The sheriff noticed Tara and Warren and she quickly excused herself before walking over. She soon stood before them and Tara could see the shock on her face as well. After all, she had tried to urge them that they should be focusing on McNamara, instead of looking for other suspects. This was the exact situation Tara and Warren were trying to prevent, and Tara couldn’t help but feel a fire burn within her when Brady finally spoke.

“I’m glad you guys got here so quick,” she said.

There was a softness in her eyes that Tara hadn’t seen from her before. She knew she made a huge mistake, and she was now looking at Tara and Warren with a new lens. She needed their help—she knew that now.

“Was he the hiker who discovered the scene?” Tara asked, motioning toward the man the sheriff was just speaking with.

Sheriff Brady nodded. “He stumbled upon it this morning.”

“And the victims?” Tara asked.

“They actually lived in one of those houses right over there.” She nodded her head in the direction of where the road ended and met the metal gate, referring to the row of houses lined before it. “A woman came out when we got here. She was frantic—said her two daughters went onto the trail last night,” Brady added before explaining that they were supposed to arrive home that very morning, but never did.

A silence fell around them.

“Where’s the woman now?” Tara asked.

“She’s at the house. We have an officer over there with her.”

Tara and Warren both agreed that they would interview her after checking the scene, and after interviewing the hiker, but they needed to see it for themselves first.

“I spoke to the National Park Service already. They’re expanding the closure by another ten miles,” Brady finally admitted. “We recruited some cops from neighboring towns to help keep people off the trail.” She let her final words hang in the air. It was clear—Brady knew she made a terrible mistake.

Tara nodded and moments later they were following behind Brady as they walked further down the trail and deeper into the forest.

They followed her for about a mile until the flurry of officers and forensics personnel could be heard up ahead, and as they neared the scene, Brady paused. Off the side of the trail, there was a narrow footpath, which Tara could see opened into a clearing, where forensics was busily combing the area.

But Brady’s eyes moved down to the ground in front of her, where a marker sat, and Tara could see why—it was to mark a few droplets of blood.

“This is where the hiker spotted the blood, and then well—”

She pointed down the footpath where the droplets continued and she followed them, making her way toward the clearing.

Tara and Warren quickly followed behind her, but Tara already knew what they were going to find. The droplets grew larger until a pool of blood stained the ground. And as Tara looked up, her eyes darted to a tree, where a forensics agent was removing a compass.