by Kathi Daley
It was almost as if she’d heard something. I tried to remember if I’d heard any sounds coming from beyond the barrier to the outside. If a sound had caught the old woman’s attention, it could have been a person preparing to enter the cabin, the wind, or even an animal who’d wandered close enough to be heard. I supposed that unless I could remember a sound, I’d never know what it had been.
It wasn’t until I was walking the dogs later that day that I found my answer in the form of a rumbling that echoed through the valley from the summit, which was actually more than fifteen miles away on the other side of the long valley that was bordered by mountains.
“Avalanche control,” I said aloud to the dogs, as Denali growled and Yukon barked. We’d had a heavy wet snow a few days ago, followed by a warming trend, only to be topped off by another much heavier snowstorm. Everyone who lived in the area knew that the deep snowpack combined with the warmer conditions and even heavier snow on top was a recipe for an avalanche. When this situation occurred in areas where there were roads or ski hills, small explosions were intentionally set off to cause controlled avalanches, which theoretically would relieve the buildup and prevent a naturally occurring avalanche that might cost the loss of human lives from happening.
I reached down to pat Honey’s head in an offer of comfort when the image of the old woman from my dream glancing at the door flashed into my mind.
“She heard the cannon,” I said, realizing that this could be a real clue. I hadn’t heard the cannon in the dream, but I had felt the vibration in the floor. I was sure the reason she’d looked up was due to a sound inaudible to me but real to her.
Of course, the canon she’d heard wouldn’t have been the one I’d just heard since I’d had the dream and witnessed her being startled by the rumbling explosion last night. Avalanche control had been going on for the past few days, so perhaps if Houston could track down where explosions had been set off during the past couple of days, it might give us a place to start the search for the cabin the kidnapper was currently using.
Of course, even as I reached for my cell phone, it occurred to me how far sound traveled. The search areas created by taking into account the ability to hear the blasts or feel the vibrations caused by the explosions would be extensive. Still, a clue was a clue, so I made my call.
“Harmony. How are you feeling this afternoon?”
“Good,” I lied, feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and headachy. “The reason I called is because I might have a clue as to the location of the cabin where the girls are currently being held.”
“Wonderful. Did you remember something from your dream?”
“Sort of. I remembered that the old woman who brings the food to the girls looked up for a split second before she headed down the hallway in the dream I had last night. As far as I can remember, she’s never done that before. She looked toward the front door for a split second and then continued with her routine. Initially, I thought someone was at the door, but she probably would have waited to see who it was, or she might have gone to the door to look for herself if she believed she’d heard a person. Then it occurred to me that she might have heard an animal or perhaps something had been blown into the cabin by the wind creating a thunk. But while I was walking the dogs today, I heard the cannon on the summit. I figure they must be doing avalanche control. When I heard the explosion, I remembered that the old woman in my dream had looked up at the exact time that I’d felt the vibration through the floor. She must have heard the explosion.”
“But you didn’t hear it in your dream?”
“No. I didn’t hear it, but I did feel it.”
“So, the cabin must be close to an area where avalanche control procedures have been put into place over the past few days.”
“That would be my guess,” I said. “Of course, the sound in this area really travels, so even if we can identify the locations of all the explosions over the past couple of days, we’ll have a huge area to search.”
“Yeah. I agree that finding the cabin will be a longshot, but we finally have a place to start. I’ll make some calls and find out where avalanche control measures have been carried out during the past three days. Once we have that, we can look at a map and see if that information tells us anything.”
“Okay. The dogs and I are going to head back to the cabin. I’ll make dinner if you want to come by.”
“Actually, that sounds nice. I’ll be there in an hour or two.”
After I hung up with Houston, I called the dogs, and we headed back to my cabin. There was a lot of wildlife where I lived, so I liked to keep the dogs close by when we were out and about. Most of the time, the dogs complied with my wishes, but every now and again, Shia, and sometimes Denali, would follow their instincts to chase after whatever animal or threatening sound they may have picked up on. During the winter, the bears were hibernating, so they didn’t pose a threat to man or dog, but there were still wolves and cougars to deal with, which is why, whenever we walked, I had my rifle loaded and ready to expel a warning shot if needed.
Once we arrived back at the cabin, I decided to head to the barn to take care of the animals who lived there. My blind mule, Homer, was the oldest resident of the barn crew. In addition to Homer, there was a cage full of bunnies I’d rescued, a raccoon who’d gone blind, and a baby moose with a broken leg and no sign of a mama who I’d found on one of my walks. The moose was on the mend and would be set free in the spring, but the other animals I currently housed were destined to be with me for the rest of their lives.
I loved the fact that I had the time, space, and resources to take care of so many animals. It was a bit of a challenge if I needed to be away from home overnight, but so far, between Serena from the shelter, Justine from the veterinary hospital, and my best friend, Chloe, I’d always been able to find someone to hold down the fort when I needed to be away.
