Page 38 of Cold as Hell

And as time goes by, we become increasingly negligent if we don’t start looking at other answers—namely that she might have gotten turned around during that whiteout. Multiple people have mentioned how bad it was, and Dalton can confirm. Inretrospect, we probably should have conducted a door-to-door search last night and been sure everyone made it home.

We need to institute a buddy system for storms. When one hits, you must check on your neighbor and make sure they got in okay. These are all things we should have been doing even in Rockton, and maybe it’s a miracle that we haven’t lost anyone before, but we haven’t even had a close call, so it hasn’t occurred to us. Until now.

We find Anders joining the line to grab food. I hate pulling him out of it, but the truth is that we don’t need to wait in line—we only do it because cutting to the front is awkward.

“We have to start looking for Lynn,” I say as we take Anders to the same spot where we’d spoken to Thierry.

“Shit.”

“At this point. we don’t even know who saw her last,” I say.

“It wasn’t Thierry,” Dalton says. “And it sure as hell wasn’t her husband.”

“We have a report that Thierry was seen escorting her,” I say. “But he says he didn’t.”

Anders looks back toward town. “Who made the report?”

“Grant says someone hailed him,” I say. “Male. That’s all he knows. Also, Thierry says he spoke to you and Brian while you were closing external shutters.”

Anders nods. “He offered to help, but we were finishing up.”

“Right now, though, straightening all that out is secondary,” Dalton says. “Our main concern is that we have a missing resident.” He looks into the darkening sky. “And a storm that’s going to hit at any moment.”

“Organize a search team?” Anders says.

“Militia only for now. Everyone in pairs. No one goes more than fifty feet from town. Get their asses back as soon as that snow hits.”

Anders gives a humorless smile. “Or we’ll be looking for multiple missing people.”

“Exactly.”

“I presume you’re taking the pup out?”

“Yep.”

Anders gives a quick glance my way.

“Casey will be with me for as long as we can stay out,” Dalton says. “I’m not even going to try to make her stay behind. Storm works best with her, and we need to know we didourbest to find Lynn.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Dalton doesn’t need to worry about me being out here for long. The storm is coming fast. The sky seems to darken with every step we take, and the wind whips around us even once we’re in the forest.

I can’t use the sled now. This is work, for us and for Storm. I’ve set my watch timer for forty-five minutes, in hopes I can get back not long after my allotted hour.

Earlier, I’d retrieved a scent marker for Storm. She knows who she’s looking for. But there’s no real chance of finding a trail heading into the woods. Not unless Lynn went in this morning, breaking through the fallen snow. We’d checked for that earlier, and the only trail we’d seen going in had been accompanied by paw prints.

Even those only went about ten feet in. Just enough to get any doggie business done out of town, which almost certainly means it was Sebastian—Mathias would have let Raoul take a crap on the main street.

We circle again now, in case we missed something. We didn’t. It’s unbroken snow. Newly fallen snow, too, but we can still seewhere Sebastian went in, snow-filled divots indicating his boot prints.

Next we take the perimeter trail. It’s just past the edge of the forest and encircles the town. It’s used for patrolling but also for strolling. We’ve deemed it close enough to town to be safe even without escorts. No one could step off it and be unable to find their way back.

Unless it’s during a snowstorm.

We walk that path and, again, find nothing. Then it’s on to the second perimeter path. Yes, we have multiples. Having lived in Rockton means we have a long list of things we wanted to do in Haven’s Rock. One perimeter path close enough for residents to safely use. Another one deeper in, both for patrols and a slightly better walk, for staff and for short guided hikes.

This path also meets up with the lake and skirts along the edge closest to town. We start there and go clockwise. Keeping this path clear is extra labor, but right now we’re running efficiently enough to have a shortage of work, especially in the winter, when hunting, fishing, and logging are at a minimum.

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