“Fire is advising that you hurry. The wind has shifted, and they can’t guarantee you won’t be cut off.”

“I’ve got one more home. Five, ten minutes, max.”

“10-4, will advise.”

Tess wiped sweat from her brow as she pressed the accelerator, able to breathe again inside her air-conditioned SUV. She followed the Coopers’ truck down the long, bumpy driveway. They turned right to head to town and safety, while she turned left.

The last property on Juniper was the largest at 105 acres, and it backed up to a hillside that could erupt into flames any minute. Tess was barely acquainted with the person who lived there. A bona fide recluse, Livie Harp was sometimes the lead topic on all channels of the Rogue telegraph, the thread of gossip that wound itself everywhere through the Upper Rogue valley.

That gossipy thread told Tess that Harp had bought the property in cash, several years ago, before Tess came to Oregon. Everyone labeled Harp a “prepper” because she’d spent months having the property renovated and “fortified,” as Tess’s friend Casey Reno liked to say. The Harp property was as off the grid as possible with solar panels, well water, a septic system, a greenhouse for vegetables, and no listed phone. Tess had heard that Harp even butchered her own meat.

Tess learned from Pastor Oliver Macpherson that Harp seemed to be trying to come out of her shell.

“Twice now she’s come to church. She comes late, sits in the back, and leaves early, but at least she’s putting her toe in the water.”

Tess had worked in the Hollow for over a year and had seen the woman only a couple of times, in her car, an old-style Land Rover that almost looked armor-plated, driving back to her place.

In southern Oregon, a lot of large properties tended to look like they were built—and stuck—in the nineteenth century. But Harp’s place was all twenty-first century. One of the improvements she added to her property was strong metal fencing and an equally heavy security gate. Tess had heard that she had an intercom system and cameras everywhere, and that when she transacted business online and deliveries came, they didn’t get past the gate. She’d provided a chute for packages to be pushed through, so they were safe on the other side of the gate. Livie herself would come and get the package only after the delivery person had left.

Tess wasn’t certain how much the gossip she heard could be trusted, but as she pulled up to the gate now, it was obvious that the security here was formidable. Mindful of the cameras on either side of the fence, she punched the intercom.

The minute or so before there was a response seemed like an hour. Tess was about to punch it again.

“Can I help you?”