Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4 Dr. Herrera dropped off Lydia and Daniel at Moose Manor bright and early. Abbi barely even waited long enough to say hello before she was racing to the TV crew's campsite. "Did you hear it?" she called as she sped toward the command center. Arthur was leaning over the table. Uncle Walker stood next to him. A laptop was resting on the various maps and open books. Abbi was so eager to see what Arthur had found that she didn't notice Steph holding a camera or Amy lifting a big mic over the table.

They were filming! And Abbi had rushed right into the frame! Daniel and Lydia ran up behind her and skidded to a stop on either side. "Ah, there are our little nature experts now! I was just telling everyone how you helped us get settled yesterday." Arthur didn't seem upset that Abbi had ruined the shot. In fact, Steph had swung the camera in her direction! She swallowed, fighting stage fright, and repeated her question. "Did you hear it last night? That strange noise?" Daniel snapped his head toward Abbi. "What noise?" "It sounded like…" She tried to find words to describe the sound, but nothing felt right. Arthur helped her out. "Like screaming, almost? Like what you'd hear in a nightmare or a horror movie?"

"Yes!" Abbi shouted. "I've never heard anything like it before." Uncle Walker whistled. "Now, that's saying something if even Abbi's stumped. You know she collects animal sounds? She has hundreds and hundreds of recordings! She—"

Abbi interrupted. "You had mics set up all over, right? One of them must have caught something!" Arthur nodded, then began clicking through folders on the laptop. "We happened to be filming when we heard that noise last night. But we can't confirm what made it by sound alone. It could be a cougar, but it could be another animal, too." "Can we look through the trail cameras, then?" Daniel suggested shyly. "Go to the same timestamp as the sound recording and see if there's any movement in the footage?" It was a good plan, Abbi thought. Arthur seemed to think so, too, because he pulled up the video on the laptop right away.

He fast-forwarded to the same time that the sound happened. Abbi held her breath, but not a single cougar showed up! Abbi sighed in disappointment. She heard Daniel do the same. "Wait!" Lydia said suddenly. "What's that on the screen? Can you zoom in?" Arthur clicked a few times to make the image bigger. "That smudge," Lydia said. "What is that? It looks like…" Abbi leaned forward as much as she could. She stared at the spot and gasped. "It's a paw print!" she said. "You're right!" Arthur said. "And whatever made it was big."