Chapter 57
Jake Sullivan joined the investigators out near the Selway River. He had been flown there by bush plane to meet the daughter of a rancher who had rented four horses and two double horse-trailers for a good sum of money.
The daughter didn’t live on the ranch, but near Hells Canyon. She told him that her father had contacted her because he felt nervous about a business transaction.
The week before, he had called her to say that four strangers had come to him saying they wanted to rent horses for five days to ride and hike deep into the backcountry. They claimed to be from Salmon City, and that they knew how to handle themselves and horses out in the wilderness.
The rancher swore they didn’t look like “dude ranch types,” but were tough and leathery skinned—as if they had spent
