“Fuck you,” Cory said. “Fuck you all.”
“Must be the tuna breath that’s got Cory wanting to fuck us all,” Bennett said.
“I’m not going in with a guy with a gun,” Rob said. “There’s no need for it.”
“Yeah,” Lucius said. “I don’t dig this gun shit, either.”
“Come on,” Bennett said, “we’ll control Lucius, and if we run into a bear, we’ll feed ‘im Henry.”
Cory said nothing and finished fixing the gun to his belt.
“Just tell us what do you need it for?” Rob asked.
“I just fucking want it,” Cory said defensively.
“I just fucking want it,” Rob parroted. “Leave it behind!”
“I didn’t bring the gun so I could leave it up here. Besides, if I leave it here, it might get stolen.”
“No one’s going to break into the vehicle,” Fred said.
“What about that?” Cory asked pointing to the car with the smashed windshield.
“That was no break in,” Fred said. “That was an accident or something.”
“Well, I’m taking it with me.”
“Talk to your friend,” Rob said to Mike. “I’m not going in if he’s going to take that gun.”
“Me either,” Lucius said.
“The gun’s okay,” Henry repeated.
“What the fuck do you know about guns?” Rob asked.
Henry started to say something, but stopped.
Mike looked to Fred, who had become the de facto leader of the group, as if he were making an unspoken plea for help.
“I’m not going in if the party’s breaking up,” Fred said and tossed the responsibility back to Mike.
“Cory…?” Mike said.
“I’m taking it,” Cory said flatly.
“Come here,” Mike said and walked Cory out of earshot of the others.
“What do you think of the gun?” Fred asked Henry.
“I’m okay with it. I’d have brought one myself, if I still owned any.” Then after a second Henry added, “But I’m not sure I’m okay with Cory having a gun.”
Lucius shrugged. “Actually, I’m okay with ‘em, too, but I agree with Henry: I don’t like Cory having it.”
“Let’s get ready,” Fred said.
Henry looked back at the car. “What do you think happened to it?” he asked.
Lucius was standing next to him. “Damned if I know. Looks like someone must have gotten hurt, though.”
“Think the police were called?” Henry called to Fred.
Fred took his cell phone out. “Anyone got service?”
The others looked at their phone. No one answered. He put his phone back in his pocket. “You don’t see any bodies, do you? Dead or alive, someone’s taking care of it.”
Mike and Cory came back. Without a word Cory put the gun in a paper bag and placed it under the front passenger’s seat of the Explorer. He slammed the car door but wouldn’t look at the others. He swung his pack up onto his back and started toward the gate.
Then Mike held his keys up and said to all, “See these, I’m not going to lose them on the hike.” He crossed the road and, lifting a softball-sized rock, set the keys down and placed the rock on top of them. He returned triumphantly as if expecting some kind of congratulations for the “brilliance.”
Fred watched him but didn’t follow his example. He kept his keys in his pocket. “Get packed up,” he said to the others.
They all checked their packs and heaved them up to their backs. Rob and Henry immediately started to struggle with theirs. It was the first sign that these two were in the worst shape of the eight. Then they made off after Cory who had already gone over the gate. Fred, Mike and Bennett went over it with ease. Lucius was next, stepping over lightly with his full pack as if the gate wasn’t there. Then Tom and Rob. Henry started over last but seemed to have trouble with his balance. He stepped back and tried again.
“Let me take your pack,” Fred said.
“Nah, I’ll make it.” He started to climb the gate, gasped and fell on the ground on the other side.
“You okay?” Fred asked as he helped him up.
“Yeah. Just lost my balance.” He saw the look of concern in Fred’s eyes. “I’ll be okay.”
The walk from the gate to Cougars Camp at the bottom of the hill was nine tenths of a mile. All the way down Fred kept company with Henry as Henry struggled under his pack.
“Shit,” Henry confided as they neared the bottom, “this is the first mile, it’s been downhill, and already I’m feeling it.”
