Mystery on Majestic Mountain (Kristi Cameron Book 9)

by Cynthia Griffith

  They stood there in stunned silence for a moment and then they started to laugh! He had done it, alright! He’d fooled them all! Dan was laughing so hard he could hardly get the words out, “Man, Skeeter, we were all feeling so bad and thinking the same thing—Wow, Skeeter’s a bigger person than I am! Now we realize—no, you’re not!”

  They were all standing there trying to catch their breath and still giggling when Steve suddenly appeared in the doorway. “Hey! Are you guys going skiing or not?”

  “Oops—sorry, Dad! We’ll be right there!” They split up and went scurrying after their snow gear with silly grins plastered all over their faces.

  They all met outside a few minutes later. Steve was taking the skis off the rack on the SUV with Rachel’s help. A few feathery flakes of snow were still falling. The ground already had a couple inches of new snow. The kids grabbed their skis and began to clip them onto the toes of their boots.

  Rachel ran back to the door of the cabin when they were all ready and waved goodbye as they pushed off. “Don’t stay out too long!” she called. “I’ll have a pot of chili ready when you get back!”

  It took a couple minutes for the girls to pick up the knack of cross-country skiing again. It was really pretty easy, but they just needed to get into the rhythm. They followed Steve who broke the trail for them, skiing in his tracks. Knees bent, lean forward and push with your poles, Kristi reminded herself. Left ski, right pole. Right ski, left pole. Push, glide. Push, glide. Push, glide…

  They went the opposite way they had gone the day before. There was more snow, but it was also a little more difficult, for they had to go uphill a bit. Kristi pushed a little harder with her poles, and when she had to, she pointed her skis in and walked pigeon-toed until she leveled out and could start gliding along again.

  They were getting a good workout. Cross-country skiing was easier and less dangerous than downhill skiing, but it was also more work. The air was thinner at this high altitude, also. They were all panting when they stopped to take their first break.

  Steve opened the large thermos bottle Rachel had packed in his back pack. “Umm!” the teenagers all said in unison as the aroma of hot chocolate floated out of the bottle and tickled their noses. Steve passed out Styrofoam cups and poured out the rich, creamy drink for each of them. There was a ziplock bag of chocolate chip cookies to go with the cocoa, as well.

  Kristi sat on a fallen log as she enjoyed her snack. “It doesn’t get better than this!” she said as she looked around at the beautiful forest around her. The trees were frosted with snow and everything wore a fresh clean blanket of white. Snow was still coming down, but she couldn’t tell if it was actually falling from the sky, or being blown off the trees. Maybe it was a combination of both.

  The wind had picked up a bit. She huddled a little closer to her friends for warmth. Now that they were stopped she felt the cold and wind more. “This hot chocolate really hits the spot,” she said. “That chili Mom promised will be perfect when we get back, too.”

  “Yeah! I’m starved!” Skeeter piped up. “Any more cookies, Dad?”

  “Nope. You ate the last one, Skeeter. Cold, Kristi?” her dad asked. “Maybe we’d better get going again. That will warm you up. I think we’ll go just a little further and then turn back. I told Mom we’d be back by one o’clock. It looks like it might start to snow again pretty soon, too. Come on, guys. Let’s get moving.” He collected their used cups and put them in the empty cookie bag.

  He was right. The snow began in earnest again a few minutes later. The wind whipped it up and blew it into their faces. “We’d better turn around and head for home!” Steve said loudly over the wind. “I wasn’t expecting this! We need to get back to the cabin before this turns into a blizzard!”

  It was already too late. The snow began falling so thick and heavy they could hardly see in front of them. The wind drove the icy pellets into their face so that it stung. “Stay close together, kids! Whatever you do, don’t get separated from each other. If you can’t keep up, let me know!” Steve yelled. “Come on! We need to go as fast as we can!”

