Part 3
“Ifollowed them into the mountains.”
The interrogation room seemed to shrink around those words.
Samuel Brooks had spent weeks watching suspicion settle over a missing man who could not defend himself.
Now, with James’s bloodstained watch sitting between him and the detectives, the story finally began to come apart.
Samuel said his hatred of James had grown slowly.
At first, it was professional jealousy.
James got the better routes.
The better reviews.
The clients who booked months ahead.
Samuel convinced himself that James had built his reputation through marketing rather than skill. Every compliment James received became, in Samuel’s mind, proof that something had been stolen from him.
Eventually, resentment became obsession.
He started watching James.
Learning his schedules.
Following him from a distance.
Waiting for a moment when they would be alone somewhere far from witnesses.
June 12 gave him that opportunity.
That morning, Samuel drove toward Newfound Gap before Zoe and James began their hike. He parked where he believed his vehicle would not be noticed and entered the forest separately.
He stayed off the main trail.
James did not know he was there.
Neither did Zoe.
For hours, Samuel followed them through the mountains.
His plan, according to his confession, had been to confront James somewhere remote and frighten him badly enough that he would leave the guiding business.
It was an astonishingly petty motive for what followed.
Professional envy.
A bruised ego.
The belief that another man’s success somehow diminished his own existence.
At a narrow rocky section several miles from Newfound Gap, Samuel stepped out.
James recognized him immediately.
Whatever Samuel expected to happen, it did not remain a conversation for long.
The argument escalated.
Samuel threatened him.
James refused to be intimidated.
A fight broke out.
James grabbed a hiking pole and tried to protect himself.
Samuel picked up a heavy rock.
One blow changed everything.
