Free Rock Harbor Series - 03 - Into the Deep by Colleen Coble

me off guard. I hardly know what to think or feel.” She wanted to scream, to ask how their dad could abandon her to slaps and screams instead of hugs and kisses. This man didn’t even know her.
    “I have the letters and photos if you’d like to see them,” Cassie offered.
    Bree shook her head. “No. Not now.” The wail of the ambulance rattled the windows. Her work here was done. She took a deep breath and focused on Naomi’s face. “Let’s go, Naomi.” She didn’t dare look at Cassie or Bernard. Only those close to her would see her cry.
    Saddle leather creaked as Kade rode Moses along Ribbon Trail. Glimpses of blue juxtaposed themselves against the thick green foliage, but he didn’t have time today to slow his horse and enjoy the lake panoramas. It would take him at least an hour to ride out to Ribbon River, where a hunter had reported dozens of fish floating dead in the water.
    He crested the hill and looked down into a meadow. Banks of wildflowers made the thought of possible contamination that much moredisquieting. He urged his horse, Moses, down the final leg of the trail to the creek. The black flies swarmed, but luckily his insect repellant was still potent. The nuisance of the bugs should ease in a few days.
    As he reached the meadow and dismounted, he heard rustling in the brush. Probably fishermen. He tied Moses to a tree and swatted a black fly on his arm, then trod through the underbrush in the direction of the sound. Stepping from the shadows of a stand of white birch, he found a woman kneeling beside the river. She wore a pantsuit and what Kade assumed were once fashionable shoes.
    She definitely wasn’t a fisherman.
    As he approached the river, he could see dozens of dead fish floating among the lily pads. In the open water, dozens more rode the current, their white bellies turned up to the black flies that feasted on them. Bile rose in Kade’s throat at the odor. What could have caused this? There was nothing upriver that could have wreaked this devastation. The only operating lumbermill was downstream.
    The woman saw him coming and stood. She wiped her hands on her slacks and left smears of moisture. Her smile seemed genuine.
    Kade nodded. “Ranger Kade Matthews. What’s going on here?”
    The woman cleared her throat then spoke in a husky voice. “That’s what I’d like to know. I’m with NAWG.”
    North America Wilderness Group. Kade had heard of them. They had their fingers in nearly every radical environmentalist activity that went on in the northern states. The group had been linked to everything from factory bombings to the destruction of bioengineered crops.
    “Someone call you?”
    The woman’s smile widened. “You and I are on the same side, Ranger. We’re both wearing white hats. There are creek chubsuckers dead here, and they are on the endangered species list. This can’t be allowed to continue.”
    “I agree. That’s my job,” he said. He knelt and looked through the dead fish. The woman was right. He saw at least two of the endangered fish floating in the carnage. “This is bad,” he muttered.
    The woman nodded. “Would you be willing to talk to the media about this? I plan to call the networks as soon as we get back to town. We need all the attention we can get to find out what happened and stop it.”
    Kade stood and wiped his hands on his pants. “I don’t think so. I’d rather face a charging bear than a camera any day.” Her lips twitched, and he saw the amusement in her eyes.
    “I can handle the media,” she said.
    She reminded him of someone, but Kade couldn’t place the woman’s face. Her dark hair was coiled atop her head, and her chiseled features added to the regal look. Someone else Kade knew carried herself like a princess, but the memory just wouldn’t surface.
    “You handle the media then, and I’ll track down what’s causing this,” he said.
    “Only if you can do a better job than your predecessors. They let the Michigan grayling go