Читать книгу Buried - Elizabeth Goddard - Страница 12

TWO

Leah sucked in a breath, trying to push down the rising panic. Except for her right arm, she couldn’t move her body. But at least she could breathe. She blinked up at her rescuer—warmth and respite spilling from his determined eyes, the fierce green of a country spring in the mountains. Streaks of snow clung to his coffee-colored, wavy hair, and though he looked a little rough around the edges, he wasn’t Snyder—the man who needed her dead.

Relief filled her and overflowed in an exhale accompanied by a few whimpers. She hated the sound, hated the weakness it conveyed. If she were standing right now, her legs would quiver, unable to hold her weight.

“It’s okay. You’re going to be fine. I’m digging you out now.” Though his eyes held an urgent and untempered concern, his smile reassured her. “My name’s Cade, by the way.”

That’s right, keep talking in those soothing tones.

Cade, wearing the usual thick snow-country gloves, breathed hard as he expertly thrust the snow shovel in and around her, moving the iced powder almost as efficiently as a mechanical snowplow. He’d uncovered her torso and had started digging out her legs.

“What’s your name?”

She wasn’t sure what name she could trust him with. She didn’t want anyone to know she was here, much less know her name. Telling this man could put him in danger, too. She’d been hiding in the remote wilderness cabin, in fact, when Detective Snyder had sniffed her out and come to kill her. Panic set in and she glanced around at her limited view. Where was he? Had he been buried, too?

Oh, God, please... But she hated herself for wishing him dead.

“It’s okay if you’re unable to give me your name,” he said.

He probably thought she was in shock. And she was.

“Is there someone I should call? Friends or family?”

“No.” Her cold answer iced over her heart. It wasn’t a lie.

“Can you tell me if you have any pain—how bad it is on a scale of one to ten?”

She felt numb and cold at the same time; stiff, as though rigor mortis had already set in. Oh, no...was she paralyzed? Had the impact broken her back?

With the shifting snow she tried to move her body. Her legs responded. Thank You, God. And there wasn’t any pain.

“No, I don’t think I’m injured. I don’t know.” How could she be sure if something hurt until she was completely free? She felt so numb, she couldn’t really tell.

His chuckle lightened the seriousness of her near death. By the look in his eyes, that had been his intention. She liked his laugh, but it was hard to trust, even in someone who had rescued her.

“Almost there.” He threw the shovel aside and began scooping snow away from her back and legs.

Leah shifted and moved, and the sheer freedom of that act left her with the daunting awareness that she’d almost died on this mountain today—twice. The thought pressed in on her, suffocating her. This man digging her out only knew the half of it.

As she started to climb to freedom, Cade grabbed her and gently lifted her out as though she weighed nothing at all. He then set her to the side, away from the hole that had almost been her tomb.

“You sure nothing’s broken?” He assessed her limbs with practiced skill.

Again she moved her arms and legs. “No, nothing’s broken. Nothing’s crushed inside or I’d be in pain, wouldn’t I?”

He pulled something from a pack—a thermal blanket—and wrapped it around her. Crouched next to her, he wouldn’t stop staring at her, until finally Leah had to look away.

“You’re more fortunate than you know.” The solemn tone of his voice pulled her gaze up.

She figured he’d ask her why she was skiing in the back country with the avalanche danger high, but he didn’t even ask her what had happened to her skis. She hadn’t been skiing, so didn’t have any, of course, but she had no idea how she’d explain her presence here if pressured.

Cade frowned and stood tall, squinting as he skimmed the slope behind Leah. “What can you tell me about your friend? The man you were with?”

Leah’s heart stuttered. She forced a calmness into her expression she didn’t feel. “What man? I wasn’t with anyone.” True enough.

What am I doing? Why lie about Snyder now? Confusion crept over her like the cold trying to slip into the thermal blanket. She wasn’t sure how to handle this. But one thing she felt all the way to her chilled core: she wasn’t out of danger yet.

Snyder might not be working alone. That meant she had to stay on her guard and she couldn’t trust anyone. Until she discovered why he’d killed Tim that night and what he wanted from Leah besides her life, she couldn’t be safe. That meant she needed to disappear again somehow. And when she was gone, the less people in this area knew about her or what had happened to her, the better.

Cade stared down at her, his pensive gaze taking her in once again, wringing her insides as though he’d have the truth from her.

