The race track looked the same way it always had once I got there. I stopped my vehicle on the top of the course’s highest point and felt the wind blow some of the loose sand into my face, the little particles of the dunes sticking into my beard and tickling my nose.

I couldn’t see a single sign of life at first glance. Just the dead cold of the dunes and beach. I was about to turn right back around and head back to camp until something finally caught my eye. A floating orb out in the waves, just about 20 yards from shore.

A blue flashing light, bobbing in the lazy waves, the orb looked to be attached to a buoy. It reminded me of the kind you would set if you were laying crab pots in the night so you could go back and find them, but something was just a little off. The light was too big and too bright. Maybe it was a safety beacon of sorts set by the county?

But who set that beacon? And when? The orb wasn’t there 30 minutes ago when I down by the beach. These thoughts kept me perched atop the dunes instead of down in the flats investigation for a few minutes before I finally had to push the oscillator and continue my search for Roger.