After the initial greetings, I lapsed into listening mode, hoping to hear something about Sammi so I could join the conversation rather than instigate it. After fifteen minutes of listening to the Myers brothers bitch about native land rights, I realized no easy segue was coming.

"Anyone hear what happened to Sammi?" I asked when Jason Myers paused for a caffeine refill. "She hasn't been to work in two days."

"Took off," Jason said.

Everyone nodded.

His brother, Eric, leaned forward, jabbing his finger at the countertop in front of Larry, the diner owner. "Now, these Indians, we paid them for their land. If I sell my house to someone, my grandkids can't come back fifty years later and say they got a bum deal and want it back."

I could have pointed out the fallacy of this argument but, during my years in White Rock, I'd learned there were certain issues you didn't debate with the locals.

"About Sammi," I said. "Did she really run away?"

The Myers brothers shrugged in unison.

"Hey, Nadia," Brett Helms called down the counter. "You see any sign of that cougar up your way?"

I shook my head. "Heard about it, though. It's for real, then?"

"Guess so. Some kids camping over by the Potter place heard it. Came racing in here just before closing, huh, Larry?"

Larry nodded and poured fresh grinds into the coffee-maker.

"Scared shitless," Brett said, laughing. "City kids. Said they'd heard cougars on some wildlife show and they were sure that's what it was."

"Man, that'd be a trophy," Eric said. "Think Don'll let us hunt it?"

I tuned them out and sipped my coffee. Seventeen-year-old girl goes missing and no one even wonders why. But an escaped cougar? Now that's news.

Chapter Five