“Thanks, I will. Back to Daniel’s last known whereabouts. I know he planned to do some backcountry camping in the Badlands, but he frequently goes off on his own when he’s working, and he’s an experienced camper.”
Max opened a drawer, pulled out a full-color brochure of the Badlands, and handed it across the desk. “Ordinarily, something like this, I’d assume he was just another lost camper. There aren’t too many trails in the park, and it’s easy to get turned around, or injured. But I spoke to the rangers at the visitor center. They confirmed that Daniel Hunter stopped to check in with them on his way into the backcountry, and then again when he was leaving the park. And they haven’t seen him since. It makes sense that if he bothered to check in the first time he set out, he’d do it again if he was going back for more. So I’m assuming whatever happened to him, it didn’t happen in the park. Leastways, not in the backcountry.”
“Would you mind if I talked to the rangers myself?” It was a courtesy question. She didn’t need his permission, but his cooperation would be helpful.
“Not at all,” Max said readily. “It’s the BenReifelVisitorCenter in the Park Headquarters out on highway two-forty. There’s a small map in that brochure, and road signs will show you the way, too.”
“Thanks. And what about the witness who saw him leaving the club?”
“Well, now, that one’s more complicated. He just left on his third tour of Afghanistan two days ago. But I record everything on video these days, more for our protection than theirs, so I can give you a copy of that.”
Kathryn wanted to scream in frustration. Two days! She’d missed interviewing possibly the last person to see her brother by two measly days! She felt something digging into her fingers and looked down to see her hand gripping the pen so tightly that her fingers were bloodless. She forced her hand to relax and dug up a smile for Max.
“I’d appreciate that, Sheriff,” she managed to say. “A flash drive would be great if you have it. Or a DVD, if you don’t.”
“Uh, yeah. Computers and I don’t exactly get along. Henry handles all that. I did ask him to make you a copy this morning, so we’ll see what he came up with. He ought to about have it ready by now,” he added dryly.
Kathryn took the hint and stood. “Thank you for all your help, Sheriff. If I come across anything else, I’ll let you know.”
“And I’ll do the same on this end. If you need anything at all, you just give me a call. I’m either here or reachable by cell phone pretty much seven days a week.”
Kathryn stopped on her way out and picked up a flash drive from Henry. Once back in the SUV, she stowed it in her briefcase to play later. Right now, she wanted to get out to the visitor center at the park. She had little doubt they’d have nothing more to tell her than what they’d already told Max, but she needed to do this her way, and that meant checking off each item personally.
She did a quick search on her laptop, piggybacking onto the Wi-Fi from the small cyber-café and sandwich shop across the way. Locating the BenReifelVisitorCenter, she studied the map, then shut it down without bothering with the nav system.
As Max had told her, getting to the park headquarters and visitor center was pretty much a no-brainer. There were signs everywhere and not much in between. Less than an hour later, she was pulling into the parking lot. There were no other cars, just a couple of official pickup trucks. Despite the cool weather, it seemed this wasn’t the park’s busy season. Most people tended to take their vacations in summer, when the kids were out of school. Even the people who didn’t have any kids in school. It made more sense to her to travel when places were less crowded, but maybe that was because she’d never taken a summer vacation as a child, and so had no preconceived notion of what a vacation was supposed to be. The closest she and her brother had come to a vacation were the summers spent on their maternal grandparents’ farm. But then their grandparents had died within a year of each other when she was only twelve, and that ended that. Nonetheless, her time with them made up some of her fondest childhood memories.
Kathryn shook herself back to the present. She had no time for memory lane. The visitor center was a typical national park building, a plain single story structure with a concrete walk out front. The interior had the usual displays and dioramas of the park’s history, with racks of brochures for free, and a few glossy books and touristy souvenirs for sale. Kathryn looked them over, thinking about what Daniel had told her in explaining why he’d chosen the Badlands for his next project. He’d said he’d seen a brochure at a friend’s party and had known he could do better. She picked up the free visitor’s brochure which was identical to the one Max Sutcliffe had given her. She wondered if it was also the one that had brought her brother all this way from San Francisco.
“Can I help you?”
Kathryn turned to find a young woman with long, brown hair pulled back into a neat ponytail and brown eyes with just a touch of mascara. Her face was makeup free, clean and pink-cheeked, as if she spent a lot of time outdoors. The name Belinda was stitched over the pocket of a neatly pressed U.S. Park Service uniform.
“Special Agent Kathryn Hunter, FBI,” she said, flashing her credentials and hoping none of this ever came back to bite her in the ass.
“Oh!” the young woman said, frowning a little. “Sheriff Sutcliffe said you’d be coming. You’re Daniel’s sister.”
Kathryn blinked. “I am, yes. You remember my brother?”
“He went backcountry twice, and I spoke with him before and after the second trip,” Belinda said, but her already pink cheeks had gone even redder.
Kathryn smiled at the woman’s reaction. Her brother was charming and charismatic, and had a way of making people believe he really cared. And sometimes he did, even if it was only for the ten minutes he was talking to you.
“So, how does that work exactly?” Kathryn asked.
“Everyone’s supposed to check in with us before they head into the backcountry, although, of course, not everyone does. We try to make sure people know what they’re doing. It’s very rough out there in any weather, and hikers are completely on their own. I was a little concerned when I saw Dan was going solo, but after talking with him . . . well, it was obvious that he was an experienced hiker, and he was well-supplied.”
“But he’d already been out and back once by the time you talked to him, right?”
Belinda nodded. “He went out twice for ten days each time. That’s a long while to be out there alone, but the time I saw him come back through, he seemed fine. Better than fine, actually. Exhilarated. A little tired maybe, and ready for a shower, but when he left, he said he just wanted a few days of hot running water and good food, and he’d be coming back again.”
“He was healthy? I mean, no obvious injuries, limping, bandages, that sort of thing.”
“No,” Belinda said, frowning and shaking her head. “Like I said, a little tired, but other than that, he actually seemed happier than when he went out.”
“You only saw him come back the once?”
She nodded again. “The last time he was here. That’s why Sheriff Sutcliffe said you’d want to interview me, because I was the last person he talked to here.”