by Meg Muldoon
She leaned forward in the chair opposite Daniel’s desk, rocking back and forth nervously as she spoke.
Deb Dulany looked a lot different than the woman who I’d first seen running down the street after her loose turkey several Novembers ago. Back then, she was a single mom, barely making ends meet, and struggling to support her two children. In the years since, she’d remarried and become a highly-successful relator in town – in fact, most houses that went up on the market bore her likeness on their For Sale signs. And those big changes in her life were most certainly noticeable. Though she’d always been a good dresser, her newfound income had allowed her to buy better, more fashionable clothes. And these days, she sported a short, trendy, expensive-looking haircut, too.
But one thing hadn’t changed with Deb – she still had that look of worry about her, the way she did back when we first met her. Only this look of worry wasn’t for her children and their potentially-ruined Thanksgiving. It was for her younger brother and the fact that he was still out in the woods when he should have been home.
“He just wouldn’t skip out on Frankie’s birthday like that,” she continued, reaching for a box of Kleenex that Daniel had placed out on his desk the moment he saw her walk into the office. “But I thought, well – maybe they ended up hiking too far in and couldn’t get back in time. You know that’s easy to do when you’re out there. Or so Wes has told me.”
She took in a deep breath.
“But then… then this evening, I took the kids to get ice cream at the Christmas Diner. I didn’t realize it, but I forgot my phone. And when we got back home, I saw that I had a message.”
She placed the phone that she had been nervously playing with out on the desk, hitting a button.
A second later, something cracked over the speaker.
My breath caught in my throat as a muffled whimper filled the room. Followed by indistinguishable, panicked words and high-pitched cries of pain.
Then, the only decipherable phrase came through, and it came through in startling clarity.
“Get help…”
The recording came to an end right after.
I felt my eyes widen to the size of pies as I glanced at Daniel from across the room.
He retained a calm expression. But he couldn’t fool me – I saw it in his face. He was more than a little concerned by what he’d just heard.
Deb pulled back her phone from the desk with trembling hands.
“That was Angie,” she said. “Something’s happened to her out there. And that means that something’s happened to Wes, too. Because I know my brother. And he’d lay down his life for her. If she’s as badly injured as she sounds, then…”
Deb trailed off as her voice gave out. Several tears spilled down her cheeks.
Out of instinct, I got up and tried to console her.
She began sobbing.
I glanced back at Daniel.
That composed expression was beginning to fade, and he suddenly looked just about as worried as I’d ever seen him.
A second later, he was up out of his chair and going for his coat hanging in the corner of his office.
He paused before leaving. As if he was about to say something. Something along the lines of Everything’s all right, or We’ll find them, Deb, or We’re on it.
But in the end, he said nothing.
He went out the door without so much as a word.
Chapter 20
I pulled off the bumpy forest road and into the crowded lot of the Lava Ridge Trailhead, switching off my headlights and then killing the engine.
The lot was buzzing with activity – volunteer Search & Rescuers and Sheriff’s deputies rushed around, going about their business in speedy and solemn silence.
Though it was obvious – even to me who didn’t know much about Search & Rescue operations – that the number of volunteers here was a little on the light side. Since the busiest part of the season was over, many of the volunteers were on vacation, like Wes and Angie had been. That, or they had gone home for the season when they couldn’t find jobs here. Kevin Hayward – Wes’s bear claw-loving friend from Tacoma – had already left, and I was sure there were others, too, who were no longer in the area.
I pulled my fleece jacket on before stepping out of the car.
The Lava Ridge Trailhead was about an hour into the mountains – a good jumping off point for anyone looking for the fastest access to the Pacific Crest Trail. And it was the most likely place to start a search and rescue mission to find Wes and Angie.
Though the sun was still out, the evening chill, which was a constant up here in the Central Oregon Cascades, was descending quickly.
I took in a deep breath and glanced up at the trees swaying in the stiff mountain breeze for a second.
I prayed that this was all just a big misunderstanding. That we would find Wes and Angie sitting around a campfire, cooking up their supper. That everything would be okay. That the phone message had just been some sort of mistake.
I went around to the trunk, popping it open and unpacking several bags of supplies I had picked up at Ray’s Grocery a few hours before. I filled up a battery-powered hot pot with water and turned the setting to boil. Then I unwrapped a package of Styrofoam cups and several boxes of powdered donuts.
It wasn’t exactly glamorous or heroic work. But the volunteers would need something to fuel them and to make the cold night ahead passable. And while powdered donuts, energy bars, hot coffee, cider, and bottled water might not be the stuff of champions, it was the kind of carbohydrate and caffeine fest that could keep them going for a long time.
“Thanks for doing this, Cin,” Daniel said, coming up to me. “Some of the volunteers usually take up this duty, but seeing as how the big season is through, we’re a little shorthanded.”
“I’m happy to do it,” I said.
I only wish I could do more, I thought.
