The Replacement

by Anne Marie Duquette

  “Can she be safely moved?” Eric asked.

  “As long as she stays off her feet, yes. Lindsey packed in here in one day. If we could do the same with Pam, I’d feel a whole lot better about her chances.”

  “I don’t know about doing an evac in a day.” Lindsey spoke up. “I skied in with a visible ski trail and nothing to slow me down. We’ve got fresh snowfall. We’ll need snowshoes, not skis, and we’ll have to hand-pull the sled. Getting through Tioga Pass before dark is a gamble, not a guarantee.”

  “She’s right,” Eric said.

  Naomi stirred her full mug of coffee, poured from the continually freshened pot. “Too bad we don’t keep sled dogs.”

  “Let’s not forget about Wilson,” Keith added.

  “Like any of us could forget,” Naomi snapped. She immediately apologized. “Sorry, Keith. I didn’t sleep much last night.”

  “I did get through on the radio earlier this morning to check on the weather reports,” Eric said. “I also talked to Jack Hunter. He’s still waiting to hear back from the police regarding gun registration. Not all the state records are on computer.”

  “And what about the rescue party for Pam?” Keith asked.

  “He agrees with me. I don’t think it’s wise for us all to go. If Wilson decides to stalk the outgoing party, I’d just as soon have backup here at the cabin if there’s trouble. But as far as any course of action is concerned, the final decision’s up to us, not Hunter.”

  Eric noticed Lindsey react slightly to his use of the plural. Four years ago he would have declared that the decision was up to him. But those years of solitude hadn’t been pleasant. After Lindsey’s departure, he’d discovered the meaning of teamwork, realized how much he’d missed it. Obviously he had his faults when it came to interpersonal relationships. He’d been spoiled having a twin—his only true teammate—who knew his every emotion. Eric had never learned the necessary habit of explaining his feelings to others. Because he instinctively knew his sister’s thoughts, he’d never learned to pick up on others’. He did okay with work-related issues, but intimacy with others came hard. Life in the isolation of a Sierra Nevada winter didn’t do much for his romancing skills, either. I can admit when I need help, Lindsey. And I can admit when I’m wrong. I was dead wrong to let you go.

  “Let me run this by you all,” Eric said. “Naomi and Pam stay here. Keith and Lindsey can start out with a decoy handsled—see if Wilson’s watching us, and if he is, we draw him out. I’ll cover you. If he doesn’t surface, Keith and Lindsey can circle back, and we’ll send the real sled out with Pam and Naomi tomorrow.”

  “You’ll need someone who’s armed to go with them. I’m volunteering,” Keith said forcefully.

  Eric, mindful of Lindsey’s revelation earlier about Keith’s feelings for Naomi, chose his words carefully. “I appreciate it, Keith. Let’s reevaluate the generator before we decide. You’re the better mechanic.” The word we came much more easily to his lips than it had four years ago. Once again he noticed Lindsey’s reaction.

  Keith nodded just once. Naomi stared openly at her brother. “I just assumed you’d go with me, Eric.”

  “So did I,” Lindsey said frankly.

  “If I have to be admitted to the hospital, I’d want you there,” Naomi insisted.

  “I’d want to be there, sweetie,” Eric said, reaching for his sister’s arm. “But I can’t leave a crazed gunman loose to take potshots at your back. If that means I stay behind, then I stay behind. And if we all went, we’d have to tow the dog out as well. That would slow us down even more. Like I said, it all depends on the generator.”

  Obviously upset, Naomi said nothing.

  “Let’s do the decoy run this morning with Lindsey and Keith, and see what happens. If Wilson doesn’t show, that’ll give us the rest of the afternoon to prepare for the real run tomorrow before the bad weather hits. Then we can decide who’s going. Naomi, you’ll stay here with Pam. Will you be okay with Keith’s rifle?”

  “I hate guns—but yeah, I’ll use it if I have to.”

  “I’ll leave Ginger here, too,” Lindsey offered. “The snow’s too deep for her, and she’ll give you advance warning if anyone comes this way.”

  Eric nodded his approval. “Any questions? Problems? Comments?” There were none. “All right, Rangers, we have ourselves a plan. Let’s get moving.”

