Chapter Six

Elisabeth couldn’t believe how great it felt to be in the mountains again. Was it possible she had been missing this without even realizing it? Amid all this bare rock and immense sky, anything seemed possible, as if the world truly had no limits. She continued up the trail, climbing higher and higher, thighs burning, lungs straining for breath. Obviously, she needed more time to acclimate to the altitude, but she was in pretty good shape, considering she hadn’t spent much time on athletic pursuits.

She stopped and assessed her surroundings. There was a flat-sided dike jutting up from the adjacent rock like a jagged tooth. And there was a big boulder, lichen spattering the surface in green and white and orange. She climbed the rock, scrambling a little for purchase, and stood atop it. She stared at the clump of pinions below, in a kind of trance for a long moment.

She snapped out of it and turned to face the dike. She pulled out her phone and took a few pictures to document the scene; then she headed back down the trail. She met only a few people on the way down—a couple and a larger group of friends. No little kids. Did families not come backpacking up here anymore?

Back in town, she grabbed a decent veggie wrap from the coffee shop at the Gold Nugget Hotel, then walked down the street to a real estate office she had spotted earlier. She stopped on the sidewalk outside Brown Realty to study the flyers tacked to the window, all for overpriced vacation homes, luxury condos and one huge ranch that was listed for over a billion dollars. Did people really pay those kinds of prices to live here? If that was the case, she might stick around a little longer and meet some of those wealthy people.

A chime announced her arrival as she pushed open the door. A man who was the sole occupant of the place looked up from behind the desk and smiled. “Hi,” he said. “Can I help you?”

He was maybe a little older than her, his long dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. He wore a tailored white shirt, sleeves rolled up to reveal strong forearms, and dark jeans that definitely hadn’t come from the nearest discount store. Paul would approve of this man’s style. “I’m looking for a place to rent in town,” she said. “Just for a couple of months. A house or condo. Something nice.”

“We have several beautiful vacation properties available for short-term rentals.” The man stood and extended his hand. “I’m Mitch.”

“I’m Elisabeth.” His fingers were cool against hers, his grip firm but not crushing. And he looked her in the eye with a direct gaze. A sizzle of attraction raced through her. No ring on his finger.

“Have a seat, Elisabeth, and I’ll show you what we have available.” He sat also, and swiveled the computer monitor so they both could see it. “Do you have a particular location in mind?”

“There’s a condo complex by the river. Riverside. Do you have anything there?”

“We do have a few units available in that property,” Mitch said. “Though they require a six-month lease.”

“If they’re vacant, maybe we can negotiate something shorter.”

“I can’t promise anything, but why don’t we take a look?”

He bent over the keyboard, typing with two fingers, but rapidly. She studied him, feeling the sizzle of awareness again. Maybe there were advantages to sticking around town that she hadn’t yet considered.

“Here are some interior shots of one of the units,” he said. “It’s a top floor, corner unit, so a little more privacy. As you can see, it has updated appliances and a modern, airy interior. You’d be close to the river and the hiking and biking trails, and just a few minutes from town. Another few minutes to the highway and access to both Junction, an hour to the north, and the miles of trails in the backcountry. Hiking and jeeping in the summer, rock and ice climbing, winter skiing. Fly-fishing, photography, camping—we offer everything in the way of outdoor adventure.”

He spoke with a natural enthusiasm that helped negate the salesman’s spiel. “I like the condo,” she said. “Could we drive over there and take a look?”

“Of course. Do you want to see any others before we go?”

“No. That’s the one I want.”

“What about the six-month lease?” he asked.

“I’m sure we can work something out.” She could always agree to the lease, then leave whenever she wanted without paying the rest of the rent. She knew how to disappear so that they would never find her to sue for the rest of the money.

“Let me forward the phones and lock up here, and I’ll be set,” he said.

She waited by the entrance while he took care of these tasks, then followed him out the door. After he had locked up, she moved closer and slipped her arm through his. “After we see the condo, maybe you can show me around town,” she said. “Then I’d love to buy you a drink.”

Extra heat sparked in his smile, and he covered her hand with his own and squeezed it. “That sounds like a great idea, Elisabeth.”

