by Trevor Scott
Finally, Robin said, “We’ll take the case.” But first she needed to find Max. The last she heard, her twin brother was somewhere in Missouri visiting an old Air Force buddy.
She hung up with the Minnesota woman and tapped in her brother’s quick contact.
Knob Noster, Missouri
Max Kane rolled over in bed and found his phone on the nightstand. Seeing it was his sister Robin, he took the call.
“What’s up, sis?” he whispered.
“Did I wake you?”
He looked over his shoulder at the naked woman lying face-down in his hotel bed. Naked himself, he got up and wandered to the bathroom, closing the door quietly behind him.
“I might have been recharging a little,” Max said. “I take it you have something for us.” His sister had texted him earlier in the day saying she might have a case in Minnesota.
“Yes, we do. Can you drive north to pick me up in Duluth?”
He thought about the woman in the other room. Their time together had been nice, but he had been trying to figure out how he would end it. She was the sister of an old Air Force friend who had retired in the past couple of days at nearby Whiteman Air Force Base. That ceremony had turned into an extended stay at the hotel and enough debauchery to last a year.
“Is that a one-day drive?” he asked her.
“The way you drive, yes. A little more than six hundred miles.”
“Nine hours.”
He heard computer keystrokes on the other end.
Then Robin said, “Okay. I’m booked. I get in at six p.m.”
“Eighteen hundred,” Max said.
“Still on military time?”
“It’s the only thing that will ever make sense to me,” he said. “Now, tell me about the case.”
“Are you standing in the hotel bathroom naked?”
How the hell did she know that? It must have been her twin connection.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m not gonna send you another dick pic. That was a mistake.”
“It was traumatizing. Even though we used to take baths together.”
“The case?” he reminded her.
She told him about the missing woman in the BWCA Wilderness of Northern Minnesota, and how the man had reportedly been mauled by a bear.
“That doesn’t sound right,” Max said.
“Which part?”
“Although black bears kill more people each year than grizzlies, that only has to do with the nature of their numbers and their proximity to prey. Still, a predator will go for the weakest of the pair.”
“Maybe the man was the weakest,” Robin said. “Did you ever think of that?”
“Of course. But if the two of us were camped out in the wilderness, a bear would much rather take a bite out of a Robin burger than a tough old Max flank steak.”
“Good point.”
“Humans, on the other hand, would take out the strongest of the two first. Eliminate the biggest threat.”
“You think she was taken?”
“I don’t know.”
Just then a text came in with an attached photo of the missing woman. The photo depicted a pretty blonde woman wearing a green Forest Service uniform. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Her smile was infectious. She really enjoyed her work, Max surmised.
“She’s a very beautiful young lady,” Max concluded.
“My thoughts exactly,” Robin said. Then she thought for a moment. “Okay. You better get back to your naked guest.”
“You’re busting my balls,” he said.
She giggled. “I’ll bet she’s doing that.”
“Hey, at least one of us is getting something. Sorry, that was a low blow.”
“Max! I don’t need a play-by-play.” She scoffed and then hung up.
Shaking his head, Max went to the bathroom before heading back into the main room. His naked friend had turned over and was imploring him back for round two or three that evening. What the hell! He’d have to leave early in the morning now. Might as well make the most of it. He crawled back into bed and kissed her on the lips.
3
Ely, Minnesota
Kim Joki wandered around her sister’s small house on the north side of the city a couple of blocks from Shagawa Lake. The single-story structure needed a lot of work, Kim thought. But she had to give her sister credit for at least one thing—Pam kept a tidy place. Her simple furniture was old but in decent shape. The outside of the house looked like the winters of Northern Minnesota had tried to destroy the shingles, but the inside had been painted recently, and the wood floors had been refinished not too long ago.
She had been staying at Pam’s place for the past week when she was not out in the Boundary Waters searching alongside the search and rescue teams from St. Louis and Lake Counties, along with local volunteers. Small towns pulled together in times of trouble, she thought. And Kim still had a lot of friends in town from her own time working there with the Forest Service. Luckily, her boss in Duluth considered her temporary transfer to Ely a work-related issue, allowing her autonomy to continue her search.
She wandered into the living room and stopped at a small table opposite the stone fireplace. Her sister had taken a number of photos of the Boundary Waters, and some included her in a canoe, repairing trails, or just goofing off for the camera. She had to wonder who took these shots. Did Pam have a boyfriend now? Not likely, or Pam would have told her. No, she was still on the rebound from her lumberjack—a man that had not even taken the time to help them search for Pam. How much could he have cared about Kim’s sister?
Her phone suddenly buzzed and she saw that she had left herself a reminder to attend a meeting this morning at the U.S. Forest Service Ranger District Office of the Superior National Forest. She had gotten word of the meeting after talking with the nice lady from Salt Lake City. Deep down, she wondered how a lawyer from Utah and her brother, a former federal agent, could help her find her sister deep within the Boundary Waters. But the two of them had great reviews online, with no negatives. That was almost impossible to achieve online these days. It didn’t take much to piss off someone for almost any reason.