  The men dressed warmly to go out and check the generator and took the dog with them, leaving the women behind.

  “I’ll pack food and drink for you and Keith,” Naomi said.

  “I’ll do it. I still remember where everything is,” Lindsey replied, rising from the table and heading to the kitchen. “If Pam’s still sleeping, you should put your feet up while you can. You look beat.”

  “Later.” Naomi followed Lindsey. “What’s with Eric?”

  “Sorry…you lost me.”

  “All of a sudden he wants to stay, instead of escorting me out. Why?”

  “Maybe you should ask him,” Lindsey suggested, reaching for two sealed plastic bins containing the trail bars and beef jerky.

  “He’s not here. Did you two kiss and make up?” she asked bluntly.

  “Are we out of hot-chocolate mix?”

  “One cupboard over. So, did you?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  Lindsey exhaled with annoyance. “I know you’re under a lot of stress, Naomi, so I’m making allowances. But do me a favor, would you? Back off.”

  “I have a right to know what’s going on.”

  “Professionally, yes. Personally, no. Between your health and Pam’s, you’ve got enough to handle. Don’t start playing ‘Dear Abby.’” Lindsey yanked open the drawer where the sealed plastic bags were kept and began filling them with the appropriate portions.

  Naomi’s brows rushed together, just as her brother’s did when he was upset. “Someone’s got to make you see sense!”

  “Your timing stinks. I’ve got to go out into the elements with a crazy gunman somewhere nearby, a ranger I’ve never worked with, and no dog. My body’s conditioned for swimming, not skiing, I’m freezing my butt off, and I’m still taking Diamox. Excuse me if my mind’s on my job right now.”

  “Spare me the dedicated ranger act, Lindsey. I know you better than that.”

  “No, you don’t. If you did, you wouldn’t have spent the past four years spying on me through my sisters.”

  Naomi gasped. “I wouldn’t have had to spy if you’d answered my letters or phone calls. I thought we were friends.”

  Lindsey straightened, her eyes narrowed. “We were never friends, Naomi.”

  The other woman’s flushed cheeks acknowledged the truth in Lindsey’s words. “No, but later on, I wanted to be. I know I went about it wrong, but my husband had died. I needed my twin! I swear, Lindsey, I never meant for my relationship with Eric to damage yours. Or to cause bad blood between the two of us.”

  Lindsey held up a restraining hand. “Naomi, I didn’t come back here to assign blame. Eric didn’t trust me. Whatever you did or said to him made no difference in that department.”

  “I still know you blame me. I blame myself,” Naomi said painfully. “I tried to reach you a few months after you left…to try to explain.”

  “Explain what? You wanted Eric all to yourself, you got him. I can read well enough between the lines to know you lied to him back then. You wanted me gone, and obviously Eric did, too, or he would’ve listened to me. Not you.”

  Naomi flushed even more, but doggedly went on. “You’re right about me, but you’re wrong about Eric. He didn’t want out. I stupidly thought I knew what was best for him. After you left, something happened. He shut down inside. I used to be able to tell what he’s thinking and feeling. Now he’s like some stranger.”

  “So you decided to undo what you did? Just like that?” Lindsey couldn’t keep the sarcasm from her voice.

  “Yes! I kept trying to reach you to explain, to apologize, to set things stra
ight. You never gave me the chance. Just like you never gave me the chance to be your friend. For God’s sake, my brother wanted to marry you! Why wouldn’t I want him to be happy?”

  Lindsey stopped packing. “You never wanted to be my friend until after he called off the wedding. By then, I wasn’t interested. I’m still not.” The harshness of her words hung in the air.

  They brought tears to Naomi’s eyes. “I can accept that. But don’t let the past stand in the way of your happiness,” she begged. “Or Eric’s.”

  “Naomi, drop it.” Lindsey’s voice shook. “Please.”

  Naomi’s chin stubbornly jutted out, a contrast to the tears in her eyes. “I know Eric still loves you. I think you still love him, or you wouldn’t have come back here.”

  Lindsey’s last remnants of control vanished, and the words slipped out before she could control them. “How would you know? Keith’s wild about you, and you haven’t even noticed. If you want to play matchmaker, do it in your own life—and stay the hell out of mine!”

