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“Oh, how awful. If he’d been shot on the other bank, we would have found shell casings on the other side.”
“Good point.”
“The ski mask sure doesn’t fit. Why would someone wear it during the heat of the summer?”
“I agree. Peter will take the key card back with him to see if your sister or brothers can determine who stayed in the room.” Nate looked down at Kayla and rubbed her arms with a gentle caress. “Do you want to keep going?”
“Oh, yes. We’re so close now to the falls. I want to remember something good about this hike and not that we just found a dead body.” She couldn’t believe the man could have been one of their former guests. That made it seem worse somehow—like they should have protected their guest better.
“Yeah, I agree.”
“I sure can’t wait to hear who the key card belonged to.”
Nate nodded. “You’re just like me, loving to solve mysteries. Of course, when it involves your lodge, I’m sure you have even more of an interest.”
“I do. It’s driving me crazy. I want to know just who it is and if we might have seen him on the security videos with someone who could have been the last one to see him alive, once we learn who he was. Though he’s probably not recognizable right now.”
“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. He was wearing the ski mask, so I couldn’t see his features. Once we get back to the cabin, which will give yoursiblings time to research it, why don’t you call them and see if they’ve learned anything?” Nate asked.
She laughed. “We are a pair. Here we are on a vacation from work, and we are both itching to help solve the case.”
“Yeah, but that’s because it sort of fell into our laps.”
“That’s true. At least we got cooled off in the river after our swim.”
“We did. By the time we reach the falls, we’ll be thoroughly dry in this heat.”
“And ready to stand in the spray of the waterfall and dip our hands in the spring before we climb to the top, and that’ll cool us off again.”
“That’s just what I’ll do.”
Chapter 16
Nate and Kayla headed up the trail and had to navigate over rocks, being careful to watch for rattlesnakes. With their enhanced hearing, they could hear the slightest rattle shaking, though the delightful sound of the rippling flow of the waterfalls was filling their ears too.
Signs were posted up here for hikers to stay off the edge of the waterfalls. Loose, slippery rocks could mean a hiker’s death if he fell from the top of either of the waterfalls. Of course that didn’t stop some people—humans or wolves—from wanting to take pictures close to the edge. At least three humans had paid the price in the past for being daredevils, but that had happened before Kayla and Nate moved here.
When they reached the bottom of the waterfalls where they poured into the river, she and Nate navigated over mossy stepping stones and stood in the light spray. Their clothes were already dry, and they didn’t want to get drenched again, just to cool off.
Then they climbed up the rocky cliff to the top of the waterfalls.
They had just reached the crest where theycould see the water spilling over the edge of the cliff, and she had to admit it was tempting to wade into the stream of clear water and peer over. Not that she would do it, but she did have the natural urge to do so.
“It’s tempting, isn’t it?” Nate asked as he pulled out his cell phone and took some pictures of her smiling at him.
“Yeah.”
He wrapped his arm around her and took pictures of the two of them kissing each other.
She leaned down at the stream and dipped her hands in and splashed the cool water on her arms and her neck. “Hmm, that feels cool and refreshing.”
He did the same. “Yeah, it does.”
They heard hikers arriving, and Kayla sighed. The hazard of taking a vacation like this in summer. Even though the resort had lots of skiers all winter long, there were tons of visitors to the area hiking in the summer, even more guests than in the winter. All the lodging in town and their own ski lodge were full at this time of year.
At night, that was different. They could run as wolves with most humans settled down at campsites in the San Isabel National Forest or having fun in town, not hiking out in the wilderness. Too treacherous. Too easy to twist an ankle or break a leg. Kayla and Nate would run as wolves on private pack territory at night, and they shouldn’thave any trouble with humans. They might end up bumping into other wolves though—out for a run in their wolf coats, having a good time. But wolves were okay.
“Do you want to go to the cabin now and get some lunch?” Nate asked.