Tears formed in her eyes, which she wiped away with the back of her hand. Her sister was only in her current position because she was following her big sister. It was her damn fault that her sister was working with the Forest Service here in Ely. Her fault this was happening. A wave of angst and dread washed through her body, as if an electrical pulse was surging through her veins.
She glanced at herself in the mirror over the top of the table with the pictures and almost didn’t recognize herself. Her eyes were puffy from crying the past few days, and she seemed to have more lines in her forehead and alongside each eye. But one thing had not changed. With her blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail, she was undoubtedly Pam’s older sister. She wore her Forest Service short-sleeve light green button-up top and the dark green slacks. Now, she adjusted her badge and made sure her shirt was lined up properly with her belt and zipper.
Kim left the house and got into her Forest Service truck, which her boss in Duluth had allowed her to drive north 100 miles to Ely. She drove through the downtown of the small city to the east side of town and pulled into the parking lot of the Kawishiwi Ranger District office, a newer structure that could have been a high-end lodge, with its high ceilings and large log beams.
She went immediately to the large media room where they conducted interpretive sessions with guests. The room was abuzz with activity. She wasn’t sure she could face these people again. Kim knew that they had already written off her sister, and guessed they were only placating her because of her position within the Forest Service.
The problem from the beginning with her sister’s disappearance was largely jurisdictional. Ely sat in the far northeast corner of St. Louis County, which was headquartered in Duluth, with offices in Hibbing and Virginia. But the last known location of Pam was to the east in Lake County, which had its main office
in Two Harbors twenty miles north of Duluth on Lake Superior, along with a couple of satellite offices with only three deputies in each. Ely itself had a small police force with just seven officers. But they had no authority outside of the city limits. Which left the Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigations. Since this district was quite large, it would have normally had one special agent to investigate crimes within this area of the Superior National Forest. However, because of budget problems, that position had not been filled for the past six months.
As she stood in the back by herself, she noticed a stout man in khakis and a polo shirt come in. He was wearing a gun on his right hip, so she guessed he was law enforcement of some kind. He went straight to the front of the room and in a loud, authoritative voice, he had everyone take a seat.
“My name is Special Agent Wayne Cranston of the U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigations.”
A sheriff’s deputy from Lake County said, “Does this mean the feds are taking over the investigation?”
Kim wanted to know this also. She thought she knew all of the Forest Service law enforcement folks in Minnesota. But she didn’t know this guy.
“I’m from the Milwaukee office,” the special agent said. “At this time, we don’t know if there’s anything to investigate. The autopsy of the Forest Service worker is still not complete.”
She couldn’t let this stand. Kim said, “We’ve had bear attacks in the Superior National Forest in the past, but nothing like this. And what about my sister? She was very experienced with bears. Pam even spent some of her spare time volunteering at the Bear Center here in town.”
The special agent seemed tongue-tied, as if he didn’t know what to say to Kim. “I’m sorry for your loss,” he finally said lamely.
“My sister isn’t dead,” Kim said, her voice booming throughout the hollow room.
The man raised his hands as if in surrender. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that.”
This was going nowhere fast, Kim thought. “You cidiots are all alike. Just because you’ve read something in a book, you think you know how things work up here in the wilderness. You don’t know diddly squat.”
Special Agent Cranston simply stood like a statue in a park. The only thing missing were birds crapping all over him.
Since Kim didn’t think her time would be better spent, she got up from her chair and stormed out of the room. She wiped tears from her eyes, but found them drier than she thought. Kim was more pissed than tearful at this time.
Instead of staying in this beautiful structure, she headed out to her Forest Service truck. As she got in and sat behind the wheel, she saw the special agent from Milwaukee hurrying out after her, rushing to her side and twirling his hand for her to lower her window.
She almost didn’t comply, but then thought the man might call her boss in Duluth and force her back to her normal office. So, she finally lowered her window.
“What?” Kim asked.
“I am so sorry,” the special agent said.
“Cranston, right?”
“Yes, but please call me Wayne.”
“Wayne,” Kim repeated. “I sure hope you’re better with animals than people.”
“That’s fish and game,” he said, trying to lighten the mood somewhat.
“Why did they send you here?” she asked.
“Just in case.”
“Of?”
Reluctantly, he said, “If this was a bear attack, as reported, then we might have to determine something similar happened to your sister.”
“That’s bullshit!”
He put his hands on the side of the truck cab. “I’ve only read the reports so far. They found human remains in the bear scat. Regardless of anything else, we must trap and kill that bear. Once a bear determines that people are food, we can’t take a chance that they won’t do the same to another human. Even if that’s only predation after the fact.”
