Page 19 of Saving Veronica
“Okay.”
“Be careful, son,” William said, and slapped his thigh, then stepped back and the horses took off at a slow trot up the trail.
Almost an hour later, Hector called everyone to a halt. “This is the cut off to go around. Angelo and I will head toward Pattersons’ and come through the other meadow and forest. Meet everyone in Ronnie’s meadow. Sam and Tim, you go toward the general’s trail. When you meet up with his riders, come back here and follow Finn up. Finn and Major will be going directly to the meadow.”
“Look for several horse prints,” Hector said, and explained about the wild horses that Sarge had brought back with him. The others left and Finn dismounted and had Major smell the shirt again. “Now Major. Find Ronnie.” He mounted and watched as his dog put his nose to the ground and the air and started up the trail. “Be nice to me Ace.” Finn chuckled, and was surprised when the horse took off after the dog.
At one point, Major stopped and was close to the edge of a ravine. Finn dismounted, walked toward the dog and looked over the edge. He shivered when he saw the rushing water at the bottom. Before he could get out a flashlight to see if Ronnie was at the bottom, or partway down, Major started up the trail again.
Three hours later Finn come off the trail and into the meadow. He called Major to a stop and looked around letting out a low whistle at the sheer size of the meadow before him. The real thing didn’t come close to what the photos in Ronnie’s office showed. Nothing compared to it in person. He looked to the left then the right. He dismounted and walked to the right and saw where a campfire had been lit. He watched as Major sniffed around and gave the indication that he smelled Ronnie. He went to a certain point and lost the scent. On the way back, he went beyond the trail and picked up the scent again. Finn called him back and made a decision.
“Major, this way.” He pulled the shirt again and after Major refreshed the scent, the dog started to go left, with his nose to the ground, but Finn mounted Ace and called him to go right. At first Major became confused and kept looking back at Finn, but his owner encouraged him to continue.
Two hours later, Major began barking and ran forward. By the time Finn caught up with him, he was digging the ground and looking down the ravine. Barking the whole time. Finn dismounted, dropped the reins to join Major at the edge of the ravine. He hurried back to the horse and withdrew his pack, after taking out a powerful flashlight, he donned the pack and rejoined Major.
Finn shone the light from the rim of the ravine and slowly moved it back and forth. Each sweep of the light moved down so many feet until he could see the bottom. At the bottom of the ravine he thought he spotted something, and after putting on his night vision goggles, because it was dark at the bottom of the ravine, he sucked in his breath when he saw a body at the bottom.
Finn quickly ran back to Ace for the rest of his supplies, and made his way back to the ravine. He cleared a wide spot in the grass, lit a road flare, and put it in the ground. “Go get Ronnie.” Finn told the dog and pointed. The dog took off, and Finn used the light to guide the dog’s path. When Major arrived where Finn thought he saw the body, he whined.
Finn started down the ravine, until he reached the measured point of fifty feet, he slipped on something and twisted his ankle. Finn looked around and saw two black blobs. No clue what one was, so he left it alone. The other one was a disgusting glob of goo, it reminded him of blood and gore. That had been what he’d tripped on. After swearing up a storm, he gingerly continued down the ravine. When he reached the bottom, the final calculation of distance came to around one hundred and twenty feet down. He found Ronnie lying on her right side and her legs from the knees down were submerged in the running water.
Finn took a deep breath. It took several moments to calm down as he reached out and put his fingers on her neck to check for a pulse. When he finally felt it, to make sure, he bent, and put his ear on her back. He was able to hear and feel her heartbeat, but she was cold, really, really cold.
The first thing he did was dig out the flare gun, load a flare, and as he looked up, he sighed in relief when he saw open skies directly above them. He released the flare and after seeing that it went off, he put the gun down, looked at his watch and got to work.
Finn laid out two of the metallic blankets, overlapping them. Back at Ronnie’s side, he read the instructions on the backboard and set to work getting her on it. His first priority would be to get her out of the water and onto the blankets. He next took her temperature and swore when it only registered eighty.
He quickly, but efficiently started on her left side and began to methodically check her over for broken bones, along with cuts and scrapes. The only thing he found were deep, wide, and long lacerations on the outside of her left forearm. He immediately concluded they were defensive wounds. He quickly bandaged them and continued down her left side. Finding nothing else, Finn called Major over and had him stretch out along her back, hoping the dog’s body heat would help aid Ronnie’s to rise faster. He hurried back to her head and started on the right side.
“Fuck,” Finn said as he found an eight inch long laceration on the side of her head. He wrapped gauze around it and continued his exam. From what he could see, the side of her neck and beneath her shirt collar looked black, so he cut her shirt up the center and sucked in his breath at the sight of her whole right side from the waistband of her jeans, to her neck was black. It looked like she’d been hit by a truck. He gingerly continued his exam and the more he found, the more he swore. But he needed to finish.
On the right side, he discovered the head laceration, enclosed broken collar bone, her shoulder was messed up, but he didn’t know if it was broken or not, but he did know it wasn’t dislocated. Finn found her right forearm broken, after checking her ribs, and finding all on her right side broken, he laid her arm over her stomach. He examined her hips and sighed in relief when they were intact. The jeans on her outer right thigh showed ragged tears caked in blood. He swore again when he realized the marks matched her left forearm, and head. Again he sighed in relief when there wasn’t anything wrong with either knee. However, when he reached her lower leg, he whipped out his K-bar and ripped it through the lower denim clad leg. Both bones in her lower leg were broken and exposed. He had to remove her cowboy boots and sighed when there was nothing wrong with her ankle.
“You’re a mess, baby,” Finn whispered. Before he began to work he pulled the flare gun and set off another flare, then pulled out the satellite phone and dialed.
Chapter 7
Sheriff Amos Bronson stood at the back of Ronnie Parker’s barn with his foot on the bottom rung of the fence. He stared up the mountain, worried. It’s been almost eight hours and he hadn’t seen any sign of a flare in the sky. He didn’t know if it was, because of the low cloud cover, or they hadn’t found Ronnie yet.
His phone went off and he answered it distractedly. “Sheriff Bronson.”
“Sheriff, this is Finn Larson.”
“Finn!” He turned on his heel and hurried into the barn. Luckily it was only him and Grady, the vet, at Ronnie’s place. Maggie and Finn’s family had gone back to the Pennyworths’ to cancel the surprise birthday party for Ronnie. “What’s up? I have to say, from down here, the cloud cover is so low. I haven’t seen any flares.”
“I sent off two.”
“Thank god. What do you need?”
“Medivac.”
“Talk to me.” He pulled his notebook from his pocket and snapped his fingers at Grady. “I’ve got Grady here with me. We’re in Ronnie’s barn and it’s only the two of us. You’re on speaker.”
“Okay. When you arrive at the meadow at the top of the trail I took, follow to the right two point three miles. I have a road flare up. Ronnie’s at the bottom of the ravine. I estimate about a hundred and twenty feet down. When I found her, she only wore a tee-shirt, red down vest and jeans. Lying on her right side. Both legs from the knees down were submerged in running water.”
“Damage?” Grady asked and took the pen and paper from Amos.
“Internal temp eighty. Pulse forty. Sorry, no way to do her BP. I’ve done a thorough exam. As I’m talking to you, I’m starting an IV but she has extensive injuries. Left side, four lacerations about twelve inches long on outside of forearm. Deep. I’d say defensive wounds.”
