Yellowstone Standoff (18 page)

35

A
sliver of black plastic rested in the center of the cloth in Lex's palm. “Toby found it,” he said. He plucked the thin, rectangular object, no larger than a communion wafer, from the folds of the bandana and held it close to the lantern. Metal lines etched the surface of the plastic. “It was in the dead wolf. It's some kind of computer chip.”

Chuck's brow furrowed. “A chip?”

“I'm as confused as you are. We all are.”

“It was in 217's neck,” Toby said, his voice scratchy and weak. “Under the skin, above where a tracking collar would have been.”

“But 217 didn't have a collar,” Chuck said.

“Or any signs of ever having been fitted with one—no rub marks, no callouses.” Tears continued to well in Toby's eyes, but they no longer coursed down his cheeks. “I felt a lump when I ran my hand down 217's body. The chip was encased in scar tissue.”

“Which means it had been there a while.”

“At least a year, I'd guess. Maybe longer.”

“Could it have been there its whole life?” Chuck turned to Lex. “Was this wolf raised in captivity?”

“No,” Lex said. “Every wolf in the park was born in the wild.”

“What about a past research project involving chip implantation?”

“There's never been any such study that I'm aware of.”

“But lots of the wolves have collars.”

“Sure. That's a big part of the Wolf Initiative—dart individuals in each pack, affix the collars, and track where they go. But not computer chips.”

“Someone could have stuck it in the wolf while it was darted and asleep.”

“That's possible, I suppose. But why would someone do that? Besides, there's a whole bunch of people on hand when wolves are collared. The idea of someone sticking a chip into a wolf without anyone else noticing? Impossible. Anyway, like Toby said, there's no sign the wolf was ever darted and collared in the first place.”

“What are you thinking at this point?”

Lex took a deep breath. “I'm thinking the chip doesn't really matter. Not anymore. The phone doesn't matter, either. None of it matters, not with what's just happened.” He exhaled, his cheeks sunken. “I just want to get out of here. All of us. Get everyone back to civilization and let the investigators do their work.”

“That's what we all want,” Chuck said. “But we're not there. Not yet. There's a killer, a murderer, right here in camp. Are they planning to try to bluff their way through the investigation team's questioning? Who knows. I'm convinced Sarah's death had something to do with the smashed phone. Whatever that something is hasn't gone anywhere—which means we have to stay on guard.”

Lex looked as if he'd aged ten years in the past few minutes, but he straightened and looked Chuck in the eye. “Okay,” he said. “I'm with you.”

The door to the cabin burst open. Clarence rushed inside. He scanned the room until he saw Sarah. He went to her and draped himself over her body, his head pressed to hers.

“
Dios mio
,” he wailed, his cry muffled by the sleeping bag. “Sarah!
Jesucristo
.”

He lifted her upper body from the bench and rocked her in his arms. After a minute, spent and sniffling, he lowered her to the bench.

“Janelle said...” he began. He stared at Sarah's wan face, encircled by the collar of the sleeping bag. “Janelle said...” He drew a tortured breath and ran a forearm across his face.

A quiet knock sounded on the door. Clarence jerked. He turned Sarah's face to the wall and stepped back just as Janelle entered the room with Carmelita and Rosie.

Chuck expelled a sharp breath. He hadn't realized how nervous he'd been since Janelle had departed from the cabin on her own to retrieve the girls.

Taking Carmelita and Rosie by the hand, Clarence ushered them to the bench at the back of the room next to the small fireplace. Janelle pointed to Sarah and put a finger to her lips. “You know to be quiet, right?” she told the girls.

They nodded as they climbed onto the bench and sat with their backs to the log wall, their booted feet hanging off the edge of the foam pad.

Rosie eyed Chance. “Can we pet the doggie?” she asked in a loud whisper.

“Of course,” Keith told her, his voice hollow.

He reached for the clip that attached the leash to Chance's collar. Before he detached it, a chorus of wolf howls echoed through the cabin.

36

G
ood,” Chuck said. “They've crossed the river.”

Lex gawked at him. “What do you mean, ‘good'?”

“That's what we need.”

“I don't see—”

“We're holding out until the response team gets here.” When the girls leaned forward, listening, Chuck chose his words with care. “In the meantime, we want everyone together so no one can do anything bad to each other. The wolves are our excuse.”

Lex looked out the cabin's rain-spattered window. Chuck followed Lex's gaze. The patch of western sky framed in the window was growing darker with each passing minute.

More howls sounded, their proximity indicating the wolves were in the woods below the cabin.

“
Lex
,” Chuck urged.

Lex turned to Clarence and Toby. “Would you two head up to tent row? I want everyone down here at the cabin and mess tent. We'll do a head count, make sure we're all together before nightfall.”

Chuck followed Clarence and Toby outside. “Don't make any waves,” he said. “Keep everyone calm. Sarah's killer could be any one of us. We've all got knives.” He tapped his own all-purpose blade, sheathed and belted at his waist beside his canister of bear spray. “Whoever it is will be laying low. We want to keep it that way until we can get everyone out of here.”