Once everyone was fed and given fresh water, I headed over to the house to find something to make for dinner. It was winter in Alaska, so the sun had already set despite the fact that my watch told me it was not yet three o’clock. I figured Houston would come around after he did his usual rounds, so I had time to figure out what I would make. I stood in front of my open refrigerator and frowned. Maybe I’d overestimated my supplies when I’d invited him to dinner. Luckily, Houston wasn’t a picky eater, and I knew he’d be just as happy with canned soup and a grilled cheese sandwich as he’d be with something that took me hours to prep and even longer to cook.
Settling on chili and cornbread, I began browning the meat, figuring I’d just use canned beans and tomatoes to hurry things along. I had plenty of spices for the chili and all the ingredients for the cornbread, so if I could scrounge up some veggies for a small salad and something to make for dessert, my effort wouldn’t be seen as totally unimaginative.
The chili was simmering on the stove by the time Houston arrived. The cornbread was mixed and ready to put in the oven, and I’d washed and diced the veggies for the salad. I’d decided on brownies from a box for dessert. They were baking in the oven when Houston knocked on the front door, so we decided to look at the maps he’d brought while the brownies finished baking. Once they were done, I could swap out the brownies for the cornbread.
“First off, I found our blond-haired girl,” he said.
My eyes widened. “You did. Who is she?”
“Her name is Lily Turner. She’s eleven years old and was taken from Whitehorse nine days ago.”
“So the kidnapper did come through Canada.” I looked at the map. “It looks like he might be making his way northwest along route two.”
“That’s my guess. I spoke to law enforcement in Whitehorse, and they told me that, like Bella, Lily had been walking home alone after participating in an after-school activity. They’d been looking for Lily in the general area of her abduction but hadn’t considered that she might have left the country. They still aren’t certain how the kidnapper got her past the border patrol, but based on what we t
hink we know, that seems to be the case.”
“Okay, so the kidnapper abducted Lily nine days ago in Whitehorse, and then he abducted Bella five days after that in Tok. It’s been four days since Bella was abducted. Do you think it’s possible that he plans to move on as early as tomorrow?”
“If the five-day span is a pattern and not a random fact, then yes, it does seem likely that he will move to a new location and abduct a new girl as early as tomorrow. That’s why time is of the essence in finding the girls.”
“Do you have a plan?” I asked.
He nodded, laying a map on the table. “The red dots represent everywhere that avalanche control was executed yesterday and the two days before that. Since you dreamed about the old woman possibly hearing a noise in the background last night, my money is on areas that underwent avalanche control yesterday, but since you said that the dreams seem to be memories you are experiencing rather than live events due to the time of night you experience the dreams, I went back a bit further.”
“Only five places,” I said. “That seems like it might be a reasonable number of areas to search.”
Houston laid a clear map over on top of the one he’d first laid out. “This is a map of seasonal cabins in the area. As you can see, three of the areas that underwent avalanche control also have clumps of cabins within the sound range as determined by pure guesswork.”
“Guesswork?”
He shrugged. “Short of an extensive experiment that would require us to set off explosions and then measure the distance in which the sound could be heard, guesswork is all I really have.”
I looked down at the map and pointed at one of the areas. “This area underwent avalanche control yesterday, and there are two clusters of cabins in the sound zone. I say we start here.”
“I agree. The roads leading out to the cabins are seasonal and currently inaccessible. If the kidnapper did decide to use one of these cabins, he or she must have snowmobiled in. I imagine the fact that the cabins are so isolated will make it easier to determine which, if any, are occupied. But given the tight timeline, I felt it was much too time-consuming to visit each of these areas via snowmobile, so I called Dani, and she agreed to take me up in the bird tomorrow. If any of the cabins in the search grid show signs of life, such as smoke from a fire, then it’s likely we’ve found our kidnapper.”
Houston referred to Dani Mathews, a helicopter pilot, valued friend, and member of Rescue’s search-and-rescue team.
“I want to go with you,” I said.
He nodded. “I figured you would, and Dani’s chopper has plenty of room. We only have about six hours of daylight tomorrow, so I plan to meet Dani at first light. If you want to go along, meet us at the helipad at nine-thirty.”
“Okay. I’ll be there.” I glanced at the map again. “The search areas you’ve identified are really isolated during the winter. Do you really think the kidnapper transported these two girls and the old woman all that way on a snowmobile?”
“If he wanted a safe place to wait out some sort of timeline, then I think he might have. I guess we won’t know until we take a look, but at this point, these search areas seem to be our best bet.”
Chapter 6
Getting up and ready to leave by nine a.m. was not a problem since I hadn’t slept much past three a.m. in weeks. The dream last night had been the same as the others. Based on the cabin I’d experienced in the dream, it seemed as if the group was still in the second cabin, at least for now. It did seem that if the kidnapper followed a specific schedule, the group would most likely move either today or tomorrow. We were so close. I could feel it in my gut. As long as the group stayed put one more day, I really felt like we’d find them. At least I prayed we would. Not only had this whole thing been hard on me, but I couldn’t imagine what the kidnapped girls and their families were going through.
After I got up, I made a pot of coffee, showered, and dressed in my warmest clothing. I really had no idea at this point, what the day might bring, but I did suspect that if we found the cabin where the girls were being held, and it was located in an area where Dani couldn’t land, there might be snowshoeing involved. Not that snowshoeing was a problem for me. During the winter, I ended up on snowshoes for at least part of almost every day.
