Part 5
The next update arrived while Owen was explaining a detour to a hiker who believed a short trail could not possibly require a long closure. He waited until the man left before opening Tessa’s message.
Mother avoiding staff. Kittens climbing. Weights appropriate.
That was all.
Through June and into July, he received one brief report a week. There were no photographs for his entertainment. Once, a picture of the healing foot arrived with a clinical note. He enlarged it, studied the clean skin, and put the phone away.
The closure was approved. Owen helped place the detour signs and used the wording on the public notice when people complained: sensitive wildlife activity, resource protection. He didn’t tell them what had happened on the porch.
His review concluded with a written reprimand and a season without solo backcountry duty. He returned to paired patrols. Hal surrendered the remaining traps he owned while the legal case continued.
Erin also found the funding program Owen had failed to pursue. A livestock crew installed an electrified poultry enclosure at Hal’s place. By the time winter approached, his hens would be behind it.
Eleven weeks after the night at the cabin, Owen stood beside Erin at the lower gate as a wildlife transport truck rolled toward them. He wore work clothes but carried no duty belt. Today he was helping Tessa, not running an operation.
Deke had watched him take the leash from its hook that afternoon. Then the dog had struggled to stand. Owen put the leash back and made a cool place for him on the kitchen floor.
Tessa stepped down from the truck and glanced behind Owen.
“No escort?”
“Deke objected to being left.”
“What did the grievance cost you?”
“Part of my breakfast.”
“Cheap settlement.”
She opened the rear doors. Micah checked the covered carriers while she reviewed the arrangement with Erin. The kittens shared one carrier, fitted against the adult’s through a sliding transfer opening. Once they were positioned at the release shelter, ropes would let the team open the gates from cover.
No one would coax the animals out. If they waited until dark, the people would wait longer.
The trip to the cabin took nearly an hour. Low wheeled litters carried the crates over the roughest sections, and Owen lifted or stopped where Micah directed. Tessa checked the adult’s breathing along the way. From the kitten carrier came a sudden hiss with considerably more conviction than its owner’s size suggested.
Erin hid a smile behind her hand.
The cabin looked smaller without snow. Tall pink flowers stood near the steps. Beside them, the boot scraper lay where Owen had tipped it out of the way in May.
Tessa paused at the door. The chain had left a curved gouge in the jamb.
“Nobody’s repaired this?”
“It shuts.”
“That’s a generous definition of maintenance.”
“Your mother had opinions about this place, too.”
“Mom would’ve ordered a new cabin.”
A laugh escaped him as he bent for his end of the litter.
They set the carriers beside a brush-screened shelter downhill from the cabin, away from the trail. Cameras covered the opening and the game path. Tessa checked the fasteners, the wind, the clearances around the transfer gate. When she finished, she had Micah check them again.
By dusk, all four people were inside a blind well back from the shelter. The ropes lay through a narrow slit. Tessa placed the adult’s line in Owen’s hand.
“You were there at the start.”
“I was on the other side of a door.”
“You made the shelter available.”
He rolled the cord between his fingers. Through the viewing slit, he could barely distinguish the carrier from the brush behind it.
He wanted to feel the door rise. He imagined the female stepping into view and turning toward the blind. It was such a small thing to want, and he held the rope a moment longer than he should have.
Then he gave it back.
“This is your release.”
Tessa looked at him before she closed her hand around the line.
Micah opened the transfer gate. Tessa raised the adult’s door.
An insect whined beside Owen’s ear. He let it land. Across the clearing, nothing moved.
The first visible part of the bobcat was an ear above the edge of the carrier. She paused, then brought out a forefoot and lowered her head to test the air. When she stepped fully into the clearing, Owen looked at the right hind leg.
The hair was still thin over a narrow strip of healed skin. The muscle hadn’t quite filled out to match the other side. But the foot rested firmly on the ground while she surveyed the trees.
She gave the blind no attention.
The female crossed toward cover. One kitten scrambled after her, stumbled at the lip of the carrier, and recovered. The second appeared in the doorway, stared into the clearing, and backed inside.
Owen’s hand rose toward the flap. A wide circle behind the crates might be enough. He wouldn’t have to touch the kitten, only make the wrong direction less appealing.
Tessa laid her hand over his wrist.
“Right,” he whispered.
He let his arm fall.
The mother waited. The first kitten crouched beside her, barely visible under the leaves. At last the female turned, walked back across the clearing, and entered the carrier.
A scuffling sound came from inside. Then a small protest.
She emerged with the second kitten suspended from her mouth. At the brush line, she set it down beside the first and touched each small head with her nose. The kittens followed her up the path, their ears showing briefly between the ferns, then disappearing.
Owen kept his hands folded in his lap.
Tessa made them stay in the blind another twenty minutes. When she finally opened it, the clearing was too dark for Owen to pick out the game trail.
Micah collected the carriers. Erin checked the camera settings and deleted a test photograph that consisted mostly of her boot. Owen stood outside the blind, listening to water running below the trees.
Tessa came to stand beside him.
“How are you doing?”
“All right.”
“I’m not asking about your ability to walk down.”
He glanced at her.
“All right’s what I’ve got.”
She nodded and picked up a coil of rope.
They secured the woodshed before leaving. At the front door, Owen lifted the handle slightly to make the latch catch.
“That needs replacing before the snow comes.”
“Then write it up,” Tessa said. “You’re not sneaking back to do repairs while you’re restricted.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I can prescribe something for that tone.”
They walked down behind Erin and Micah. At the gate, while the carriers were being loaded, Tessa asked whether he still had his key to the house in Oravel.
He showed her the ring.
“Saturday. Nine. We’re clearing the greenhouse before another storm finds the bad roof panel.”
Owen took out his phone. Beneath the gate light, with Tessa standing beside him, he entered the appointment…
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