I wasn’t a trained Search & Rescue volunteer by any means. But I had some familiarity with the area, being that Warren took me out camping and hiking nearly every summer of my youth.
“Any luck with either of their cell phones?” I asked.
Daniel rested his hands on his hips and looked off into the distance.
“They both go straight to voicemail. We’re working on the GPS pinging, but that takes some time. And even then, it most likely won’t give us a solid location. Not up here in these areas.”
“Do, uh, do you…”
I trailed off, my mouth going as dry as a gravel road in the middle of a drought.
“Do you think they’re really in trouble?” I finally asked.
The words came out hardly above a whisper.
Daniel swallowed hard.
That was an answer in and of itself.
“They’re both expert hikers,” he said. “And Wes is a trained EMT. Those are both two big positives that most people who need Search & Rescue don’t have.”
He drew in a big breath.
“And the weather’s been good, too. That’s also another positive.”
I nodded.
The cries in Deb’s voicemail recording echoed in my head suddenly, and I shivered.
It was the sound of somebody who was in real, serious pain.
I shook my head and looked away, trying to banish the recording from my thoughts.
I wish I hadn’t heard it. It wasn’t going to be an easy thing to forget.
The hot pot started steaming, making a high-pitched, whistling noise.
Daniel nodded, as if that was a cue to get going.
“Don’t wait up for me,” he said, forcing a smile. “And stay warm out here, all right? If you need to, go home and get some sleep.”
He backed away and started heading for the trailhead, where the rest of the volunteers had gathered.
“Wait, Daniel?” I yelled.
He stopped and glanced back at me, raising his eyebrows.
“Just… be careful out there, okay?”
He nodded serious
ly. The way he always did when I told him to be careful.
“I will,” he said. “You don’t have to stay that long, you know. Once we hit the trail, you could—”
I shook my head.
“No,” I said. “I’m not going anywhere.”
The edges of his mouth turned up slightly at that.
“Okay,” he said. “If you want to stay, okay.”
He walked toward the trailhead, pulling on his Sheriff’s jacket as he did.
He didn’t say it outright, but I knew he was glad that I was staying.
Chapter 21
It was colder than the North Pole in January, and a fierce, frost-spiked wind was whipping down from the mountains with a ferocity that seemed damn near hateful.
I had lost feeling in my toes and the tip of my nose, and I was kicking myself for having not brought another jacket or sweater or other layer of warmth.
But though I was cold, I knew I had to be in a better position than others. I was in a car with a heater that I could turn on when it got too chilly. Meanwhile Wes, Angie, Daniel, and the rest of the volunteers were out there in the woods, face-to-face with the harsh elements. Almost certainly suffering in this bitter wind.
I took a sip of hot cider from the Styrofoam cup in my hands as the car shook slightly. It was one of those powdered mix-and-stir ciders, which meant that it was overly-sugary and lacked real apple flavor. But I always did have a sweet tooth, and I found that I liked the packaged drink more than I wanted to admit. Plus, it was steaming hot, and as I drank it, a pleasant, momentary warmth spread out through my body.
“I just… I can’t imagine what could have happened,” Deb said, bringing her own cup of cider up to her lips and blowing on it. “Wes’s the very last person to get lost in the woods. There must have been some sort of accident. There must have been…”
She trailed off, her voice trembling until it couldn’t continue on.
I stole a glance at her.
She was looking worn-out. Her hair, which had been perfectly straightened before, was starting to get frizzy and wild-looking. And in the light of the full moon streaming through the windshield, I saw that her eyes were red with worry.
“Look, Deb,” I said in a gentle voice. “I know that you’re drawing all sorts of conclusions from that message, but the truth is that we don’t know anything for sure yet. It could all be some sort of misunderstanding. It’s important not to assume the worst.”
Deb nodded, biting her lower lip.
“I suppose you’re right,” she said. “But I just have this bad feeling, Cin. I had it once years ago when Frankie got sick with the stomach flu at school and the nurse’s office called me. I had this really strange feeling I couldn’t shake as I drove over there to pick him up. It turned out that it wasn’t the stomach flu at all – he’d had appendicitis and we had to rush him to the hospital.”
She looked out the window at the trees shaking violently. The sound of the wind railing against the car didn’t exactly make the atmosphere inside warm and fuzzy.
“I’ve got the same feeling now with Wes,” she said. “Only, it’s worse this time.”
It probably would have been better if Deb had just stayed home, I realized. Being here in the trailhead parking lot, in this strange sort of helpless limbo, wouldn’t exactly make me feel better if I were in her shoes.
There wasn’t much I could do about the wind or the cold or that feeling of helplessness. But I could try to get her to focus on better things.
“So how’s Frankie doing in school these days?” I asked, changing the subject.
I could tell she knew what I was doing. But she played along, being polite.
“He’s doing great,” she said. “He’s got a group of really nice friends now. He just finished up a season of Classic soccer this summer, and his team placed second in state.”
