Saddle Ridge Hollow
When a land surveyor returns weeks early to his Idaho hometown, he finds his daughter missing and his family estate entangled in a cold financial scheme.
Fictional story. Contains depictions of family conflict, institutional neglect, and emotional recovery.Chapter 1: Unscheduled Descent
The smoke from the Yukon fire line had drifted south, shutting down our boundary survey three weeks ahead of schedule. I turned my worn mountain truck down the gravel road toward my family’s homestead outside Orofino, Idaho.
I had spent four months away, living in canvas tents and marking grid lines across northern ridge tops. My twelve-year-old daughter, Maya, had been staying with my older sister, Eleanor, while I completed the seasonal contract.