Chilled by Death (33 page)

Royce handed over
his burden to the paramedics and stepped back. The men surrounded Kathleen and quickly had her vitals checked and monitored before packing her up in the sled. They were on their way in minutes. There were two other snowmobiles. Royce insisted that Stacy catch a ride down to the cabin. He’d walk with Stevie. It wasn’t far and there wasn’t room for all three of them to ride back. The sun was low and getting lower behind the mountain. The shadowy long fingers stretched across the pristine white snow.

They started down the slope. Royce lifted his face to the cool air and took several deep breaths. “It’s good to be alive.”

“It is at that.” Stevie walked a few more steps, then the words exploded from him. “What the hell is going on?”

“I don’t know.” Royce admitted. “I think one of us is hunting either all of us or one or two of us.”

“Shit.” Stevie glared at him. “You think one of us is killing people in our group?”

“I think so. I can’t imagine a stranger drugging our wine. It just doesn’t fit.”

“But anyone could have had access, it’s not like we leave a guard on watch.”

“True, but they’d have to know where the wine was and who’d be drinking it.”

“Or they didn’t care. Maybe they were after the women. One went missing and one is injured.”

“Maybe.” Royce pondered that. “But why?”

“The oldest reason in the world maybe.”

“Sex? Rape? I didn’t see any evidence of a sexual attack on Kathleen.” Royce came to a dead stop. “Shit. What about George? He doesn’t know yet? What if he’s in that damn cave?”

“I saw them both together earlier. They were heading to the peak.” Stevie said, staring up the hillside and the fading light.

Royce stopped and stared. “He left Kathleen to go home on her own? I find that hard to believe.”

“She wasn’t with him there. And he wouldn’t have let her leave alone. She must have come with someone from our group. Someone George trusted. There’s no way he would let her go off alone otherwise.” Stevie frowned. “Are you thinking that the person she came back to the cabin with is the one that attacked her?”

“I don’t know what else to think,” Royce admitted. “I doubt that she went in there on her own. She hated dark spaces. She wanted to go home yesterday. But George wanted to stay.”

“Shit.” Stevie groaned. “And if she doesn’t wake up, there’s no way to know why she came here.”

“George might know. Maybe?”

“And maybe not. In which case there is no way to know who in our group is doing this, allowing him to sit among us.”

“I know. Interesting dilemma, isn’t it.”

“No, it’s bloody awful.”

*

He could only
hope Kathleen died instead of waking up. Damn bitch. Damn interfering bitch. Now what the hell was he to do?

Part of him knew he needed to just pack in his plan this time around and play it safe. Just walk away. And yet…he couldn’t quite do that.

He’d waited years for this. And after this week, he had no idea when he’d get such a chance again.

It was risky.

Shitty odds.

But he couldn’t let it pass by.

He’d just have to figure out a way to make this work.

S
tacy climbed off
the snowmobile and thanked the rescue team.

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?”

“I’m fine now that I’m back here safe and sound,” she said with a reassuring smile. “If there’s no one here, I’ll get the fire going and get a meal together. Thank you so much for coming to the aid of my friend.”

“Glad we got to her on time.”

“Me too,” she said, heartfelt relief in her voice. With a wave, the two snowmobiles took off.

She watched them go. The chill she’d never quite got rid of flared into icy awareness again. She turned to look up the hillside, delighted to see that both Stevie and Royce were in sight. She waved up at them and smiled when they both waved back, then she headed inside. The cabin was empty.

And cold.

She’d had enough of being cold. The heater stove had been turned down, but there were still embers. She opened it up and had a roaring fire in no time. It immediately chased the chill from the cabin, adding cheery comfort. She filled the coffeepot and put it on the stove to warm up. Then she wandered into the kitchen to see what food was left to put a meal together. They’d lost track of the menu days ago and with the odd schedule and problems, there was bits and pieces of different food items left.

There were big kielbasa sausages that fired her culinary imagination, and she quickly started a Hungarian stew. With lots of peppers, onions, and tomatoes, she could make this happen in time for dinner. There was a part package of uncooked pasta to use up as well.

Working and happy to be doing so, she chopped, diced, and stirred the basics together. When she heard the men at the outside door, she started in on the smoked sausages. They’d add a major boost to the dish. Actually, they were an integral part. There were a few potatoes sitting off to the side. She had to wonder if they were needed for breakfast or if she could add them as substance to the stew. Making an executive decision, she snatched them up.

“Something smells good, Stacy,” Royce said, coming into the kitchen.

“Food,” Stevie cried out. “Is that cooked?” He reached out and nicked a chunk of sausage and chewed on it before she had a chance to answer.

“These are smoked.” She reached for another one to cut up and found those pieces disappearing from her board faster than she could cut. She held up her knife in a mocking, threatening motion. “Go check on the coffee,” she snapped lightly. “And let me get this on to cook.” “The others should be here soon.” Royce sat at the table beside her. “Can I help?”

“No, I’ve got this,” she said, happy to be doing something. “It just needs to simmer for an hour if we can.”

“An hour is likely fine,” Royce said. “Everyone will have coffee when they get here. They might need a snack though.”

