Jack peered at the ground, the bushes and trees, like any good tracker looking for signs. Then he caught her watching him. “We should set up surveillance cameras near the road to see who drives by to watch, as well as cameras near this cabin to see if someone attempts to come back.”

“Good idea.” All of it required funding, resources, and time. She hated that feeling in her gut that told her they were already too late.

Through the trees, county deputies arrived with evidence techs. Jack instructed the crew to carefully look for evidence, including from around the cabin. In particular, the murder weapon. He then told them, after processing the cabin, to assist Terra in retrieving the artifact evidence.

As the day wore on, Terra and Jack waited while techs finished dusting the cabin for prints and searched for other evidence, including blood.

“With my experience in cases involving archaeological crimes,” she said, “I have a few connections.” Unfortunately, Dr. Jeremy Brand was the first to come to mind. “Maybe I can use those to see if I can get a lead on who Jim was working with. Where he was getting the artifacts.”

“What else, Terra? What more is bugging you?”

“You can read me that well, can you?”

He shrugged. “My job description requires that I read people well. So what else is on your mind?”

“I was just thinking”—about how much she didn’t want to contact Dr. Brand—“that these crimes come with a fine and prison time. Most of the time it isn’t enough to deter the activities because there’s significant money to be made.”

He nodded. “Murder changes everything.”

“Right. Was Jim’s collection worth murder? Not what little I’ve seen. However, people have murdered for much less.”

Thunder rumbled. So far, the scattered storms had passed them by. But this time, lightning struck dangerously close. This part of the mountain was a tinderbox, and lightning could ignite a fire, even though fire season was coming to a close.

“Let’s go.” Jack touched her arm. “The bottom is about to fall out.”

“But I need to get the artifacts transferred. It’s not like I’ve never been caught in the rain.”

“I always miss the rain.” He sent her a wry grin. “No point in ruining my reputation.”

“There’s always a first time.”

“And that’s not today. Don’t worry. They’ll retrieve everything for you. I promise we’ll get the items transferred to the forest service since you insist.”

“All right,” she said. “We can arrange for transfer this evening or in the morning.”

Terra hiked down with him. “About the murder weapon, Jack. If someone went to the trouble to throw Jim off that cliff so he might not ever be found, they probably didn’t leave the murder weapon laying around.”