The Other Side of Lone Mountain

Chapter Ten

The trio arrived at the bar and grill just about nine thirty. Most of the loggers were there and had already consumed more than their share of the local brew. The trio located an empty booth and sat down. A waitress appeared out of nowhere and handed them menus and took their order for drinks. Lone Wolfe and Mandy ordered a glass of beer on tap and Paul ordered a brandy. Suddenly there was Gabbie. She told the waitress to put their drinks on the house. She then turned to Mandy, leaned over and gave her a hug as she whispered, “Is this him?”

“Yes” she whispered back.

“Wow! He is gorgeous! If you don’t want him I’ll take him.” She then stood up and
said hi to Lone Wolfe and Mandy introduced her to Paul. “Well you guys enjoy yourselves, if you need anything, anything at all, just let me know” she said looking directly at Paul. After she left Paul looked at Mandy and smiled, “I think I understand what you mean.”

Lone Wolfe knew what he was talking about because he had gone through the same thing when he was first introduced to Gabbie. “Sorry about Gabbie, she can’t help herself. But she is a great gal. Has a big heart. Will do anything for you”, said Lone Wolfe.

“Okay, let’s see what we have so far”, announced Lone Wolfe. “The two of you found a piece of material that Paul has identified as belonging to the jacket Mark was wearing and a pair of wire framed glasses also identified as belonging to Mark. I found one of his license plates, a leaf with some brown flakes that could have come from a logger’s boots or from Mark’s boots. Do you know what kind of boots Mark might have been wearing, Paul?”

“No, sorry I haven’t a clue because he has several pairs”, replied Paul.
“Okay, I also found another leaf with something that looks like it could be blood. If it is, we need to find out whose blood. I’ve given everything we’ve found so far to my friend at the lab and I’ve asked him to keep his findings and the articles to himself for the time being. He’ll call me directly with his findings. Till then, we’ll have to pray that your friend is all right. However, in light of what we have found and the amount of time he’s been missing, I think it’s time to let the Sheriff have all the information we have so far. The storm we had a couple of days ago doesn’t help his chances.”

Just then the waitress showed up with their drinks and prepared to take their orders. She
placed Paul’s drink in front of him and handed him a folded napkin, then proceeded to serve Mandy and Lone Wolfe. They ordered their food and waited for the waitress to leave before Paul turned his attention to the napkin.

Paul opened the napkin and read the note. His face suddenly turned a ghostly white. Mandy was the first to notice. “Paul, what is it?” she asked. Paul slid the napkin over to her. She opened it and read the note aloud. “Look along the ridge of the East Trail. There you’ll find what you seek.” The note was written in block letters so it was hard to tell whose hand-writing it might have been and there was no signature. They doubted they would find any fingerprints but Lone Wolfe said he’d have it checked out just in case.

When the waitress returned with their orders, Mandy asked her if she knew the person that gave her the note. She told them that she didn’t see who it was because the note was under Paul’s drink when she turned around to place the other two drinks on the tray. They thanked her and she left.

They ate their meal in silence until Lone Wolfe finally said, “I’m going to call my friend when we leave here. Hopefully he’ll have information that can help us tomorrow.

“Good”, replied Mandy, “I’m going to call Jeff and let him know what’s going on. He’ll get a search team on this.”
“Do you think that’s a wise idea? With this clue we might be able to find him ourselves without having to involve the rest of the department. I know I said we should involve the Department earlier but why not wait until tomorrow. If we don’t find him then you can call Jeff and have him call out the troops”, said Lone Wolfe.

“You’re probably right”, said Mandy. Besides if this wasn’t another accident, I want to find out who was behind it and why.”

“You’re thinking about your father and Kenny, huh? You still believe they were deliberately killed don’t you”, asked Lone Wolfe.

Mandy replied, “Yes I do and I will always believe that. One day I’m going to be able to prove it and the ones that did it will pay. But I still have to let him know that I need another day off. I just don’t know how I’m going to tell him yet.”

They agreed to meet at Mandy’s house at five o’clock in the morning, have breakfast
and get an early start. With that settled they finished their meal and ordered another round of beer before leaving.