Page 2 of Their Frozen Bones

Kane chuckled. “I wouldn’t miss it.” He headed for the door.

TWO

The last couple of weeks had been a stressful time for Wolfe. The workload as medical examiner had taken him all over Montana and had excluded him from a visit to Stockholm with his fiancée, forensic anthropologist Norrell Larson, to meet her family. Norrell’s fifteen-hour-plus trip with the stopovers along the way would have been exhausting. It would be the same for his daughter, Julie. Her flight from Dallas had arrived in Helena late last evening and she’d stayed in town for the night before catching a turboprop aircraft from Helena to Black Rock Falls earlier this morning. It was a short flight, and she should be landing soon. The weather had been closing in for the last few hours, and flights canceled every few minutes. According to the local weather reports, a blizzard was hitting the mountain range, putting visibility down to zero. Had the small turboprop made it through? Anxiously waiting for both women to land was wearing at his nerves. He stared across the snow-covered tarmac as the jet aircrafts landed. When the board lit up that Norrell’s flight from Salt Lake City had landed, he headed for the arrivals gate.

Checking his watch again, and staring at the arrivals board, a knot formed in his stomach. Julie’s flight was late. He’d flown his chopper in bad weather and understood the problems. Witha small aircraft a pilot would rather set the plane down in a field than risk flying over a mountain range in a blizzard. He’d call air traffic control the moment Norrell arrived for more information. Moments later, Norrell arrived pushing a cart loaded with baggage. His heart missed a beat at the sight of her angelic face. How a young woman like her wanted a forty-two-year-old man like him he’d never understand, but he thanked God every time he laid eyes on her. He held out his arms and she left her baggage cart and ran to him. He swung her around and kissed her. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too.” Norrell held up her gloved hand. “Pinky-finger swear we’ll never go on vacations alone again.”

Filled with emotion, Wolfe lifted his hand and linked her finger. “I swear.” He hugged her close. “I’m waiting for Julie’s plane to land. It’s overdue. Her arrival time was before yours and she’s only coming from Helena.”

“We were getting updates on the blizzard all the way here.” Norrell frowned. “It’s bad and it’s going to swamp Black Rock Falls within the next hour or so. She might have got through before it hit the mountains. What time did she leave?”

Wolfe checked his watch. “A little over two hours ago. The flight usually takes about forty minutes, add on a little more for takeoff. She should have landed by now. We’ll go and stow your bags in the back of my truck. Maybe she will have landed by then.”

As they walked out to the parking lot, snow chilled his face. He glanced toward the mountains, but before him was a sheet of white. Visibility was so bad he wouldn’t even think of flying a chopper in these conditions. He pushed the bags into the back of his truck and then took Norrell’s hand and ran back across the slippery blacktop to the airport waiting room. He checked the arrivals board again and then pulled out his phone. Being a chopper pilot had its advantages as he had plenty of contactsat the airport. He made a call to the air traffic control office. “Hey, it’s Shane Wolfe. What can you tell me about a flight from Helena this morning? Can you get me an estimated time of arrival from the pilot? It’s very late and my daughter is on board.” He gave the flight number and waited. He could hear voices in the background.

“Yeah, we’ve been trying to reach that flight for ten minutes. The last call we had was for a weather report. The pilot could see the storm coming. Since then, no communication. No Mayday call. He could have ditched the plane in a field and the antenna is frozen. There could be a valid reason why he’s lost communication. Right now, we have no contact. The blizzard is scattering the signal, but we’ll be able to pinpoint the aircraft using other techniques. We’ll be notifying the local sheriff’s departments all through the mountain ranges to be on the lookout for the aircraft.”The man sighed.“Right now, all we can do is wait for the storm to pass.”

Dread dropped over Wolfe in an icy shroud. “Don’t sugarcoat it for me. The plane is down, isn’t it? If you’ve lost contact and can’t reach it, it’s down. The pilot would have followed protocol if he’d ditched it. He’d have sent out a Mayday and given his last coordinates. Stop wasting time and get people out looking for it. Give me its last position and I’ll coordinate something from here.” He pulled a notebook from his pocket and jotted down the numbers. “Call me if you have any news.” He turned to Norrell. “They’re not admitting it yet, but I believe Julie’s plane went down over the Black Rock mountain range.” He dragged in a shuddering breath and rubbed both hands down his face. “My baby girl is out there all alone.”

THREE

The Black Rock Falls Sheriff’s Department was on a skeleton crew this weekend. Maggie the receptionist insisted on coming into the office whenever it was open, but either one of Jenna’s deputies would be on duty over the weekend. Both had decided to do half-day shifts on Saturday, and on Sunday the office would be closed and anyone who needed assistance would call 911. Deputy Zac Rio, a gold shield detective out of LA, was in the office this morning. He’d moved to Black Rock Falls with his two siblings to give them a better life and to keep them out of trouble. In the three years he’d been working for Jenna, he’d turned their lives around. Rio had a retentive memory, which made him super useful at crime scenes as his mind documented every aspect of the scene.

