After Bass left, Tess sat at her desk for a minute. She’d planned on researching Livie Harp this morning, but instead she looked into Alonzo Bass. She couldn’t help it; after coming face-to-face with a dirty DEA agent, one who nearly killed her, she wasn’t going to take anything at face value. She called the Phoenix office and confirmed what Bass had told her. He was who he said he was, and he was part of a human trafficking task force. Tess skimmed the preliminary press release Bass had given her, still amazed that they were going to arrest Cyrus Beck.

She almost called Faith’s Place, the domestic violence shelter, to speak to the couple who ran the place, Bronwyn and Nye Scales, give them a heads-up. But she put the phone down, deciding to drop in unannounced. Everything in Rogue’s Hollow was a few minutes away. Tess finished her coffee as her phone beeped with a text. It was Oliver’s good morning text. He was on his way back to the Hollow after the visit with Cherry.

Tess smiled and returned the message, at the last minute adding a question. When you get back, will you have a few minutes to take a drive with me?

Love to.

I’ll be at the church and wait for you there.

Fifteen minutes later, with Oliver in the car, Tess started toward Faith’s Place and told him about Agent Bass. He couldn’t get past Cyrus Beck.

“Beck? Are you kidding me?”

“No, not at all.” She cast a glance across the car. Oliver was certainly animated. “You sound as if you know him.”

“In a way, I do. For a while, he was public enemy number one here in Oregon.”

“What? Here? Why?”

“He was born and raised in Eugene. From what I’ve heard, his father owned a large logging operation. Beck Senior had his hands in a lot of different businesses. He was also an avid hunter, fisherman, outdoorsman.”

“You’re kidding me. Cyrus Beck is definitely not a chip off the old block.”

“True. From what I’ve heard, he hated hunting and logging long before his father died. In fact, Beck Senior was killed in a freak accident while on a hunting trip. The story goes that as soon as Cyrus got control of the estate, he sold all interests in the logging operation and then set out to put all logging out of business. He organized protests in the forests, had people living in trees to save them, and started a save the spotted owl campaign and all that. A lot of old-timers blame him for the practice of spiking trees. When I first came here, his face was on a lot of shooting targets.”

“Spiking trees?” Tess frowned. She’d heard the term but didn’t remember where.