Paws of the Yeti

by steve higgs

  Francois’s shoulders slumped. ‘I have checked with all the other resorts. I think Remy Bernard and Andre Thomas are still on the mountain somewhere.’

  ‘Then we have to form a search party right now,’ Michel was already turning to address the crowd when Francois snagged his arm.

  ‘We can’t, Michel. It’s too dangerous and the mountain is too vast. We have to wait for the storm to pass and look for them in the morning.’

  ‘They’ll die if they’re exposed,’ he countered.

  ‘And everyone else that goes out there will die from exposure trying to find them,’ Francois calmly replied. ‘We have to pray they found shelter somewhere. They are villagers so they know how to survive in the cold.’

  The conversation was being followed by the guests in the lobby, but no one was arguing with the idea of staying inside. Resigned, Michel nodded his reluctant agreement. ‘We must make arrangements to set out at first light. The storm will have blown through by then.’

  ‘You are probably right, Michel,’ agreed Francois. ‘Have everyone meet at my office, we will assign search areas and check people are dressed correctly before anyone sets off. I don’t want more casualties from well-meaning hotel guests. I’ll spread the word. Ask for volunteers, but,’ Francois held up a warning finger, ‘I want fit and able-bodied people. I don’t want children and pensioners.’

  Big Ben shot me a glance to check before saying, ‘Count us in. We’ve both had Arctic survival training and have lived through worse than this.’

  Francois accepted his offer gratefully. ‘I have to go. There is much to do. First light,’ he reminded us as he pushed the door open again and went back out into the night.

  Michel faced us. ‘How’s the investigation going, boys? Francois told me you saw the Yeti up close today.’

  ‘We did,’ I admitted.

  Then he said, ‘I have work to do, please excuse me.’ He began to move away, then stopped and signalled to a female member of staff that was working in the restaurant. She scurried across, throwing a quick smile at us and then turning her attention to her boss. Michel said to us, ‘This is Lissette. She is the bar manager.’ Then he turned his gaze to her. ‘Please attend to these gentlemen’s needs.’

  Big Ben whimpered with excitement, the noise escaping his lips to reach the lady’s ears. As Michel hurried away, Big Ben fixed her with a meaning-laden smile. ‘I believe that in all the excitement, our food has gone cold. Would you be a dear and arrange for replacement meals, kitten?’

  Her mouth opened slightly as she stared up at him, her tongue slipping out to wet her lips, ‘Oui, Ben.’

  ‘Call me BIG Ben,’ he commanded.

  She sucked in a quick gasp of air as she wilted beneath his smouldering gaze.

  I just walked away.

  Back at the table Jagjit and Alice and Hilary and Anthea were looking at their cold plates of food with disappointment. ‘Order fresh,’ I advised them. ‘The bar manager will take care of the bill.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ Anthea asked.

  I inclined my head. ‘Pretty sure, yeah. Though it won’t be until after she climbs off Big Ben.’

  ‘Urgh,’ she made a small sound of disgust. ‘Is he at it again? All that man does is chase women.’

  ‘I don’t think many of them try to run away,’ replied Jagjit with a frown.

  ‘Really?’ said Alice having seen her husband’s face. ‘I’m not enough for you?’

  ‘Hold on,’ Jagjit was taking umbrage. ‘A few minutes ago, I was a hero for tackling a henchman twice my size and your poor baby because I have a fat lip. Now I’m I trouble because I have a friend with magic power over ladies’ underwear?’

  It was time for me to exit before the marital bliss got flipped on its head. ‘I’m going to bed. Where are my dogs, please?’ I actually knew where they were. They were still tied to the table and straining to get to me. I bid my friends goodnight, took the dogs for another walk around the underground carpark, which I can tell you was significantly colder than the rest of the hotel, and went up to my room. Just as I got there, the older man in the room next to me was just getting back. He was stripping off outdoor clothing and had clearly been outside from the snow stuck to his gear.

  ‘Have you been out in the storm?’ I asked.

  He met me with a smile and said, ‘I, ah. I don’t...’ I waved him to silence and apologised for not being able to speak his language.

