The Other Side of Lone Mountain

Chapter Six

They were half way to the car when Mandy stopped dead in her tracks. “Paul did you hear that?” she asked.

“Hear what? I didn’t hear anything. What did it sound like?”

“I’m not sure, but I thought I heard someone moaning.” They listened but Mandy didn’t hear anything else. “It must have been the wind in the trees. There’s always some kind of wind blowing in these mountains.”

As they approached the clearing where they had parked, Mandy recognized Gill, the logging supervisor, standing next to Paul’s vehicle. He had two other guys with them and they were standing slightly behind him on the other side of the vehicle. “Hello Gill” Mandy called out. “What are you doing here?”

“Hey Mandy, I might ask you the same thing. You never hike this side of the mountain. You on official business or something?” Then giving Mandy one of what he called his {come and get it} smiles, he asked, “By the way, when are ya gonna let me take you out?”
“Gill; give it a rest. That line isn’t getting old, it is old. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I agree to go out with you. Now, what are you doing here?” demanded Mandy.

“One of my guys told me they spotted a vehicle up here and it looked abandoned, so we came to check it out. We didn’t want anyone to accidentally go wandering into the logging area. It could be dangerous, if ya know what I mean. There’ve been a few accidents up here already. Now, whatta you doing here?”

Up until now both Gill and Mandy seemed to have ignored Paul and he just stood there quietly trying to understand what was not being said. Paul guessed that they’ve known each other for a long time. Mandy turned to Paul and gave him a look that warned him not to say anything. Mandy introduced Paul, “Gill, this is Paul Covington and this is his vehicle. I brought him up here to show him some of the safe hiking trails in this area, because as you said, it can be dangerous.”

“How come you didn’t take him where you hike, why here?” questioned Gill, suddenly getting suspicious.

“Because, number one, this is where he wanted to come and two my trails are all safe; all I have to do is map them out. Now if you don’t mind we need to get started back down the mountain.”

Gill turned to leave and called back, “Nice to have met you! It’s Paul right? Take my advice and do your hiking on the other side of the mountain. It’ll be much safer for you.”

“Ya, nice to have met you too. I’ll think about your advice.” returned Paul. Once Gill was out of sight, Paul asked, “Who was that guy? And why didn’t you want me to say anything to him about Mark? He might have been able to help us. Maybe he’s seen Mark.”

Mandy knew she would have no problem answering his first question. The second however, would be a little more difficult considering she wasn’t sure herself why she didn’t want Gill to know they were searching for someone. One of her natural gut instincts had kicked in, warning her to remain silent about Mark. She tried to think of the best way to tell Paul about Gill. Finally she said, “That was Gill Matheson. He’s the supervisor for the logging camp. He runs the operation up here and there is very little that goes on that he doesn’t know about.”

“Okay, again I ask, why didn’t you want me to ask him about Mark?” Paul was really confused now. “If he knows everything that goes on up here, he surely knows what happened to Mark.”
They were well on their way down the mountain by this time. Mandy had been thinking of how to answer Paul’s last question. Finally she replied, “I’ve known Gill for many years. He became supervisor when his father retired three years ago. That seems when the accidents started happening. I don’t trust him and for the time being I want to keep the information about your friend quiet. At least until we get more information about what happened to Mark? If something is going on up there, I don’t want to tip our hand.”

“You know, you don’t have to do this. If you suspect that foul play may be involved, don’t you think you should have Sheriff Singleton make this a full fledge investigation?

“I’m not sure if there has been any foul play, I need more to go on before I can make that decision. Besides, if Gill is involved in your friend’s disappearance and he finds out that we suspect him, he’ll want to cover his tracks and your friend will become another accident victim.. Besides, I want to do this for my father and my husband. I’ll keep the Sheriff abreast of what we’re doing. If it becomes necessary to make it an official police business he’ll have all the information. For now we’re just looking for your friend.”

“Alright, since I can’t talk you out of it, what’s our next course of action?”

“I have a friend in town, his name is Lone Wolfe. He’s the best tracker on the East Coast. We’ll talk to him.”

“I don’t know how I can ever thank you for what you’re doing.” replied Paul. She looked at him and gave him a wide smile with a mischievous look in her eyes, “Don’t worry about it, I’m sure I’ll think of something. Besides, I’m doing this for myself as well. If it turns out that there was foul play involved, and I hope for Mark’s sake there wasn’t, but if there was, it might also help show that my father’s and husband’s deaths were not accidents. ”

Suddenly Mandy bolted straight up in her seat. “Paul! I just thought of something! You said Mark had equipment, am I correct?”

“Yes?”
“Don’t you see, if he had equipment, he had to have driven his vehicle up there, right?”

“Yeh, and so?”

“We didn’t find a vehicle or a sign that one had been there. Even with the rain, there should have been some sign of tire tracks from a vehicle that was carrying equipment. What kind of vehicle does Mark have?”

“When we’re working he uses his Toyota Tundra. I believe it’s a 2003.”

“What color?”

“Gray, but he may not have driven up there. Maybe he hiked and left the equipment and the truck in town.”

“But you said he was going up there the next day to start taking samples. Wouldn’t he need equipment for that?”

“That’s true, but it depends on what kind of samples he planned on taking. Some of our equipment is light enough and small enough to carry in a backpack.”

“Okay, when we get back to my place we’ll place a call to Lone Wolfe. Then we’ll go to the Bed and Breakfast and I’ll introduce you to my mom. Since Mark has paid for two weeks and we don’t know where he is, you might be able to stay in his room while we search for him. We will also check with my mom and see if Mark left his truck parked there.

She’s got parking spaces behind the B & B so we might not see it from the street.”

“I sure hope his truck is there”, said Paul. “I don’t know how I’m going to tell Vickie if something has happened to Mark.”
“Let’s not think about that right now. We’ll find him and he’ll be fine, you’ll see.”

“I hope you’re right.” replied Paul, not yet quite convinced.