Once the dogs had been walked, the cat boxes cleaned, and all the animals fed and given fresh water, I set off for the airfield. I’d flown with Dani many times and knew she was one of the best pilots and that she knew the area like the back of her hand. If the kidnapper was hiding out in the deep forest, she’d find him. Dani was the sort who always got her man, or woman as the case might be.
By the time I arrived at the airfield, Houston had already arrived, and Dani was in the process of warming up the bird. It was early and still dark, but we were working against the clock, and the earlier we got underway, the better. Houston sat in the passenger seat next to Dani while I climbed into the back. We all had a pair of the high-powered binoculars we used for search-and-rescue, and Houston had already gone over the search grid coordinates with Dani. I had a good feeling about finding this guy if he was out there. Or she, I supposed. I’d been imagining the kidnapper as a man, but I supposed at this point, without additional information, we had to assume that either could be true.
By the time we arrived at the first search area, the sun was just cresting the horizon.
“It’s lucky that we have clear skies,” Dani said.
“That is lucky,” I agreed. “Clear skies certainly aren’t the norm at this time of the year. If one of the cabins below has a fire going, we should easily be able to see the smoke.”
“There are two main clusters of cabins in this area,” Houston said. “The cluster to the right is hidden by the umbrella of trees, but we should still be able to see smoke if there is any, and the cluster to the left is just beyond that ridge.”
Dani carefully flew back and forth in a search pattern we used for search-and-rescue before we all decided that none of the cabins in this area showed evidence of inhabitation, and it was time to head to the next search grid. I could tell Houston was disappointed that we hadn’t found the people we were searching for in the first grouping of cabins. They were closer to the road, and it seemed a lot more likely that if the group had holed up in a seasonal cabin, they’d be found in the group with easy access. The next group of cabins we planned to search was found on the backside of a ski resort. The avalanche control that had been executed at the resort had taken place after the resort had closed for the day, and the guests and employees had left. In my mind, that would put the cannon blast at some point after five o’clock on the evening before I’d had the dream. If the dreams were memories, it still made sense to me that they’d be based on recent memories, so a memory from late in the afternoon or early in the evening before the execution of the dream seemed just about right to me.
When we arrived above the next cluster of cabins, it was evident that the search would be difficult. There were even more trees in the area than there had been with the previous cluster. The only access to the cabins was a road that had been closed after the first snow. The closest access, if one was going to snowmobile in, would be the ski resort. Of course, if the kidnapper had parked in the ski area’s parking area, what had he done with his vehicle? It seemed likely that any vehicle left overnight would be tagged and most likely towed by the ski resort’s security.
It seemed odd that I’d never seen anyone other than the old woman and the young girls even though I’d visited the two cabins many times. I had to wonder if perhaps the kidnapper had dropped them off and then left them until it was time to move again, which I guessed would explain why a vehicle hadn’t been left behind if a snowmobile had been used to access a cabin. The kidnapper would most likely have ferried the old woman and the girls to the cabin one or two at a time and then left them there. I supposed he would have then left the area in the truck or other vehicle that he’d used to tow the snowmobile to the area with a plan to come back for
them at some point in the future.
“The tree cover is really thick,” Houston said. “My map tells me there are cabins down there, but I don’t see them.”
“It seems hazier in the northeast section of the search grid,” I said. “It could be a random fog patch, but it could also be smoke. Maybe we should take the bird down for a closer look.”
Dani did as I suggested and dropped in altitude. As we flew directly over the hazy area, it became apparent that the haze had been caused by smoke.
“We got ‘em.” Houston said.
“Maybe,” I agreed. “It’s possible that someone else, a poacher perhaps, has decided to make use of one of the cabins. We’ll need to land.”
“There’s nowhere close for us to do that,” Dani said. “The trees in this area are thick, and when you get beyond the tree line, you have the ledge and gorge to deal with.” She lifted the bird back toward the altitude she’d been flying at before dipping down for a closer look. “I think our best bet is to land in the parking area at the resort and snowmobile in.”
“Jake has a trailer all loaded and ready to go for rescues,” I said. “There are four machines on the trailer. He can probably be there in an hour or so.”
“I’ll radio him,” Dani offered. “It’s actually still early, so we should have plenty of daylight to get in and out if Jake can come right away.”
“We may be riding into a dicey situation. I should call my men for backup,” Houston said.
“Unless they have snowmobiles loaded and ready to go, there’s no time,” I said. “Jake has a gun, and I can handle one as well as any man can. I’ll have him bring a backup.” I looked at Houston. “You have your gun, so that makes three.”
Dani nodded toward a glove box. “I have mine. Four guns and four snowmobiles. Let’s go and get those girls.”
Luckily, Jake was home and willing to help. He grabbed the guns and snowmobiles and headed in our direction while Dani scouted for the best place to land. She eventually decided on a spot in the overflow parking area. It was close to the forest access we’d need to utilize to begin our journey, and since the lot was used for overflow and not daily operations, it wasn’t crowded with vehicles.