“Okay, then,” he said. “There was a witness—someone who’d seen the avalanche and called it in. He reported seeing a man and woman go under. We have another victim out here somewhere, and I need to help find him. If you think you’re not hurt, and are able, you can search, too. There’s only me and my partner until another team arrives, but they’ll take too long. And our witness seems to have disappeared after pointing me in your direction.”

What? He had no idea what he asked of her. How could she make herself help find the man who only moments before had tried to kill her?

Cade must have noticed her reaction. She saw suspicion in his eyes.

“Are you okay to rest here, then, while I help?”

No. She wasn’t okay. She didn’t want him to go. She hadn’t felt this safe, this secure, in so very long. And those things poured from this man. She’d never needed that before, and the realization stunned her. But she reminded herself she couldn’t afford to need anyone. To trust anyone. “Sure, I’ll be fine.”

“Someone will be here soon to evacuate you.”

Leah nodded and searched the canyon, reliving that moment only a few days ago when Detective Nick Snyder had shot and killed her boss, Tim Levins, in cold blood.

Tim was a lawyer and Leah was his legal investigator. She’d been leaving town that night for a three-week vacation. Tim had insisted she go and use the bonus he’d given her as thanks for her two years of service in his office. He’d bought her a present, too—a necklace that she’d forgotten on her desk in her rush to put everything in order before leaving. She’d stopped by the office late that night to pick it up, not wanting to hurt his feelings if he noticed that she’d left it behind.

Deep down, she knew she had wanted to stop by the office for more than just the necklace. She’d had a feeling something was wrong...that Tim had been trying to hide things from her. He’d been a little too insistent that she use the bonus to go on a long vacation. So she’d gone back to investigate.

She’d liked Tim, but thanks to the trauma of her childhood, she’d never met anyone she trusted, her lawyer boss included.

She’d arrived just in time to witness Tim’s murder. And Snyder—a decorated, trusted police detective and the town’s hero—had come for her.

So she’d disappeared on her own to figure it all out. It had seemed impossible that he’d find her in the remote cabin hidden deep in the Inside Passage of Alaska, hundreds of miles from Kincaid, the small town in the Seattle metropolis where she worked and lived.

Tim had recently inherited the cabin from a distant uncle. He’d wanted Leah to do some research for him regarding the man’s daughter, who Tim thought should have inherited the place. But the woman had vanished. With their case loads, researching anything about the cabin had been put on the back burner.

And when she’d known she had to run and hide, the cabin had been the perfect choice because she’d thought no one had known about the place or had any reason to connect it to her. That is, until she’d spotted Snyder at the cabin.

Until she found out why he’d killed Tim, she couldn’t be sure Snyder had been acting alone, which meant Leah didn’t know who she could turn to with what she’d seen. There could be others in the department who could make her disappear.

Pulling the thermal blanket tighter, she tried to ward off the double chill that told her she wasn’t out of danger, even if Snyder died on the mountain today.

* * *

Cade and Isaiah were still fruitlessly probing for the other avalanche victim when the whir of an additional helicopter echoed beyond the spruce trees covered in white icing. The second mountain rescue team had arrived.

He glanced up the hill at Isaiah who gave a shake of his head. By this time, it was highly unlikely the second victim would survive.

Disappointment corded through Cade and pulled tight. He glanced over to where rescue team members were already preparing to evacuate the woman and reminded himself that he’d succeeded, at least, in saving her. This could have turned out much differently for her. They could be placing her in a body bag right now, as they might be doing in a few minutes when they discovered the other victim. His chances of survival after all this time were almost zero. But they would continue the search for as long as they could safely do so.

Cade’s thoughts tracked back to the five snowboarding victims.

Five body bags.

Earlier in the week Cade and Isaiah had hiked into the backcountry to out-of-the-way paths in the higher elevations. On the north ridge they’d found packed cornices—heavy snow blown in by the wind and overhanging a ridge. After dozens of compression tests to determine the strength or weakness of the snow layers, Cade had been ready to call it a week when they’d received the callout for the snowboarders.

Before the mountain rescue team had even been able to begin searching for the snowboarders, Cade and Isaiah had tossed scores of explosives to trigger the snow that remained above the avalanche—the hangfire snow. Stabilizing the area so that the mountain rescue team could go in. All part of their jobs as avalanche specialists. That, and forecasting and educating the public. While rescuers had shoveled several feet of snow to uncover the victims, their hapless friends or family watching from the sidelines nearly always asked why this was happening to them.

There was no one standing on the sidelines today for either this woman or the other victim.

