jacket with a Game Commission patch on it, she wasn’t a park visitor.
“Can I help you?” He stood to greet her.
“I hope so. I’m Cate Garrison, biologist with the Game Commission.” She held out her hand, and he shook it. “We have a radio-collared bear in the area that we planned to check in on next week, but we lost her signal yesterday morning. I’d like to check and make sure she’s still in her den before the rest of the team joins me.”
The Game Commission had moved faster than usual. He chuckled. “I’m Malachi James. A DCNR ranger here at the park, and I may know what happened to your bear. I’ll take you to the den site, but it’ll have to wait until morning. We’re losing daylight fast.”
She raised an eyebrow, and he noticed flecks of gold in her olive-green eyes. He pulled his focus away from her eyes and shoved his hands in his pockets.
“Followed a blood trail this morning that led me to the den. Looks like someone shot your sow and dragged her from the woods.” He frowned. “The poacher who shot her likely destroyed the collar.”
Her hands shook as she shoved them in her jacket pockets. “That isn’t good. Not good at all.”
“Everything all right?”
“She’s the third bear poached from her den this year. And that’s just the ones we’re aware of.”
“How many bears are you tracking?”
“A hundred or so across the state. One was taken from Promised Land. The other happened at Ricketts Glen.” He thought her voice had a slight tremble and her chin dipped as she spoke, but then he thought he must’ve imagined it as she continued. “It’s important that we get back to that den. This sow was among the first to hunker down this year, so we’re relatively certain that she has cubs.”
“I didn’t see any.” No way he would’ve missed them.
Cate hopped into her Ford Ranger and banged her forehead on the steering wheel. Ouch. She tilted her head back and rubbed her forehead. How could it be too late to hike into the woods? Half past three. Tapping her short nails on the console, she considered her options. She could go alone. The voice of Virginia Vaughn echoed deep within her. You can’t protect the wildlife if you don’t protect yourself. Heading into the forest alone without a clear understanding of the den’s proximity to the road might not be the most advisable approach for self-preservation. She blew out a breath. Fine. She’d wait until morning.
Gavin and Samantha wouldn’t mind the company. Worlds End State Park wasn’t far from the town of Benton and Ricketts Glen State Park where her brother’s wife worked as a DCNR ranger. Sam might have some insight into how to go about finding the bear cubs. The buzzing of an incoming call pulled her from her thoughts. A picture of Gavin in uniform lit up her screen. She grinned. “What do you want?”
“Do you always answer the phone like that?”
“Only if it’s you or Grayson.”
