by Dale Mayer
“Okay, we’re ready to head out. Everyone got cell phones? We’ve had enough problems this week, let’s have no more.” Geoffrey turned to look at Stacy as if to say he knew she’d be the one to have problems. She smiled and waved at him.
He sighed, turned, and headed out the door into the bright sunshine.
Stacy grabbed the pot of coffee and refilled her mug. Being up late meant most of the others had eaten and had their fill of coffee before she’d even made it down. Royce and George had been speaking quietly in the corner. She had a good idea about what. Now that George was walking out, she could relax alone with Royce. Although, as she turned to the bedrooms, she realized she hadn’t seen Kevin. “Where is Kevin?” she asked Royce.
He looked at her and shrugged. “No idea. I didn’t get downstairs much before you and he wasn’t here.”
“He must have gone out already then.”
She turned to stare at the back bedrooms. “Unless he is still asleep?”
She walked down the hallway, checking the doorways as she came to them. There was a closed door. She wondered about opening it. She turned back to Royce and motioned, “Do we open it? He could still be asleep.”
“True.” Royce grabbed the doorknob, turned it gently, peered inside, and then withdrew. Kevin was still sleeping.
“Oh good.” Stacy stepped back as he closed the door. “Kevin was pretty exhausted last night.”
“Hell, we all were.”
“True.” She returned to the living room. “I need food, what about you?”
“Yes,” Together, they made up a hearty bacon and egg breakfast. Happy in the glow of a new relationship with the added warmth of knowing this was their time, Stacy fought back the worry that the bubble might burst.
She deserved happiness.
But it felt fleeting. As if it wouldn’t last. She figured that her previous experience with Royce was behind it all and tried to toss the feeling away.
They polished off their breakfast and did the dishes.
“Do you want to go skiing?”
She smiled at him. “I want to go back to that corner.”
“Well, as that’s not going to happen, at least not right now, how about a few hours of skiing instead?”
She sighed and agreed. It took a short while to get dressed for the weather, grab their gear, and make their way to the lifts.
The sun was shining. The sky was blue. The wait lines for the lift were short.
It was a perfect ski morning. They sat on the chair climbing up the mountain, loving the moment. At the top, they slid off the chair, cut around the people standing at the top, and dove off the edge of the run. Royce was a scary boarder and he loved to play in the parks, whereas Stacy was a great skier and loved doing runs through the trees.
Together they found a middle ground and raced, laughed, and raced some more. By the time they had several runs under their belt, Royce suggested they try a couple of different ones. And for the next couple of hours they skidded, swerved, and explored new terrain.
Her cheeks were cold and her lips chapped by the time they decided to take a break. She didn’t want to go to a restaurant. Maybe the cabin was empty and they could have it to themselves.
Royce pointed out the break in the trees. “Shall we go back for some food?”
She nodded. They cut into the side run and came to a peak. She recognized the area. She motioned toward where they’d been yesterday. He frowned, considered, then shrugged his shoulders. They wouldn’t be able to get far because of the angle they were coming across. She led the way, trying to stay high, and that also meant she couldn’t ski fast. She was going almost uphill. Royce held his speed a little better. Finally, they were across the top and could descend to the other side.
They were still a ways away from the place she’d fallen when Royce pointed to the right.
“Stacy,” Royce called. “Look.”
She studied the area. There was still the dark shadow that she had to consider was open space behind. But there was nothing different about it today. Her gaze shifted higher to the area where she had fallen.
“Damn it,” she whispered beside him.
“There’s someone up there.”
*
Royce admitted to being curious of what they’d see today back at this spot. Especially after Stacy’s images were caught on camera. But to see someone walking around up there was odd indeed. They were too far way to identify who it was, and he couldn’t even be sure if it was a man or woman.
“Could it be the search and rescue team putting up warning barriers?” Stacy said in a reasonable tone.
“Hell, this whole area is out of bounds.” They only came this way because it led to the cabin without having to drive around the roads.
He glanced over at her to see her frowning up at the ridge. He turned back to stare himself. And sucked in his breath. As he watched, the man disappeared from view.
“He’s gone down that damn hole,” she whispered. “If he’s alone, he might get stuck.”
“First, we can’t see what he’s done. Second, he’s obviously brought gear and set it up to get out on his own if that’s the case or…” but he couldn’t think of an or.
Stacy had. She said, “Or he knows the area and has another way out.”
They waited to see if the man would surface again.
He didn’t.
The two returned to the cabin in silence. With their winter gear off and drying by the heater stove, Stacy rummaged in the kitchen to warm up leftover stew. It didn’t take long. And that, with a couple of buns and a fresh pot of coffee, was lunch.
They never said a word. They both sat down on the couch and ate in silence. When Royce finished his bowl, he set it down on the table and said, “We’d better go check.”
He glanced over at Stacy still eating her stew, the rosy flush on her cheeks calming down. He knew the combination of heavy activity in the cold followed by a hot meal would have a deadly effect on her energy. She’d likely need a nap. But he couldn’t get what he’d seen out of his mind. He also didn’t want to drag Stacy back up that hill. Not that she’d allow herself to be left behind.
