Three women dead. One missing. Four days before the mountains close forever.

Wildlife Officer Caspian Voss knows every unmarked trail in the Eastern Ridge Mountains ? but so does the killer.

When hunters discover human remains inside a bear on a remote Oregon ridgeline, Caspian is first on scene. The county sheriff calls it a wildlife incident. Caspian calls it what it is. Because the tattoo on the victim's hand matches the one his missing sister wore ? and Maren Voss disappeared into these same mountains twelve years ago without a trace.

Now a second body has been found. Then a third. All women. All connected to the same land dispute. All hidden in locations only one man would know ? a soft-spoken retired surveyor named Eadric Fenlow who grows tomatoes, attends church, and has been quietly mapping this wilderness for thirty years.

A record-breaking Pacific storm is four days out. After that, the mountain passes seal until spring ? taking every piece of evidence, every trail, and every answer with them. Somewhere above the tree line, land-rights advocate Dessa Wren has been missing for nine days. An anonymous message arrives at midnight with GPS coordinates and a single line of text:

She is still breathing. For now.

Caspian must move before the storm does. But Eadric has a thirty-year head start ? and he knows these mountains better than anyone alive.