Chilled by Death (34 page)

Her smile was crooked when she answered that unspoken question. “So you see, the reason that I went in there is because I’m obsessed. I see women’s faces everywhere on this mountain. I saw a spectacular series of women’s faces on the frozen waterfall we were at the other day and I took a lot of pictures of it.” She felt more than saw Royce stand up and return with her camera.

“I hated to come back here again, but at the same time I can’t get rid of the feeling that I might be able to find my friends and bring them home.” Her voice faltered. “I feel compelled to search everywhere, under every rock, inside every hollow – even though I know I’m nowhere near where they fell, I can’t let go of that little bit of hope.”

“You were very close, I presume?” the cop asked.

She nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes. “Very. It was always the three of us. We were a matched set. Just very different personalities. Janice was the daredevil and I was the opposite while Francine was in the middle, but she could be persuaded to go either way.”

She paused, and the room was silent, as if they were all waiting for her to say more. When she spoke again, her voice cracked. “I’ve been lost since.”

“Here are the images she saw on the waterfall.” Royce said, holding out the camera. Everyone crowded around. There were a few exclamations at the beauty in the ice.

“Wow.”

The second cop stepped forward. “I know you. You’re the photographer who photographs the faces of Mother Nature.”

Stacy nodded. “Yes, that’s me. Now you know why faces.”

He nodded, staring at the images. The cop clicked through them until Royce said, “Stop.” He pointed at the image. “This is the one that had us going back to look.”

In the image was an eerie blackness in the ice, as if a cave was behind it.

“Then she fell in the crevasse yesterday and thought she’d seen something more.” He looked over at Stacy for confirmation, then continued, “After we saw what appeared to be a man jump into the hole, we went back and found that opening.”

“Did you know that it opened up, Stacy?” the cop asked.

“The geographical layout said it
could
connect to the cave behind the waterfall, and once I saw that there was a dark shadow at the end of the pit I’d fallen from, I couldn’t get it out of my mind.” She shrugged. “I insisted on going back.”

“Damn good thing,” the cop said. “Kathleen would be dead by now if you hadn’t.”

She knew that. “But why was she there in the first place?”

Royce piped up, “And how much does this have to do with the drugged wine and Yvonne?”

As the second cop returned to his position at the wall, the other cop looked from one to the other. “They have to be connected. There’s too much going on with the ten of you for it not to be connected.”

“Eight,” Stacy corrected sadly. “There are only eight of us here now.”

*

Royce listened to
Stacy and her teary explanation. He had known she’d been badly affected by the loss of her friends, but he hadn’t
really
known. How could he? She hadn’t shared very much with him. Then again, he sat back thinking, he’d just come out of a short-term relationship with Janice. And likely Janice had told Stacy. He should have, too. No wonder she hadn’t been able to see him. Go out with him. Every time she’d looked at him, she would’ve felt the loss of her friends all over again.

He damned himself for that weekend. He’d often wondered why bright, vivacious, man-eater Janice had come onto him at that time. Just after he’d asked Stacy out and had been laughingly told off as not being serious. Only he had been serious. And the rejection hadn’t been easy. Accepting Janice’s offer had been easier. It was an attitude of needing to be wanted after too many rejections that had driven down his self-esteem. His pattern. He’d only realized after the fateful weekend that to make something long-lasting with Stacy, he’d have to change. They’d both taken years to get to this point. And now it was all rearing its ugly head yet again.

He could only hope she wouldn’t push him away. He squeezed her hand, unable to break contact with her just in case.

The first cop was speaking in a quiet voice, “So you saw someone up there and he disappeared into the same crevasse that you fell into?”

“As far as I could see.”

She looked up at Royce and he nodded. “I saw him too.”

“Him? For sure? Not Kathleen?”

“Oh.” Stacy shook her head. “No, it wasn’t Kathleen I saw up there. At least, I don’t think so.”

The cop nodded and wrote down a few more notes. “What are everyone’s plans at the moment?”

“I’d like to go home,” Stacy said. “But given the time of day, the weather, that won’t likely be until morning, and that was our original plan.” And she was worried about George. Very worried. Usually he was with Kathleen.

“There is a storm coming in tonight so if you are leaving, you need to leave now, but not before we have all your contact information.”

“We can’t leave now. Half our group isn’t back yet.” Royce checked his watch. “They should be soon though.”

Stevie’s cell phone went off at that point. “That’s George. He and Geoffrey are on the way back.”

“No one has told him about Kathleen, have they?” Stacy asked. “He’s going to want to leave immediately to be at her side.”

“If they don’t get back soon…” Royce said. “He may not be able to.”

“Speaking of which,” the cop said, “we’re heading back to the station. If you leave, let us know who and when so we can keep track of you. And please stick together. Let’s have no one else go missing.”

Royce stood. “We’ll let you know what we decide.”

The cop nodded and walked to his partner’s side at the door. He turned back once he reached the doorway and gave them a warning look. “Stay safe.”

It was a grim warning in light of what was going on. But a sensible one. Royce shook his hand. “Are you sure it’s safe for us to stay here?”

The cop stared at him. “I’m not sure it’s safe for any of you anywhere. If you split up and head off to separate homes, you won’t know who’s been attacked, who’s gone missing, or who is doing these attacks. If you stay here together, maybe someone will show their hand.”

