A bit of my worry about my injuries faded at that knowledge. Hiking with a bum ankle to a location where Walker could land and pick us up was bad enough, but broken ribs would have made it almost impossible. The improvement also gave me hope I could go out and look for Lana if I needed to.
I hoped I didn’t need to. Not because I didn’t want to, but because if I had to, that meant both of us were likely injured, creating more complications.
I threaded my arm back into my sleeve and blew out a breath.
God, I was such anidiot. I knew better than to get careless on wet, moss-covered rocks. But my mind had been on the bear carcasses and who could be responsible, not on putting one foot in front of the other as I made my way over the rocky landscape.
It was a good thing Lana kept her head and came up with a plan to get me out of that little crevice and back to camp, or I could still be out there.
I dug into the med kit again, looking for the acetaminophen this time. I only took two ibuprofen and planned to take anothertwo in four hours. The acetaminophen would help get on top of things for now. I hoped.
Once I’d done all I could for myself with what I had on hand, I took out the satellite phone from my jacket pocket. Hopefully, I could get a signal in this weather.
Powering it on, the signal indicator lit up with two bars. Not great, but I should be able to get through to someone.
I dialed the Fish and Game warden, Jesse Wakefield’s, number first.
He answered on the third ring. “Wakefield.”
“Jesse, it’s Toren.”
“Hey, what’s up?”
“So, I’m up in the Lace River area, searching for a missing hunter and?—”
“Missing hunter?” His tone sharpened as he interrupted me. “Who? I haven’t seen anything on anyone lost.”
“That’s because it hasn’t been reported through official channels yet. He’s not due back until Thursday. Do you know Lana Decker?”
“No. Who’s that?”
“A wedding planner. One of her brides came to her, asking if she knew anyone who could go look for her fiancé. He went hunting and had been regularly checking in, then stopped. She got worried.”
“Why didn’t she go to the cops? Why didn’t you?”
“Lana and her bride didn’t think they’d get taken too seriously. The guy is an experienced hunter and still had days left before he was supposed to return. You know how spotty coverage can be up here.”
“And that convinced you to go look for him?” Skepticism colored his voice.
“It was enough.” That and other reasons I wasn’t keen on putting into words. To him or to myself. “But I’m not callingabout the hunter.” I paused as I realized someone else would need to come up here and look for Dustin now that I couldn’t walk well. “Well, not completely. We found evidence of poaching while we searched. Two black bear carcasses, missing their paws, and all the meat left on to rot. I’ve got coordinates.”
Jesse let out a low whistle. “You only found two, you said?”
“Yeah. They’re only a few days old, and they were in close proximity to each other. I’m betting there are more. I haven’t seen a single bear today, or even any fresh sign.” That had been another thing rolling through my mind as I crossed that rocky patch. I should have seen fresh scat and other signs of hungry, fresh out of hibernation bears, and I hadn’t.
“Okay. Can you text me the coordinates? I’ll get in there once the weather clears.”
“Any idea when that’ll be?” I lifted my hand, staring at my taped fingers. “Lana and I need a ride earlier than expected.”
Jesse was silent for a moment. “You took the wedding planner with you?”
His incredulous tone told me what he thought of that.
“What happened? Did she get hurt?” he continued.
“No. She’s actually been rather resourceful and tough. I was a dumbass and wasn’t paying attention to my footing. I slid and fell between some boulders. I’ve got a badly sprained ankle, two broken fingers, and some bruised ribs.”
“Well, hell, man. Are you in a safe spot, at least? This system is only getting started.”