I moved my light over the stuff that had fallen out of the pack the bear ran off with. A torn rain poncho. A pair of thermal socks newly in need of darning. A pocket-size guide to identifying edible plants. And—
“Our GPS!” I ran over to pick up the handheld device. If there was anything we might really need to help us get off the mountain in a pinch, that was it. Or, it would have been if the screen wasn’t a spiderweb of cracked glass and bear-tooth puncture holes. Oddly, that wasn’t the most unusual thing about it.
“What the—” I mumbled to myself as I peeled my fingers from the back of the broken device. There was something golden and sticky smeared all over it. I smelled the gooey residue the GPS left on my fingers. I didn’t know what bear slobber smelled like, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t nearly this appetizing.
I turned to Joe. “I know what lured the bear to our packs. Honey.”
“But we didn’t bring any honey,” he said, confused.
“That’s why I said ‘lured,’ ” I replied. “I don’t think that bear raiding our gear was any more an accident than the tree falling in our path at the beaver pond. Black bears have some of the most sensitive noses in the wild kingdom, and they love the smell of honey. I bet a lot of other wild animals do too. I packed the GPS at the bottom of the bag, and there’s only one easy way to explain how bear bait got all over the gear at the bottom of our pack.”
“Someone put it there to bait critters in an attempt to waylay us on our way up the mountain.” Joe swept his flashlight back around the pine grove. If there was a bad guy hiding behind a tree, we didn’t see him.
“So far whoever it is has tried to sabotage us from a distance,” I said. “They haven’t attacked us directly.”
“Yet,” Joe said, giving the area another sweep with his light.
“Who is the common denominator in both attempts?” I asked. It didn’t take Joe long to get where I was going.
“Dan loaded the ATVs and was alone with our gear for at least a half hour while we were looking after Jones,” he said. “Amina wasn’t with the us the whole time either. She seemed nice, but we don’t really know her.”
Amina’s name got me thinking in a different direction. This one was just as ominous, and Joe and I weren’t the victims. “Amina also had access to something else besides honey. What if Jones’s allergy attack wasn’t an accident after all?”
Joe seemed to consider it.
“Amina knew we were coming and why, and she would have had the opportunity to spike the tea,” I added.
Joe raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Seems like a stretch. How would she know Jones had an allergy when Jones herself didn’t even know? We also can’t be sure it was the tea that did it and not something else.”
“You’re probably right. Everything looks suspicious at the moment, but sometimes an accident is just an accident,” I conceded. “But whoever it is, we have to consider the possibility that beavers and bears aren’t their only accomplices. We don’t know what we’re going to find at the top of the mountain or how Dr. K plays into this yet, but we could be facing multiple perps.”
“We know Drawes is out there somewhere and has a motive to cause Dr. K harm,” Joe said. “John Smith is another wild card. We know he’s after the garnets, which gives him a motive as well, whoever he is.”
“There’s one other ex–treasure hunter we do know the name of,” I said as I worked through the theory in my mind. “He has an alibi, but—”
“It wouldn’t be the first time Steven conspired to steal Aleksei’s demantoids,” Joe completed the thought for me. “He and Casey both being away while we’re here does seem pretty convenient.”
“Casey told me on the phone that she had to go to a hospitality conference, which seems pretty legit, but we don’t if Steven is with her,” I said. “With the lodge doing as well as it is, you’d think one of the owners would want to stay behind so they aren’t so shorthanded.”
“It’s hard to imagine Casey doing anything like this, not after seeing how devastated she was last time when she found out what Steven and her sister had done,” I said. “And as badly as things went for Steven that time, would he really have the guts to try again?”
“Speaking of people we know have guts…,” Joe started, but he cut himself short. From the pained look on his face, I could tell something was bothering him.
“Joe, what is it?”
“You’re not going to like this, Frank, but the person with the easiest access to our gear from the moment we arrived is Jones.”
“No way,” I snapped. “I know you feel threatened by me including Jones in our investigations, but to call her a suspect is ridiculous.”
“Dude, I am so not threatened by Jones—okay, maybe a little,” he admitted. “But that’s not what this is about. I think Jones is awesome, and she’s totally carried her weight as a detective. The idea that she might be involved upsets me, too. I’m just saying it’s possible.”
“It’s not possible,” I shot back.
“Just hear me out, okay?” he asked. “I’m not saying she did it, but she did have the means and the opportunity. She had prior knowledge of the original case from when you were going out and knew about our hunch that Aleksei had a secret stash of garnets. She’s also the one who had the idea to come along on this trip as soon as you told her where we were going.”
“I can’t believe this. Are you really suggesting Jones would try double-cross us and find the gems for herself?” I laughed. “And, what, you think she also conspired to have a potentially deadly allergy attack?”
“It’s not the most outrageous thing to ever happen on one of our cases,” he said. “I didn’t think about it until you mentioned the possibility of Amina spiking her tea. I don’t think Amina could have because she wouldn’t have a way of knowing Jones had a secret allergy. The only person who could know is Jones.” He saw me about to rebut him and interjected before I could. “I know, I know, poisoning yourself with an allergen to misdirect suspicions would be an extreme measure, but it sure would create an impressive alibi.”
