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He grabbed a stack and sat. She sat beside him, but not too close. “I would help you look, but I don’t know what I’m looking for.”
Neither did he, really, but he hoped that he would see something he recognized.
“Did you talk to the hiker?”
“I did.” She sighed. “Unfortunately, Jan wasn’t much help. She said she hiked and camped for about five days and hardly used any trails. She started here in Hill City and apparently just walked into the woods with a stick and a backpack.”
“And a camera.”
“Yeah, her phone.”
He started flipping through the photos. “Do you have a map of the area?”
She nodded eagerly. “I’ll go get it. Be right back.” He felt foolish for not bringing one himself, but her absence was refreshing. He could think better when he was alone. He studied each photo carefully.
Hiker Jan’s photography skills left something to be desired. Nearly a third of the pictures were blurry, which wasn’t helpful. She had photographed lots of plants, and while they were beautiful, each was common to the forest.
Wynona returned with a map and spread it out before him as he kept flipping: common plant, common plant, cool rock, blurry butterfly, common plant—
He stopped. “Pluteus aurantiorugosus,” he muttered.
“What?” Wynona said.
He ignored her. He was too busy staring at the mushroom.
“Did you just rattle off someLatin?” Her shock offended him.
He pointed at the photo. “That’s a Flame Shield mushroom. Those aren’t common.”
“It’s the same scarlet color as the stripe on our toad.”
“Yep.” He knew that he had seen this mushroom somewhere nearby, but where, exactly?
He closed his eyes so he could think better. He knew he’d seen one recently, probably in the last year since it felt so fresh in his mind, but where had he been? He flipped back through his mental calendar, his clients, their hunts, the routes they’d taken, the land they’d hunted.
He couldn’t place it, but he was still encouraged.
He opened his eyes and looked at the map. “Do you have a pencil?”
She produced one that had been buried in her ponytail. He tried not to find this amusing. He thanked her and then drew a few light, rough circles on the map. “I don’t see Flame Shields often. I think I’ve seen them in the last year, though, and this is where I’ve been in the last year, more or less.” He looked up at her and felt guilty when he saw the hope on her face. “A mushroom can grow in more than one place, of course.”
“I know that,” she snapped.
“I know you do.” He sighed. He had no idea how to talk to this woman.
He went back to studying the photos, hoping to find something more helpful. Finally, Hiker Jan had taken some pictures of the needles, the natural silver towers that stood straight and regal in the distance. He recognized one of them. He tapped on the map. “That’s Wolf Peak.”
“How can you tell?”
“I recognize it. Looks like she was quite a bit south of Hill City.” He showed her Wolf Peak on the map.
“Are you sure? Aren’t there hundreds of peaks? You can really tell from that far away?”
Her skepticism was beyond annoying. “Yes, there are hundreds, and yes, I can tell. They’re like people. They all look the same, but they are all unique.” He showed her the photo. “Wolf Peak has a slanted top, and the edge looks like it’s been chipped off. See?” She leaned on the table, and her ponytail fell over her shoulder. He tried not to be distracted by how shiny it was. “So we know she was on this side of Wolf Peak.” He pointed at the map.
“That’s really smart.”
He didn’t feel smart yet. He drew a line from Wolf Peak. It did not come close to any of his Flame Shield circles.
