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Chapter1
In Plain Sight
Paddling a canoe while ice formed along the shoreline of the lake was a definite first for Tessa Flores. She’d never experienced anything like this back in Texas.
That thought had her shoving the paddle in too deep and almost swamping the canoe. She’d long ago trained her brain never to think of her childhood or her home state. Why had her thoughts gone there?
It certainly wasn’t the tranquility surrounding her. This kind of relaxation hadn’t been a part of her life when she’d been a kid. In this quiet haven east of Vermont’s mountains, she didn’t have to worry about asking the wrong question or seeing the wrong person.
She shoved the memories away then closed her eyes and recited the facts to the quiet forest around her.
Tess Flores.
Born and raised on a farm southwest of Salina, Kansas.
Parents Robert and Gloria had died when she was nineteen, when a tornado had destroyed the area.
She’d graduated with a zoology degree from the University of Wyoming.
She’d lived in six states since, always looking for the perfect job.
Now she lived in Vermont, collating data on native species of fauna and flora.
Tessa opened her eyes and rubbed her hands together to warm them up. Her life depended on those facts. She had no business thinking of anything else.
She returned her attention to her fish finder. Well, turtle finder. Her friend Tansy Cheveyo, who owned the property, had helped her modify the tool to search through the sludge at the bottom of the lake.
This was Tessa’s first test day and she wanted to collect a baseline of data. With a stroke of the paddle, she pushed past the memories and into the present. She focused on the icy feel of the soft breeze on her face. The warmth of her scarf and mittens. The call of an owl. What kinds of owls wintered in Vermont?
So many new things to know. So many possibilities to explore. She hoped to spend the year learning the area in all its seasons, collecting data that would guide her future investigations.
Once she arrived at her first potential turtle site, Tessa picked up her improvised measuring pole and lowered it carefully so as not to cause waves. When she felt the resistance of the mud, she opened the voice recorder on her phone and recorded the data. Then she lowered the pole again. As soon as she touched something hard, she stopped. She didn’t want to disturb the turtle’s slumber stage or put it at risk.
She’d found her first turtle. Excitement at the discovery had her grinning. After she’d brought up the tool, she did a careful shimmy in the canoe. Of course, she couldn’t be positive that had been a turtle, but it could be. At the very least, she had the depth of the mud layer. Her first experiment in Vermont was a success. Well, it would be.
Smiling, Tessa picked up her tablet and opened the app she’d created. She enlarged the map and confirmed her location on Midnight Lake as best she could. Then she added a data point and input her depth measurements for both the turtle and the mud layer. The thrill she got at the first input of firm data might make her a nerd but she was a happy nerd.
She’d be able to compare the depth of the layers over the next few years to find out if climate change was affecting the turtles’ slumber periods. There would be other measures to collect as well so she could see what factors skewed the data. Ice depth and average temperatures for starters. New weather patterns meant that nature was changing in many ways. Ice that stayed on a lake too long, or not long enough, could create havoc on the surrounding biome.
The data she collected would help her figure out solutions. It might not be the career she’d dreamed of when she was a kid, but it was a good one. She was using her skill with numbers and patterns to help the animals and the planet. She could almost pretend it was her passion. At least the FBI consultations she did fed her love of numbers and data.
It took three hours to get to the other end of the lake. There were a lot of turtles preparing to spend their winters slumbering at the bottom of Midnight Lake. She hoped to follow the turtles over the following summer and figure out which species slumbered where. That would improve the data. So far, she’d identified at least seven different turtle species on the lake. It would be interesting to compare them.
Tessa pulled the canoe up to the dock in front of the cabin farthest from Midnight Lodge. It was like being alone in the universe and she loved the setting.
She wasn’t sure she would ever be able to walk the distance from the lodge to the cabin, but whenever she had the canoe out, she stopped here.
It was a tiny cabin with a front deck that had a perfect view of the sunrise. She couldn’t see the lodge or any other cabins from the small dock. When she sat there, all the worries, all her fears, disappeared.
Tessa had met Tansy several years before through an FBI consult they’d both worked on. They’d been friends ever since and Tessa treasured their connection.
When Tansy had offered her home to Tessa, it hadn’t taken her long to accept. She’d been moving every few years for safety, but she hoped this new home would offer that so she could stay in one place.
Tansy and her brother Joe had inherited the property from their grandfather. A parcel of over thirty acres surrounding Midnight Lake with a huge old fishing lodge that now housed Tansy and her friends. There was even an old sawmill and a blacksmith shop on the property.
In this quiet section of Vermont, there were far more trees and turtles than people. And best of all, the lodge was a two-mile hike in from the road.
Not that her legs appreciated the hike, but the safety it added to her new home was priceless. There was a solar-powered golf cart she could use to cover the distance if she needed.