She pointed to the box of food off to the side. “Check in there. There are likely to be chips still, maybe bagels that could be toasted. Possibly some crackers and cheese.”

He hopped up and started digging through the box. He pulled out everything that appealed to him.

“If you open packages and set out the food onto platters, then we can hand them out when everyone gets in.”

He nodded. She could feel his gaze on her, but she kept her head down and on her work.

She didn’t want to talk about what was going on. The danger they were all in. She knew there was a killer amongst them. Maybe Kathleen would survive, but maybe she wouldn’t. She had to consider that her attacker hadn’t expected her to. At the very least, he would not be pleased to find out that Kathleen had been found.

Stacy couldn’t deal with it all at the moment. She was focusing on what she could do right now. The rest was too much.

“Stacy?”

The warm caring concern in Royce’s voice made her stop, and she realized she’d taken the first pepper and had basically diced it into nothing.

She bowed her head. “I want to go home.”

Warm hands slid around her shoulders and tugged her backwards. She could feel the tears burning in the back of her eyes.

“Understood,” he said against her ear.

And damn if that didn’t start the tears flowing. “And,” she said, her voice choked up as she fought the emotion clogging her throat and heart, “I know that I came to face the mountain, the loss of my friends, my fears, grief, you, any other number of issues, but I don’t think I want to come back.
Ever
.”

He tightened his arms around her. She dropped the knife and sausage she’d been working on, turned into his arms, and let a damn hiccup escape.

God, she was tired. She didn’t know what the hell was going on here, but it was scary and deadly. When would this stop? And would it stop before anyone else got hurt?

She didn’t want that to be Royce. Or anyone else she knew.

It hurt to consider one of the people she’d known for years was doing this.

And made her wonder just how well she knew any of them.

There was a heavy pounding on the cabin door. Royce released her. “I’ll get it.”

She brushed her eyes and turned back to finishing what she was doing. All the pieces could join the pot on the stove and just simmer.

She heard voices in the living room as she dumped in the last of the ingredients. She grabbed a cloth to clean up, then poured two cups of coffee and carried them out to see who was there.

She stopped in the doorway.

It was the police. One cop stationed himself at the doorway and watched the proceedings. The second cop was the same man she’d spoken to earlier. He looked over at her. The serious look in his eyes had her nerves jangling. “Do you have news about Kathleen?” Her lips trembled. In a faint voice, she asked, “Is she dead?”

The cop shook his head. “She’s still fighting. They took her to Vancouver General. Your other friend is there, too.”

“Oh thank God,” Stacy walked forward and handed the coffee to Royce and Stevie. She asked the two policemen if they wanted some, and both shook their heads. She rushed back into the kitchen to get herself a cup.

Royce patted the couch beside him for her to sit.

“Now. Please tell us how you happened to find her.”

“There’s so little to tell, it’s scary,” Stacy said. “I’m going to have nightmares for years worrying about the ‘what ifs.’”

“Explain,” the cop asked, his gaze intent.

She sighed. She rubbed her forehead as she tried to figure out how to explain. “I’m…” and she stopped.

Royce reached out a hand and squeezed hers.

“Okay, let’s go back a bit.” She glanced over at Stevie and Royce, saw the compassion in their faces, and took a deep breath.

“Three years ago, I came here with two best friends and many others. A group similar to the one here today. We were all excellent boarders and skiers, young and stupid.”

“Stupid?”

Of course he picked up on that word. “The other two were more reckless, had little respect for rules, and felt that they could do what they wanted if it wasn’t going to affect anyone else.”

God, this was hard. She hated to say anything negative about the dead, but dammit, that’s what they’d been like. She swallowed a sip of coffee. “They wanted me to go on the backside of Gopher Run one morning and I said hell no. The avalanche risk was high, it was out of bounds, and I’m a much more cautious skier. I talked them out of it. I hadn’t been feeling all that great and wanted to cut the afternoon short.” She stared at the cop but saw instead the young adventurous faces of her friends. “I left.”

And she saw the understanding in the cop’s face. “I went into the village and did a bit of shopping then thought maybe I’d meet up with them again. I went up the lift to mid-station and texted the girls to meet me. We met up, talked for a few moments, then my brother and his friends joined us. My brother took off downhill and I went to follow thinking the girls were behind me. They weren’t.”

She gripped her cup, the whites of her knuckles showing. But all she could see was the white from that day. “I turned back to find them…”

She faltered. Stevie came and sat down beside her and held her other hand. She gave him a grateful smile and returned to her story. “I crested over the top of the mountain, and by that time I knew where they were. I was on top, looking down, and I could see them way below having a wonderful time.” She smiled wistfully. Then her smile fell away and she gazed at the man waiting, memories haunting her. “Then an avalanche started.”

She stopped and swallowed. “I screamed at them. But of course they couldn’t hear me.” She turned to stare at the cabin walls. The same cabin they’d stayed at that holiday. A cabin she’d sworn never to return to. “It hit them hard. They were picked up and swallowed like tiny krill eaten by a blue whale.” She sighed and fell silent a moment. “The avalanche went over a cliff and just kept going. Their bodies were never recovered.”

There was an odd silence as the men digested that. Heavy in the air was the hanging question of how anything that happened a few years ago connected to the series of bizarre events now.