Kara almost said Why? I barely know you, I didn’t socialize with you, I didn’t socialize with anyone.

But she smiled warmly. “Thanks, Ranie—I’m not going to be here long, but I’ll see.”

The woman brightened. “Great! I’d better check on my rug rats—you’d be amazed at how much trouble three kids can get into in five minutes.”

Kara laughed, waved her goodbye, and thought no way in hell am I having three kids. She didn’t even want one. How could she go out and do her job, risk her life every day, if she had a kid who depended on her for everything? No, thank you. She didn’t want that responsibility.

Andy was already back at his Bronco. “No one home. Who lives there?” he asked.

“Someone who remembered me from high school. Ranie Anderson, nee Woods.”

“Woods—I know the family. She must have been your age, a few years younger than me.”

“She may have heard an ATV early Tuesday morning—that would be March 2. Around 5:00 a.m. Her dogs barked, woke her up. Are these trails wide enough for an ATV? Though, a trail might not be necessary—this part of the mountain isn’t too steep.”

Andy pulled a map out of his visor and unfolded it. Found the street they were on, then figured out the most likely trail the ATV would have traveled. “Well I’ll be damned.”

Kara was trying to read the map upside down. “What?”

Andy took a pencil from his pocket. “You found Manners here.” He made a small X. “And this is the Anderson house.” He made another X. “This trail—” he ran his pencil lightly along a path on the map “—goes directly down to the lake. It has to cross the road here, but at that time of morning or night, no one would have seen him.”

“Wouldn’t more people have heard the ATV?”

“Possibly. But except for this little road, he wouldn’t be close to any other residences.”

“Where does it end?”

“It goes all around the lake, but it’s steeper in some places. For hiking more than running or biking. But—” Andy studied the map, then circled an area. “Here’s a narrow trail that heads back down to the bike trail you were running along. And here...and here...he could have parked a car.”

“Would someone have been suspicious?”

“Not really. Remember, half these people don’t live here year-round, so they’re not going to know what’s familiar, and the people who do live here year-round, they’re used to strange cars coming and going because of the rentals, and half the people have ATVs. I had one since I was a kid.”

“Let’s check it out.”

“You think the ATV was there?”

“I do. How far a walk to the closest bus stop?”

Andy looked. “Four, almost five miles. It’s half the bike path, plus a hundred yards or so. First stop is 6:20 a.m. for the commuters—the buses stop there every forty minutes until sunset.”

“Gives him plenty of time to walk to the stop and blend in.”