The once sad and friendless boy who, two years ago, had secretly released the family’s turkey from its pen to save it from becoming food on the table deserved all of that goodness in his life and more.
“I’m really glad to hear that he’s finding his way,” I said. “He’s got a really good heart, that kid.”
“Thanks,” she said. “You know, he always thought pretty highly of you, too. He’d probably be at your shop all the time if it wasn’t for school and sports.”
I smiled to myself, touched by the compliment.
After a moment, Deb let out a long sigh.
“And Frankie was so happy to finally have his uncle home, too” she mumbled, resting her arm against the car windowsill. “You know, Wes told Frankie that he’d be bringing home that Flynn treasure for his birthday party? That he was going to split it down the middle with him – 50-50.”
Deb shook her head.
“I think we all actually believed that Wes would come home with that treasure. Stupid, huh?”
I looked out the window for a long while.
The way Deb was speaking, it was as if her brother was a goner for sure.
I didn’t like hearing her talk like that. It seemed like she was putting the cart before the pony way too soon.
“Just how did Wes get into all of this Christmas Flynn stuff anyway?” I asked.
As much as I liked Wes, it did seem a little strange to me that a man well into his thirties should be so wrapped up in an old legend about missing treasure.
“It was something our grandfather told us when we were just kids,” she said. “A legend. That back during the depression, a famous bank robber named Leonard Flynn had a secret hiding place somewhere in the Cascade Mountains where he stashed all the gold and money he’d stolen over the years. I was a kid when I first heard the story, but I didn’t give the legend two thoughts. It seemed so farfetched, even back then. But Wes… he really took that old story to heart.”
She drew in a deep breath.
“I think it must have had something to do with the fact that our family was so poor when we were growing up. Our folks did the best they could to make ends meet, bless their hearts. But it wasn’t enough. Daddy was badly injured in an accident at the mill when we were just kids, so Wes had to step up really early as the man of the house. You can imagine the kind of effect a legend like that might have on a kid in that situation. The thought that there could be treasure just for the taking up in the mountains seemed like this beautiful dream to him.
“When he was a teenager, he went up there on his own for the first time. He didn’t find anything then, or in all the trips he’s taken up there since, either. But that hasn’t stopped him from trying.”
She swallowed hard.
“I thought that when he moved to Tacoma for work and got married, he might have finally given up on all of it. But I can see now that being away from here only made him obsess over it more.”
She bit her lower lip and looked out the window.
“A couple of weeks ago, he came over to the house for dinner one night, and he was all worked up over something. He said he’d had some big breakthrough with all of it…”
I furrowed my brow.
“A breakthrough?” I asked.
She nodded.
“He didn’t say what. He kept it mysterious. But whatever it was, it seemed big. He was positive he was going to find that treasure this trip.
“But now…”
She left the sentence unfinished, and it just hung there in the car with us, floating in the air like cigarette smoke.
“If we find him, and he’s not…”
She sniveled as a tear popped over the rim of her eye.
“I don’t know how I’ll tell Frankie.”
A long silence settled in over the car as Deb struggled to keep her composure.
“I know this is hard, Deb,” I finally said. “But we don’t know anything for sure yet, okay? Let’s just… let’s just wait and see before jumping to any conclusions.”
Deb Dulany didn’t answer.
I didn’t try to make much small talk after that.
&nbs
p; Chapter 22
The wind wouldn’t let me sleep.
It was the bitter wind of fall. The kind that whispered of what was in store for us in the months ahead. The kind that almost seemed to revel in the recent death of summer.
From the driver’s seat, I gazed out at the trailhead, watching the brush surrounding it shake to an unholy dance. I waited, looking for some sign of life. Hoping that at any minute, Daniel might come down the trail in the bright moonlight with Angie and Wes following behind.
I had to believe that they could be okay.
I yawned, then shivered, zipping up my fleece jacket as far as it would go, trying to redirect my thoughts to something other than the reason we were out here tonight. Something comforting to keep me company during these long, dark hours.
I thought about what Daniel had been talking about at the lake just before Billy Jasper’s phone call. About what he’d said about taking a trip to Europe.
Maybe it was wrong of me given the situation we were in, but I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of excitement at the prospect of an international trip. Bustling cosmopolitan cities weren’t exactly my thing. I much preferred the natural world and places where I could hear the sound of my own thoughts. But, as Warren had shown all of us when he took off to Scotland for a full year, there was nothing wrong with trying something new and stepping out of your comfort zone. I’d learned that lesson especially this summer with the pie truck venture. The whole thing had been terrifying, but here I was now, a stronger and better person for my experiences.
Maybe Daniel was missing something like that in his life, and that was the reason for this sudden idea.
I let out a quiet sigh, glancing over at Deb, who was still sitting in the passenger’s seat. She’d fallen into an exhausted, fitful sleep, and was mumbling softly.
I turned and looked back out my window.
Strangely, the more I thought about Daniel’s reasons for the Europe trip, the more the excitement faded and was replaced with something else.
