After hiking almost four miles to Smuggler’s Cove, Cassidy was spent and had wanted to sit in her hammock for a while and take a nap before they made the return trip to Scorpion Ranch to catch the ferry to the mainland. But Jenny and Carrie weren’t done exploring and set off into the hills opposite the grove of olive trees they’d passed on their way in.
“We’ll be back by two,” Jenny had told her.
But it was already two thirty. The boat was scheduled to depart in two hours.
“Shit!”
Cassidy scrambled out of the hammock and slipped her feet back into her LOWA hiking shoes. Without bothering to lace them up, she jogged out from under the canopy of trees and craned her neck in both directions, looking up and down the beach for her friends.
“Jenny!” she yelled. “Carrie!”
Not seeing another soul, she turned and walked up the double-track dirt trail a short distance, looking up at the olive trees perched on the hillside.
“Jenny! Carrie!”
Her voice shook with a rising wave of anxiety.
She turned back to the shaded spot under the trees where only minutes before she had felt completely at peace. Only now, she felt a fear unlike anything she had ever known. She knew where she was, and she knew how to get back to Scorpion Ranch, but she didn’t want to make the hike alone. She didn’t want to leave her friends all alone.
“Jenny! Carrie!”
Cassidy choked back a sob as she quickly unclipped her hammock from the trees and packed it away in its built-in stuff sack. She tossed it and the straps into her backpack, slung it over her shoulder, then knelt to tie her shoes. Her fingers trembled as she worked the laces, but she finally managed. With one more hopeless look around the picnic area for clues that might lead to her friends, she took off running up the trail.
It was a steep climb out of the cove, and her legs burned after less than one hundred yards, but she dug deep into what her high school coach had called her “reservoir of desire” to push through it. By the time she had reached the top of the hill a mile later, her lungs were on fire, and she felt light-headed. But she pushed on.
She took a moment to sip from her hydration bladder, but she barely noticed the lukewarm water she swallowed. Her eyes were wide with fright, scanning the surrounding grass-covered hills and Montañon Ridge to her west but still not seeing another soul. She looked at her watch again, then spurred herself onward.
Two miles later, she spotted the cypress tree grove Jenny had insisted on visiting and felt an instant longing for her friend. “Where
But she knew the grove meant she was close to her destination. The aching in her legs had faded away almost to numbness, but her lungs felt raw, and her breathing had a rasp to it that hadn’t been there before.
She lowered her head and picked up her pace, refusing to look at her watch for fear that she would see she had failed. Jenny and Carrie had been the better hikers. They would have made it. She didn’t want to let them down by missing the boat.
When she rounded the corner at the switchback, she looked down into Scorpion Anchorage and saw the catamaran pulling up to the pier. The beach was awash with other day-trippers clambering for the pier and their ride back to Ventura.
“No!” she shouted.
This part of the trail had a steep drop on her right into the valley below, but unlike when the three friends had hiked up earlier in the day, Cassidy abandoned all caution and sprinted down the hill. All that mattered was getting there before the boat left. Jenny and Carrie
When she reached the valley floor, Cassidy skittered around a dense clump of coastal pines and almost ran into a park ranger.
“Whoa,” the blond woman said. “You’re cutting it close, but you’ll make it.”
“My friends…” She was breathless and gasped for air as she gripped the ranger’s shoulders and looked into her eyes. “My friends…”
The park ranger looked over Cassidy’s shoulder as if to spot the danger she was fleeing from, then back down at her. “What about your friends? Are they okay?”
“They’re…” She fought for control over her breathing and swallowed against the bile rising in her throat. “They’re
If Tiffany was being honest, it wasn’t the first time somebody had gone missing on the island. And it certainly wasn’t the first time somebody had missed the boat back to the mainland either. But when the pale brunette practically bowled her over with panic, it took all her strength not to lash out at her for being irresponsible.