Nothing was better than Kane’s pancakes, crispy bacon, and maple syrup for breakfast. Once her stomach had settled, Jenna had a ferocious appetite. She poured syrup over her pancakes and was nibbling at the bacon when Kane’s phone chimed. She raised an eyebrow at him as he lifted it and mouthed the wordWolfe. It was unusual for him to call them this early in the morning, especially on one of their days off.

“Hey, morning, Shane. What’s up?”

“Julie’s plane has gone down over the Black Rock mountain range.”Wolfe sounded frantic.“In case you haven’t heard the weather report this morning, we have a blizzard heading our way. We need to be organizing search parties ASAP.”

Horrified by the news, Jenna stared at Kane. Her heart twisted at the thought of Julie dying in a plane crash somewhere in the mountains. She pressed a hand to her mouth to hide her anxiety from her son. Julie was like her little sister. The thought of her out there alone cut deep. It couldn’t be true, could it?

“Oh, sweet Jesus. Leave it to me, Shane. I’ll get everyone organized. Give me the last coordinates and I’ll contact search and rescue.” Kane frowned. “Not that they’ll be able to do anything until the blizzard blows through. The moment we get visibility, we’ll get the choppers up. I’ll contact Carter and Styles, but their coming here to assist will be contingent on the weather, as you well know.”

“I know how bad it is, Dave, I feel useless not getting out there right now to search but it would be certain death by air.”Wolfe moaned like an injured animal.“There is one hope. If they ditched in the lowlands, the wireless could be blocked. You’ll need to get out a media release so we have people on the ground looking out for the aircraft. Someone might have seen it crash or heard something in their area. Make sure they ask anyone with a snowmobile to assist in the search. I’ll contact the snowmobiles enthusiast group in town and ask them for their assistance as well.”

“All those planes carry satellite navigation. The control tower at the airport should be able to coordinate the signals and give us a better idea of the location.” Kane rubbed the back of his neck and stared at Jenna, his face holding an expression of deep concern. “I’ll have everyone on standby once they give us the coordinates.”

“You know any survivors won’t last long out there in this weather.”The pain in Wolfe’s voice was palpable.“Help me find her, Dave. I can’t do it alone.”

“You have my word.” Kane stared at Jenna, who went straight for her phone to call Rio. “Jenna is arranging the media report now. Hang in there, Shane. We’ve got this.” He sat down hard in the chair.

“Okay. We need to work out a strategy. Bring Tauri here. He’ll keep Anna company, and if he needs to sleep over, he’ll be safe here with my housekeeper.”

“Okay. We’ll see you soon.” Kane disconnected.

“What’s wrong, Daddy?” Tauri licked sticky fingers.

“Auntie Julie is lost in the mountains. We’ll need to go and look for her.” Kane ruffled his son’s hair. “We could take you to Nanny Raya’s or would you prefer to play with Anna today?”

Anna Wolfe was the youngest in the Wolfe family of three girls, the eldest being Emily, a medical examiner in training. Jenna waited for Rio to pick up and explained what she needed before turning to Tauri. In situations like this, they preferred to keep details away from their son. She smiled at him. “What’s it to be? If we’re held up, it might be a sleepover. Would you like that?”

“Yes, I like Anna and she’ll be sad her sister is missing but you should call Uncle Atohi. If Julie is missing in the mountains, he’ll find her.” Tauri nibbled on a strip of bacon.

“I need to make a few calls.” Kane stood and left the room, his thumb moving over his phone.

Atohi Blackhawk, a Native American tracker and now very much part of their family, had been the guardian of Tauri and, as a close friend, had been the one who’d brought her and Kane together with him. Their connection had been instant, and they’d made a long and arduous application for adoption. Tauri had officially become Tauri Kane over six months ago, andeveryone had told her the moment she’d stopped worrying about becoming pregnant it would happen. Nothing had surprised and delighted them more than to discover Jenna had at last conceived. She loved Tauri with all her heart and welcomed another addition to their family with open arms. Since becoming a mother, her emotions had changed. Now she understood how losing a child would break a person’s heart. Now she appreciated just how much Kane had suffered losing his wife and child. During a recent case, she had come too close to losing her husband and son, and her heart ached for the pain Wolfe must be suffering. Nothing could be worse than being helpless to do anything. Unless the blizzard broke, there wasn’t a hope anyone could reach the aircraft before the survivors froze to death. She understood the seriousness of the situation and so did Wolfe.

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