She nearly ran over Faol when she stepped into the darkness of the forest. The wolf jumped to his feet, whined, and started wagging his tail.

“Shh. You’re going to wake Father Daar,” she said, giving him a pat on the head. “Feel like a hike, big boy?” she asked, blinking her eyes at the darkness.

It took her a few minutes to locate the North Star and get her bearings and another few minutes for her eyes to adjust completely to the night forest. And then Sadie started south along the edge of Fraser Mountain, toward logging camp number three. Faol trotted ahead of her, his bushy tail wagging like a flag leading the way.

In less than half an hour they reached the camp, and Sadie ran toward the tent her mother and Callum had left standing in wait for her and Morgan’s return.

She heard Faol’s warning growl at the exact moment a gunshot cracked through the air, the muzzle blast flashing from a tree beside the tent.

Faol’s yelp of pain was drowned out by her own scream of surprise. There were several shots in rapid succession, and all Sadie could see was the scurry of moving shadows where Faol had been standing. Another yelp, then the growl of an enraged beast, followed by another crack of gunfire.

Sadie screamed and threw herself toward the tent. She unzipped it and dove inside to find her pack and the knife she usually carried. She pushed around her sleeping bag and dry packs but couldn’t find her backpack.

“Looking for this?”

Sadie whirled at the sound of the familiar voice. The beam of a flashlight sliced over her face. She held up her hand to see beyond the glare and gasped.

“Eric!”

He dropped her pack and grabbed her by the hair, pulling her out of the tent. With a yelp of her own, Sadie scrambled on her knees until she could stand up. She watched as Eric quickly scanned the forest with his flashlight, looking for Faol.

“Where’s the MacKeage guy that dog belongs to?” Eric asked, turning the flashlight back on her.

“H-he’s dead.”

“He’s not. I saw him carrying you from the water. You were the one I shot.” He sent the beam of light over her body.

Sadie gasped, trying to step back, but was pulled up short by his grip on her hair. “You were the one shooting? But why?” she cried, struggling to get free.

He held her tightly. “I was aiming for MacKeage. I wanted him out of the way.”

“Out of the way for what?” she whispered, holding herself perfectly still.

“He was distracting you from your hunt for the gold. I’m sure I shot you by mistake,” he said, giving her hair a vicious tug.

“You just grazed me. Th-that’s why I have this cane,” she said, pointing at the cane on the ground by the tent. “But the bullet went into Morgan, and he used up the last of his strength getting me to safety.”

“You wouldn’t be here if MacKeage were dead. You’d be in town.” He tugged her hair again. “Where is he?”

“O-okay, he’s not dead. But he’s wounded. I have him tucked down by the stream. I’m here to get my phone so I can call for help.”

“The phone’s not in your pack, Quill. I checked.”

“It’s got to be.” She pulled from his grasp and bent down to her pack, pretending to look for the phone. “I know it’s in here.”

“No, it’s not. And neither is your knife,” he said, jerking her upright again. “I have it now. And I also have the diary, including the page you circled.”

He released her and pulled his gun out of his belt. “You found the gold, didn’t you?

That’s where MacKeage is now.”

“No. No, we didn’t find anything. He really is hurt.”

Eric shoved her in the direction she’d come from. “The diary says the gold is north of here. So let’s just go see.”

Sadie bent, picked up Daar’s cane, and pretended to use it as a crutch. With a final look over her shoulder at where Faol had disappeared and a prayer that the wolf wasn’t too badly hurt, Sadie started limping back toward the stream.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked as she set a course slightly northwest of where Father Daar was. “I want this park as much as you do. I would have told you the moment I found Jedediah’s gold.”

Eric laughed. “The park’s not important to me, Quill. Granted, I’ll make a good chunk of money off my land once the park’s in operation, but I’d much rather find the gold. Why in hell do you think I talked the consortium into hiring you?”

Sadie stopped and whirled on him. “You shot Morgan over some gold that might not even exist? Are you nuts?”

He aimed the beam of his flashlight down the trail behind them, then poked her with it to get her moving again. “My great-granddaddy wasn’t nuts,” he said, walking behind her, keeping his beam scanning the woods. “Old Levi Hellman financed the store I now run with what gold Plum was carrying on him when he died.”

“Your great-grandfather? Did he… was he the one who murdered Jedediah?”

Eric shrugged. “Who the hell knows? Or even cares now? I just know that the Hellmans came into a good chunk of money eighty years ago, and there were stories passed down in our family that speculated about where it came from. And I’m guessing your daddy had heard the rumors, too. That’s why he never would discuss his search for the gold with me. And I know he was close to succeeding when the fire destroyed all his research.”

“How do you know that?”

“I knew he had Jean Lavoie’s diary. I saw his copy.”

“When?”

“The night of the fire,” he said, his voice low and angry. “And if your sister hadn’t caught me, I would have gotten it then.”

Sadie whirled on him again, stumbling back when he bumped into her. “What are you saying?”

She could just make out Eric’s sneer in the glow of his flashlight. “I’m saying that your sister didn’t burn in the fire, Quill. She was already dead.”

She lunged at him with a shriek of anger, one hand coiled into a claw, the cane raised to strike in the other. They went tumbling to the ground, and Sadie tried to reach for his gun as they fought. He hit her on the side of her head with the flashlight, momentarily stunning her with the blow.

Eric rolled to his feet, his gun back in his hand, and kicked her. “After the fire, I spent the next five years trying to talk Frank into resuming his research,” he continued as if nothing had happened. “But he’d lost his passion for the hunt. He wouldn’t even tell me where he’d found the diary when I alluded to it. I couldn’t come right out and mention the diary, because I wasn’t supposed to know he had it.”

“Then how did you?” Sadie asked, rising onto her hands and knees, clutching the cane in her fist.

“I only knew Frank had found something important. He couldn’t wait for you to get home from school. He was like a kid with the key to the candy store.”

Sadie glared at him past the flashlight beam. “So you broke into our house and tried to steal what he’d found.”

Eric nodded. “But then Caroline came into the study. You really had left a candle burning, Quill,” he continued derisively. “Your sister was covering your ass. But we struggled, and that’s how the fire started. We knocked over the candle, and Lavoie’s diary burned before I could get to it.”

Sadie stood up, and Eric took a guarded step back, raising his gun.

“You’re a murderer,” she said in a low voice. “You killed my sister eight years ago, and you tried to kill me yesterday.”

She could just make out that he was shaking his head. “No. It was Morgan MacKeage I was aiming at. Why in hell would I want to kill you?” he asked incredulously. “You’re the only one who knows this valley.”

“And now I know you’re a murderer.”

He nodded. “That doesn’t matter now. Where’s the gold?”

Sadie realized then that he intended to kill her. And that she needed a way to stall for time until Morgan could get here. Surely he’d heard the gunshots. “So where did you really find the diary you gave me?”