“Rob looks like he’s been struggling, too,” Fred said. “This has been a little bit more than anyone expected.”
“Maybe we should try this Crawfish Creek you talked about,” Henry said. “and we’ll go to the hot springs next time.”
“Let’s toss it out and see who goes along with it,” Fred said.
“Hey! Mike!” he called to his brother-in-law. “What do you think about going to Crawfish Creek instead?” He hoped his brother-in-law would side with him now.
“I’m good with it,” Mike replied.
“We’ll go to the Hot Springs the next time,” Henry added. He was embarrassed the plans were being changed for him and he wouldn’t make eye contact with the other guys.
“It’s okay with me,” Lucius said. “I’m already feeling the strain.” But Henry knew he was saying that for him.
Bennett nodded, as did Rob and Tom. Only Cory was nonresponsive. But they didn’t wait for him. The decision was made and the plans were changed.
Cougars Camp is a clearing at the bottom of the hill with macadam pads for RVs and campers. Hughes Creek runs through the camp and in the facing hills is Caballo Blanco, a large geologic outcropping of white stone unlike any other in the area.
“What’s that?” Lucius asked pointing to a pole with a crescent saw on one end. It was lying against a log some twenty-five yards away.
“Wow!” Fred said. “Looks like someone left it here.”
“What is it?”
“It’s a thing they use to cut mistletoe out of the trees.”
He and Lucius walked to it and Fred picked it up. “It’s brand-new, too.”
“Mistletoe?”
“Yeah, I was telling Henry about it. It grows on the trees here.” He pointed to the tree limbs over their heads. “See those viney things wrapped around the limbs? They’re parasitic plants that grow on the trees and sucks out the nutrients. People come up here this time of year, cut it out, and sell it.”
Lucius looked around. “Why’d they leave their saw here?”
Fred looked around. “Dunno. Maybe it belongs to someone who owns one of the cars up there. It’s a shame to leave it here. It might get stolen.”
“Thought there was no crime up here,” Cory said.
Fred ignored him.
“What’s that?” Lucius asked, and answered his own question saying, “It looks like a shoe.”
The shoe laid ten yards from the saw and Lucius walked to it and picked it up, turning it in his hands to examine it.
A smell reminiscent of decaying fish floated through the air.
“You eating those damned sardines again?” Fred asked Bennett. “Not me,” Bennett answered. He was looking around, too.
“Must be the girls,” Lucius said.
“You guys really are gross,” Fred said.
“You notice how all the fire pits are wrecked?” Mike asked.
“Yeah. I saw that when we were coming down the hill.”
“Who do you think did it?” Mike asked.
“Vandals?” Fred said and shrugged. “Kids come up here and party all the time.”
“But where are the people who own the saw?” Lucius asked.
“Might be across the river looking for fossils,” Fred said.
“Fossils up here?” Henry asked incredulously.
“Yeah. Lions paws, scallops, turitellas…I’ve even found a petrified crab. I used to come up here a couple of times a
year to collect them. I’ve got a bunch at home.”
“No shit,” Henry said. “Boy, I wanna come back up here and look for them.”
“Watch that ‘boy’ shit with Lucius around here,” Bennett said.
Lucius smiled and shook his head. “Why don’t you tone it down for now, Bennett.”
Bennett walked over to Lucius and put an arm around his shoulder and said, “You know I’m just jerking you around.”
“I know,” Lucius whispered. “But if Cory uses the word ‘boy’ I’m going to lay him out.”
“You’ll have to get to him before I do, big fella.”
Mike picked up the saw. “Maybe someone just forgot this.”
“Here’s a pair of shears and a knife over here,” Tom called to them.
He was standing near one of the fire pits some thirty yards away.
“Leave ‘em,” Fred said. “They’ll be back.”
“Is this mistletoe that’s scattered all over the ground?” Lucius asked.
“Yeah,” Fred said.
“Why would they throw it around?” Lucius asked.
