The Other Side of Lone Mountain

Chapter Eight

At three o’clock the following morning Lone Wolfe got up and prepared to go up to the mountain. He put his equipment in the Hummer and by five o’clock he was on his way. He dropped the items they left with him the night before with his friend at the lab before heading to the mountain. He informed his friend not to tell anyone about it. About six-thirty he parked his Hummer three miles from the area and hiked the rest of the way. He wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible. He reached the area Mandy and Paul had told him they found the piece of material. He noticed the little hole the flag left as he examined the surrounding ground. He checked for fresh footprints that may have been made since Paul and Mandy had been there. He knew that the rain had washed away any previous tracks. No one had been there. No, wait, there was a third set of footprints. It had been made recently. He knew from the print that it belonged to a relatively large man, possibly six two or six three, two hundred and fifty pounds or so. They were logging boots, with spikes. However, that didn’t help very much because it described most of the boots worn by loggers. He took a cast of the prints anyway. The boots had to belong to someone in the camp. Lone Wolfe checked the brush and all the little paths along the trail. He found a few broken branches on a bush signifying that someone had been there searching for something very recently, he wondered what.

As he continued down the trail he kept looking for additional fresh footprints and other
debris in the brush that could provide answers to Mark Scott’s disappearance. Just as he reached the spot where Mark’s glasses were found he noticed a brush that had been seriously damaged. He drew closer to get a better look. He carefully examined the brush being careful not to disturb anything. It looked like there had been a struggle and someone had fallen against the brush. Because the rain had washed away the footprints he was unable to determine how many people were involved. The fact that Mark’s glasses had been found a very short distance from here did not give him a good feeling. He looked around in the brush hoping to find something concrete that would give him more information about what might have happened. As he continued to examine the area, he spotted what looked like small brown particles on one of the leaves. He took a closer look. The particles looked like they may have come from the leather laces of hiking boots or maybe logging boots. It was definitely from some type of work boot. He wondered if it had come from the boots that made the prints. Lone Wolfe pulled out his hunting knife and a plastic bag. He carefully cut the leaf and dropped it into the bag. Just as he did that he noticed another leaf. It looked wet, but the rain had stopped so it should have been dry. Upon closer inspection he found that it was dry, but there was a drop of what looked like blood on it. He did the same with this leaf, cut it off and placed it in another plastic bag. Lone Wolfe was rapidly beginning to believe that things were not looking too good for Paul’s friend. Something definitely had happened here, but what. Where was Mark?

Suddenly, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He could feel someone watching him. He turned around but saw no one. It must have been my imagination, he thought to himself, but he knew better. His instincts were never wrong. His thoughts turned once again to Mark. What did Paul say? Mark was up here doing a survey for a group of investors who wanted to build a resort up here. If that’s the case, why does anyone want to get rid of him? It didn’t make sense, unless, he saw something he shouldn’t have. Lone Wolfe’s mind began to go places he was trying to avoid. He began to think about the other so-called accidents. Mandy had shared her thoughts with him about those accidents. At the time he thought them strange, but didn’t let her know. Instead he told her that she had an over active imagination. Now he wasn’t so sure. Mark had definitely been here. Was it of his own choice; that was the million-dollar question? He was beginning to think that the answer was, no.

He continued further down the trail hoping to find other clues. He almost reached the fork in the trail where one led to the logging camp and the other simply wound back around to the trail. He hadn’t found anything else so he decided to check the west trail on the other side of the clearing for clues. Lone Wolfe’s keen senses told him that someone was still watching him. He decided on a plan to flush them out once he reached the clearing.

He continued back to the clearing at a moderate pace. He didn’t want to alert this
person that he was aware of them. Once he reached the clearing he broke into a full run. Once he reached the other side, he quickly turned around. He just caught a glimpse of someone ducking back onto the trail. So much for discretion, he thought. He turned around and continued his search of the west trail. He almost reached the end of the trail without finding any sign that Mark had been there. Just as he was ready to give up he spotted something up ahead. It was a license plate. It was pretty well smashed up, but still identifiable. Lone Wolfe carefully picked it up and wrapped it up in a piece of cloth. He noted that it read VAS • MAS. He was sure he had found Mark’s license plate, but where was the truck? He decided to continue to look a little further. Maybe he would get lucky and find the truck. He went to the end of the trail without finding anything else so he decided it was time to call it a day and return to town. Besides he wanted to drop these things off to his friend at the lab before he met with Paul and Mandy.

As he started back he thought about the impact his finds would have on Paul. He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he made a mistake he rarely made. He stopped paying attention to his surroundings and had forgotten about the person following him. Suddenly he heard the sound of a riffle being cocked. He turned around to find himself looking down the barrel of a shotgun. “Oh! It’s you, Lone Wolfe”, said the man holding the rifle.

“Steve! What in the hell are you doing? You can hurt someone with that thing! Put it down!” said Lone Wolfe.

“I was told to come and check out some guy who was snooping around up here.”

“Who sent you? Tell me Steve, is there anything up here that would make someone want to snoop?”

“I don’t know what you’re talkin about; I just do what Gill tells me to do. I’ll let him know that it was just you up here. See ya later”, he called out as he hi-tailed it out of there before Lone Wolfe could ask him any more questions.

“Now I wonder why he was in such a hurry to get away from me? Something is definitely beginning to stink up here.” He started back down the road to his Hummer. He got in and started back down the mountain towards town.