Leaving her alone here wasn’t an option. He glanced down the hallway to where Kevin had been sleeping. The door was ajar. Good. So he’d gotten up and probably hit the slopes. It was a perfect day for it.
He turned his attention back to Stacy, her bowl now on the coffee table beside his. She was curled into a ball beside him. He wondered if he should go alone.
“I’m going to power nap for twenty minutes, then we’ll go.”
He glanced at his watch and considered that. It was just after one thirty, so there was lots of daylight yet and they’d be out in the better part of the afternoon. So that worked. While she slept, he got up and cleaned away the lunch mess. They still had lots of food, particularly if they were cutting the trip short. There was talk of one or two people staying behind if the others left early, but no decisions had been made and the further away they were from the incidents, the more people were inclined to stay for the rest of the week. For all the sadness and difficulties these last few days, he couldn’t regret coming. And if he had to leave early, at least he knew he’d be leaving with Stacy. He could always come back another week.
When he was finished, he went up to the loft and removed his heavy sweater. He wouldn’t need it this afternoon.
When he came down, Stacy was already sitting up and rubbing the sleep out from her eyes.
“Hey, how was your nap?” he asked, sitting down beside her and tugging her into his arms. He kissed her gently, wishing they hadn’t seen the man earlier. He wouldn’t be going anywhere but to bed right now otherwise. And that’s so where he wanted to be.
She gave him a bright-eyed smile. “It was good. I’m ready to go.” She motioned to the coffeepot on the stove. “Any left? We could take a thermos up with us.”
“I’ll get it,” he volunteered, hopping to his feet. She was right. A thermos of c
offee up there would be good. “Are you going to take your camera?” he called back to her.
“Absolutely, the view of the cabin and the whole valley is spectacular from there.”
“Too bad we don’t have a snowmobile. It would make this trip a piece of cake.”
“What’s the matter, tired?” she teased from the doorway, a bright smile on her face.
“Ha. Tired of the problems, yes. Physically tired, no.” And he waggled his eyebrows.
“Down boy,” she laughed. “Let’s go. The others could come in at any time.”
He stopped and considered her words. “That’s actually a good idea. Then we’d have backup.”
“No, we won’t have enough time if they don’t get here soon,” she said. “We’ll text them all and leave a note behind.”
She turned around and headed to the living room, calling back, “George left his scratch pad here. I’ll write him one on that.”
He took the thermos out to the boot room where he started getting dressed to go outside again. Stacy joined him and within minutes, they were dressed and back out in the winter wonderland.
Chapter 33
Stacy led the way back to the frozen waterfall. With the sun melting the top layer, there was still an icy layer underneath to contend with, but in her winter hikers, she had good traction. She wasn’t as tired as she expected to be right now, and it was too beautiful out to be anything but amazed at Mother Nature’s artwork.
With the bright sun twinkling off the white canvas and the ice reflecting and refracting at will, the colors of the cold air could be glimpsed in some unexpected spots. It was amazing. She stopped to take several photographs as they walked.
Royce stood at her side. He never asked her to speed it up or what she was looking at, seemingly content to let her take her time.
Something she appreciated.
“That’s probably good for here.” She took several steps forward and exclaimed over a large snowflake pattern frozen into the top of a melted then frozen surface. “I can’t resist.” Click. Click. She sighed happily and turned to look at how far they’d come. As she studied the distance, something caught her attention from the corner of her eyes. Stevie and Kevin were walking down the slope toward the cabin.
“Stevie!”
Sure enough, he turned, saw her, waved, and veered toward them.
“Where are you two heading at this hour?” he asked. He was covered in snow as if he’d tumbled through a few snow banks, but he wore a big smile.
“We’re going back up to where I fell in,” Stacy said, holding up her camera. “I want to take a few shots.”
Stevie rolled his eyes and grinned. “Figures. Please don’t fall in again.”
Royce shook the coil of rope he carried over one shoulder. “Just in case. She does seem to get into trouble a lot.”
“Hey, that’s not fair,” she protested. “It’s not my fault.”
“It isn’t, but it is,” Royce said by way of cryptic answer.
“Like that makes any sense,” she scoffed.
She turned back to the cabin and motioned at it to Stevie. “Are you cutting the day short? That’s not like you.”
“Yeah, I argued with a tree back there.” He gave her a sheepish, lopsided grin. “Figured it might be a good time to call it quits for the day. I’ve been going strong since early morning. Besides,” he patted his stomach, “I’m starving.”
“Me too,” Kevin said, nudging Stevie down the hill. “I am not used to days like these. I didn’t prepare enough.”
“Prepare?” Royce asked, eyeing Kevin’s big grin. “Prepare how?”
“I woke up and realized everyone had left, so I ran out the door without eating breakfast,” he said, laughing. “Time to fix that.”
With that comment, the two took off down the mountain, creating a new path in the snow. Stacy couldn’t resist. She pulled her camera out and took several shots of the two friends sauntering down to the cabin. She could just imagine all kinds of captions for these photos.
