Page 58 of Rangers Unexpected Return

“It wasn’t.”

Rylie shook her head. “It was.”

Max lay behind the bar.

I stared at the closed door.

I had come to Eagle River because I was tired of driving.

Judy had come because seven women were dead.

Neither of us had expected to find the other.

And if the serial killer she hunted had chosen Eagle River for whatever came next, our unexpected reunion was about to become the least complicated part of my life.

6

JUDY

The back room of the Last Stand Tavern smelled like grilled steak, warm bread, and evidence.

It was an unusual combination.

Carson didn’t seem bothered by it.

He sat across from me with a hamburger in one hand and an old Camp Eagle River brochure in the other.

“You’re going to get grease on that,” Will said.

Carson looked at the brochure.

Then at his hamburger.

Then at Will.

“I’m holding them in different hands.”

“Grease travels.”

“Not unless I throw the hamburger.”

“I’ve seen you eat. Throwing is possible.”

Carson took another bite.

Will moved the brochure farther away from him.

I sat at the end of the table with my laptop open and the Keeper’s drawing beside it.

The symbols matched.

The same tree.

The same curved river.

The same small campfire beneath it, surrounded by nine flames.

The Keeper hadn't been directing us toward Eagle River.