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“We’re staying,” I say. “After we find your missing crew members.”
Dalton mutters, “Who failed to obey the first fucking rule of this town.”
“Rules one through three, I think,” I say to Dalton. “Stay out of the forest. Stay out of the damn forest. Goddamn it, what part of ‘stay out of the forest’ did you not understand?”
Yolanda stares as if we’re speaking a foreign language. We are, in a way, though it’s one anyone who spent a week in Rockton would have understood.
Finally, she says, “I did not fail to impart that rule. Imparted it, reinforced it, andenforced it. But short of an electric fence, you can’t keep people from sneaking out.”
“Electric fences don’t work either,” Dalton drawls. “We tried that. Course, they probably work better if you have electricity.”
I snort a laugh. Yolanda doesn’t crack a smile.
“We know exactly how hard it is to keep people in,” I say. “Especially if they’re the outdoorsy type, surrounded by the fabled wilderness of the north. So tell us a bit more about who we’re looking for. Your engineer and architect. A man and a woman who went missing at night. The obvious answer is that they were hooking up. Any sense of that?”
“I would have no idea,” she says. “My crew’s social lives are their own.”
“All right,” I say. “Then I’m going to need to talk to someone who actually knew them. There are a dozen possible scenarios here, and knowing which is most likely will help us find them.”
“How? You’re tracking them. You don’t need to knowwhythey’re out there.”
“It helps if we do,” I say calmly. “Tracking isn’t a perfect science. Storm will do her job, and Eric will do his, but there will be times when they lose the trail, and we need to make a guess. Being able to make aneducatedguess will help.”
I brace for an argument, but she nods. “Understood. All right then. We have two missing people. One is Penny, the architect. Early forties. Single. Sexual orientation unknown, as you were asking about a possible entanglement. She’s never shown any interest in the forest or in Bruno, who is my engineer, and the other missing person. Late forties. Married to a woman.”
“Has anyone mentioned seeing them together in a social setting?”
She pauses long enough that I add, “I know people are here to work, and they’re being paid extra to work long hours, but I’m presuming there’s still some social scene, even if it’s only hanging out around a campfire with beers and marshmallows.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
I glance at Dalton and then say, “I’m not asking whether you’ve noticed who participates in social gatherings. I’m just wondering whether there’s someone I can speak to about them.”
“I presume there are social gatherings, but when my workday finishes, I’m in my office, working some more.”
In other words, she’d hesitated because she’s honestly not sure how her crew socializes, much less who hangs out with whom.
“Did Penny and Bruno seem to get along in a professional sense?” I ask.
“As well as can be expected for an architect and engineer.”
Dalton rocks, a subtle show of frustration, and she says, “The architect has the vision and the engineer has to make it work. There is always conflict, but it was minimal, as far as I know.”
“Have either of them been known to go into the forest for any reason?” I ask.
“Bruno joined the guided walks that you two suggested. I allowed them, recognizing that while they’re an inconvenience, they might cut down on people wandering off on their own.”
“And Penny?”
“She never joined them. Before you arrived, I asked the young woman in charge of the walks. I also reviewed our initial interviews.” She’s relaxing now, on familiar ground. “Bruno mentioned he’d love to work in Alaska again—we’ve told them it’s Alaska, not the Yukon. He’d worked in the north before and enjoyed it. Penny said nothing about the environment. The setting seemed inconsequential to her.”
“Two last questions before we take off. Was there any evidence they took anything with them? Clothing or other equipment?”
“I had people check their lockers as soon as they were reported missing. All clothing is accounted for except for what they would have been wearing. Each crew member was issued a high-powered penlight and a utility tool with a knife. Penny’s are in her bunk. Bruno’s are not. However, I have seen Bruno carrying his on the job.”
“Meaning if they’re missing, that doesn’t necessarily mean he prepped for a trip into the forest. Penny definitely didn’t, which brings me to the final question. Is there any evidence that either of them was taken by force?”
Yolanda shakes her head. “No. Both their beds show no signs of being slept in. Several people saw Penny earlier in the evening. The last person to see Bruno seems to have been me. We were discussing the schedule, and we parted at around nine. No one reports seeing him after that.”