Toby headed up the hill to tent row with Clarence. Chuck still wasn't certain of the wolf researcher's innocence, but he was sure of Clarence's ability to look after himself in the public setting of the camp.

Lex joined Chuck outside.

“I think,” Chuck told him, “you should keep everyone together at the cabin and mess tent until help gets here.”

“Agreed.” Lex's face was a hard mask. “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”

Chuck looked across the meadow. The grass sloped gently away to the north and west. The pines at the foot of the clearing stood tall. “I never should have brought Janelle and the girls out here.”

“Don't say that,” Lex said. “You're conflating, as Jessie would have said. This is murder. We're dealing with it. We
will
deal with it. But it has nothing to do with your bringing your family out here—on my okay.” His voice was strong, assured. “If I've learned anything from losing Jessie, it's that life happens so fast you can't even believe it, like a meteor. It flares, it's terrific, it's gone.” He looked Chuck in the eye. “You were right to want to bring them here, and you were right to bring them.”

He gripped Chuck's elbow. “I've been watching you. You're a good dad. You're going to make a great father. Your wife and girls are indoors. They're safe.” He let go of Chuck's arm. “We just have to keep everyone else safe until the emergency team gets here.”

Chuck nodded. “We can post people on all four sides, set up all the extra lights we have around the cabin and mess tent.”

“There's no way the wolves will attack.”

“It's not about that. It's about keeping everyone occupied and safe, in one place.”

“We just have to make it till morning.”

The two men watched Toby and Clarence work their way along tent row. The researchers left their tents and gathered on their platforms, zipping rain jackets and shouldering packs.

A single wolf howl rose from the forest below the cabin.
Chuck turned with Lex, scanning the wall of trees at the bottom of the meadow. The wolves were back there in the forest somewhere, out of sight. But why were they here at all?

The howl hung in the air like the high note of a stringed instrument before dissolving into a series of high-pitched yips. Chuck tensed when a deep growl reverberated across the clearing like a bass drum.

“That's a grizzly,” he said. “It's with the wolves.”

Lex faced the forest, his back stiff. “What the hell is going on out there?”

Chuck studied the sky, dense with clouds. He checked his watch. An hour until full dark.

More than enough time to see about answering Lex's question.

37

T
he drone,” Chuck said to Lex.

“No. It's too much. We just need to make it through the night.”

“It'll help keep everyone engaged, focused.”

Lex studied the darkening sky. “Okay,” he said. “Think there's enough daylight?”

“If we hurry.”

Lex turned to the closed cabin door. The bags of wrinkled flesh beneath his eyes were dark half-moons. “I'm sorry,” he said, and Chuck realized he was addressing Sarah's body, inside the cabin. “I never thought...I couldn't have imagined...”

Chuck put a hand on Lex's shoulder, wanting to give him strength, to return the favor Lex had paid him a moment ago. “The superintendent will put the park's investigative team on this. They'll work with the FBI and whoever else to find her killer. That's their job.”

He turned Lex away from the cabin, back to the mist-shrouded meadow. “Keep it simple when everyone gets here. No details. I'll go find Kaifong and Randall.”

Chuck passed the mess tent and angled up the slope. He studied the scientists making their way down the hill in the gathering gloom but failed to spot either of the Drone Team members. On its platform in the middle of tent row, the Drone Team's large, red tent glowed with light from within.

“Randall?” Chuck called as he approached. “Kaifong?” Nothing. He climbed onto the platform and batted the nylon wall of the tent with the flat of his hand.

Randall unzipped the front entrance. He removed ear buds strung to a music player in his palm as he stepped out. He looked past Chuck at the researchers gathering in front of the cabin and his eyes grew wide.

“You don't know what's going on?” Chuck asked.

“Sorry.” Randall lifted the music player. “Violent Femmes. Sickest retro on the planet.”

“You didn't hear the wolves?”

He shook his head. “No, man.”

“They've crossed the river. They're approaching camp. Sounds like they might have a bear with them.”

Randall took a quick breath. “A grizzly?”

“Lex and I are thinking you and Kaifong might be able to answer that question for us. We're wondering if you could do a flyover, see if you can make out anything.”

Randall faced the strong breeze coursing across the hillside from the west. “Windspeed's cranking, but manageable.” He turned to Chuck. “You got it. I'll load up.”

“Where's Kaifong?”

Randall pointed at the three dozen scientists forming a half-circle around Lex in front of the cabin. “Down there, I guess. She was hanging with the wolfies the last I saw of her.” He turned to the tent. “I'll be just a sec.”

“Need any help?”

“Nah,” he said as he ducked inside. “I can get it all, no prob.”

Lex finished addressing the group as Chuck returned to the bottom of the hill. The researchers headed for the storage kegs lined between the cabin and mess tent, their faces set.

“I told them Sarah's sick,” Lex said to Chuck as Randall approached with the drone in its frame on his pack. “I said we were caring for her in the cabin, that help wouldn't get here until morning, and that no one was to bother her in the meantime.”