And with that, they left.

S
tacy sat in
front of the fire, using the mug to warm her cold hands. The conversation ranged from anger to disbelief. And her brother had yet to make it back. He’d texted several times to say they were coming. The weather had shifted and high winds were making their trip slow.

She’d held back telling him anything. She wanted him back here safe and sound. Royce had called the hospital to find that Kathleen had made it there safely and they were slowly raising her body temperature and were optimistic about her chances. There was no change in Yvonne’s condition.

For Stacy, that wasn’t good enough. She knew the worst would be telling her brother what happened. She stood up and stirred the stew, then added the prepped potatoes and some more seasoning. Somehow the dish had grown large enough to feed a dozen so she hoped the men were all hungry. She was anything but.

Of course, her stomach was still nursing the caffeine she’d poured down to keep her going.

Royce sat down on the couch and waited for her to join him.

“Are you okay to stay the night?”

She nodded. “I am.” She glanced over at him. “As long as I’m not sleeping alone.”

“Not going to happen.” He slid an arm around her shoulders. “We need to keep an eye on everyone tonight.”

“In more ways than one,” she added in a low voice. He hugged her gently.

Outside, she heard noises over the wind. “Hopefully that’s George and Geoffrey.”

“I’ll go see.” Royce stood, handed her his coffee, and stepped out to the boot room area. She could hear the raised voices as the men came in. Relief flooded her heart. Her brother was home safe. She felt so sorry for him for what she knew was to come.

She waited, her body tense. The loud voices shut off to almost complete silence followed by yelling like she hadn’t heard before. Then a hard bounce as if her brother had picked Royce up and slammed him up against a wall. Her brother was quite capable of that. And given the circumstances, Royce would likely take it as well.

There was more shouting and more pounding that seemed to make the whole cabin shake.

When the silence hit again, she got up and walked over. Her brother sat on the bench, his head bowed and his shoulders shaking. Mark and Kevin stood there, looking at the ground, shaking their heads in disbelief. Geoffrey sat in stunned silence.

She didn’t hesitate. She walked up to him and wrapped her arms around her brother. Immediately, he buried his head against her and held her tight.

She held on until the storm passed. When he was calmer, she sat down beside him and gave him the update she’d gotten from the hospital.

“She’s going to pull through, George.”

He nodded, his face in his hands. When he looked up at her, she could see the ravaged soul of a guilty conscience in the back.

She reached out and grabbed his hand. “Tell me.”

“She wanted to go home today. Get away from here. I wanted to stay one more day. Enjoy the mountain. Make something good to take away.”

“I wanted to go too but at the same time, I didn’t need more bad memories to overcome the good,” Stacy said, “So I stayed for the same reason you did.”

“Except she’d not have been hurt if we’d left,” he said bitterly. “If I’d listened to her, she’d – we’d be safe at home and thankful to be there.”

“And now she’s safe in the hospital with staff who know what they are doing.”

He gazed at her sorrowfully. “Did she say anything?”

Stacy shook her head. “No. Not that I could hear.”

She looked over at Royce, who shook his head as well. “Come in, get warm and grab some coffee. Dinner is almost ready. We can discuss what to do then.”

George let Stacy lead him into the other room where everyone watched his slow, unsteady steps. Kathleen’s attack had hit him at a level she’d never seen before. And she didn’t want to see it ever again.

The blow was too much even for a strong man.

She served him coffee before going back to the kitchen to stir the pot simmering away. Then she realized something else. She turned and faced the others. Where was Christine?

“It smells good, Stacy,” Royce said.

“Who cares about food?” Kevin said. “I just want to go home.” He held up his phone. “I can’t raise Christine on the phone. She has friends here, but she should have checked in by now.”

“Oh no. Not again.” Stacy said, “I was just going to ask where she was.”

Kevin shrugged. “But I don’t know that it is a problem. Her phone could have just died. She was really upset at what was going on. Said it was bad voodoo or something and planned to find another place to stay. I didn’t say anything to you guys, figured you’d be pissed.”

“But we’d understand,” Stacy said. “I sure do.”

“I think that goes for most of us,” Royce said. “We’ll have to pack and clean up tonight. Leave in the morning and if anyone wants to put in a few runs tomorrow, we can discuss it then.”

“I don’t,” George snapped. “Maybe never again.”

Stacy felt the same way, but she wasn’t about to join this discussion. She had more reason to never want to return than anyone. But for some reason, she wasn’t having the same reaction the others were.

Odd. Well, not really. She knew why. It had come up when she’d been talking to the cop. And the
what ifs
plagued her. “For the moment, I presume we can assume she’s found some place to stay. Keep trying to reach her and get confirmation.”

Kevin nodded. “Will do.”

“What are the police going to do about that hazard?” Stevie asked.

“Good point,” Kevin leaned forward.

“What can they do?” Mark asked. “The area is riddled with them.”

“I think they are looking to check it out early tomorrow if they haven’t already,” Stacy said. “We gave them all the information we knew about it today.”

Mark nodded. “Interesting.”

“I did tell them that I took a look around but didn’t see anything or anyone else up there.” Royce lifted his coffee cup and took a sip. “I don’t think that space went anywhere.”