Page 126 of The Woman By the Lake

That meant he grinned.

Then I explained, “I told him you were checking on something I saw. I thought that was what you’d do. He didn’t seem alarmed.”

“It’s what I’d do.”

“He also told me something, and to keep our growing bond thriving, I’m not going to tell you what it is. And it’s not bad. Just that you might want to carve out time to have a chat with him.”

“It’s not bad?”

“No. He listens to you as well as processes what you say in a deep way that’s beyond his years. He’s processed something and made a decision about it. He’ll bring it up to you anyway, just wanted to give you a warning.”

“Right. This have something to do with chaos theory?”

“Yes, actually.”

He shook his head with amusement.

“Okay, then, now can we make out?” I queried.

He smiled again. “Not yet.”

“Ugh. So, does this delay in making out mean you found something?”

“It took some looking, but yeah. We found a multitude of footprints. Two people. One’s either a guy with a small foot and not a lot of weight on him, or a woman. The other, definitely a guy or a female shot putter who’s not afraid of getting caught doping.”

I started laughing.

He kept talking.

“They came in around where you said, moved around a lot, went back to an old, now unused access road off the main one where they parked their car. No clue what they were doing, but they weren’t hunting or camping.”

“Is there another reason for someone to be there?”

“Not that I know. I’ve had to tell folks who come in to chop down trees for firewood to get off my land. Not often, but it’s happened a couple of times. One group of them were out-of-towners who thought they could ignore the signs their footprints passed right by to chop down a Christmas tree.”

“Losers,” I muttered.

“Agreed. I do get hunters. Trappers too, but that isn’t much anymore, ’cause I spring those fuckers, confiscate them and melt them down to use in my work, and some of that shit can be expensive.”

“I take it you aren’t a hunter.”

“My dad was a hunter.”

“Ah.”

“I grew up here, so I get how it’s part of tradition and even a way of life.”

“I sense that’s not the entirety of your opinion about it,” I remarked.

This time he smirked.

It was hot.

“You sense right,” he confirmed. “It boils down to the fact that we’ve managed to discover ways to sensitively raise and slaughter animals for consumption, and I can’t wrap my head around stalking a living thing through its natural habitat for the purpose of killing it. I know a number of things that are challenging and prove you’ve got mettle that don’t include taking the life of a living creature. If it poses an immediate threat to you, okay. If you go out for the purpose of ending its life so you can hang its head on your wall, absolutely not.”

I very much agreed.

But he wasn’t done.

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