David, Cade’s older brother, was leading the second team. When he spotted Cade, he approached. “Tell me.”

Cade pointed to the debris field and explained what the witness had said. “We figured with the victim’s trajectory and where we found the woman, this would be the likely catchment area. But as you can see, we’re still probing.”

David grabbed Cade’s shoulder. “You did good, man. You saved someone today. You can take that to heart. Now go home and celebrate. We got this. We’re already setting up a probe line and shovel crew. Handlers are bringing the search and rescue dogs in, too.”

As David jogged through the snow to dole out instructions to his volunteer rescue team, Cade spotted Isaiah hiking toward him.

“Let’s get going. We need to finish our forecasting work before the sun goes down so there won’t be more victims.”

Cade wanted to stay and help. Isaiah must have sensed his hesitation. “You’re exhausted. We’re exhausted. You did what you could, Cade, and it worked. You saved that woman. There are plenty searching for the guy now. Forecasting the avalanche dangers, which is your primary job, saves lives. You can’t know how many lives, but you have to trust that it does.”

Isaiah’s words encouraged Cade. His friend was right. They had work to finish and he’d be in the office until late again, as it was. “I wanted it to be more.”

“I know you did, man. I know you did. I parked the helicopter over the ridge. Let’s go.”

Cade grabbed his gear and followed Isaiah, trudging through the snow that less than an hour before had turned brutal and lethal. More often than not, they had to cart victims—or bodies—out of the area on snowmobiles and toboggans because there wasn’t any helicopter access. This time they had two helicopters—though Isaiah’s was a single-engine R22—and a survivor. The R22 could only accommodate two passengers, so Cade might have had to wait around or hike down on his own while Isaiah evacuated the survivor if not for the medevac.

Cade still didn’t know her name. Strange that she’d seemed hesitant to tell him what it was. But she’d been through an ordeal and he’d given her the benefit of a doubt.

They topped the ridge and spotted the R22 and the medevac that provided both medical attention and transported mountain rescue teams as necessary.

The woman climbed into the medevac, her ash-blond hair with golden streaks half hidden under the blanket covering her shoulders. When he’d found her, tunneled through to her, he’d been stunned at the blue-green eyes staring back at him—the crystal purity he’d seen there. Like a tomb raider, he’d pulled her from the snow-laden crypt and it was then that he’d noticed the rest of her face. She had a clean, natural look. No makeup hiding flaws. She had an open, honest look—like someone with nothing to hide.

If only he could believe it were true. She’d winced when he’d asked her about the other person with her; denied she’d known anything about another victim. She’d been hiding something.

He hated the images that accosted him at that moment. Images of his fiancée with another man. They’d been caught in a situation that required a rescue, revealing her deception. Cade had been devastated that day. Even now his heart was still too strung out to think about loving again and he couldn’t stop himself from looking at this woman with suspicion.

Normally he wouldn’t concern himself too much with whether or not someone he’d helped was deceiving him. After all, it wasn’t as though he usually knew any of them well. It wasn’t until a victim teetered on the precipice between this life and the next that Cade met them, which only made sense. But then he never saw them again. He liked it that way. Better to keep his distance. He’d rescued them. End of story. They didn’t need him anymore anyway.

His throat twisted tight. He couldn’t understand why he didn’t want this to be the last time he saw this woman. Then again it had been too long since he’d rescued someone buried alive in an avalanche. Too long since he’d seen a positive outcome. Maybe that explained it.

With no relatives or friends to call, she had that proverbial deer-in-the-headlights look about her. Well, who wouldn’t after being buried alive? But Cade couldn’t shake the sense that she was afraid, scared of something or someone that had nothing at all to do with the avalanche.

He had a feeling he wasn’t done with this rescue.

Cade trudged forward and chided himself. He was probably reading way too much into things. He was tired and distracted and too suspicious for his own good. He tugged his gloves off. At the very least, Cade would deliver her home. Wherever that was.

He grabbed Isaiah’s arm as the medevac rotors started up. “Nothing personal, but you mind if I ride with them?”

“Instead of with me? Thought we were going to finish the assessments?”

“I think we’ve done all the assessments we’re going to do of the mountain today. You have about enough time before dusk to fly back to the center. Anyway, the avalanche gives us a good assessment of the instability. I’ll do the reports back at the center, so you don’t have to.”

Isaiah saluted and gave a crooked grin. “Have it your way. So, what is your evaluation of the instability?”

“The danger is high.”