5. Logan
In my dream, I was running my fingers through her auburn hair, and her body moved on mine like she belonged there. When I awoke to some lights moving over the wall of my tent, I went from sexually frustrated to scared to pissed off in moments. The lights were too bright for flashlights. They had to be spotlights or construction lights.
Sleeping in my clothes meant all I had to do was put on my shoes, grab my flashlight and gun, and go hunting for illicit tree harvesting. I couldn’t believe how blatant they were. Eli had warned me away that afternoon. Obviously, he knew more than he was letting on. I’d resisted the urge to hit him when he was a dick to me and barely resisted again when he was a jerk to Heidi. Couldn’t fault her for refusing him, though. He knew his way around the woods, but I figured it was safe to assume that was even more useful for his illegal activities than as a ranger.
That thought brought me back around to Heidi. If he was a truly bad person, she needed to be protected, or at the very least warned that he couldn’t be trusted. However, with the things she’d already said, I didn’t want to make her afraid, only to find out I was wrong.
I slipped through the woods by the light of the moon, grateful that it was full. Between the light from the moon and the sky full of stars, I didn’t need the flashlight, but I brought it with me because it was heavy and made of metal. Better to use it if I needed to protect myself than waving a gun around.
The trees were illuminated in the section of woods where I’d seen the harvesting marks. I snuck up as close as I could while staying in the shadows. Luckily for me, the lights were directed down and toward the trees, so I ended up right behind one of the men without him seeing me.
“Parks and Recreation! What are you doing here?” I called out.
The guy in front of me jumped and cursed, peering blindly out into the night. He was staring right at me, but couldn’t see.
“Cut the lights!” another voice yelled. The lights shut off all at once, and I heard multiple people running in the direction of the road. I considered calling the cops, but from what Heidi said, no one in law enforcement or the legislature seemed to care. I took a roundabout route to get back to my campsite. I’d been so pleased with my visibility when I set up. Now, it just made me stick out like a sore thumb to people who I didn’t want sneaking up on me.
Sleep wasn’t my friend for the rest of the night. After a couple of hours of sitting and watching, I packed up camp by the starlight and headed to the bottom of the small ridge I was on top of. It put stone at my back and made it harder to see me with my gray tent against a gray backdrop. I still had a view of the river and would plant the cameras I hadn’t used in the trees to document the animals Boyden had asked me to.
But waiting until daylight so I could check the cameras I’d set up in the forest near the harvest marks was agony. Part of me hoped I had a clear shot of Ranger Eli’s face, so I could take it to the police and be done with him forever. Mostly, I was confused about what they were going to cut the trees down with. I hadn’t seen a single axe, or chainsaw, or any logging equipment. As far as I could tell, it would have been a waste of money to cut down trees by hand. The evidence I’d seen at the other sites showed a full-scale logging operation.
Something wasn’t right about that copse of pines. I ate breakfast and went back to the trees before the sun was up. I’d been up for hours, it was only a short time before sunrise, and the sky had already turned from blue-black to gray. The silhouettes of the trees rose in front of me, and I checked the flashlight, shining the beam into the trees for a moment before sliding it back through its loop on my utility belt.
I made a beeline back to the marked trees and saw the lights were still there. I followed the power cords back to where there would have been a power source. The wide tire tracks and the missing generator made me think an ATV had been used, and whatever “they” were taking would’ve had to fit on the same small vehicle.
I shone the flashlight around until I something I hadn’t expected. Immediately, I called the number for the park, but no one answered. I cursed and tried to figure out what to do. While I waited, I kicked at the fake ferns and fallen sticks that the guys I’d interrupted had used to hide the plants they were growing underneath.
Eli was growing pot out in the woods. When I told him about the harvesting marks on the trees, he’d sent the growers to collect it before it was discovered. I had nothing against marijuana. If the growers weren’t hurting people, I had nothing against people growing and even selling it. It was none of my business. I pushed the covers back down and left the spot as I’d found it, then collected my cameras before the growers found and destroyed them.
I’d found another spot to plant my cameras that would still show any loggers who came into the area and tied my red and yellow trail marking tape around the trees they’d spray-painted their cutting marks on in the hopes of making them hesitate. As I finished, my phone chirped at me from my pocket. I smiled as I looked at the caller ID. The park was calling me. Heidi.
“Well, hello, good looking. How are you this morning?” I asked, glad she couldn’t see my face split in two by my stupid grin.
