Emerson looked across the table at Wayan Bagus, who was sipping on a cucumber and kale smoothie and watching Revenge of the Nerds on his iPad. “Wayan once told me that the moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease to be able to do it forever.”
“No second chances?”
“Take Peter Pan, for instance.”
Riley raised a single eyebrow.
“He had some good times on that island,” Emerson said. “Fighting pirates. Rescuing Indian princesses. Spending time with the mermaids. Good times. Good times.”
“All because he believed?”
“Exactly.”
“Maybe he just had an overactive imagination and was delusional.”
“Nevertheless, he could fly. Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, Rudolph. All excellent flyers.”
She couldn’t dispute it. They were all excellent flyers. And there was something oddly compelling about a man who, in a time of cynics and doubters, embraced the value of believing.
“What’s the next step?” Riley asked Emerson.
“Flying-wise?”
“Mantle-plume-wise.”
Emerson passed one of the manila folders over to her. “This is the file on a newlywed couple who disappeared without a trace in Yellowstone one month ago. They were staying at the Old Faithful Inn and went out to do some backcountry hiking. Search and Rescue looked for them for weeks. The bodies were never found. The Park Service speculates they fell into a hot spring and were boiled alive. Officially, it’s a closed case.”
“But you don’t think it was an accident.”
“They were experienced hikers,” Emerson said. “Worked as mountain guides in Colorado during the summer and backcountry ski instructors during the winter. No, I don’t think it was an accident.”
“What’s in the Crater Lake file?”
Emerson opened the folder. “Zachary, Taylor, and Adam Brolowski. Brothers. Have a popular YouTube channel where they stream themselves doing all manner of extreme sports. Call themselves the Bro Brothers.”
“And they’re missing too?”
“Dead. At least, Taylor and Adam. Taylor was killed during a deep dive into Crater Lake two weeks ago. Adam was killed in a car crash one week later. Zak told his parents he was going hiking in Three Sisters Wilderness three or four days ago and hasn’t been heard from since.”
“And you think they were murdered?” Riley asked.
“Three brothers die or go missing within weeks of each other in separate incidents. And, it all happens in one of our death parks.”
“You said yourself they were into extreme sports. It could be just coincidence.”
“I don’t believe in coincidence,” Emerson said. “I do believe in conspiracies.”
Wayan Bagus looked up from the iPad, having heard something that interested him more than the Nerds getting revenge on the Jocks.
“How we explain coincidences depends on how we see the world. Is everything connected or do things merely co-occur? It’s all in how you think.”
“Well, what do you think?” Riley asked.
Wayan Bagus went back to watching the movie. “I am one with the universe. So are the Nerds. And so are the Jocks. The Nerds will never know the Jocks’ world and the Jocks will never know the Nerds’. And yet, we are all connected by the Tao, Nerds and Jocks alike.”
“In-ter-est-ing,” Riley said, and she turned back to Emerson. “What about Hawaii Volcanoes National Park?”
Emerson tapped the folder labeled “Hawaii.” “I think this one is the key. Half a dozen missing persons or deaths in the past three years. The local police just found a mutilated body near one of the volcano’s vents, Puu Oo, on the east side of Kilauea. He was chopped to pieces.”