Page 13 of Their Frozen Bones

“I have your spare coat and the foil blankets.” Jenna ran toward Wolfe. “Where are you hurt?”

“I’ll know more when I thaw out. Help me remove the coat. It’s ripped to shreds.” Wolfe moved one gray eye toward Kane; the other was stuck shut with blood. “I’ll put on the dry one and we can place the old one over the top. It’s dry inside and will keep in the heat. The foil blankets will help.” He took a deep breath and let it out on a groan. “I’m okay, no broken ribs. Ifigure I’ve cut my head with the blood and all but it’s frozen right now.”

“Blackhawk says there’s a Forest Service cabin alongside the river. It’s empty with no signs of life, so he moved on, but I told him to go back and light a fire.” Jenna had driven Kane’s snowmobile as close as possible to where they’d found Wolfe. “Get into the trailer and we’ll cover you with blankets. Have a hot drink and then we’ll head for the cabin and get you warm.” She pulled out a Thermos and nodded at Kane and Rio, who supported him under each arm. “In our trailer not with the corpse.” She glared at Rio, who smothered a grin.

Kane helped Wolfe remove his jacket and had his dry one on in a few seconds. He instructed Rowley to remove the cover. They lifted him into the back of the trailer and then reattached the top. Emily went to crawl in beside her father, and he patted her cheek and insisted she drive his snowmobile. It wasn’t too difficult to see that Wolfe didn’t appreciate anyone making a fuss. Kane bent his head to peer inside. “You look like a foil-wrapped potato ready for the oven. How are you feeling?” He sighed. “It’s not going to be a smooth ride. You sure you’ll be okay?”

“The thawing out will hurt and then the wound will bleed.” Wolfe shrugged. “I look worse than I feel.” He handed Kane a cup. “Best we keep moving. The temperature is dropping and the wind has picked up again, I figure another blizzard is coming. We need to get off this mountain ASAP.”

Kane pushed the cup back onto the top of the Thermos and stored it away. “We will as soon as you’re ready to travel. If we go now, you’ll die of hypothermia before we get out of the forest. I’ll drive as fast as I can, just hold on tight.” He frowned. “One thing, why didn’t you phone me and tell me where you were?”

“I couldn’t risk falling off the tree.” Wolfe met his gaze. “I knew you’d find me. You never give up or leave a man behind,dead or alive.” He waved him away. “Get moving, before we all freeze to death.”

Following Blackhawk’s disappearing tracks troubled Kane until he came to a fork in the trail and discovered that Blackhawk had marked the way with crime scene tape. The snowscape was blinding and everything in the forest appeared identical. In this weather, it would be easy to get turned around and be wandering hopelessly lost for a long time without the GPS on his phone. As they drove through the forest, huge wedges of snow dropped down from the vibration of the snowmobiles. The forest for as far as the eye could see was deserted—not one species of wildlife had ventured out after the avalanche. He took another fork and the trail opened up to a small clearing beside a frozen river. The cabin looked like something out of a horror movie. It leaned to one side and there were holes in the porch floor. All around thick icicles hung like huge daggers over two feet long. Just one breaking off could do a lot of damage to someone walking by.

He parked beside the snowmobiles belonging to Blackhawk’s team and in a few seconds the others all came in behind him. With care, Kane, with Rio’s help, lifted Wolfe out of the back of the trailer and carried him into the cabin. A wave of warmth hit him, and Blackhawk grinned and dropped another log on the fire. Kane lowered Wolfe onto a battered sofa beside the hearth. “Thanks, you’re a lifesaver.”

“How bad?” Blackhawk frowned at Wolfe. “Do you have internal injuries?”

“I’m going to be fine.” Wolfe leaned back in the chair with exhaustion written all over his bloodstained face. “Any sign of Julie?”

“No, we found nothing, not one trace of anyone else moving through the forest.” Blackhawk frowned. “The snow is falling so fast it is covering all trace of her. All we can do is to keepsearching, but I don’t know how long we can get through the drifts; they are six feet high in some places.”

The door opened and Rowley came in carrying supplies. Emily had Wolfe’s medical kit and the moment she entered the cabin she ran to Wolfe’s side. Tears streamed from her eyes and ran down her cheeks. As she was the only other person with medical experience, Kane needed her to remain calm. “What do you need, Em?”