She glanced at the man’s arms until he took them away from her truck and stepped back a couple of steps. “You have a theory.”
“I’m not as you said, a cidiot. I’ve spent most of my career in the forests of Oregon and Washington. I’ve only recently been assigned to the Milwaukee office. I grew up in the coast range of Oregon near Coos Bay, with one of the largest black bear populations per square mile in the country. I know black bears. They don’t make unprovoked attacks of humans unless they have a screw loose or they’re extremely desperate.”
She let out a heavy sigh and said, “I agree. And it doesn’t explain the disappearance of my sister.”
He nodded. Then he said, “I will say that I’m not familiar with the Boundary Waters, other than by reputation. I hear the area is special.”
“It’s over a million acres of special,” Kim said. “That’s a hundred and fifty miles east to west along the Canadian border, with more than eleven hundred lakes.”
“Wow. That’s an imposing search area.”
“Normally, yes. But my sister is an excellent swimmer and extremely proficient in the forest. She doesn’t get lost. If she could walk out of that forest, she would have done so by now.”
“What are you saying?” the special agent asked.
“I’m saying that the Boundary Waters are visited more than any other wilderness area in America. And this is the most popular time of year to visit. She could have gotten to a portage and waited for someone to come through.”
“I understand she left her pack behind with her SAT phone in it,” he said. “Would she leave without that?”
“Not likely. The food they had left was also strung up in a tree.”
The man’s eyes shifted to the side, as if he were looking for the right words. “This is a jurisdictional nightmare. Two counties sent search and rescue teams. The incident took place in Lake County, but they have a very small presence this far north.”
“And the Ely Police have only seven sworn officers, including the chief. This happened in the Boundary Waters. That’s under our jurisdiction.”
“I understand. But we don’t even have the autopsy report yet.”
“I feel for the young man and his family,” Kim said, “but I have to think about my sister. She’s still out there.”
“You seem very certain of this.”
“I have to be,” she said. “Our parents moved to Arizona a few years ago, and were killed by a drunk driver. Pam is all I have left.” She tightened her jaw to keep from choking up.
“I understand this office has screened all of the permits to enter the BWCAW,” he said. “Have they checked the exit?”
She nodded. “We’ve checked every permit and vehicle sitting at entry points. Our people have put posters at the trailheads with my sister’s photo and a number. We have people screening those coming and going.”
“And nobody has seen her.”
“Obviously. But there have been a number of reports of close encounters with bears. For some reason the berry crops are low this year, which is usually not a problem until August when they start fattening up for winter. This could be a bad year for bears.”
“Okay. I’m going to authorize a bear trap be flown into that lake. We need to verify we have the right bear, though.”
“But the search for my sister is still off,” Kim said.
“The local authorities believe they’ve looked everywhere possible,” he said.
“I’m a local authority,” she reminded him.
“I know. But you’re also her loved one. You have to admit you can’t be objective.”
“Maybe so. But I can still be right. And I intend to find my sister.”
With that last verbal slap, Kim closed her window on the special agent and drove off. Nobody could tell her about her sister. She knew what was right about Pam.
•
Chris Johansen glanced out her window in the Kawishiwi Ranger District office. She had been the District Ranger for almost a year now, and was still not entirely sure of her leadership role. She had always be
en part of the team, but was now the team captain. Chris had to have the answers. But now the Forest Service had sent her this Special Agent Wayne Cranston from Milwaukee. This man had found a way to rub everyone the wrong way since his arrival.
She watched that man now trying to talk with her former colleague Kim Joki in the parking lot. He had said some stupid things since arriving, but to outright imply that Kim’s sister was dead was unthinkable.
When she noticed Cranston coming back inside, she stepped out of her office and waved for him to come to her office.
Cranston came into her office doorway, hands on his hips, and said, “Yeah. What can I do for the District Ranger?”
“Close the door,” Chris said. Unfortunately, her words came out like a request and not a demand. But the man complied nonetheless.
She sat back in her chair behind her desk and considered her words more carefully now. “Our motto is, caring for the land and serving people.”
“We all know that. What’s your point?”
“Kim is an important member of our team. So is her sister, Pam.”
“I’m aware of that,” Cranston said.
“Well, your words to her were extremely insensitive.”
Cranston pointed toward the parking lot. “That’s why I went out to apologize to her.”
“Good. Now listen to me. The locals aren’t quite ready to give up the search for Pam.”
“It’s been over a week. What more can we do?”
“She’s trained to survive in the wilderness.”
Cranston took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Maybe so. But she could have been injured by the bear. She could have drunk unfiltered water and gotten giardia. Untreated giardia can lead to extreme dehydration.”
“I’ve had giardia,” Chris said. “It’s not fun, but she could survive it.”
“What do you want from me?” he asked.
“Consider being a human being. Pam is my friend. Kim is my friend. Think about them before you make your next move.”