Fred didn’t have an answer, so he ignored the question. “We should get going,” he said.
“Have you seen the creek yet?” Rob asked. “It’s deep. How are we going to get across?”
“There are stones to cross on,” Fred said and they started toward the creek, leaving Cory staring glumly at the tools, the shoe, the torn-up fire pits, and the scattered mistletoe.
They climbed down the embankment and stopped at the swollen creek’s edge. Most of the rocks Fred said they could cross on were under at least a few inches of water.
Cory caught up.
“I forgot about how the water’s higher when it’s raining here,” Fred said. He looked up and down the creek. There was no other place to cross. “Let’s go,” he said, and jumping from one rock to another, many of them submerged, he crossed to the other side.
Mike followed, then Bennett and Lucius, each with ease. Cory seemed to strain under the weight of his pack and almost fell in. Then Tom made a tentative crossing.
Next, Henry started to cross. But he only got to the second rock when he stopped. He took three false starts to the next rock and gave up.
“My legs are already too rubbery,” he said. “Hey, Fred, could you carry my pack across? I’ll be all right from there.”
“Sure,” Fred said. He lowered his pack from his back, laid it on the rocks, and went back for Henry’s pack.
“Let me go ahead,” Rob said and Henry stepped back to the shore to let Rob pass.
Fred waited patiently for Rob to cross but Rob couldn’t make it beyond the third rock.
“Bad legs,” he said laughing. “Hey Mike,” he called, “come take my pack, too, will you?”
Mike dropped his pack and Rob stepped back on the shore to let the two younger men come back and take their packs. Then the four crossed to a narrow, raised strip of gravel and rocks where the other four waited. They were on an island that had formed because on the other side an overflow channel had filled with the rising waters. But the channel was shallow and the footing sure and all eight men started crossing.
Cory stopped when he spotted a green nylon jacket in the water where it was snagged on a rock in the channel. The jacket was torn and missing a sleeve.
“What are you looking at?” Tom asked.
“Looks like part of a jacket,” Cory said.
Fred stepped past them and waded through ankle deep water to where the jacket lay and picked it up.
A pocket was partially torn free and a set of keys were hung up on some loose threads and dangled from the jacket.
“Looks like someone lost something important,” Fred said.
“Think it belongs to one of the cars up on the hill?” Henry asked.
“Could be. The car with the broken glass was a Chevy, and there are some GM keys on the ring. It would explain the broken window. Someone lost their keys and wanted to take valuables from the car before they hiked for help.”
“What kind of a jerk would break their windshield? You’d break one of the windows on a door,” Mike said.
Fred shrugged. “You’re the genius. You figure it out.” And he threw the jacket and keys back onto the side of Hughes Creek they had come from. “We’ll leave it here for now, in case they come back looking for it.”
“Maybe we should take the keys with us,” Mike said.
“What for?” Fred asked. “Either they’ll come back and find it, or it’ll still be here when we get back Sunday and then we can take it up the hill and leave it near the cars.”
“Good thinking,” Mike said and the others agreed and they finished the crossing.
On the other side of the channel a path climbed up an embankment. There was a sign where the trail forked:
Caballo Blanco Camp 2
Crawfish Creek Camp 2½
OakMTN Lodge 5
Trail 23W04 9
Both trailheads were soft and muddy from earlier rain.
“This is our last chance to go to the hot springs,” Fred said. He pointed to a dirt road that lay to the east and they could see another sign. “That’s the road that goes to the Hot Springs. This way takes us to Crawfish Creek.”
“How far are the springs from here?” Rob asked.
“Eight miles.”
“No nudies?” Lucius said.
And the others could tell he wanted to hear if Cory had a comment.
Nothing.
“No nudies,” Henry said. “Lucius, let’s go to Crawfish Camp.”
“Lead the way,” Bennett yelled.
The beginning of the trail was steep and they quickly strung out into three groups. Fred, Henry and Bennett in the lead; Lucius and Rob were next, then Mike, Tom and Cory.
