Griping was one thing, but the matter still needed to be resolved as quickly as possible.
After making a few calls, Nick easily found the current address of Joseph Welch, the husband of Constance-the woman suspected of having become a vengeful ghost.
The man should have been nearly sixty by now. Twenty-six years ago, the year after the tragedy, he had moved to Goldendale in neighboring Washington State.
Nick pulled out a map to find Goldendale and discovered that this remote little town he had never heard of lay in south-central Washington State, theoretically only about a three-hour drive from Portland.
After giving the Winchester Brothers a heads-up, he sent Dahlia a message telling her where he was going, then drove east along the north bank of the Columbia River.
After a stretch of canyon highway with magnificent scenery but plenty of tunnels and bends, Nick stopped in Hood River to fill his tank.
Hood River was a fairly well-known tourist town near Portland, located in the Columbia River the Canyon, with orchards and wineries nearby that enjoyed a good reputation.
Although it was already late autumn and the landscape was no longer lush and green, the autumn leaves were even more colorful, and the scenery was lovely. Nick casually took a few photos with his phone and sent them to Dahlia, adding a suggestion that they find a chance to spend a weekend here together.
But after he left the Canyon, the forests gradually receded. The dwindling river and its bare, rocky banks marked Nick's passage from green Oregon into Washington State.
Washington State on the West Coast had little to do with Washington, D.C., the nation's capital on the East Coast. Seattle was the only city in the entire state with any real claim to fame.
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