“Um… Ah, good morning, Mr. Hargrave; this is Eli Burns, of Parks and Recreation, um…”
At his discomfort, I laughed aloud. “Oh, God. I’m sorry, Eli. I was expecting a call from this pretty girl, and you just called at the right time.” I laughed. “Hey, I don’t know why you called, but I tied some ribbons on those marked trees you told me to stay away from. I was hoping that seeing someone had been around might make them walk away from it. I saw you put some lights out, but I figured those might be stolen. You might want your guys to come pick them up. I’m going to be setting up trail cameras on the other side of the river all day.”
“Oh. Well, that’s… that’s a very good idea. Thank you. I’ll see that those lights get removed today.” There was a pregnant silence, where I could feel Eli trying to decide if I was a problem or not. “Mr. Hargrave, I hope you have a lot of luck with your wildlife cameras. I’ll let you go, in case your girl calls.”
“Thanks, Eli. I’ll keep tabs on Honey the fawn at Dr. Seale’s office, and I’ll come around the center when he gets reunited with his mother.”
“Sounds like you have a plan. Have a good day, Mr. Hargrave.”
“You, too, Eli; you, too.” I hung up the phone, shook my head, and laughed. Poor Eli. He didn’t seem a bad sport, after all. His men didn’t have guns with them when I interrupted them. They’d run, instead of trying to fight. They were probably other rangers, looking to make some extra money in tight times for government employees.
There was still the matter of Heidi, though. I hated the way he’d looked at her, the way he’d talked to her. She was stronger than I was, staying in a place where she was treated so poorly. I turned the volume up on my phone so I could hear Heidi when she called. Then I got the first camera secured to a fir tree, facing the lake and my tent. Just in case trouble found me. I climbed down to the ladder from the tree, my hands and jacket covered in sap, and my phone rang.
“Of course,” I muttered as I gingerly held my phone and accepted the call.
“Mr. Hargrave,” said a husky female voice that made me shiver.
“Heidi,” I replied. “First, it’s Logan. Second, good morning, beautiful. I’m serious about the first one though. How can I tell you that I’m interested in getting you out here alone with me if we’re being so formal?”
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone, and I panicked. It was stupid of me to forget that she was shy. Coming on to her wasn’t going to get me anywhere.
“So, you want me all alone?”
“Yes. Preferably with something that will remove sap from my hands. I’m going to assume my jacket and pants are going in the trash when I’m done.”
I heard her laugh on the other end, even though she’d moved the phone away from her mouth. “I will come to you, alone, and I will bring turpentine. Anything else?”
I paused, then added, “Good coffee would be nice, and I’ll pay for the coffee and anything you bring to help me, so make sure you get one for yourself, too.”
“Oh, I’m getting something large and expensive.”
“You should make it fattening, too. I mean, obviously, you take amazing care of yourself. Today is the day to splurge.”
She went quiet again, long enough that I thought I’d dropped the call.
“Heidi?”
“You checked me out.”
I winced. She wasn’t like other women I knew. I had no idea what I could or shouldn’t say to her. “Yes. In the interest of a full, trusting relationship, I must confess that I checked you out. I liked what I saw so much I accidentally called Eli ‘good-looking’ this morning, thinking the call was from you. He wasn’t as offended as I thought he would be.” I heard that laugh again, and when she came back, she was panting. “Are you done?” I asked, but the question just made her laugh more.
“I’m sorry I was late calling. Dr. Seale wasn’t in his office; I didn’t want to call until I had information. Then I talked to him, and apparently there is no news yet.”
“But you’re coming, and you’re bringing me coffee?”
She giggled. “It sounds like the turpentine is more important.”
“That’s a matter of opinion.”
“Stop, you’re going to make me laugh so hard my mascara runs.” She giggled again.
“So, I’d get to see you without makeup.”
She snorted derisively. “Fat chance, brother.”
I chuckled. “At least give me your number, so I can text you my coffee order.”
“I’ll text you as soon as we hang up. That way, you don’t have to type it in on your phone with those sticky fingers.” She paused then added, “Did you want some work gloves, too?”
I sighed. “I have them. But I left them in my tent and didn’t want to cross the river again to get them. It’s cold in the morning.”
She chuckled. “I’ll meet you at the information booth at the two-mile marker. That should only be a few minutes’ walk from where you are now.”
“Sounds perfect. See you soon.”
She said goodbye, and I carefully dropped my phone into my pocket. We were far away from where Eli’s buddies would be collecting their plants, I’d have a little time with the pretty girl with the hazel eyes, and Boyden’s cameras were going up without any trouble, beyond some sticky fingers.
I was happier than I’d been in a long time. Some of the things I’d seen out in the world had made me want to retreat from humanity. Heidi was the first person outside my family I’d wanted to reach out to in a long time. It wasn’t that she made me happy. Something about her made me want to be happy. Soon enough, I hoped to find out what it was about her that made her catch my focus so completely.