And when she’d known she had to run and hide, the cabin had been the perfect choice because she’d thought no one had known about the place or had any reason to connect it to her. That is, until she’d spotted Snyder at the cabin.
Until she found out why he’d killed Tim, she couldn’t be sure Snyder had been acting alone, which meant Leah didn’t know who she could turn to with what she’d seen. There could be others in the department who could make her disappear.
Pulling the thermal blanket tighter, she tried to ward off the double chill that told her she wasn’t out of danger, even if Snyder died on the mountain today.
* * *
Cade and Isaiah were still fruitlessly probing for the other avalanche victim when the whir of an additional helicopter echoed beyond the spruce trees covered in white icing. The second mountain rescue team had arrived.
He glanced up the hill at Isaiah who gave a shake of his head. By this time, it was highly unlikely the second victim would survive.
Disappointment corded through Cade and pulled tight. He glanced over to where rescue team members were already preparing to evacuate the woman and reminded himself that he’d succeeded, at least, in saving her. This could have turned out much differently for her. They could be placing her in a body bag right now, as they might be doing in a few minutes when they discovered the other victim. His chances of survival after all this time were almost zero. But they would continue the search for as long as they could safely do so.
Cade’s thoughts tracked back to the five snowboarding victims.
Five body bags.
Earlier in the week Cade and Isaiah had hiked into the backcountry to out-of-the-way paths in the higher elevations. On the north ridge they’d found packed cornices—heavy snow blown in by the wind and overhanging a ridge. After dozens of compression tests to determine the strength or weakness of the snow layers, Cade had been ready to call it a week when they’d received the callout for the snowboarders.
Before the mountain rescue team had even been able to begin searching for the snowboarders, Cade and Isaiah had tossed scores of explosives to trigger the snow that remained above the avalanche—the hangfire snow. Stabilizing the area so that the mountain rescue team could go in. All part of their jobs as avalanche specialists. That, and forecasting and educating the public. While rescuers had shoveled several feet of snow to uncover the victims, their hapless friends or family watching from the sidelines nearly always asked why this was happening to them.
There was no one standing on the sidelines today for either this woman or the other victim.
David, Cade’s older brother, was leading the second team. When he spotted Cade, he approached. “Tell me.”
Cade pointed to the debris field and explained what the witness had said. “We figured with the victim’s trajectory and where we found the woman, this would be the likely catchment area. But as you can see, we’re still probing.”
David grabbed Cade’s shoulder. “You did good, man. You saved someone today. You can take that to heart. Now go home and celebrate. We got this. We’re already setting up a probe line and shovel crew. Handlers are bringing the search and rescue dogs in, too.”
As David jogged through the snow to dole out instructions to his volunteer rescue team, Cade spotted Isaiah hiking toward him.
“Let’s get going. We need to finish our forecasting work before the sun goes down so there won’t be more victims.”
Cade wanted to stay and help. Isaiah must have sensed his hesitation. “You’re exhausted. We’re exhausted. You did what you could, Cade, and it worked. You saved that woman. There are plenty searching for the guy now. Forecasting the avalanche dangers, which is your primary job, saves lives. You can’t know how many lives, but you have to trust that it does.”
Isaiah’s words encouraged Cade. His friend was right. They had work to finish and he’d be in the office until late again, as it was. “I wanted it to be more.”
“I know you did, man. I know you did. I parked the helicopter over the ridge. Let’s go.”
Cade grabbed his gear and followed Isaiah, trudging through the snow that less than an hour before had turned brutal and lethal. More often than not, they had to cart victims—or bodies—out of the area on snowmobiles and toboggans because there wasn’t any helicopter access. This time they had two helicopters—though Isaiah’s was a single-engine R22—and a survivor. The R22 could only accommodate two passengers, so Cade might have had to wait around or hike down on his own while Isaiah evacuated the survivor if not for the medevac.
Cade still didn’t know her name. Strange that she’d seemed hesitant to tell him what it was. But she’d been through an ordeal and he’d given her the benefit of a doubt.
They topped the ridge and spotted the R22 and the medevac that provided both medical attention and transported mountain rescue teams as necessary.
The woman climbed into the medevac, her ash-blond hair with golden streaks half hidden under the blanket covering her shoulders. When he’d found her, tunneled through to her, he’d been stunned at the blue-green eyes staring back at him—the crystal purity he’d seen there. Like a tomb raider, he’d pulled her from the snow-laden crypt and it was then that he’d noticed the rest of her face. She had a clean, natural look. No makeup hiding flaws. She had an open, honest look—like someone with nothing to hide.
If only he could believe it were true. She’d winced when he’d asked her about the other person with her; denied she’d known anything about another victim. She’d been hiding something.
He hated the images that accosted him at that moment. Images of his fiancée with another man. They’d been caught in a situation that required a rescue, revealing her deception. Cade had been devastated that day. Even now his heart was still too strung out to think about loving again and he couldn’t stop himself from looking at this woman with suspicion.
Normally he wouldn’t concern himself too much with whether or not someone he’d helped was deceiving him. After all, it wasn’t as though he usually knew any of them well. It wasn’t until a victim teetered on the precipice between this life and the next that Cade met them, which only made sense. But then he never saw them again. He liked it that way. Better to keep his distance. He’d rescued them. End of story. They didn’t need him anymore anyway.
His throat twisted tight. He couldn’t understand why he didn’t want this to be the last time he saw this woman. Then again it had been too long since he’d rescued someone buried alive in an avalanche. Too long since he’d seen a positive outcome. Maybe that explained it.
With no relatives or friends to call, she had that proverbial deer-in-the-headlights look about her. Well, who wouldn’t after being buried alive? But Cade couldn’t shake the sense that she was afraid, scared of something or someone that had nothing at all to do with the avalanche.
He had a feeling he wasn’t done with this rescue.
Cade trudged forward and chided himself. He was probably reading way too much into things. He was tired and distracted and too suspicious for his own good. He tugged his gloves off. At the very least, Cade would deliver her home. Wherever that was.
He grabbed Isaiah’s arm as the medevac rotors started up. “Nothing personal, but you mind if I ride with them?”
“Instead of with me? Thought we were going to finish the assessments?”
“I think we’ve done all the assessments we’re going to do of the mountain today. You have about enough time before dusk to fly back to the center. Anyway, the avalanche gives us a good assessment of the instability. I’ll do the reports back at the center, so you don’t have to.”
Isaiah saluted and gave a crooked grin.