Love in the Midst of Chaos

Hotel

When we get to the hotel, we learn that they have only rented three rooms for the six of us, so I end up rooming with Mitch. Which isn't that odd, we've roomed together hundreds of times when we were on the road.

"What do you mean submissive posture?"

"Exactly what I said. The wolves acted toward Hartley, as they would toward their alpha."

"Phoebe, you are a smart girl, but you've let Jackson get into your head."

"I have not," I stand and shake my head, "I saw it on that footage. Those wolves were submissive to Hartley."

"You're insane." Mitch shakes his head.

"Maybe so, but I'm gonna go see what Jamie found on Hartley." I head across the hall to Chloe and Jamie's room, knocking lightly.

Chloe answers, "hey, Phoebe. Come in."

I smile, "thanks, have you guys found anything on Evan Lee yet?"

I step toward Jamie as she nods, "Yeah, get this, he worked in that biology lab at Wash U till 2008. Upstanding citizen, no criminal background, but then, for apparently no reason at all, he stabbed an entire hunting party to death in the Pearl River Woods. Uh... when he was apprehended, he said, 'all hunters need to die."

Chloe shakes her head, "Perhaps he was some kind of ecoterrorist."

"That's the thing. Not at all. The case got a lot of local media attention, and in every interview, his family, coworkers, none of them could understand why he hated the hunters. According to them, he was an outdoorsman himself. Avid fisherman. But that day in the woods, it's like he became a different person."

That night I can't sleep, I spent all night thinking about Evan Lee and why he would do anything like that. About midnight I hear what sounds like Chloe and Jamie's door closing. I sit up and rub my face. As I do, I hear Mitch, "What's wrong?"

I turn to him and see that he is still awake as well, "What? Nothing's wrong."

"Uh huh," Mitch sits up and turns on the light, "You only rub your face like that when something is on your mind," Mitch gets up and moves to the corner of my bed, "the first time I saw you do it was when you were writing your thesis, the last time, before tonight, was before our first stop when we were presenting your thesis as a genuine need to know among the V.P. field and you didn't know if they would take you seriously or not... So, what's on your mind?"

I shake my head, "I can't stop thinking about Hartley. I mean being an outdoorsman himself, how could he hate those hunters enough to kill them. Not only them but every hunter out that night, looking around for anyone he could kill."

"I don't know. Maybe... maybe he just snapped? You know? Couldn't take his normal life anymore, couldn't take the same conversations at work, day in and day out. Who knows."

"That's the problem, even if he just snapped, why would he only target those hunters? Not someone else, but specifically those hunters."

"Targets of opportunity I suppose." I shake my head at Mitch's comment, I can't believe someone would change their minds so quickly and drastically. "Come on, let's go to sleep, you will feel better in the morning, you always do."