at the map.
As she recited everything, beginning with
the incident at the falls and ending with the
conversation she’d overheard between Trainey
and Gerald Turkower, Martin’s frown deep-
ened. “You’ve been busy. And it looks like
you’re making progress flushing these charac-
ters out.” He crossed his arms and said slowly,
“But from what you say, you’ve haven’t got
enough proof for me to move on.” He went
behind his desk and sat down, then gestured
toward a chair.
“I know that,” Nancy said, sitting down.
“That’s why I’m moving to the Emerson camp-
site today. From what Trainey said on the
phone, I think the missing marmots are going
to be shipped out tonight, and I’m pretty sure
they’re being kept someplace nearby,” she
replied.
The ranger nodded. He remained silent for a
moment, then hit the desk with his fist. “I feel
as if my hands are tied on this. Without more
proof, I can’t justify a full-scale search of the
area around the camp, but I will beef up the
patrol vehicles along that stretch of the high-
way tonight.”
Nancy smiled slightly. “That will help. And
that reminds me-there’s something else you
can do for me. I was wondering if you have
some camping gear I could borrow. All my
friend Bess and I really need is a tent and two
sleeping bags.”
Robbins chuckled. “And a couple of air
mattresses, too, believe me. Otherwise, you’ll
be so sore after one night that you won’t be
able to walk. Let me think. I know I have a
couple of sleeping bags here, but I may have to
call around to get you a tent. And anyway, I’m
not sure it’s such a great idea. These people
have already shown how ruthless they are.”
“I know that,” Nancy replied grimly.
“That’s why I have to stop them now.”
Robbins rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Fi-
nally he said, “Well, all right, but on one
condition-you call me the second anything
starts to go down. I don’t want to take any
chances.”
“I understand,” Nancy told him.
He made a call. “One of the rangers over at
Tower Junction has a tent he can lend you.
He’ll be passing by here in half an hour, so he’ll
drop it off. Okay?”
“Great,” Nancy replied. “Thanks a lot. I
guess I’ll go get Bess and drop her by the
campsite, then come back.”
She started to get up, then sank back down
in her seat. “There’s one more thing. You’ve
got two park maintenance men named Rich-
ard and Piker. I saw them talking to the
Turkowers. That’s just one of the things that
makes me suspicious of them. How well do
you know them?”
Martin leaned back in his chair and gazed
toward the ceiling. “If you mean personally, I
hardly know them at all,” he finally said. “As
far as their work goes, no complaints about
them.”
Nancy looked at Martin earnestly. “I know
this is slightly irregular, but could I please see
their personnel files?”
Martin frowned. “I’m sorry. Nancy. Those
files are confidential.”
“Oh, of course, I understand,” Nancy re-
plied. “I wouldn’t dream of asking you to do
something that’s against the rules. But you
have the right to consult their files, don’t you?”
“Of course I do,” Martin said.
“And if you looked through them and no-
ticed anything that might be important for me
to know, it would be only natural to mention
it, wouldn’t it?”
A slow smile spread across his lips. “That’s
so,” he said, getting up and crossing to a bank
of gray metal file cabinets. He scanned the
labels on the drawers, then opened one near
the bottom and pulled out two olive-colored
hanging file folders. “Here we are,” he said.
“Richard Geismar and Piker Slattery.”
He opened the first of the files and glanced
through it. Next he looked at the second one.
“That’s funny,” he said. “These two guys both
grew up in Ashland, Idaho. That’s a little town
about forty miles west of the park. They were
bom in the same year, too.”
He flipped back and forth between the two
files. “Odd,” he continued. “Their job records