What are the chances she’s armed? Guns would be plentiful in a hunting party, but if Eve was an animal lover, she might not carry a weapon. And as long as she remained out of sight, it would be impossible to tell.
A boulder up ahead offered protection. Mattie held on to Robo and crept up behind it, making sure he was covered. She peered around its edge and called, “Hello.”
No movement inside the tents. No answer.
Had Eve taken a walk? Left camp for a few minutes? If so, she could be anywhere. Mattie scanned the area at her back, searching for a flash of movement.
The tent flaps were tied back, but the bug screens were zipped into place, which at this distance interfered with seeing inside them.
“Eve,” she called out. Still no answer.
Telling Robo to stay, Mattie moved into the camp with a few swift strides. Within seconds, she peered inside each tent and cleared the area. Eve was nowhere in sight.
Damp clothing hung by the fire, and Mattie quickly spotted a woman’s T-shirt. She called Robo and told him to scent. She patted his side and held him close, murmuring sweet nothings and encouragement before gesturing toward the ground near the fire. “Okay, buddy, let’s find Eve. Search.”
Zach Irving’s scent had to be around this campsite as well as Eve’s, and here she was, asking Robo to switch the search from one person to the other. Would he be able to do it?
Robo lowered his nose and circled the fire, sniffing in all directions before choosing a scent trail that led out of camp toward the creek. He passed boot prints in the wet soil on the creek bank that appeared to be the size and shape of those left at Wilson’s crime scene. No time now, but in her mind, Mattie flagged them as evidence to be taken later.
When Robo started up a sheer incline that appeared to lead to the top of the cliff, Mattie’s gut tightened. This had every hallmark of an ambush. What if Eve had seen them coming? Like the tiger, she could have gone to the high ground to strike from above.
She told Robo to wait. “Eve,” she called. “Eve, it’s Mattie Cobb. I know you’re here.”
Thunder rumbled, but the nearby forest lay still. Mattie shivered. This was what she hated most. It wasn’t so much that danger awaited her—she could face that. She feared losing Robo. If a bullet killed him, it would kill her, too.
The way ahead was more like rock climbing than hiking, too steep to clip on his leash. She had to let him go out front. She told him to search, murmuring, “Easy, easy,” to keep him as close as she could. A cold breeze came from behind, chilling the sweat under her shirt.
Expecting a gunshot to ring out at any time, Mattie clung to the rocks, climbing on all fours as she followed Robo. He hopped from one place to another until he reached a ledge near the top. There, Mattie told him to wait. Her legs shaking, she eased up to peek over the edge.
Nothing but a flat expanse of stone and scrubby pine. After telling Robo to stay, she pulled herself slowly to the top and crouched. Flat rock ran across the top of the cliff, littered with boulders and monoliths where someone could hide. Exposed and vulnerable, she squatted at the edge and crawled over to take cover behind a boulder. When she called Robo, he scurried up and over to where she could grasp his harness and pull him in with her behind the rock.
Now what? There weren’t that many places to go up here except off the edge of the cliff face. And that led to a seventy-foot free fall. Eve had to be near. As she huddled beside Robo, he swiped her cheek with his tongue and then tried to see around the boulder. “Stay here,” she whispered, hugging him close and loving that warm touch of reassurance.
“Eve,” she called. “It’s Mattie Cobb. I want to talk to you.”
A gunshot cracked, echoing across the cliff. A bullet pinged off a boulder to her left, spraying rock shards in its wake.
Mattie grabbed Robo and held on tight as he tried to lunge from cover. In his training, gunshots meant Go! Find the shooter! Take him down! But here, with the edge of the cliff so near, it would be a death mission. Using a quiet but intense voice, she urged him to sit and stay.
“Go back,” Eve shouted. “I don’t want to shoot you. Or your dog.”
With both hands holding Robo, Mattie couldn’t even draw her service weapon; but Eve didn’t need to know that. “Good,” she called. “Because I don’t want to shoot you either.”
“I know why you’re here.”
It was hard to tell, but Mattie thought she heard a sob at the end of Eve’s statement. Maybe a light touch would be best to neutralize the situation. “We found the hunting party. Tyler said you’d be up here. We didn’t want you to worry, so I came to get you. There’s no need to be afraid. Put the gun down.”
“I’m not afraid. But I’m not going with you.”
A scuttling sound followed by rocks clattering came from within yards. Mattie peered around the edge of her boulder, and the sight took her breath away. Eve crouched farther along the edge of the cliff, a pistol in her hand. Thunder boomed overhead and lightning cracked, its crooked slash striking the forest directly behind Eve. She held the gun low, pointed at the ground, and she was looking over the edge as if gauging the sheer drop.
Mattie rose a few inches, showing her face. “Eve, what are you doing? Come away from the cliff.”
Eve waved the gun in her direction. “Stay back. There’s no reason for you to die today.”
Eve’s cheeks were tear-stained, her expression desperate. A pulse of fear surged through Mattie, more for the girl’s life than for her own. “Eve,” she said, “come away from the edge. There’s no reason for you to die today either.”
Pointing the gun at Mattie, Eve shook her head, sobbing quietly. “I know why you came to get me.”
Robo had obeyed her command to stay, but he felt like a spring coiled beneath her hands. Releasing him was not an option. Even if the girl didn’t shoot, his takedown would push both him and Eve over the edge. “Eve, just put down your gun. Let’s talk.”
Eve used her free hand to brush tears from her cheeks. “I am sorry I did it. Tell my mom and dad that, okay? I just thought, well …”
As Eve’s voice trailed off, she glanced down and edged to within inches of the brink. Mattie’s only option was to keep her talking. “Did what, Eve?”
“You know. That’s the reason you came after me.”
Robo crouched and struggled forward enough to peer around their boulder, sending Mattie’s heartbeat into overdrive. “Stay,” Mattie told him again, grasping his harness and then showing Eve her empty hand. “I don’t have a gun on you, Eve. Put yours down so that Robo doesn’t try to take it from you. If he gets away from me, he’ll knock both of you off the cliff.”
“I don’t want to hurt him.”
“I know. But he’s trained to protect. Please, just put down the gun.”
Eve hesitated. “Don’t come any closer or I’ll jump.”
“I understand. If you put down the gun, we’ll both stay where we are.”
Much to Mattie’s relief, Eve knelt and placed the gun on the ground. Some of Robo’s tension melted away, and Mattie allowed him to move forward enough to watch Eve before telling him to lie down and stay. Now, if she could just keep the girl from jumping to her death.
“He’s a good dog,” Eve said, watching Robo with sorrowful eyes. “I saw you coming.”
“I figured you did.” Mattie kept one hand on Robo’s harness and the other where Eve could see it, feeling like she dared not move an inch.
“I didn’t know it would hurt Kasey so much.” Eve touched her chest over her heart. “Killing Nate.”