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We stayed in a nice hotel, ate great food, and enjoyed spending time with Cassie and Jared. Chance and I even made some serious decisions about the museum. All of that was good, but I really wanted to be home. I wondered if I ever felt so ready to get home to Georgia. If I did, I couldn't remember the circumstances. Now, I just wanted to get back to Wilkins' Gap. I wanted to eat fried chicken at Hairy's and sleep in Chance's bed at the A-frame. I never considered myself a homebody, but right now I just wanted to be home.
We met Cassie and Jared in the restaurant for breakfast. "We need to really look at everything in the safe deposit box and decide what we need to do with it," Chance said.
Everyone agreed.
XXX
At the bank, the four of us were escorted into the safe deposit vault. It seemed like ages ago when we first came here, but it had only been a few weeks.
We took all the items out of the box and put them on the table. As we examined each item, I documented what it was and what we needed to do with it. Our initial impressions proved correct—most of what was in the box was biological evidence. Evidence of what exactly we didn't know. There were a few items we thought we might be able to use to build a small display in memory of Renee at the museum. We hadn't thought of including her in the memorial to Dutch and Harry before, but it seemed like the right thing to do.
Everyone agreed that it would be best to have the evidence examined by someone not associated with DHS. Chance didn't even want to use the person at the university who normally validated his cryptid evidence. He feared that because she was in the area, it was possible she'd been tied into what was going on at the lab somehow.
"I have someone in mind," Chance said. "It's the expert that Rene and Loren Dubois use for their evidence. Their expert is Canadian, that should make sure DHS isn't involved."
"Perfect," Jared said.
We took everything that was in the box. Once we got to the car, we packed it all securely and headed for Renee's cabin.
As we neared the cabin, we stopped to stock up on supplies at the same store Cassie and I stopped at on our first trip. The lady checking out ahead of us was talking to the clerk. "It's too bad, but at least no one was home," the woman said.
"Yeah, it sounded like it was pretty well gone by the time the crew got there."
"Did you folks hear about the fire last night?" the clerk asked as we stepped up to pay for our purchases.
"We're not from around here," Chance said. "We're just here for a visit."
"There was a house fire a few miles from here, but they kept it contained," the clerk said. "We're in a drought around here so we all get nervous when we see smoke in the sky."
"Is it anything we need to worry about?" I asked.
"Just don't have any outside fires," she said, "and enjoy your visit."
From the grocery store on, the roads got smaller with each turn we made. We were on the last leg of our journey when Chance asked, "Are you sure you'll be OK going back to the cabin? If it's going to upset you, I can handle it on my own."
"Thanks, but I think it'll be OK. I won't really know for sure until we're there, and then I'll just have to deal."