Then everyone cleaned up after supper, said their good nights, and headed for bed.

  “I was thinking about the woman Eddie dated. Neither Fennel nor Xander knew Jana’s last name, but maybe Eddie’s parents know her full name,” Dylan said, his voice low so as not to disturb the people renting the cabin as he settled into his sleeping bag.

  “We’ll call them first thing in the morning,” CJ said, zipping his sleeping bag up to his chest. “It’s too late to call them now.”

  Dylan wished he’d thought of it earlier. Something kept bugging him about the case. Why would Jim ditch Eddie’s vehicle and then hike around to these cabins looking for a place to stay? He could have driven off somewhere and been long gone. It didn’t make any sense.

  Dylan ran his hands through his hair. “I don’t understand why Jim would be on foot in this area when he could have left a long time ago.”

  Bryan chuckled. “You aren’t like this with Roxie, are you? I mean, working out the case with her while she’s trying to fall asleep?”

  “He has other things he’s doing with her when they go to bed,” Michael said. “Guaranteed.”

  The guys all laughed.

  Daniel sighed. “Dylan’s right though. I’ve been thinking the same thing.”

  “Maybe Jim returned here because everyone would believe he had taken off and gone for good? And here he is, still in the same area,” CJ said.

  “That could be. We need to learn all we can from Jana, if we can find out where she is. And we need to see if Eddie’s SUV is still in this area. I can’t imagine Jim dumped it somewhere miles from here and walked back.” Dylan folded his arms across his chest and looked up at the beams on the ceiling.

  “Though he could have gotten a lift,” Bryan said.

  “True.” Dylan thought about it some more. “We need to see if we can learn what happened when Jim killed Holson. Even if the records are sealed because he was a juvenile back then, and even though he was found innocent of the charges, there undoubtedly were news articles about it.” Dylan didn’t want to sleep. Well, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but he wanted to check out the abandoned cabin. If Jim was staying there, he’d be there at night, Dylan suspected. During the day, Jim could be out running around, and they’d have to wait for him to return. He glanced around at his friends. Everyone appeared to have fallen fast asleep.

  Dylan got up and walked outside, then shut the door. He went into the woods and removed his clothes and shifted. There was one way to find out if Jim was there. Run like a wolf. It wouldn’t take him that long, and he’d be a silent hunter. If he learned Jim was there, then he’d come back for his teammates, and they’d make an arrest.

  Before he could race off, he heard someone walking through the snow, following his path. Dylan whipped around. It was Michael.

  “You didn’t think you’d go on your own, did you?” Michael gave him a half smile.

  Dylan gave him a wolf’s smile back. He thought they had been sound asleep.

  “The guys said if we find Jim, come back for them and they’ll join us.” Michael quickly stripped off his clothes and shifted, and the two of them took off. Riding on snowmobiles would have been quicker but noisier. Running as wolves was perfect.

  They finally reached the abandoned building and saw smoke coming out of the chimney. Both of them approached the cabin from different directions. Then they were standing on their hind legs in the snow, peeking through the dingy windows, looking for any sign that Jim was in there.

  Dylan saw a backpack and nearby a body in a sleeping bag, completely covered up. Dylan couldn’t tell if it was Jim or not. But he did smell his scent, and it was strong at the front door. There were a couple of other male scents there as well.

  Michael came around the cabin and Dylan indicated the window that he could look through that would show an occupant. One of them would have to stay here while the other went to get the rest of the team. If the person in the cabin tried to leave, the wolf staying here would have to keep him there until the rest of the men arrived.

  Dylan couldn’t let the guy get away. They needed to question him to see if he’d seen Jim, if it wasn’t him.

  Michael bumped against him and took off for the cabin they’d been staying at. Dylan was glad he didn’t have to convince Michael to return while he stayed here, but he suspected it was because Dylan had been after Jim all along.

  Dylan sat on the front porch out of the snow to keep warmer, waiting for the gang to get here. He sure hoped this was Jim and not some other hiker who was sleeping in the living room. Dylan did smell two other male’s recent scents. It appeared they might have shared the cabin for a bit recently. Dylan hadn’t seen anyone in either of the other rooms. There was no furniture inside, just a wooden floor and a fireplace.