  “Wait, Dad! I need to fix the hood on my jacket!” Kristi called. She pulled the nylon hood out of its pocket and pulled it up over her ski cap, snapping it tightly. That would at least keep the snow from blowing down her neck. She pulled the zipper of her parka all the way up. She wished she had worn her scarf around her neck. The others were making similar adjustments, trying to protect themselves from the blasts of wind and snow that seemed to be buffeting them from every side. They were ready to go again in less than a minute.

  They had no problem finding the trail at first. They simply skied in the tracks they had made earlier. As the snow continued to come down heavily, however, and the wind blasted everything in its path, their trail quickly disappeared. Steve seemed pretty sure of the way, though, since they had passed that way only a short while before, but finally he stopped. “Pete! Did you bring your compass with you?” he called back to the guys.

  Pete skied forward and took off one of his mittens to dig in his pocket. “Here it is, Mr. Cameron,” he said holding it out to the older man.

  Steve flipped it open and peered through the blowing snow at its face. “I’m not sure…” he said. “I think if we go southwest we’ll be on the right track. Keep your eyes out for landmarks, kids—places or things we passed on our way. Mind if I borrow this for a while, Pete?”

  The problem was, everything looked so different in the middle of a blizzard—if they could even see anything, at all. There were times when it was a complete whiteout and they were practically blinded by the driven snow. Kristi began to get nervous, and she knew the others were, too. The storm hadn’t been going on too long, and she wasn’t really cold yet, but she wondered how long it would take for them to get hopelessly lost in the wilderness on Majestic Mountain. That would be a disaster.

  They worked their ski poles hard, trying to push through the snow but the deeper the soft snow got, the more difficult it became. Steve finally called a halt. “I think we’d better take our skis off,” he said. “The snow is too deep and they’re getting too hard to handle. We’ll just have to carry them.”

  The skis had begun to slow them down, but now as they trudged along through the snow their progress really slowed down. Steve stopped every few minutes to check the compass, as well.

  Kristi pulled back her mitten once to see what time it was. Nearly two o’clock. Her mother was expecting them back at one. She must be so worried, Kristi thought, especially looking out at this blizzard. She bowed her head and prayed, “Lord, help us to find our way back, and help Mommy not to worry too much! We are trusting in You!”

  They were getting tired. Really, really tired. No one complained, but they were slowing down even more the longer they hiked. Steve did his best to break a path through the snow for them, and the guys had moved forward to help the girls along, but it was obvious they couldn’t keep going for much longer. Dan and Pete started talking about building a snow igloo to shield them from the wind and give them a place to rest. Steve was seriously considering it, when all of a sudden they saw a log cabin up ahead through the trees.

  At last! They hurried forward, only to see as they came through the trees that it wasn’t their cabin. They were disappointed, but any shelter in the storm was better than none! They plunged through the snow to the steps of the cabin. Steve pounded on the door and they waited. No one answered. Oh, no—it was deserted. He pounded again and when no one came he turned the knob. The door opened. “Come on in, guys,” he said. “I’m sure the owner won’t mind if we come in out of the storm for a while.”

  It was small—as unlike the beautiful log home they had borrowed from Dave and Suzanne as it could be. There was no fire in the fireplace and the one small room was a mess. Dried food sat in dirty dishes and a chair was tipped over in the middle of the room. A few pieces of clothing were tossed around. Everything was dusty or grimy. It didn’t matter. It had a roof and four
walls. It looked pretty good to them!

  “Let’s get a fire going,” Steve said. There was a box of matches on the mantle, and some tinder and a few pieces of wood in the box near the hearth. It didn’t take long to get a nice blaze burning.

  The cabin warmed up quickly and before long they were able to shed their jackets and mittens. They looked around, curious about the owner of this little cabin in the woods. “It sure isn’t a woman,” Robyn said as they talked about it. She wrinkled her nose. “This place is a mess! How can anyone live like this? Look at that! He didn’t even make his bed! Ew!”

