No one stirred. The snow came down heavily, twisting and dancing on the wind.

“It’s empty.” Cheyenne clucked to her horse and rode it straight toward the cabin.

“Cheyenne, no, wait.” Falcon pulled her up, when she wouldn’t have stopped for too many people.

“What is it?”

“We’ll leave tracks. Look, there’s a nice even powder of snow all around that place. The trees block the wind. If we all ride up there, and he’s out hunting or finding firewood, he’ll see we’ve been here. Let’s hide the horses in the woods and think about how to approach the cabin. Maybe I could walk in from the back, pick spots where the snow is swept away, then hide in the house to wait for him. The rest of you hide in the woods.”

At that moment, one of the pigeons fluttered up from the back of the house and flew to them. A second one came soon after. They landed on the crate, and Wyatt tucked them inside. He had a pocket full of seed, and he tossed more grain to them. They happily cooed and fluttered as they pecked it up.

“It looks like a one-room cabin. No one’s in there, but it’s the right place. The pigeons prove that.” John swung off his horse and led it into the woods. “Let’s see how this fool likes someone coming at him from cover.”

“Let’s get off the trail quick and hope any tracks we left are covered by snowfall.” Cheyenne went toward the opposite side of the trail.

“I watched our back trail. With the wind and the rocky path, there’s not much to see.” Falcon followed his wife.

“And, Falcon,” John said, “I can tell you’re a fine tracker, but if one of us goes in that house alone, I want it to be me. I’m a trained investigator, and I might see something in there you’d miss. Clues aren’t always obvious.”

“I need to get in there, too,” the sheriff said. “This is in my territory, and I’m the only recognized lawman here.”

Falcon didn’t reply.

John vanished from sight into the woods to the east. Falcon went to the west, the sheriff hard after him.

“You go in on the same side as John, Molly,” Wyatt said. “I’m going to take a few seconds and fill in some hoofprints and footprints with snow.”

The woods weren’t easy to walk through. The trees were shouldered against each other. Old oaks and heavily needled pines, their branches weighed down with snow. Young trees growing spindly in the shade of their elders. Ancient tree trunks, broken off, almost impossible to get around. Prickly scrub brush filled in all the empty spaces.