neonthewrite:

The others would all assume that he’d happened upon a predator on his patrols. An ambitious hawk could have snared him in its talons. A possum or a raccoon, awake at odd hours, could have caught him in powerful claws to make a meal of him. He could have gotten hurt and fallen somewhere for a snake to happen upon him. Anything at all could have befallen him out in the woods to leave no evidence of Bowman Leafwing, and it’d make no difference to them.