  Skeeter hooted. “I wouldn’t talk, Missy, if I were you! You didn’t make your bed this morning, either! I saw your bunk!”

  “Oops!” Robyn said, red-faced.

  Now that they were warming up and could sit down and rest, their good spirits returned. The only damper was the thought of Rachel waiting for them back at the log house and worrying about them. Steve was especially anxious. She had no way of calling for help; no way to get information, even. In this blizzard she couldn’t even drive anywhere to get help. He knew Rachel. She trusted the Lord, but when it came to her kids being in danger—well, if they didn’t get back soon, she would be frantic.

  There were only two chairs to sit on in the small room. No one wanted to sit on the unmade bed. The dirty floor looked better to them than that, so most of them sat on the floor. Skeeter paced the room, nosing into cupboards and looking at everything in the room. There was not much in the way of food. A few cans of fruit and tuna and a couple of crusts in a bread wrapper. A pair of rotting bananas. A bottle of ketchup and a carton of eggs, the only things in the small refrigerator. “I sure hope we aren’t stuck here for long,” Skeeter said. “We’ll starve!”

  “It’s not our food, anyway,” Kristi pointed out, “although if we were really stranded here for a long time I suppose the owner wouldn’t mind if we ate his stuff and left him some money for it. If we had any money, that is. I don’t suppose anyone brought any money with him since we were just out skiing.”

  “Let’s not worry yet about being stranded or starving,” Steve said. “We’ve only been here thirty minutes! As soon as the snow lets up I want to try to make it back to the cabin. Your mom must be worried sick. And the hungrier we are, the better that chili is going to taste!”

  “It’s going to be manna from heaven then, because I’m starved already!” Skeeter exclaimed.

  They sat for another hour, singing choruses and playing guessing games to pass the time away. Skeeter got up and started pacing again. Sitting still for very long wasn’t in his nature. He was picking things up and looking at them when he suddenly said, “Hey, you guys! Look at this!”

  They looked up. “Ew, Skeeter! Put that down!” Kristi said. “Don’t be handling this guy’s dirty laundry! He doesn’t seem to be the cleanest guy in the world.” Skeeter was holding up a grubby T-shirt.

  “What’s so interesting about a plain old T-shirt, anyway?” Dan asked. “It doesn’t even say anything.”

  “No, but it has a number stamped on the back—165932. Does that number sound familiar to anyone?”

  “It’s the same number that was on that prison jumpsuit we found yesterday,” Pete said.

  “Bingo.” No one said anything for a minute. Their minds were turning over this new development and they didn’t like what they were thinking.

  Finally Anna voiced their fears, “You mean the person who owns this place is that escaped convict?”

  “I doubt if he owns it, Anna. He may have just stumbled across it and was using it for a hideout. The true owner probably only comes here now and then, like Dave and Suzanne do with their cabin,” Steve said. “It could have been weeks ago since he was here.”

  “Or maybe not.” Kristi jumped up. “He could come back at any time!” Suddenly the little cabin that had seemed like a safe haven in the blizzard seemed more like a trap. She ran to the window to look out.

  “Now, let’s not get freaked out here!” Steve said. “You’re forgetting one thing. Even if he’s still using this place, he’s not here right now. Wherever he is, he’s probably stranded by the blizzard just as we are. He won’t be back any time soon.”

  “Unless he’s stranded somewhere nearby,” Kristi muttered. She gazed out into the falling snow, half expecting to see a dark figure emerging out of the trees.

  Steve hesitated, thinking and praying for wisdom. His instincts told him to keep the kids right here until the storm was over. They might be lost, but at least they were warm and dry. On the other hand, there was Rachel, waiting and watching and worrying. And now there was this new problem. Kristi could be right. The guy might have just gone out to gather firewood and gotten turned around in the blizzard. He could be back at any minute. Lord, show me what to do, he prayed.

  He joined Kristi at the window and put his arm around her shoulder. “I think the wind is dying down!” she said. She was scared he knew. It was probably only wishful thinking. He stood there watching with her for a couple minutes and then realized she was right. It was still snowing heavily, but no longer blowing like it had been.