Still grinning, she turned back to find that Royce had started to climb the slope slashing across the hillside. “We’re almost there,” he called back.
“I’m coming.”
The rest of the climb was harder work, but she made it to the top without too much effort. After a moment of trying to catch her breath, she took off her jacket and cooled down. Royce watched her. “Just be sure you don’t catch a chill.”
She nodded. “I won’t. But walking into the sun was harder than I expected today.”
“We’ve also put in a good day’s work already. You should be tired.” He walked a couple of steps toward the crevasse, stopping a safe distance away. “Good. No one is here. Take your look, snap a few photos, then let’s head back.”
It was a good idea. Now that they were here, it was hard to see anything menacing in the area – except for the pit itself. As there was no one lying unconscious or injured below, the man they’d seen had to have left safely. He probably worked for the resort. There were snowmobile tracks around, but it was hard to tell how old they were. She took several pictures, careful to stand back. If she were higher looking down, she’d be able to take better shots, but there wasn’t much option to do that. She gave it a wide berth as she walked around. “Do you see tracks from whomever we saw earlier?” she asked.
“There were lots of people here yesterday,” Royce said, looking at the trampled snow. “Who can tell?”
She walked further out, looking for any sign that someone had approached from a different direction. The two snowmobiles had raced over the top of some tracks, almost obliterating them.
“True enough. It’s hard to see anything anymore.”
“Not to mention the temperatures today were much warmer with some melting going on.”
She nodded. Still, she couldn’t help take a few photographs of the snowmobiles and the trampled ground around the hole.
“It’s deeper than I remember.”
“No wonder. You fell in and didn’t really get a good look at it afterwards. You were hustled down to the cabin to warm up.”
She stared down the crevasse and wondered why it bothered her so badly. She glanced up at the frozen waterfall then back down at the deep slice in the snow pack. She’d come here to solve one problem and instead she’d opened up another. Loathe to leave just yet, but knowing Royce was starting to get impatient, she walked for a last time to the far side.
And that’s when she saw the blackness behind the fallen snow. She’d had to see it just right. The stack of snow hid the shadow. Even if they didn’t explore what was behind it, that snow should be collapsed so that someone else didn’t fall in.
“Royce, we need to do something about this.”
He walked over to stand at her side. She studied his face to see if he saw what she saw and caught the narrowed gaze as he caught sight of the blackness. A long tree branch she dimly remembered seeing someone using to test the edges of the fault line lay to the side. Royce picked it up and knocked down the tower of fallen snow protecting the space behind. He frowned. He tried knocking more snow off the top so the space would open up, but instead his branch hit something hard. They rushed over and approached from the side, his stick carefully brushing the snow of the side. It was an overhang made of rock. But what was under it?
“I want to see what’s down there.”
Royce glanced over at her. “It’s likely nothing.”
“Likely, yes,” she admitted. “That, however, isn’t the same thing as knowing for sure. We saw someone jump down here. There’s no sign of anyone. Where did he go?”
They both studied the darkness. “He probably used a rope and climbed back out. I’ll go,” Royce said. “I’ll set up the ropes first then I can climb back out if need be.”
He attached the one end to the big tree standing guard for so many years then threw the rest over the edge. That’s when she realized he’d actually brought a rope ladder.
She hadn’t s
een one in ages. “I didn’t realize that’s what you were carrying.”
“I figured it was the easiest way to get out when the sides keep crumbling in on us here.”
“Good thinking,” she said. And it was. It was actually brilliant. Then Royce thrived on this kind of thing. He was a definite Boy Scout and followed the be prepared for anything motto very well. She’d always been amazed at the things he’d pulled off with her brother. Some were stupid and some were damn good. Now he carefully skittered down the slope into the narrow ravine and called back. “I’m down.”
“Test your ladder first,” she said.
“A little late to test if I’m already here.” He grinned. “But I will if it makes you feel better.”
Under her watchful gaze, he climbed up several rungs easily. “See.”
“Good. Then I’ll come down too.”
“There’s no need. You stay up and keep watch. I’ll check out this cave and then we can leave.”
“I want to see too,” she complained.
“You do realize that you could be making a big deal out of nothing. Like I’m going to see a rock wall and turn around and come right back up there.” He glared at her. “Stay where you are and I’ll check. If there’s anything to find, you’ll see it when I knock the snow back.”
He turned his back on her and started knocking down the snow. It was evident very quickly that he was going to need a couple of minutes to clear a path. She watched and waited from up above. Every once in a while she turned around to find the pristine countryside, empty and untouched. There was no one out here but the two of them. It should have made her feel better, but instead it was too empty. There wasn’t a bird flying past, no songs or warbles in the air. It was still, watchful. Waiting.
She hated that her imagination was on overdrive, but it didn’t seem fanciful that Royce just might be finding something that the birds already knew about.
*
Royce worked steadily to drop the snow to a reasonable-sized pile that he could get around and see what was behind the mess. He’d seen many different footprints, which made no sense. After all, there wasn’t – or shouldn’t have been – anyone down here. Except for the man they’d seen.