“All ready to rock and roll,” Randall announced.

“Still no sign of Kaifong?” Chuck asked.

“She's not down here?”

Chuck aimed a questioning look at Lex, who shook his head.

Around them, the scientists hung LED lanterns, taken from the storage kegs, on hiking poles driven into the muddy ground.

“Do me a favor?” Chuck called to Clarence, who worked with Toby to fasten one of the lanterns to a pole in front of the mess tent.

“
Sí, jefe
.” Clarence's voice was subdued, but his gaze was resolute.

“We're not sure where Kaifong's gone off to. Would you and Toby track her down?” Chuck clenched his jaw. Surely, Sarah's killer hadn't struck again, not this quickly, and not in such a crowd.

“We'll find her,” Clarence said.

He and Toby set off while Randall went ahead of Chuck and Lex to the west side of the cabin.

Chuck peered at the fog filtering through the trees at the foot of the meadow. No more howls or growls came from the woods. Had the grizzly and Stander Pack really teamed up? The fact that the grizzly and the single wolf, Number 217, had traveled across the valley away from camp together was unlikely enough. The idea that the entire pack of wolves had forged some sort of alliance with the same grizzly, particularly after 217's death, was unfathomable. But so was Sarah's murder.

Chuck shuddered at the realization that Sarah's killer still lurked among the researchers. Lex had assured him Janelle and the girls were safe in the cabin, where they were alone with Keith.

It was Keith who'd led the search that resulted in finding Sarah's body. That meant he couldn't be the killer—could he?

Chuck put the side of his hand to the cabin's window and looked inside. Keith stood with his back to the closed door. The girls squatted on the floor in front of the fireplace with Chance resting between them. Janelle sat on the rear bench above the girls, speaking with Keith.

Chuck exhaled. Janelle and the girls were fine. But where was Kaifong?

He turned to Lex. “She wasn't there when you spoke with everyone?”

“Kaifong?” Lex shook his head. “When we counted off, only she and Randall were missing. But I saw the light in their tent, up on their platform. I figured they were on their way.”

“She
was
at our tent, up until just a bit ago,” Randall said. “She's around. Clarence and Toby will find her.” He glanced at the dusky sky. “If we're going to do this, though, we'd better get airborne, like, right now.”

He handed the drone to Chuck and retrieved the tablet computer from his backpack. He held the tablet out to Lex. “I'll need you to hold that up for me until Kaifong gets here.”

Lex took the computer. Randall freed the control console from the holster at his waist and pressed a switch. The four rotors kicked in. He nudged the console's left toggle forward. The rotors spun faster. The craft trembled in place before lifting from Chuck's hands and rising into the cloud-covered sky with a loud whine.

Randall looked from the hovering drone to the view of the cabin and meadow streaming on the tablet screen. He thumbed the right toggle forward and watched the drone zoom across the open field, the whine of the rotors dying away.

When the drone was a black speck against the clouds, Randall eyed the computer screen, where the view of the meadow disappeared, replaced by treetops.

Chuck pointed at the video feed. The tops of the trees passing beneath the drone looked as if they were only inches from the hanging camera. “Make sure you stay—”

“We're golden,” Randall said before Chuck could finish. “The wide-angle lens makes the trees look way closer than they are.” The drone slowed as Randall worked the controls. “Okay,” he said to Lex, “what is it you want me to do?”

Lex looked from the tablet propped in his hands to Chuck, who said, “We should check nearby meadows, see if we can catch sight of anything. You said animals will come into the open sometimes when they hear the drone, out of curiosity.”

Lex said, “Maybe the wolves will—”

“Wait,” Randall broke in, his eyes locked on the computer screen. “Did you see that?”

Chuck stared at the tablet. “See what?”

“Movement, I think.”

The tablet showed a tight clearing in the forest. Randall nudged the console's toggles with his thumbs. The drone descended into the shadowy opening. The scene on the tablet grew grainy in the reduced light below the treetops. The drone came to a halt, hovering a few feet off the ground. A phalanx of tree trunks and pine branches surrounded the clearing.

Something moved at the base of a tree.

The camera continued to focus on the gray trunks of the trees and the green of the tree branches spreading above.

Seconds passed. Had he imagined it? The drone hovered. The camera streamed the unchanging scene. A burst of light gray entered the video feed, moving fast, straight toward the camera.

Randall nudged the controls. The drone climbed. On the computer screen, a wolf flung itself at the rising copter. Its mouth snapped shut as it disappeared from view beneath the dangling camera.

“That was close,” Randall said.

The drone circled as it climbed, the camera capturing a panning scene of tree trunks and branches and something else, barely visible at the edge of the shadowed clearing, dark on top, lighter below.

Randall leaned toward the tablet as he worked the controls on the console. The copter and camera plunged back toward the ground.

Chuck's heart leapt into his throat. On the tablet screen, the object grew in size and grainy focus until it became a person dressed in a navy jacket and khaki slacks, bound to a tree trunk by loops of rope, mouth gagged, head slumped forward.