  He envisioned Michael waking up everyone to get dressed and join Dylan. Even so, Dylan knew they would be eager to capture Jim, if it was Jim, and wouldn’t begrudge Michael waking them up. It would mean they could return home and they were eager to do that. Tomorrow was Valentine’s Day, and if they could get this done tonight, that would be perfect.

  The other men in their party finally arrived at the cabin. Michael had brought Dylan’s clothes. They’d parked the snowmobiles away from the cabin so the occupant wouldn’t hear them.

  Once Dylan shifted and dressed in the woods, he joined them at the cabin. He was glad they had waited for him. Dylan, CJ, and Bryan went inside all at once, the others waiting outside.

  Dylan poked the man in the sleeping bag with the toe of his hiking boot a couple of times before he stirred awake, sat up quickly, and looked like he had seen a ghost. The fire gave off enough light so that he could see the three of them looking down at him, weapons drawn. He quickly held up his hands. “I don’t have any money.”

  It wasn’t Jim, damn it. CJ introduced them to the man.

  “Do you know this man?” Dylan showed him a picture of Jim on his phone.

  The guy looked at it, and his gaze shot up to Dylan’s. He knew Jim or had met him here. He was sweating, even though the cabin was chilly except for where he was near the fire. But even then, it wasn’t hot enough to make him sweat.

  Was he in trouble for something he had done himself?

  “We know he has been here,” Dylan said. “We need to speak with him.”

  “Arrest him, you mean.”

  “Where is he?” Dylan asked.

  The guy shrugged.

  “When was he here last?” CJ asked.

  “Two days ago.”

  “He’s wanted for questioning,” CJ said. “If you’ve lied to us, which I know you have, we can charge you with aiding and abetting a man wanted by the police for questioning in a case of murder and attempted murder.”

  CJ was right. Jim had to have been here more recently, not two days ago as strong as his scent was.

  “You need to arrest Fennel. He’s the one who shot Eddie,” the guy said. “Who did he attempt to murder?”

  Everyone in the house just stared at him. Dylan knew it wasn’t true. That Jim must have filled this guy’s head with lies. Yet it made him rethink everything in a flash. Dylan had smelled Jim’s scent when he’d whacked him in the head and nearly killed him.

  “Is that what Jim told you?” Dylan asked.

  “Yeah, we’ve been friends forever. And Fennel has a quick temper.”

  “So does Jim,” Dylan said.

  “And who told you that? Fennel?” the man asked.

  Dylan frowned. “Jim shot a friend while they were hunting when they were teens.” Dylan hoped, if Fennel was lying about all this, they’d learn that he was the one who had killed Holson.

  “Yeah, but it was accidental.”

  “Were you there?” CJ asked.

  “I was.”

  So that confirmed that Jim had shot Holson. Was this guy lying about the rest? “Were you supposed to be hunting with these guys this time?” Dylan asked.

  “Yeah, but I’m a forest ranger and I was still working so I got here late. Well, actually, I was supposed to go to the ski lodge and meet up with them, but Jim called me and told me all the trouble that had happened. I told him he needed to turn himself in and square what had happened with the police.”

  “Do you know Eric Silver?” CJ asked.

  “Uh, yeah, he and I get along really well. We’ve swapped out shifts when he needed to do something with his wife. Wait, you’re…you’re the deputy sheriff in Silver Town. His youngest brother, right?”

  Well, that changed things up a bit. So maybe the man was telling the truth.

  “Okay, what’s your name and let’s see some ID.” CJ pulled out his phone while the man tugged a wallet out of his pocket. “Hey, sorry to wake you, Eric, but I’ve got a man here who knows Jim and the other hunters and says he works with you. A”—CJ looked at the ID—”Aaron Tuff?”

  CJ looked back down at Aaron. “Okay. Well, if he’s out here hunting with a rifle off-season—”

  “I’m bowhunting.” Aaron motioned to a bow and quiver of arrows across the room. “And I get together with Eric to play racquetball sometimes.”

