Wilderness Pursuit. Michelle Karl

       THREE

      Kara pressed her hands against the car tire to steady herself. She only needed to take a few deep breaths, get centered, maybe close her eyes for a few minutes...

      “Kara!” Sam knelt beside her. “Are you all right?” He peered at her while she blinked at him, overwhelmed by a sudden wave of exhaustion. “You look like you could use some serious rest. It’s been a long day, and we can talk about all of this tomorrow.”

      She nodded as he helped her stand, heat rushing to her cheeks. She hadn’t meant to show weakness like that—she couldn’t afford to show weakness at all, not in front of Sam, not in front of anyone, because Ed was right. It would be too easy to plant remains and pretend that extra work needed to be done, but she would never, ever consider such a thing. She’d never known anyone in her field to even think of it, and the very accusation that she would be anything other than fully professional was both insulting and humiliating. Tigh had barely even spared her a glance when they’d walked in the room, dismissing her from the start. It didn’t make any sense. Gaida Industries hired her, so why select her company’s bid if they thought she couldn’t do the job correctly in the first place?

      “It has been a long day,” she agreed, pulling open the car door. “Sorry. I don’t think I’ve eaten for over twelve hours, and the very notion...”

      “I get it.” She glanced sharply at Sam, but felt her anger soften when she saw the sincerity in his eyes. “That was uncalled for. If the man is going to level accusations at you, he’d better have a good reason for it.”

      She nodded, but something still ate at her insides. “It’s like he didn’t even care that there was an attack. I mean, yeah, he implied that I made it up, but you did see the guys running away from the site, right?”

      Sam nodded. “I did. And believe me, I’m going to be back in here tomorrow for a longer chat with Ed Tigh about that particular incident. But it’ll do no good trying to continue the conversation today when tempers are flared. Hopefully, Helfer will be released tonight, and I can bring him into the office tomorrow for a more productive conversation.”

      “Because, of course, Ed will only believe the word of his foreman. My testimony doesn’t matter, even if Mike tells the same story word for word. And that’s not sarcasm.”

      Sam winced. “I know. I have a feeling that Tigh is one of those types who’d believe the word of a man over that of a woman regardless of the situation, and while I find that abhorrent and unacceptable in this day and age, I’ll do what’s necessary to get to the bottom of this, all right? You have a job to do, and I don’t want to see anyone get hurt out there again, regardless of their employer or purpose for being there.”

      “Thanks.” Kara took deep breaths to calm herself as Sam drove. Light raindrops pattered against the windshield. How did she get into this mess, anyway? She’d thought it would be a good idea to come up a week early and get some of the groundwork done for her team, which would save them a ton of time in prep. The team would be able to get to work immediately instead of spending time researching, measuring and taking initial photographs, ultimately saving money for Gaida Industries. So much for that.

      A few minutes later, Sam pulled into the parking lot of the Number Six, a quaint motel with red roofing and trim, red doors and white siding. It looked in decent shape for a rural motel, and the thought of lying down and closing her eyes made Kara feel more relaxed already. As Sam parked the car, the raindrops grew fatter, hitting the glass with loud splats.

      “Can I check on you in the morning?” Sam stared out the window as he asked, and Kara heard the hesitance in his voice. Did she want to interact with him any more than necessary? Not particularly, but she also had a feeling that she wasn’t going to be able to avoid him for a while.

      “I need to go back out to the site,” she said instead. “If Ed won’t believe me because I don’t have proof, I need to go get some. I’ll take more photos. Maybe he’ll be more cooperative with both of us if I can show him tangible evidence of a possible burial.”

      Sam sighed. “That’s probably a good idea. You need new tires on your car, so I don’t recommend driving out there in your vehicle, and I also don’t want anyone heading to the site alone, at least not until there’s been some kind of security set up. I can drive you in and have a look around for some additional evidence on the attackers’ identities.”

      Kara’s hands tightened into fists. It felt strange to be around him after so many years of silence—silence she’d instigated and maintained, and yet here he was talking to her as if nothing had happened. Part of her didn’t want the awkwardness of being around him without addressing the figurative elephant in the room. On the other hand, she couldn’t help but want to know more about how Sam had ended up working in law enforcement. About his life. About what he’d been up to for the past eighteen years.

      And in spite of herself, she hadn’t realized how much she’d missed him until the moment he’d walked back into her life today.

      “Fine,” she said. “If that’s how it has to be.”

      He climbed out of the car and opened her door, then escorted her to the motel’s office. “The station is literally across the road. If there’s any trouble tonight, though I can’t imagine why there would be, help will be here in a flash.”

      “Thank you. I think it’ll be fine. The guys at the site were probably extremist locals, maybe even environmentalists who resent the pipeline project. Maybe attacking us was a crime of opportunity—or maybe they were dumb, treasure-hunting kids who heard the word archaeology and assumed that the site has buried riches. That would explain why the dirt and soil had been disturbed. I mean, it probably does have buried riches, but not in the way most people would think.”

      Sam smiled, a gentle expression that made Kara’s heart skip a beat in surprise. “Get some rest. I’ll see you bright and early.” He waved goodbye and climbed into his patrol car. Had it really been almost two decades since they’d seen each other? She swallowed down a bizarre, unwelcome wave of regret—where is that coming from?—and stepped into the motel office.

      Within minutes, she was lying on the motel bed in her room, staring at the ceiling and listening to the thudding of raindrops outside. Springs from the cheap mattress dug into her back, and the sheets felt scratchy under her palms. Not that she’d expected a four-star hotel. She was used to staying at budget motels while on dig contracts—or even camping outdoors. At least the place looked and smelled clean. Would she be able to sleep after the events of the day, though? She had planned to change into her pajamas, but exhaustion gripped her limbs now that she’d stopped moving, and it felt good to be still for a few minutes, even if her brain kept racing. Sam as an RCMP officer. An attack on the dig site. Taking this job had seemed like a good idea at the time—it put her about a four-hour drive away from her parents’ place in Fort St. Jacob, where she’d grown up. They’d been after her to come up for a visit since her return to British Columbia, and she hadn’t even considered that the youngest Thrace brother might still be in the area. It made no sense. Hadn’t he wanted to get out of the rural north as badly as she did?

      Thunder rumbled in the distance and she yawned, closing her eyes.

      A bang and a loud roar of thunder startled her awake. Her eyelids flew open to meet darkness as she grew suddenly overwhelmed with a sense that something was wrong. For a moment she wondered where she was. Fort Mason, she remembered. You’re in Fort Mason during a storm. That’s all it is.

      She tilted her head toward the room’s front window where the curtains were