  Silence. Naomi’s expression registered confusion, then shock. She stared at Lindsey, while Lindsey desperately wished she could take back the words that had betrayed a confidence. Damn the Kincaide twins! No one, absolutely no one, but Eric and his sister, could arouse such powerful emotions in her. Usually she had no problem keeping her mouth shut. “Hell, hell, hell!” she ground out.

  “That fits this place,” Naomi said in a shaky voice. “I’m going to check on Pam.”

  Lindsey opened her mouth, then closed it as Naomi hurried from the room, leaving her to finish packing up the supplies with only the popping of the fireplace wood for company.

  THE MEN RETURNED SHORTLY afterward, announcing that the generator still seemed stable enough. Keith had tinkered with it as much as he could. The air and sky were fairly clear, and within a short time the three rangers were ready for their decoy attempt at snowshoeing out. Lindsey and Keith would lead, while Eric would trail them, keeping out of sight in the hilly, conifer-dotted terrain.

  Naomi watched the three depart, holding tight to Ginger’s collar. She bolted the porch and cabin doors, turned the portable radio to their walkie-talkie frequency, then carefully placed the loaded rifle—safety on—high on the mantelpiece where Pam couldn’t reach it. Naomi had settled the girl in a sleeping bag on the couch. Not only would she not need to overtax the generator to heat the back bedrooms, but she also hoped a change of scenery might perk up the ailing child’s spirits.

  “When are they coming back?” Pam asked as Ginger lay down by the couch.

  “Maybe later this evening—definitely before dark,” Naomi said, fussing with Pam’s pillow. “There. Comfy?”

  “Why can’t I go?”

  “I told you. They’re going to check on the…trail conditions…and see if it’s safe for us to get you back to your mother.” Naomi brought over a tablet of paper and two pencils and sat on the couch. “Want to play tic-tac-toe? Or draw some pictures?”

  “I wanna see my mom,” Pam said, ignoring the pencil Naomi offered her.

  “I know. But we can’t take you out in the snow unless it’s safe.”

  “I hate the snow!”

  “But snow can be a good thing,” Naomi said. “Watch.” She began to draw on the top of the paper. “We’re right here, at Tuolumne Meadows. It was named after the Indians living in the foothills. Can you say Too-ol-um-mee?”

  Pam dutifully repeated the Native American word.

  “We’re at the highest part of Yosemite Park. Down here—” Naomi sketched on the bottom left “—is where Half Dome and Yosemite Valley are located. Years ago, glaciers from where we are traveled down to carve out the valley.”

  Pam didn’t seem very interested.

  “Keep watching the map, and you’ll see the route we’re going to use to take you home,” Naomi cajoled. She immediately caught Pam’s interest. The child scooted closer, and actually leaned into her side as Naomi sketched in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range with its ten-to thirteen-thousand-foot peaks.

  “Okay, here’s our cabin. From up here, the Tuolumne River flows down into the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, and then into the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. All our snow melts into water for the people in San Francisco to drink. The grapes in the vineyards drink it, too. The water’s so pure, California has some of the best wines in the world. So you see, snow can be a good thing.”

  “Are we going home that way?” Pam asked.

  “No.” Naomi sketched in another river. “The Merced flows down from Merced Lake, which is also fed by snow. It provides water for all the valley wildlife, and makes beautiful waterfalls in the summer. There’s Vernal Fall, Nevada Fall, the Upper and Lower Yosemite Fall, and one even named Bridalveil Fall.”

  “Bridalveil?” Pam echoed.

  “Yep. The wind blows the water into a white froth so it looks like a bride’s lacy veil. You can even hike in to see some of the falls.”

  “Can we go home that way?” Pam asked.

  “Not in winter. The western entrances to the park are closed due to heavy snowfall, and anyway, that’s the long way out of here. Plus it’s too rugged. We drop from thirteen thousand feet all the way down to two thousand feet above sea level. That’s too difficult a terrain for winter travel. It’s tough in the summer, too.”

  “Then which way goes home?” Pam demanded impatiently.