  Dylan looked at Aaron’s ID, but then took a picture of him and sent it to Eric, just in case he wasn’t who he said he was.

  “No. We’ve got it covered. Give Penny a hug for me. We’ll talk later, Brother.” CJ ended the call. “You know Fennel and the other men’s hunting licenses are suspended, don’t you?”

  “Hell. They said they got off on the last charges. I wasn’t with them any of the times they got into trouble over that,” Aaron said.

  Dylan confirmed that. He’d never seen this man with them or smelled his scent before.

  “Okay, look, after Jim shot Holson, I could never touch another rifle for hunting or otherwise. Every time I did after that incident, I’d have flashes of seeing him die. I started hunting with my bow, and sometimes the guys hunt with me during bow season. But they still prefer their rifles. If I had known they weren’t going to play by the rules this time, I wouldn’t have agreed to get together with them. They know that.”

  “Did Jim have his bow with him when he saw you?” CJ asked.

  Dylan was wondering about that too.

  “He said he had left it back at the lodge in his room that he shared with Eddie.”

  “Why did he run? If he didn’t kill Eddie? Why didn’t he get hold of the police?” CJ asked.

  “After Jim accidentally shot Holson as a teen, he knew everyone would look at him as the shooter. Besides, Fennel told him he would go down for this. Fennel’s rifle had jammed when he was going to shoot the elk and he borrowed Jim’s. Then Fennel got into a confrontation with Eddie and shot him. It was Jim’s rifle, but Fennel did the shooting. So now how was that going to look? Not only that, but Fennel and Xander have always been the best of friends. They stick up for each other. They were angry that Jim accidentally shot Holson, but I understood and was just damn glad I hadn’t been the one to accidentally shoot him. Jim came clean about that right away. He didn’t try to cover it up. But I knew it had bothered Jim all these years. Eddie stuck up for Jim. So did I. Fennel and Xander resented us for it.”

  Dylan asked, “What was the confrontation between Fennel and Eddie over?”

  “Fennel had been dating a woman named Jana and then he started seeing other women. Jana dated Eddie, and according to Jim, Xander riled Fennel by telling him that Eddie was seeing Jana. Words were exchanged and then Fennel shot Eddie.”

  Dylan rubbed his whiskered chin in thought. So the whole story had changed. “What about the reason Jim tried to kill me?”

  “What?” Aaron was frowning. “How? When? Where?”

  “At the ski lodge after Eddie died.”

  “Jim didn’t go back to the lodge. He saw Fennel headed in that direction and he went the opposite way. Then the snowstorm hit. He was afraid that Fennel would try to kill him after setting him up to take the fall for Eddie’s death so he couldn’t tell the real story. Jim went to his grandfather’s place for a day, figuring he would be safe there, but then he left, worried Fennel would catch up to him since they said they’d meet up there.”

  “Fennel was wearing Jim’s clothes then?” Dylan asked. “I recognized his hat.” And he smelled like Jim, but Dylan couldn’t explain that part.

  “I told you, Fennel set Jim up. Fennel conveniently fell in a river they were crossing before they killed the elk. I told Jim when he mentioned it to me that I wasn’t hunting with them any longer if he and the others were going to hunt with rifles out of season. I can’t afford to jeopardize my job. Anyway, Fennel got his clothes all wet. The ones he was wearing and the ones in his backpack. I mean really convenient, right? Then he has nothing to change into. Of course at the time, Jim only thought it was bizarre since Fennel is the most sure-footed of all of us, but then he just figured accidents happen.”

  “What about Xander? Didn’t he offer any of his clothes to Fennel to wear? What about Eddie?” CJ asked.

  “Both men are too short, and they’re only slightly built. Their clothes wouldn’t fit Fennel. Both Jim and Fennel are muscled and taller. So Jim finally offered to let him wear one of his changes of clothing, though he didn’t look happy about it. But Fennel had to change into dry clothes or possibly end up with hypothermia.”