“Are you sure that tree didn’t actually fall on your head?” I asked him. “You’re going to have better luck convincing me the bear that stole our pack is a criminal mastermind. Jones isn’t involved in any way. End of story.”
Joe held up his hands in defeat. “Sorry, bro. Just trying to explore every angle, that’s all.”
“Well, that one’s a dead end,” I said, putting the conversation to rest. I admit my feelings for Jones made me a little biased. Objectivity is critical to any good investigation, and objectively Joe was right about Jones having the means and opportunity—and we both knew from experience that really good people were sometimes capable of doing bad things. But I also knew from experience that intuition is one of the best tools a good detective has, and my intuition told me that Jones was a true friend and would never do something like that.
I looked up at the lightening dawn sky. “So much for a full night’s rest. Let’s take stock of the gear we have left and get moving. The sun should be up for us to climb that ledge soon.”
“Well, we have all our food at least, so we won’t starve, and a pot to boil stream water in if we run out of H2O,” he said, holding up the metal water bottle he’d kept with him in his hammock.
We also had the pocket survival kits we always carried, my Swiss Army knife, a hatchet, and the new paracord bracelet Cherry from the general store had given Joe.
Joe held up his wrist and tapped the little compass that was woven into it. “The original mountain men didn’t need GPS, and neither do we. It would be nice to have a map, but in a pinch, we can always get our bearings. And right now, our bearing is north!”
* * *
The rest of the trek up the mountain was tense but thankfully uneventful. We were both on high alert for danger, but the most ominous things we faced were an angry squirrel and some mosquitoes. Two hours later we were crouched in the brush, staring up at the old ranger st
ation lookout that doubled as Dr. K’s research station and residence.
The old ranger cabin sat perched atop one-story-tall wooden stilts at the edge of a ravine, overlooking a gnarly set of river rapids rushing down the mountainside below. The cabin had windows all the way around to give rangers a 360-degree view over the entire mountain range, so they could spot any forest fires for miles. The station was surrounded by a gated wooden fence with bold NO TRESPASSING signs—neither of which had been there last time.
There was another change too. A new wooden rope bridge was suspended over the rapids, leading from the cabin’s wraparound deck to the other side of the ravine.
Joe shuddered when he saw it. The bridge was new because the last one had torn apart when Joe was tossed over the side during our last trip. That was right after I’d found Max tied up and gagged in his own specimen cabinet. And that was right before I’d plunged over a waterfall in a tiny raft. Max had gone over the falls with me, and the wipeout had left him with a permanent limp.
“Let’s hope this visit goes better than the last one,” said Joe.
I immediately realized something wasn’t right this time either.
“The door is open,” I whispered. “I don’t think Dr. K would have left it that way, not with all the expensive equipment and delicate specimens he keeps in there.”
Joe jumped up to run to the station. I grabbed his arm and held him back.
“Let’s lie low and conduct surveillance for a while before we head to the station, in case anyone is hiding up there,” I said. “If nothing moves, then we move in.”
One of the hardest parts of being a detective is having patience, especially when a friend may be in danger. Rushing in and potentially getting ourselves into a jam right along with Max wouldn’t have done any of us any good. So we watched and waited. When nothing moved for a half hour, we did. We approached cautiously, with Joe leading the way and me lingering a few yards behind in case anyone sprang an ambush and he needed backup.
The smell hit me right away.
“Skunk,” I whispered.
It got stronger the closer we got.
“Really skunky skunk,” Joe whispered as we approached.
We reached the base of the stilts safely, but it was on the climb up that we were most vulnerable. We’d be an open target for anyone hiding on the ground, and anyone lying in wait inside had the upper ground, so we moved up the steps as quickly as we could without compromising safety.
The skunk smell got even skunkier when we reached the deck, skunky enough to make our eyes water.
I lifted my head and peeked quickly into the window of the back room. I gave Joe the okay hand sign to indicate it was all clear. Then I crawled toward the main room on my hands and knees, careful to stay out of view of the windows. I raised my head and gave another peek.
I could tell two things right away: (1) there wasn’t anybody in the main room, which took up most of the station, and (2) someone other than Dr. K had been there recently—and they’d torn the place apart.
There was scientific equipment knocked over and scattered everywhere. My heart hurt for all Dr. K’s research. My only hope was that the scientist was in better shape than his field lab.
“The main area looks clear,” I whispered.
“I’m going in,” Joe said, peering through the open door and nodding back at me before standing up and stepping inside. I quickly followed him.
His eyes locked on the empty surface where Dr. K usually kept the shortwave radio that allowed him to communicate with the outside world. All that was left were a few shredded cords. “The radio is gone. No wonder no one’s been able to reach him.”
“From the look of those cupboards, the only things to have eaten a meal here in a while are the wildlife,” I said, observing the empty, shredded food containers littering the counter and floor. “Based on the mold growth on that banana peel, I’d say it’s been a few days at least, maybe longer.”
“Are those animal turds?” Joe cringed as he eyed the little mounds scattered on the floor.