Fred stopped, looked at Bennett to see if he was eating sardines, then he screwed up his face. “There’s that fishy smell again.”
“It‘s more like something that’s musty and rotting than it’s something that’s fishy,” Bennett said.
“Smells like the mudflats when the tide is out,” Henry commented.
“It’s fishy,” Fred repeated and started walking again. Then he stopped and asked, “Bennett, did you spill some of that sardine crap on yourself?”
“No. But I did notice that when I kissed your wife good-bye, last night, I had some discharge on my chin. I kissed her on the lips.”
“Watch it,” Fred said, but he laughed.
They walked further up the trail, Bennett leading while Fred was periodically checking back to see the progress of the others.
Bennett stopped. Henry, with his head hung, and huffing and puffing as he came up the trail behind him, almost walked into him.
“Something’s rustling in the bushes over there,” Bennett said and pointed up the trail to their right.
Henry stopped and said nothing.
“What’s the hold up?” Fred asked when he caught up.
“Something’s in the bushes,” he repeated and pointed for Fred’s benefit. “Probably a rabbit,” Fred said.
“Something bigger.”
“Probably a coyote.”
So Bennett trudged on, with Henry right behind him. Fred took another look back at the others then followed Henry. “Cory doesn’t look happy,” he called ahead and Bennett and Henry looked back.
“Fuck Cory,” Bennett said.
Back on the trail Cory was arguing with Mike as they walked. It was difficult to understand what was being said.
“Bet it’s about the gun,” Bennett said.
Further up the trail Henry stopped. “Sorry, I gotta catch my breath,” he said.
“We haven’t even gone a quarter mile from the river,” Fred said.
“I don’t care. I’m really out of shape.”
“Look at that, over there,” Bennett said interrupting them.
In the brush on the side of the trail was a shoe.
“Doesn’t that look like it matches the shoe Lucius
found down in Cougars Camp?” he asked.
“Sure does,” Henry said.
They waited and let the others catch up. Fred pointed out the shoe. “Does that look like the shoe we saw down in Cougars Camp to you guys?”
“Yeah,” Lucius said
“No it doesn’t,” Rob countered.
“I don’t think it does either,” Mike added.
“I didn’t think so myself,” Fred said.
Lucius picked it up and rolled it over in his hands. “This is just like the other one.”
“How would it get up here, Lou?” Bennett asked.
“I don’t know,” Lucius said. “Maybe an animal grabbed it. All I know is that I held the other shoe in my hands and this one looks just like it.”
“Couldn’t,” Bennett said leaning closer. “The other one’s a left shoe.”
“Always the jokes,” Lucius said as he shook his head.
“If an animal had grabbed it there’d be teeth marks on it,” Fred said.
“Maybe someone just dropped it out of their pack?” Mike said.
“Yeah, that could be,” Fred said.
“Looks like something was dragged across the trail over here,” Bennett said from a few feet further on.
Lucius discarded the shoe and they all moved ten yards further up the trail to where the soft earth had been disturbed by something that had been dragged across its soft, muddy surface.
“What’s it look like to you?” Bennett asked Fred.
“I don’t know,” Fred said. “Maybe someone was pulling some firewood along.”
“Firewood? Why get firewood up here when there’s so much wood close to the camp?”
“I don’t know, Bennett,” Fred exclaimed. “Is it important? Maybe it was a bear or a cougar with a deer carcass.”
Bennett shrugged.
“That’s it. I’m going back,” Cory said to Mike, but loud enough for them all to hear.
Mike turned to Fred with his hands palms up in that universal gesture that asks the question, “So…?”
“Is that what he’s been mumbling about all the way up?” Bennett asked.
“I don’t like this,” Cory said. “I feel like there’s something funny going on and it wouldn’t hurt to have the gun.”
“Let him get his goddamned gun,” Rob said.
They stood on the trail waiting for anyone to speak their objections, but the argument against bringing the gun didn’t seem so important now.
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