  “Here’s our cabin again. Over here to the right—the east—is Tioga Pass. There’s a lot of snow there, too, but the distance to the pass isn’t that far from us, and beyond it is the rest of Highway 140. Once we get through the pass, it’s open to traffic. That’s where one of our rangers—Lindsey—skied in. So we’d put you on a sled and go from the cabin—” Naomi drew a dotted line “—to Tioga Pass here and down to the highway. And this—” Naomi made an X and circled it “—is where your mother will be waiting for you.” Naomi peeled the sheet of paper from the rest of the tablet and passed it to the child.

  Pam took the paper and studied it, her frostbitten nose pointing at the “X-marks-the-spot.”

  “When do I get to go?”

  “I’m not sure,” Naomi said, not wanting to raise the child’s hopes.

  “Daddy will be mad,” Pam said in a frightened little voice. “He said I’d never live with Mommy again.”

  “Wrong. Your father’s…a bit confused,” Naomi said tactfully. “You let us worry about him.” She handed a pencil to Pam. “I’m going to write down the names of the bigger mammals in our park for you, one on each page. Then I’ll get one of my wildlife books and some colored pencils so you can draw them. We’ll do some this morning, okay?”

  Naomi started writing down bighorn sheep, mule deer, coyote, badger and raccoon in block letters, leaving out any of the nastier predatory mammals, such as mountain lions, bobcats and bears. Even though the big cats were at lower altitudes where food was more plentiful, and most of the black bears were hibernating for the winter—the native grizzlies had been wiped out during the gold rush—the child had been frightened enough. Best not to take chances.

  “This will do for starters,” Naomi said in a cheerful voice. “Let’s read the names out loud, then you pick the one you want to draw first.”

  FIFTEEN MINUTES OF snowshoeing had Lindsey huffing and puffing like a steam locomotive. Even though Keith towed the hand-sled—which was made up with blankets and clothing to look as though it held Pam—he still had to wait for Lindsey to catch up.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “I haven’t done heavy snowshoeing in years. I forgot how hard this was,” she gasped. “And I thought the ski trip in gave me sore muscles.”

  “Wanna take a break?”

  “No, we just started. But if you’d slow down a tad, that’d help.”

  Keith nodded and continued breaking a trail atop the fresh, powdery snow while Lindsey gritted her teeth and slogged on.

  “Try to step in my footprints,” he said. “That’ll make it easier.”

  “�
�Kay,” she managed to get out, but Keith had a larger stride than she did, and that wasn’t always possible. Although she had physical stamina, her leg muscles were screaming after thirty minutes. Worse yet, her back felt extremely vulnerable, what with Keith in the lead, and Wilson possibly stalking them. For the first time in her life, she fervently wished for a bulletproof vest.

  “Sorry, I’ve gotta stop,” she finally said to Keith, “or I’ll fall flat on my face.”

  Keith immediately slowed, careful that the sled he towed didn’t bump into him. “No problem. Why don’t you check on our ‘patient’ and I’ll get us something hot to drink?”

  “Thanks, Keith.” Lindsey kicked out of one snowshoe and gratefully dropped to that knee, taking the weight off her legs. She pretended to fuss with “Pam,” adjusting the transport blankets and straightening the tassel of the stuffed ski-cap peeking out.

  “Can you see anyone?” she asked, still down in the snow. “I’ve been watching our backs as best I can.”

  “We know Eric’s behind us somewhere,” Keith said confidently.

  “Yeah, well, let’s hope Wilson isn’t. I’m jumpy as hell,” she admitted.

  “Rescue ranger or not, I’m hoping the last storm put that wife-beater permanently on ice.”

  “Or at least his feet,” Lindsey seconded. She rubbed at a sore calf with a mitten-clad hand.

  “Eric said we should take at least an hour heading toward Tioga Pass. We’re halfway there. If we don’t see anything by then, we’ll turn around and head back.”

  “Another half hour to go?”

  “You don’t think you can make it?”

  “It’s not that. Another half hour will put us right out in the open. The farther we head out, the more ground cover we’ll lose. Talk about being sitting ducks.”

  “That’s why we have Eric as backup,” Keith said matter-of-factly. He poured a cup of coffee from his thermos and offered it to her.