“I’m full of great ideas.” So many, and so few people to truly appreciate her greatness. But she had learned to never sell herself short. Other people had failed her, but that was no reason to ever fail herself.

S UMMER S ATURDAYS WERE busy days on the backroads and trails around Eagle Mountain, which meant they were also busy for search and rescue volunteers. The first call that day came in just before 11:00 a.m. A young man had fallen from the rocks above Rocky Falls. “The family member who called in the accident says the young man—fifteen—is responsive but in pain,” Danny told the volunteers who assembled at search and rescue headquarters. “He thinks the boy—his nephew—might have broken bones.”

“How did he happen to fall, do we know?” volunteer Chris Mercer asked. An artist who wore blue streaks in her dark hair, Chris had several years’ experience with SAR but wasn’t an elite climber or a medical professional. She was simply dedicated and hardworking, willing to do the mundane driving, fetching, carrying and following orders that made up the bulk of a volunteer’s efforts.

Danny grimaced. “He climbed up onto the rocks to pose for a picture and slipped.”

“The rocks behind the sign that says ‘Danger: Do Not Climb on Rocks’?” Harper Stevens asked.

“Yep.” Danny raised his voice to address them all. “Let’s hustle, everyone.”

As they were loading their gear, Bethany slipped in next to Vince. “Hi.” She flashed a smile, her eyes not meeting his. “This is the first call I’ve been on. I’m a little nervous.”

“That’s natural,” Vince said. “Just do what you’re told and pitch in whenever you can.” He handed her a plastic bin full of climbing helmets. “Find a place to stow these in the Beast there.” He pointed to the specially outfitted Jeep used for rescue operations. “I’m going to get more supplies.”

“I think you have an admirer,” Ryan said when Vince returned to the supply closet for another load. “I saw the new girl, Bethany, making eyes at you.”

“‘Making eyes’? Seriously, what does that even mean?” Vince slung a coil of rope over one shoulder.

“Bet she’d go out with you if you asked her,” Ryan said. “Just saying.”

He glanced back and saw Bethany standing where he had left her, still watching him. He quickly turned around. “Not interested,” he said. Bethany was cute and probably really sweet, but there was no spark there. Not like when he looked at Tammy. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get this stuff loaded so we can head out.”

The young man who had fallen got off lucky, with a broken leg and some cracked ribs. The search and rescue team climbed the trail to the top of the falls and identified a point from which Hannah and Ryan Welch could be lowered on ropes to the teen, Lance. At first, he denied climbing on the rocks, though eventually he admitted to ignoring the signs and boosting himself up on the boulder for a selfie with the waterfall in the background. “Am I going to be, like, disabled or something?” he asked, his expression stricken.

“You should heal just fine,” Hannah said as she fitted his leg with a splint. Once the leg was stabilized, she and Ryan fitted him with neck and back braces and a helmet, then helped him into a litter and wrapped him up warmly.

Meanwhile, up on the trail, Vince worked with Eldon, Tony and Sheri to rig a rope-and-pulley system for getting their patient back onto the trail. Once they had lifted him safely out of the canyon, another group of volunteers took over to transport him to the waiting ambulance. The family—his mom, dad, uncle and sister—followed the litter team down.

As the remaining volunteers disassembled the rigging and packed up to return to headquarters, Vince paused to look over at the sign that cautioned people against climbing on the rocks. “I feel like someone should write in ‘We really mean it’ underneath there,” he said.

“It wouldn’t work,” Eldon said. He stuffed a brake bar into a carrying bag. “Kids that age think they’re invincible. I did.”

Unlike many of his peers, Vince had never known that feeling of invulnerability. What happened to Valerie had made him too aware of all the ways things could go wrong.

The group returned to SAR headquarters and were unloading gear when a second call came in. “Hikers with a medical emergency,” Danny relayed after speaking with the emergency dispatcher. “Mount Wilson trail. A man with chest pains and a woman who’s collapsed.”

