The highway was quiet. Not many used that stretch of road, not on a Sunday evening, not even the logging trucks. I took the boning knife out of the glove box and put it on the passenger seat, regretting I hadn’t thought to take the gun with me into town. Then again, I didn’t like to carry a rifle around, even if it was hidden under the back seat. I couldn’t justify it. I was a deer hunter, and there were no deer in town. I wasn’t some crazed nut on the rampage. I didn’t want just anyone feeling threatened by me. Only someone. Him.
I was all stealth, creeping along the track. I picked my way over twigs and leaf litter, a predator.
On the fourth bend, where the track narrowed between two full-grown stringy barks, I saw him.
He was lying on the ground, his foot caught in my trap.
I left h
