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When she finished with her list, she only had twenty minutes before she was supposed to meet her team for the first time. She tidied up her hotel room for housekeeping. She knew this didn’t make much sense, but she always did it. She felt guilty having someone pick up after her and wanted to leave them with as little work as possible. Then she headed downstairs to the attached restaurant.
Her team wasn’t there yet, so she slid into a booth by herself and asked for coffee.
A few minutes later, two men walked into the restaurant, and she knew they belonged to her before they even looked her way. She stood to greet them and shook their hands.
Craig, a wildlife biologist out of the Pierre office, looked the part of the quintessential scientist. He was of average height and slight build, his thinning hair was a frizzy ball atop his head, and he wore thick glasses that distorted her view of his eyes. She couldn’t see his pocket protector under his coat, but she thought there might be one.
Craig wore a sour expression.
Martin, the intern assigned to help them, seemed to have a much cheerier disposition.
They all sat down, and Wynona waited for Craig to make eye contact before speaking. It was a significant wait. “So you feel like I’m stepping on your toes here.”
He appeared startled by her frankness.
“You know this wasn’t my idea, right?” she said.
He didn’t respond.
“So maybe we could work together to find this toad as fast as possible.”
Martin snickered, and she didn’t know why.
“How are three of us supposed to cover a million acres?” Craig asked angrily.
“We will not need to search the entire forest. I will talk to the hiker who took the photograph. She will give us some idea of where she took the photo.”
Craig scowled. “You know that a dozen people have already talked to her, right?”
She was already tired of Craig.
“We’re also going to need more manpower.” Craig emphasized themanin manpower.
Wynona took a steadying breath. “Once our plan has some structure, I will ask for more bodies, but first, I’m trying to hire a local outfitter. Do you have any recommendations?”
“How would I know any hunters around here?” Craig said. “Isn’t that why they brought you on, because you’re alocal?”
He had a point, but his delivery was terrible.
“Why don’t you ask the real locals for a recommendation?” Craig said in the most condescending tone possible.
She felt stupid for not thinking of Holden. He might know someone. It’s not like they needed an official outfitter. They just needed someone who knew the area.
“I will keep asking,” she said, trying for ambiguity. “In the meantime, I think we should talk about what we’re going to need for supplies. It’s going to get a little chilly at night.”
“If you hire an outfitter,” Craig said, “they will provide supplies.”
It was her turn to scowl. “I don’t think we should assume that they will have all of the supplies needed for a toad stakeout. I doubt that’s a common outing for them.” She leaned back in her seat as the server offered the men coffee. Craig rudely declined, but Martin accepted with excitement. It seemed he’d already had a bit of coffee.
“I would like to start tonight,” she said. “I’ll spend the rest of this morning trying to find someone who can guide us.”
Craig rolled his eyes. “This is a needle in a haystack. Guide, or no guide, we’re just going to walk into the forest and hope to spot a toad?”
“That’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
“Have you heard what they’re saying?” Craig said. “We’ll be lucky if we don’t get shot.”
Martin’s expression morphed from excitement to fear, and he stopped stirring his coffee.