“I have everything I need in the medical kit.” Emily dragged a small packet of tissues from her pocket and mopped at her face. She went about examining Wolfe’s head. “I can’t feel or see any injuries on the back of your skull, Dad, but that cut on your forehead will need sutures.” She paused as if not sure what to do. “Any other injuries?”

“I’m bruised all over but I’m sure nothing’s broken. I can breathe better here in the warm.” Wolfe met her gaze. “The blood in my eye is a problem. We’ll need to deal with the cut ASAP.”

“I’ve only stitched cadavers.” Emily took a shuddering breath. “You’ll need to talk me through administering the local anesthetic.”

“Sure.” Wolfe smiled at her. “You know how to stitch a wound. You’ve done it a hundred times in the lab. This is no different, apart from I’ll bleed some, but that’s okay.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.” Emily’s face paled as she stared at him.

“You won’t and we’ll laugh about this when you’ve completed your residency at the hospital. You’ll be stitching up people all day.” Wolfe patted her arm. “Grab one of the suture kits. Clean the wound and as much blood as you can from my face. Use the saline to clean the blood from my eye and the pink antiseptic for the wound. Remove any debris with the plastic tweezers. Use the two-percent lidocaine and inject a small amount throughthe wound and into the superficial fascia. Then stitch it up.” He squeezed her arm. “You’ll do just fine.”

Kane turned and went to grab bags from Jenna. “You’re frozen. Get closer to the fire.”

“I’m good. We need to get the stove going. It will add heat and we can cook and refill the Thermoses for the ride home.” Jenna looked at Blackhawk. “We have coffee and hot chocolate, canned goods, and utensils in Kane’s trailer. If you can light the stove, we can all have a hot meal.”

“That sounds like a plan.” Blackhawk indicated to his friends and they moved around the cabin. “We’ll hunt down some blankets as well, these cabins usually have the essentials.”

“I’ll grab the supplies.” Rowley headed for the door.

“I’ll help.” Rio followed after him.

“You find something for us all to eat and I’ll help Emily clean up Shane.” Jenna lowered her voice to just above a whisper and leaned into Kane. “She’s really upset. She was convinced we’d find Julie today and now this. To her, Wolfe is indestructible. She is shattered seeing him injured.”

Kane nodded. “She’ll drop into professional mode soon. It’s her dad. She’s going to be upset. That’s normal.” He glanced at his watch. “We have two hours at the very most before we must return home. The snow will soon block our way to the fire road. As it is, we’ll likely be digging out our vehicles.” He pulled her close. “If it were possible to remain here until we found Julie, I’d never give up searching, but the truth is we’ll die without shelter and food. We have no choice but to leave and come back when we can. As we’ve found no trace of her, we must consider that she’s safe in someone’s cabin and they’re like us, unable to move around. Atohi has come across avalanches blocking the regular trails. I figure Julie would have gotten through before they slipped. My guess is she’s where we can’t get to her just now.Once it stops snowing, we’ll get choppers up searching. Right now, leaving while we can is our only option.”

“I don’t like it but I understand.” Jenna’s eyes held a deep sorrow. “Julie is very sensible. If she could hole up somewhere safe, she would, and I can’t imagine her expecting everyone to risk their lives trying to get to her.” She checked her watch. “Okay, let’s get warm and fed and then head home. We’ll call Carter. The moment the weather clears, I want him out there alongside search and rescue. We’ll go with him. I’m going to find her. I’ll never give up.”

SIXTEEN

MONDAY

Julie woke muddle-headed in the dark again and came to the conclusion that the medication that Raven had given to her was stronger than she imagined. If she lay still in bed, her leg pain was tolerable, but the moment she tried to stand up it hurt so bad it brought tears to her eyes. She needed to go to the bathroom and, sliding carefully to the edge of the bed, lowered her foot to the floor slowly. Searing pain shot up to her knee and she gasped and swayed with dizziness. Raven had made her a pair of crutches. Standing on one leg she reached for them and, slipping one under each arm, made her way to the bathroom. As she washed her hands, she noticed the door to Raven’s bedroom stood slightly ajar as if he’d forgotten to close it properly. Curiosity got the better of her and she opened it slowly and peered into his bedroom. The bathroom light spilled over the empty bed. She limped inside and the smell of men’s cologne drifted toward her. A bottle stood on the nightstand and she couldn’t resist going to sniff it. A strange feeling crept over her. Why did a man living alone in the forest use cologne? Had a woman lived here before? If so, where was she now? Or did he use his good looks to lure women to his cabin and then murder them?

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