“Athena—you know, the cat that adopted me—disappeared. She was with me during the storm but fled right after. I wondered if someone had brought her in.”

“Oh no. I’m sorry. No, no one brought her in. Honestly, we haven’t had any animals brought in at all. I thought there might be some injuries.” She shrugs. “Fred had some callouts to the ranches farther out of town. That’s it.” She closes the door behind her and locks up. “I’ll let you know if anyone brings her in tomorrow, though.”

“Thanks. You off work now?” I ask.

Her eyes grow wide and she smiles conspiratorially. “I am. I’m headed over to Valley Park.” She says it like I should know what that means. “Apparently a huge RV parked up there, just showed up out of nowhere. Marge says it’s so big and fancy, it must have cost more than a million dollars. I want to see it for myself.”

“Tourists?” I ask.

She leans forward. “No one knows. No one has seen anyone come or go from there. Marge says it’s the government, but I don’t see why it can’t be someone just wanting to spend some time in this beautiful town of ours.”

Her phone rings and she answers. We start to walk toward the market.

“Are you serious?” she says. “There are two? I’m definitely coming. I might just knock on the door and see who the hell is in there. Okay, I’ll see you in ten minutes.” She hangs up. “Did you hear that?” she asks. Before I can answer, she adds, “There’s two of ’em now. Two million-dollar RVs. Another one pulled up right next to the first.”

“That’s weird,” I say. “Could be tourists passing through on some kind of cross-country trip.”

“Right. But maybe not,” she says conspiratorially. “You wanna come see?”

A warm feeling nuzzles inside me at the thought of going with her. She likes me. And from what little I know of her, I like Donna, too. “I can’t,” I say. “I have to fix up the cabin. But thanks for asking. You’ll have to let me know what you find. Be careful.”

“Oh, I’m going with Marge. She’s used to hunting wild boar. I’ll be completely safe with her.”

Wild boar? Is that… a thing around here? I make a mental note to ask Byron when I see him.

“You don’t know where I might buy a dehumidifier, do you?” I ask.

“Go see Betty in the hardware store.” She nods her head to the left. “She’ll fix you up.”

* * *

Ron the taxi driver helps me bring the dehumidifier up the steps. Before I go inside, I check around the outside of the cabin for Athena.

“Athena!” I call. Maybe I’ll set out some food for her on the porch and see if that entices her back. “Athena!”