Shelterwood

When Valerie returns to the cave to photograph the skeletal remains, everything has been removed, and the cave floor is swept clean. She and the park’s superintendent are later assigned to work a student fair together at Oklahoma State University, and Valerie asks the superintendent about the investigation. Privately, she is frustrated about being assigned to the student fair and is certain that the chief ranger and other managers are trying to keep her away from the investigation. The superintendent confirms her suspicions by dodging her questions and repeating the fact that the bones are a century old; he also stresses that the region’s history includes many outlaws and gangs who used the woods for their hideouts. He ends their conversation by telling her that the “brass” does not want any “hullabaloo about deaths in the park” (64). 

Before leaving the Oklahoma State University campus, Valerie visits the library, hoping to find resources about the local history. On her way there, she reminisces about her husband Joel, who died in an accident in Yosemite where they both had worked as rangers. Joel’s accident occurred while he was trying to rescue a fallen rock climber. Valerie was on the scene but hadn’t been part of the accident herself because she had been pregnant and didn’t take the risk of climbing.