“I kept hearing noises,” she says. “Rustles, snaps, all the little indications that something was out there. Honestly, my biggest fear was a bear, especially that one you mentioned. You said it looked a little thin, and I’m hypervigilant in autumn. During my first fall here alone, an old bear stalked me. At first, I wasn’t concerned—I had Nero and he was nearly full-grown. What animal is going to mess with a healthy young wolf?”
“A desperate bear.”
“Yep. It stalked us almost back to the cabin, and then it charged. Luckily, I had my spray ready. It went after Nero, and I hit it with the spray, and it didn’t give a shit until it couldn’t see. Then I shot it. Took more shots than I care to admit to—myhands were shaking and I’d never killed anything that big. I learned my lesson, though. Whatever I think I know about bears, it doesn’t apply when they’re desperate.”
“It really doesn’t.”
“That was my fear, then. That a hungry bear—maybe the one you dealt with—was outside the cabin, and my door isn’t meant to stop a grizzly. So I got out of bed and shifted into full hillbilly-grandma mode, on a chair facing the door with a gun over my lap. I also had bear spray. If it came at me, I’d do what I did the last time. Spray first, shoot later.”
“Good plan,” I say.
“I thought so. I’m sitting there, listening, and I swear the motherfucker is circling the cabin. There’s a crack in front of me, a rustle beside me, another crack to the rear… But then I realize what I’mnothearing. Animal noises. No snuffling. No grunts. A grizzly is never going to be that quiet for that long. If it was circling, it’d be looking for a way in, sniffing at the cabin, pushing at it, trying to figure out how to get the tasty treat inside.”
“There was none of that.”
“None. And after a while, the noises stopped. So I breathed a sigh of relief. I overreacted. It was a curious critter, maybe another wolf or a fox. Whatever it was, though, it was gone.”
She rubs the back of her neck. “And then someone tried the door.”
“Shit.”
She nods. “Again, my first reaction was that I was imagining it. You’ve seen my door. It’s a simple construction. You turn the exterior handle, and if I haven’t put the inside latch on, it opens. I’d latched it, so the handle won’t turn. All you get is a jiggle. That’s what I heard—a jiggle of the doorknob. I walked toward it, but everything was quiet. Then it moved. I was looking right at the handle, and it moved very slowly up and down.”
“Someone trying it again, but carefully.”
“I pressed up against the door, and I could hear someone breathing. I don’t know how long we were both standing there, on either side of that door. I kept wishing that I had a peephole.” She gives a humorless chuckle. “Not something you ever imagine you needing in the wilderness.”
“Did they try the door again?”
“A few times,” she says. “The handle would move or the door would groan, as if someone was testing it.”
“Did they know you were right on the other side?”
“I don’t think so. I wasn’t making any noise. They seemed to be trying to figure out how to get in without alerting me that they were there. They must have been at that door for at least fifteen minutes.”
“And then?”
“And then they started circling again.” She shivers. “I could hear them, just enough to know they were still there. At the front, the side, the back.”
“Trying to find a way in.”
“Trying, but not too hard. Maybe they only wanted to see who was inside. I thought about what you said, that woman who’s missing. I was wondering if it could be her, figuring out who was in there, looking for help.”
“Or looking to see if she could overpower you and steal whatever isn’t nailed down.”
She sighs. “That was the problem. I know she might have murdered her partner, but I couldn’t help worrying that I was ignoring someone in need again. I kept thinking back to when that happened with the kid.”
When Max escaped his kidnapper, he’d found Lilith’s cabin. Unfortunately, he also found Nero, who ran him off.
“You didn’t ignore him. He got spooked and ran.”
“Still, I felt terrible. What if I was doing that again? This woman saw her husband murdered, and she doesn’t have a sat phone or any way of calling for help, and she’s been running through the woods trying to find help because she knows you guys are here somewhere. She finds my cabin, but she’s not sure it’s you, and I’m inside with a gun, ready to blow her head off.”
I shake my head. “You couldn’t take a chance. So what happened?”
“Nero came home.”
“Ah. That must have been a shock for whoever was there.”