We both froze at the sound of something moving behind a knocked-over specimen cabinet. I gulped back panic as the intruder stepped into sight. I had been wrong about the station being unoccupied, and the current inhabitant definitely wasn’t Max Kroopnik. The intruder had beady eyes and dark black hair with a fat white streak running down the center. We were standing face-to-face with a skunk.
7 EVERYTHING SMELLS LIKE FLOWERS
JOE
I DON’T THINK I’VE EVER BEEN so afraid of something so cute. I’ve faced down a lot of bad guys and girls before, and some of them even smelled like they could have used a shower. None of them made my knees quake the way that skunk did.
The sulfury odor filling Dr. K’s ransacked research station was potent enough to make my eyes tear up, and I had a feeling the skunk’s funk wasn’t even that recent—whatever it had sprayed was long gone by the time we got there. I didn’t want to find out what it smelled like freshly sprayed all over me.
The skunk looked around blindly like it knew we were there but couldn’t see us, even though it was a few feet away. From the way it was wiggling its pointy black nose and sniffing at the air, it could smell us, though. And we could definitely smell it.
Frank put his finger to his lips, signaling me to be quiet, and slowly started backing out the door. I followed his lead, resisting the urge to turn and run screaming instead. About halfway down the stairs, I breathed a sigh of relief. The skunk hadn’t followed us. It looked like we were out of the blast zone and in the clear.
“Talk about a contaminated crime scene,” I said.
“Looks like it’s going to stay that way too,” Frank replied. “I don’t think we’re going to be doing much up-close investigating while that skunk is using Max’s place as a vacation rental.”
“I can imagine the online reviews now,” I said.
“Skunks are usually nocturnal, so I’m guessing we woke it up from its beauty sleep,” said Frank, slipping into junior naturalist mode again. “They have bad eyesight, but their sense of smell and hearing are great. I was afraid if we made any more noise, it might feel threatened and spray us. Thankfully, they usually only use their scent as a last resort.”
“From the smell up there, that skunk last-resorted someone recently,” I said as we reached terra firma.
“I hope it was the perp and not Max that got hit,” Frank said. “That smell can last up to two weeks or longer if you don’t have a special solution to remove it with.”
“At least we’ll smell them coming,” I said, giving myself a sniff as well to make sure I hadn’t accidentally picked up a free sample of Eau de Skunk cologne.
“What I want to know is why there’s a critter living in Dr. K’s outpost instead of Dr. K,” Frank said, staring back up at the station with concern.
“That skunk isn’t the only thing about this situation that stinks, that’s for sure.” I scanned the woods around the tower. “Let’s head for cover in case the burglar comes back. Whoever it is doesn’t mind using violence, and there are things worse than skunk spray we could be shot with.”
“It definitely wasn’t just four-legged animals that tore that place apart,” Frank noted as he followed me. “Someone was looking for something, and you can bet it’s the garnets.”
“I’m just hoping them taking the radio means they’re trying to hide it from Dr. K so he can’t call for help,” I said. “At least that way we’d know he was okay.”
“Or at least he was,” Frank replied ominously. “We don’t know what’s happened since then.”
I snapped my fingers—my brain must have wanted me to look on the bright side, because a mental lightbulb had just flicked on. “The missing radio reminds me of something. It’s not the only one Dr. K had access to.”
“The chopper!” Frank exclaimed.
I took off running, with Frank right behind.
“There it is,” I whispered, peering over a small hill not
far from the ranger station.
“If the chopper’s still here, then we know Max didn’t just fly away and leave the mountain,” Frank whispered back. “He’s got to still be out here in the wilderness somewhere.”
We approached the chopper slowly, carefully looking around to make sure we were still alone. We were going to have to take every step like there was someone in the woods hunting us—because there probably was.
And it looked like whoever it was had already beaten us to Dr. K’s chopper. The radio had been smashed.
Groan. “Which means we can’t call for help, either.”
The radio wasn’t the only thing in pieces. The control panel had been pulled apart.
“There’s a reason Dr. K didn’t just fly away. He couldn’t.”
“So where do we go from here?” Frank asked as we moved off into the brush to get back out of sight. Always the nature nerd at heart, I could see him taking mental note of a showy shrub with little star-shaped yellow flowers.
“Where would Dr. K go is the better question,” I replied. I didn’t add the other part that crossed my mind: assuming he got away.
“This is one of the non-native species from the Ural Mountains that Aleksei planted from seeds he brought with him. They don’t grow in this part of the world normally,” Frank noted absently before returning to the topic at hand. “We know Aleksei had a few hideouts on the mountain where he lived all those years. If Max knows someone is after him, he could be lying low in one of them.”
“Only we have no way of knowing where they are. We also know he had secret hiding places for the demantoids, but we don’t know how to find those either.” I kicked at the dirt in frustration as we walked, sending pebbles skittering into another one of Aleksei’s Ural Mountain shrubs with the yellow star-shaped flowers.
When I looked up, Frank was running over to another yellow-flowered shrub about twenty feet away. I recognized the junior botanist gleam in his eyes right away as he knelt down to examine it. Leave it to my brother to get all excited about a plant while we’re imperiled on a remote mountaintop.
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