Chapter 31

THIRTY-ONE

Jenna took delivery of a box of takeout from Aunt Betty's Café just as Atohi Blackhawk and a man he introduced as Will Cody stepped into the office. Jenna pushed the box onto the counter and turned to wave them to chairs. Will Cody was in his mid-thirties with a boyish open expression and around six-feet tall. Both men appeared cold and weary, melting snow dripped from Blackhawk's hat. "You've both arrived at a fortunate time. There's fresh coffee and a delivery from Aunt Betty's. I'll get the coffee. Please help yourself." She indicated to the carton. Keeping a supply of food in the office in extreme conditions with exhausted men coming and going had become a necessity.

She made the coffee and a decaffeinated brew for herself and sat waiting for them to shed layers of clothes. The men brought with them the scents of a frozen forest and smiled as they collected food from the box. When they sat down, she eyed them hopefully. If only they'd found some trace of Julie. "How bad is it out there?"

"We're used to navigating through blizzards but nature has thrown us a curveball." Cody ate a turnover in three bites. "The earth tremors are increasing and making the entire mountain unstable. Trails we discovered yesterday are blocked today. I imagine we'll be conducting food drops to the people isolated by avalanches before the melt. There's no safe way of clearing them with tons of snow above just waiting to come down." He licked sugar from his fingers. "We didn't find a sign anyone had been by. The snow is covering tracks faster than we can make them."

"It's fortunate we didn't discover any more bodies tied to trees along the way either." Blackhawk cradled a cup between his large hands. "Perhaps the conditions are too harsh even for a killer." He placed his cup on the desk and pulled out three folded pieces of paper. "I know your team is anxious to get out there, so we kept a record of where we've searched. These are maps of hikers' trails throughout the Bear Peak area. I have one for my use, but I've marked up two for you with all the blocked trails we've discovered so far. I've also marked the location of any cabins we have either seen or recall in the area. So where I've used a capital C that's a cabin we've seen. CO means signs of occupation. The question marks are for the approximate location of other cabins we can recall seeing in the area but couldn't get to. These might range from self-built hunting cabins, forestry, and residences and range in size from one room to many."

Impressed, Jenna stared at the map. "Thank you. I really appreciate you." She frowned. "You'll need to take care out there." She brought them up to speed with the earlier incident. "Rowley is okay, thanks to his vest, and the perpetrator is on his way here now."

"Hmm, if either of these men was involved in the murders, it's unlikely they made it to the crash site." Blackhawk stared at the map. "The access to their cabins is a road maintained by the snowplows. All the accessible fire roads have been cleared. We've been using them as access roads all day." He scanned the map. "Many of the outlying hunters' cabins are on trails leading from fire roads. Hunters leave their vehicles there and use the cabins as a basecamp." He pointed to the map. "Julie would have come from here." He pointed to an area at the base of Bear Peak. "There are many trails leading all over the forest from there and there are many cabins, but all along the edge of the mountain, the avalanches have blocked vast areas. Here and here. So if she's inside that area, she won't be going anywhere for a time. Only a fool would try and make it to the highway through a dense forest in a blizzard." He sighed. "Julie is no fool."

The situation was more complex than Jenna had imagined. "We found bodies along the way to the crash site. Surely the killer must be inside this perimeter?" She circled an area around the crash site with her finger.

"Not necessarily." Cody shrugged. "Atohi's group found a third body closer to the highway, so away from the base of the mountain. If you look at them as a whole, they form part of an arc."

Staring at the map, Jenna could see his point. "Hmm, I guess it makes sense for them to leave the victims close to a place where they could leave their vehicle. So our theory that the killer is using an empty cabin to keep a victim prisoner is wrong. It would be a long hike from the fire roads in the snow to any of these cabins. Even more problematic if he's dragging or carrying someone he plans to murder." She thought for a beat. "This doesn't sound like a Bear Peak resident, does it? They'd have access to their cabins via a fire road and to the highway but there's none we are aware of close to this arc."

"No one is hiking in the snow, Jenna. It's impossible." Atohi met her gaze. "Just like us, he has a snowmobile."

The implications flowed into Jenna. "So those poor women went willingly to their deaths?" She shivered but the room was toasty. "Oh, that goes way past creepy."