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Walking trails were plentiful and they were actually so trail, the path was cleaner and broader Heall the while

It was a good brisk walk but eventually he reached the copse where they’d seen the deer and her fawn the day before He searched through the trees, which ay et in at least a cursory inspection

That wasn’t the real reason he had co to find a stash of drugs or drug paraphernalia

There were no hollows in any of the trees he searched He walked on, deterh the trees

Joey had heard it Olivia’s horse had reared

What?

It sure as hell hadn’t been a bee Or a bird

It was hard to reine the exact trajectory He calculated and recalculated In the end he noring the trails

Still nothing

Tired, frustrated, he leaned against one of the trees

And then he saw it

It was tiny, so tiny it was barely visible The little bit of feathering hat had caught his attention When he went to retrieve it--carefully, using his handkerchief--the feathers detached and all he drew fro that looked like a needle

He studied the point, wrapped it and, trying not tothrough the leaves and bracken on the forest floor Then he found it--a delicate cluster of feathers

Though small, they would have helped direct the tiny needlelike object

It was a dart It had been aian to leave, but hesitated, pulling out his knife to cut away the section of bark it had struck He got out the handkerchief and very carefully rewrapped all the tiny pieces of his find

Then he started back through the forest

So a dart had coh the woods

It was too small to be deadlyunless a toxin of some kind had been placed on the tip He hurried back to his car and checked his watch Still early; Olivia would be with her group

He drove back to the ue He would’ve preferred to send the specimen to the Krewe lab, but he didn’t want to take the tiut instinct

Wilson was surprised to see hiain but listened earnestly He promised results on lab tests as soon as humanly possible

To his extreme bad luck, he ran into Deputy Sheriff Frank Vine as he was leaving

"Agent Blake," Vine said, eyes narrowing as he studied hi at the ue?"

"Oh, I just stopped by to ask about Marcus--how he’d injected the heroin"

"You think we don’t knoe’re doing out here?" Vine deive ot your answer now And you have no jurisdiction out here We really do knoe’re doing, Agent Blake"

"Yes, sir," Dustin said

Vine stared at him, obviously still irritated He walked past Dustin, stopped and caer at him "You stay out of our business, Blake You’re not here to police my officers I’ll call your superiors, do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," Dustin said again "I’m on my way" He sut had been right and Wilson wouldn’t betray hi the speed limit--to the Horse Far hi, they were ready to start out on their ca Shiloh and she was glad to see that Drew had chosen Chapparal for Dustin The two seemed well-suited to each other Dustin was obviously fa experience

The horses were all in use except for Martin, and he’d remain behind with Sydney If for any reason soht, Sydney knehere they’d be and had Martin to get to them

Mariah led the way on Pixie as they rode out, not starting her spiel yet, since they were riding single file on the forest trail

Theyin the forest and Mariah reined in, allowing them all to break and dismount for a few minutes She directed them to a little path that led deeper into the thickness of the woods, an area where the dying sunlight now brought about an eerie green darkness Everyone had a penlight, while Drew, Aaron, Mason and Sandra carried lanterns

Mariah said, "In a few raveyards You have to reo to a national cemetery, you won’t find any Confederates, unless they were pardoned and joined the Union army after the war Confederate dead have their own cemeteries, or else they were returned to their hometowns And certainly raves on the fields where they died While it was incredibly i men of the North and South to retrieve their dead, it wasn’t always possible They died on bloody fields that had to be abandoned, or they were beyond recognition by the time they were found