  “So then those are the clothes Fennel wore to shoot the elk,” CJ said.

  “Right. And he had to still be wearing them when he killed Eddie. If they had any blood spatter on them from either crime scene, everyone would think it was Jim’s fault. Jim’s clothes, his rifle.”

  “Hell,” Dylan said. If all this was true, Fennel still had Jim’s clothes. But he hadn’t been wearing them when they found him at Jim’s grandfather’s cabin. “What about the boy they were looking for? The one they thought had witnessed the murder?”

  “Oh, yeah, Jim mentioned him. He said if the teen had seen the murder, he would be his witness to prove his innocence. He said he looked for him—to safeguard him—but he couldn’t find any sign of him. Not even a trail. He said it was really bizarre. All he found were wolf tracks.”

  “What do you think?” CJ asked Dylan.

  “I think we had Fennel right where he should have been, and now he has been released and he’s the one we wanted.” Damn it to hell. “Where is Jim, Aaron?”

  “I’ll call him.” Aaron got on his phone and tried to get hold of Jim, but there wasn’t any answer. “I’ll send him a text.”

  CJ and Dylan read his text: Hey, Fennel told the police you killed Eddie. I told them you didn’t. Get your ass here so we can make sure he goes to prison and not you!

  There was still no response.

  “What do you want me to do? I’ll do whatever you need me to so that the right person goes to jail for the crime,” Aaron said.

  “Everything you say is hearsay since you weren’t at the scene of either the shooting of the elk or Eddie. It’s Jim’s word against Fennel’s,” Dylan said.

  “I don’t know if either Eddie’s family or Fennel’s knew that they were dating Jana, but that would be something you can check into. I don’t know her full name or I’d tell you what it was. All I know is Jim never dated her. That puts a hole in Fennel’s story right away,” Aaron said.

  Despite the early morning hour, CJ got on his phone and called Eddie’s parents first to see if they knew Jana’s last name. “Hi, this is Deputy Sheriff Silver out of Silver Town, and I’m so sorry for your loss. I’m trying to locate a girl that Eddie had been dating. Yeah, I know it’s really early. I’m sorry. It’s vitally important or I wouldn’t have called you until later today. Would you happen to know her name?”

  Everyone there was waiting for the response. “Jana. Pink Ink on Instagram? Okay, thanks. You wouldn’t happen to know her phone number, would you? Okay… Uh, yeah, we’re zeroing in on the suspect. Thanks again.” When he got off the phone, CJ said, “They don’t know her last name. Whittington, Whiting, Wilcomb, something like that. But the husband and wife were disagreeing about it. Eddie’s mother said that Jana went by Pink Ink, and the mother loved all the pink composite artwork Jana did. So she would check it a few times a day. She sent me the link, and I just sent it to all of you. We need to get in touch with Jana and verify that she didn’t date Jim, just Fennel and—”

  Dylan was already trying to find her on Facebook, and he found her. TikTok too. “Here she is. On Facebook, she mentioned dating Eddie. No mention of either Fennel or Jim.”

  “She could have deleted her posts once she started seeing Eddie,” CJ said.

  Michael said, “I’ve got Eddie’s Facebook page up. It shows him with her at a sandwich shop in Denver and at a park earlier this year and a few other date-type pictures. They’re all smiles, and he seems to really be into her. It says they are dating. But no last name. Just Pink Ink as her handle on Facebook.”

  “Wait,” CJ said. “Look at her friends. A sister wishes her a happy birthday earlier in the year. And so does a brother—bingo! We have a last name. Whitmore.”

  Chapter 22

  At the abandoned cabin, Aaron told Dylan and his teammates, “You guys can stay here for the rest of the night if you’d like to.”

  Their accommodations had really taken a dive, but Aaron did have a fire going, and it was better than tenting in the snow if they didn’t have to do it tonight. Not only that, but it was still only two in the morning.

  “Yeah, thanks, we’ll stay here,” CJ said. To Dylan, he said, “We told the cross-county skiers we were not returning to their cabin, not wanting to disturb them further, though we hadn’t been sure what we’d find here.”