I’d been assuming the two men would be missed. They could have been transient, and no one might have realized they were gone for months, even years, if ever.

Hopefully I wasn’t in the same category. If anyone realized I’d gone missing, they’d look for me. To improve my chances of being found, I’d need to be in a cleared area like this . . .

Search. When someone went missing in a remote area, an extensive search was launched.

The bodies were put in a place they would be found, because if they simply disappeared, people would look for them and discover the mine.

Was the mine at the center of this puzzle?

I patted the chunk of black ore in my pocket. I wished I knew something about geology. Roy had talked about Idaho being the Gem State, about the rocks in his collection, but he said he wasn’t an expert. His geologist guest was the expert.

And she was dead. A rather convenient turn of events? The only person in the area who would instantly know the value of what I held in my hand had died in an accident at Devil’s Keyhole. Another coincidence? Yeah. Right again.

Bram had said something about that accident. I chewed my lip and dredged my memory. We’d been sitting outside under the trees. Bram had smiled, showing those perfect teeth, and placed his hand over mine, then said, “Then we need to work together.”

My face grew warm and I clutched the twine reins. Focus. I didn’t have time to think about feelings. I squeezed the reins harder, digging my fingernails into my already abraded palms until the pain brought tears to my eyes.

Something about maps. The hikers were not supposed to be at the Devil’s Keyhole. Bram said that the maps found on them showed they had strayed miles from where they were supposed to be. They were supposed to be east of where they were found, which would place them in the area of the mine.

Mae’s second landscape drawing of the old snag showed two hikers. Another coincidence? Yeah, no. I wasn’t buying it. The hikers probably didn’t have an autopsy either.

Their bodies had been found quickly by a Fish and Game officer looking for poachers. Yet a third coincidence?

“I’d bet my last dollar that the officer was tipped off about the location of a poacher. No searching for lost hikers.”

A vent had opened into a mine and killed two miners. A domino effect of death followed with the two hikers, who probably found the mine, followed by Mae. Then the death and murder stopped.

Until yesterday.

“The deaths stopped, but someone kept trying to sabotage the Mule Shoe. That’s why I was brought here.” Somehow, speaking out loud made me feel less alone in the middle of this wilderness.