“Wonderful,” Lily said, unaccountably relieved. “Um. How do we…” She waved a hand at the Jeep blocking her way.

“I’ll back up. There’s a spot a few hundred yards back around the next bend where I can pull over. You’re sure you want to keep going?”

“Of course,” Lily said, wondering, not for the first time, if her decision to leave her apartment, her job, and just about everything else behind for a chance to figure out what it was she really wanted to do with her life was as crazy as everyone thought it was.

* * *

Chase put the Jeep in gear and backed slowly uphill and around the curve until she could pull partway off the track, leaving enough room for the Beemer to get by. A minute later the slick little convertible appeared, and Lily Davenport edged past her with a tight nod and continued her slow pace up the mountain toward Thunder Ridge.

Chase shook her head as she continued down the mountain. Lily Davenport was only the first of hundreds of tourists she’d assist in some fashion over the coming months. The season was just starting, and soon the mountains would be filled with civilians—most of whom had little to no forest lore—who flocked to the wilderness intent on camping, hiking, visiting their entitled offspring at camps like Thunder Ridge, or in some cases, engaging in illegal activity. Lily Davenport, in her hundred-thousand-dollar sports car, was probably on her way to interview the staff at Thunder Ridge before foisting her son or daughter off on the counselors for the summer.

Chase shuddered at the thought of being responsible for nearly fifty teenagers of mixed sexes for a day, let alone a summer. Wrangling a bunch of horny, rambunctious, and frequently rebellious teens from one event to another around the clock was her idea of a nightmare. At least most of the counselors had been resident campers themselves once and had volunteered to come back to supervise the latest crop of summer enrollees. Chase couldn’t imagine a worse way to spend the summer. Fortunately, she’d be too busy before long to worry about the goings-on at the lodge.

What was vacation time for most people, the late spring into fall, was the busiest time of the year for her. Her duties as a DEC law enforcement officer included not just enforcing the many state and federal environmental regulations but also the local fishing and hunting laws, and investigating crimes associated with those activities in the Adirondack forest. Patrolling her district, a region hundreds of square miles in area, kept her in the Jeep, on foot, or occasionally on horseback eighteen hours a day. She loved every minute of it, even though it hadn’t been her plan five years before. Of course, back then, she hadn’t thought she needed to make plans.

She wouldn’t have time to think about Thunder Ridge beyond her one obligatory introductory session with the campers to review the rules and regulations surrounding hiking and campfire use in the parkland. She likely wouldn’t see any of them again unless one of the more adventurous residents managed to get lost.