Free High Country- Pigeon 12 by Nevada Barr

pajamas, Lorraine was a woman of business. A good boss was a blessing indeed. With a boss as clear-thinking and action-oriented as Lorraine Knight, Anna felt half inclined to obey orders.
     
    Having returned to the dorm, breakfasted, checked on Nicky and seen the tragic erosion of the so briefly clean room, Anna decided it was late enough to wander down to Camp 4 and nose around. Given her age and civilian status, unless she could come up with a believable reason for metaphorically ringing their doorbell, a direct assault on the denizens of Dixon's cabin would be out of character and most likely unproductive. Anna didn't know precisely what they were up to in Yosemite but, judging from the soiree the previous afternoon, it had Secret Squirrel written all over it. What she needed to figure out was whether theirs was a secret she need worry about or if she could leave them to their nefarious activities without compromising her own quest for the missing people.
     
    The sun, watery and white with winter, had crawled above the cliff tops and poured light if not heat into the valley. Camp 4 was astir. Men were hanging clothes on the trees trying to dry them from yesterday's sleeting rains. Men huddled around fires and crouched over camp stoves. Men stared at each other over morning coffee. In the entire village of eleven tents Anna didn't see a single female. Climbing was mostly a boy's sport, though women were uniquely suited to excel at it.
     
    Not finding an amiable woman with whom she might strike up a conversation based on gender or age, she approached three men in their late thirties or early forties who had pitched their tents fairly close to Dixon's cabin.
     
    "Excuse me," she said pleasantly, "but is that North Face's newest tent? I've been thinking about getting one. Are they any good?"
     
    Outdoorsmen dearly love to talk about gear. Before the wonders of the high-tech tent were halfway extolled, Anna was seated at their picnic table sipping their coffee. When she'd listened to the virtues and shortcomings of various pieces of equipment long enough to establish her credit, she shifted the conversation.
     
    Gesturing at Dix's cabin with her tin mug she said: "Now that's the way to go: standing room, plank floor, woodstove."
     
    To her surprise, the second her meager line hit the water, fish began virtually leaping into the boat. Her coffee klatch had a great deal to say about Dix's tent cabin.
     
    A party had raged within its walls long after these sober fellows had wanted to go to sleep. Along with apparently every climber in Camp 4 and a generous sprinkling of concession employees from nearby Yosemite Lodge, they'd got wind of the gathering by the usual osmosis. They'd attended the first three hours readily enough, but when they'd called it a night the others were just warming up. The racket had gone on till three A.M.
     
    "The rangers should've done something," one man groused.
     
    "Did you report it?" Anna asked. He hadn't. Given that the park was fairly deserted this time of the year, probably no one had been patrolling within earshot of the festivities.
     
    By careful questioning-controlling the direction of flow rather than trying to keep it going-Anna found out what she wanted to know. From around eight-thirty till the men she talked with pooped out at midnight, all four of the tent cabin's occupants were in attendance. At midnight the "slobby guy"-Anna guessed him to be the heavyset man she'd first dubbed "Beer" and who was later introduced as Billy Kurt-took the others, booted, bundled and backpacked, off in a red Ford Excursion.
     
    "Big into winter camping," the man opposite Anna at the picnic table said.
     
    "At night?" Anna asked.
     
    "They like to hike in by moonlight," the fellow at her right elbow said. "They see more game that way." After this contribution he and his buddy exchanged an odd glance. Anna guessed this rationale had made a lot more sense the night before after a couple of