The words were like a shot of adrenaline through the group. They hurried to reload the search and rescue Jeep, as well as several personal vehicles, with equipment and personnel for an urgent ride to the Mount Wilson trailhead. “They’re within a mile of the top,” Danny directed as they unloaded the vehicles and distributed gear for the trek up the slope. “A thirty-eight-year-old woman and a forty-six-year-old man. No history of heart trouble, but he’s reporting chest pain and dizziness and disorientation.”

“What about the woman?” Hannah asked.

“The report on her is that she’s unable to continue hiking.”

“I don’t like the sound of either of those,” Hannah said.

A solemn team started up the mountain. Tony and Sheri elected to jog ahead with an AED and first aid supplies. Caleb Garrison was next with a canister of oxygen, while the others followed as quickly as they could, spread out along the steep trail to one of the most popular peaks in the region. Other hikers on their way down squeezed over to the side to let them pass when they recognized the blue windbreakers with Search and Rescue emblazoned on the front and back. “Good luck!” some called after them.

It took two hours of hard hiking to reach the couple, who were stretched out to one side of the trail, a few concerned onlookers gathered around. Sheri, Tony, Caleb and Hannah were arranged around them, the man receiving oxygen while Sheri spoke with the woman. Vince slipped off his pack, which contained another canister of oxygen and various first aid supplies, and fished out his water bottle.

“What’s the story?” he asked Harper, who had arrived ahead of him.

“Hannah doesn’t think he’s having a heart attack, but he’ll need to be checked out at the hospital to be sure,” Harper said. “Mostly I think they weren’t well prepared for a hike like this and they overdid it. They don’t have hats or sunscreen or enough water. They’re sunburned and dehydrated and dealing with the altitude and exhaustion.”

The couple did look miserable. They were sipping water and listening as Sheri and Danny addressed them each in turn. They were probably hearing about how most of their problems could have been prevented with simple precautions like sunscreen, water and an easier pace. But that didn’t help them now. For that, they would get a free ride down the mountain in litters carried by Vince and his fellow volunteers, and a checkup at the hospital to ensure they truly were all right.

The trip down the trail was equally as solemn as the hike up, but without the urgency. Even a small adult was a heavy, awkward burden to carry. After consultation, Danny declared that the woman would walk down—with Bethany and Harper on either side to steady her, if need be—and her husband would be transported on the litter. His chest pains had subsided, but no one wanted to chance their return. The litter was fitted with a large wheel to support part of the weight and help it roll along the ground, but it still required a volunteer at each corner to help steady and balance it. The position was awkward and uncomfortable, and volunteers switched off every half mile.

Meanwhile, the woman moaned and complained the whole way down. Vince decided that as much as maneuvering the litter made his back and knees ache, he preferred that duty.

The sun was sinking behind the mountains by the time they made it to the trailhead. The couple headed off in an ambulance, and the volunteers reloaded their gear. Some of the group announced they were going out for beer and pizza. “Are you going out?” Bethany asked as Vince was shouldering his pack to head to his car.

“Not tonight,” he said. All he wanted was a hot shower and to stretch out on the sofa, where he would likely fall asleep. “But you should go, if you want. It’ll be a great way to get to know people.”

She looked over toward the group—Ryan and Eldon, Caleb, and a few others. “I don’t know.”

“Suit yourself.” He shrugged on the pack and headed out. He drove to his condo, parked, and collected his mail before he walked to his door and unlocked it. Inside, he shed his shoes, pack and SAR windbreaker, then stood sorting through the mail. Mostly junk, but a colorful postcard caught his eye. A larger-than-life cartoon Viking stood beside an impossibly buxom and equally cartoonish female Viking. Welcome to Williams’s Valhalla-Land! proclaimed large green letters above them.

Vince stared, heart pounding. He and Valerie and their parents had stopped at this roadside attraction, somewhere in Minnesota or Michigan, on a road trip to visit his dad’s brother and his family on the Upper Peninsula the summer before Valerie disappeared. Somewhere, pasted into an album tucked into his parents’ bookshelf, was a photograph his mother had snapped of him and Valerie, posing with these same cartoon Vikings.

He flipped the card over and read the message, in loopy cursive handwriting: Hello, Vince the Viking. I bet you’re surprised to hear from me. V.