“He works here.He’s bringing back— It doesn’t matter.Who are you?”
“Jem Berger.And this is Tean.Sorry to bother you, but we’re looking into Brennon Lee’s death, and we were wondering if we could ask you a few questions.”Jem paused and asked, “You were the one who found him, correct?”
“Oh God, that poor man.”She pushed her hair back again, frowned, and said, “Whatever I can do to help.”
“Do you mind if we sit down?”
She gestured to the camp chairs, and they sat.
“I can start a fire if you give me two minutes,” she said.“It gets cold out here.I’d invite you in, but…”
“But we’re strangers?”Jem said.“Very smart.We won’t take a lot of your time.Could we start with your name?”
“Katie.Wait, aren’t you with the police?”
“No, we’ve been retained by friends of the family.”
“Like private investigators?”
“Something like that.Could you tell us about finding the body?”
“There’s not much to tell.I went out that night, and I wanted to try a few new spots.Sometimes the right angle makes all the difference.”
“For what?”Tean asked.
“Spotting UFOs,” she said cheerily.“I come out here every year.This is the best place—the entire basin is like a nexus for weird stuff.There’s a major ley line, and the electromagnetic fields are totally whack.A couple of years ago, I saw them for the first time!”
“Them?”
“UFOs!Well, I only saw one.But you can see all sorts of amazing stuff out here.There are skin walkers, and extradimensional wolves, even chupacabras when they come north.”
Tean opened his mouth, but Jem bumped his knee and said, “That’s amazing.You’ve seen all that?”
“Well, no.Just the lights.But Kai said a few people have seen the wolves.They cross over sometimes.And one time, one of them even got stuck here.They told everybody it was a regular wolf, and people believed it!”
Tean had an idea of whotheywere.He was probably lumped into that group.
“So,” Jem said, “you went out to see UFOs.”
“You never really know if you’re going to see them, but that’s what makes it fun.My cousin likes to play quiniela, and it’s the same kind of thing.You never know if you’re going to hit the jackpot.”
“And what happened that night?”
“I…found him.”
“Could you walk us through that?”Jem asked.
“Well, I got out of the side-by-side—”
“What’s a side-by-side?”
“It’s like an ATV,” Tean said.“Two people can ride side by side, hence the name.”
“They let you rent them here,” Katie said.“It makes it a lot easier to get around.Plus, if you go on the ranch—” She cut herself off.“Not that we do.Go on the ranch, I mean.Because it’s trespassing.”
“What ranch?”
“A lot of the land next to the campground is privately owned.And they don’t want anybody on their property.”Frustration laced her voice as she blurted, “But some of the best landing sites are on that property!It’s not fair!”