  There was a good chance the wind could pick up again, he knew, but maybe this was the answer to his prayer. He paused, asking the Lord one more time for guidance, and then said, “Bundle up, kids. We’re heading out.”

  __________

  CHAPTER FOUR

  __________

  Come, Blow Your Horn!

  Rachel stood at the picture window staring out into the night. The falling snow almost blotted out the trees and covered everything with a heavy blanket of white. The SUV was half-buried and would have to be dug out. She leaned forward until her forehead touched the window, cupping her hands around her eyes and trying to see through the snow and darkness. Nothing.

  Where were they? That thought never left her mind. One o’clock had come and gone but she had not been too concerned at first. They were bound to be a little late if they were having too much fun! But when two o’clock slipped by and the snow had become a blizzard, she stood watching by the window and praying. As the hours ticked by she continued to watch and pray, trying not to look at the clock.

  It was frustrating not to be able to just pick up a phone and call somebody for help. If she needed to get hold of search and rescue, what was she going to do? Even if she could dig out the SUV herself, there was no way she could get down the long hairpin drive to the highway with the snow as deep as it was. Maybe she could walk there once the snow stopped and flag down a passing motorist. Surely someone would stop and help her!

  Where’s your faith, Rachel? she scolded herself. Stop being afraid and trust God! He’s the One who is going to help you! He will protect them, and He will show you what to do in the meantime. Just trust the Lord!

  The wind had finally died down but the snow continued to fall as heavily as ever. She turned on almost every light in the house with the hope that if they were nearby, the lights might guide them home. The lanterns hanging on the porch and the lights from the windows reflected off the snow and cast a golden glow all around the cabin.

  She had turned off the fire under the chili long ago. Maybe I’ll make some corn muffins to go with the chili, Rachel thought now. That will keep me busy. They’ll love muffins when they get home. It’s one of Skeeter’s favorites. Hmm—what isn’t Skeeter’s favorite? She began to get out the ingredients and utensils she would need.

  She jumped when the muffin pan slipped out of her hand and hit the floor with a loud clang and clatter. The noise echoed through the still and empty great room, causing her to clap her hands over her ears. Suddenly it dawned on her. If they couldn’t see the lights, maybe they would hear a loud noise! But what?

  Rachel grabbed her coat and yanked on her boots. She took the keys off the little table by the door and hurried outside. The snow wasn’t bad on the covered porch, but as soon as she stepped down she wished she had her knee-high boots on. She struggled through the drifts to the SUV and wiped
the snow away from the door handle with her bare hand. It was a challenge to get the door open wide enough with the snow piled up against it, but at last she managed to slip into the driver’s seat. She turned the car on and shivered with the blast of cold air that shot out from the blower. She quickly flipped the switch to turn it off, and hit the switch for the lights, instead. She needed to be careful not to drain the battery, but surely a few minutes of shining the headlights into the trees wouldn’t hurt. They would reach a lot further than the lights from the cabin.

  Then she began to do what she had come out there for—she began honking the horn. Long, blaring blasts and short, rapid beeps. Noise! If her family was anywhere nearby, would they hear it? It was loud to her inside the car, but somehow it sounded muffled and quieter than it should have been. She grabbed the snowbrush out from under the seat and struggled to climb out once more. She began brushing the snow off the hood of the SUV and away from the front grill. She moved around to the back and cleared some snow away from the tailpipe of the SUV so she wouldn’t get sick from carbon monoxide. Should have worn my gloves! she muttered through clenched teeth as her red, frozen hands tried to grip the long handle of the brush.

  Finally she got back in and rolled down the window so she could hear. She began blowing the horn again. There—that’s better, she thought. The noise still sounded rather flat and dead but it was louder. The snow all around them was muffling the noise, she realized, but there was nothing she could do about that. She continued to honk the horn.