  ‘Deutsche?’ I asked but got a head shake in return. ‘Russkiy?’

  ‘Da!’ he replied, pleased for some reason.

  I didn’t know what good evening was in Russian so I patted his arm and went into my room. I had a box of gravy bones with me which I had placed on a table that I believed the boys couldn’t get to. They hadn’t done so far but give Bull enough time and he might work it out. They ran to sit beneath the table now, staring at it then staring at me and then staring back at the place they knew the treats were again. I fished out two biscuits for each dog, let them crunch them and get a drink of water, then plopped them both on the bed and dealt with my own needs.

  It had been a long day and I had slept in a car last night so I was not only tired but feeling less supple than I usually would. I turned the taps on to run a hot bath and scratched my head while I yawned. There was still no service on my phone so I couldn’t even text Amanda.

  I reminded myself that she would arrive tomorrow. We would be together soon enough. In the meantime, I needed to reconsider my plans. I wanted to interview Mrs Caron in the morning but the search would make that impossible. I could look for her when I returned though.

  The Search. Thursday, December 1st 0530hrs

  The hotel lobby was decorated for Christmas when I came down in the morning. Overnight, Santa’s little elves had been very busy erecting a tree that must have been eighteen feet tall and they had suspended streamers that spoked out from the top of the tree to every point in the room. Tinsel adorned every surface and there were decorations hanging in abundance from the walls.

  It didn’t feel like Christmas. As a single man I paid little attention to the season and had missed countless Christmases’ in the army because on December 25th I was hiding under a rock somewhere watching for an enemy that had no idea what Christmas was any more than I could name their religious holidays. But I knew my sister put her decorations up overnight so the children came down to the magic of it on December 1st and guessed that if I had kids I would get caught up in the excitement too.

  I had awoken early, and it had been dark in my room, but the dogs had woken me because they needed to go out. Crossing the lobby on my way to the car park, I could see that snow had piled against the glass front and doors of the hotel. It was five feet high and would take several men with shovels to clear it, but the storm had gone, and all was calm outside again. I didn’t know what time first light was, but now I was up I wouldn’t go back to bed even though the dogs would be done in just a few minutes. There were a pair of young men trapped on the mountain somewhere and I was going to do my bit in the bid to find them alive. With luck, they had found somewhere to hide from the storm and this morning would awaken to the most amazing fresh powder runs, arriving jubilant and unharmed back in the resort before the search parties even set off.

  I hoped that I wasn’t being too hopeful.

  The dogs, always keen to get somewhere, were dragging me across the lobby to the door that led to the carpark. There was no one else around at this time of the day to see me in the ski jacket, crumpled joggers and running shoes I had thrown on in my haste to get the dogs out before one of them peed on the floor. I didn’t even have socks on, which I regretted the moment I opened the door to the carpark and the cold hit me.

  It had to be five below zero in there. The dogs didn’t pause though, they were on a mission with a pressing task to perform. Checking around, I unclipped their leads and let them run off to explore. I hadn’t been checking to see if there was anyone to see the dogs peeing on car tyres, I had been makin
g sure there was no one around to see me shiver like a weak civilian. The cold air bit at the exposed skin around my ankles and penetrated the single layer of my coat in about three seconds. Hugging myself to stay warm and encouraging the dogs to hurry up, I thought some more about the case and wished I had battery heated underpants.

  Dozing off to sleep last night with the dogs curled against my hip, I had rerun all that I knew and tried to look at it from different perspectives. A woman had been killed. If it was deliberate, then who stood to gain? Asking the question though just felt foolish because I had met a nine-foot-tall monster that would have killed me too if I hadn’t escaped. Surely, that was what had happened to Marie Caron. Was I just wrong about there being a criminal behind her death? I had slept dreamlessly, waking with the question still on my mind. There was a monster here, I knew that much. All the evidence pointed toward her death being nothing more than misadventure, but I wasn’t here to track and kill a Yeti.

  In many ways I should have expected to be wrong at some point. My career success was founded on the principle that there had to be a rational and non-paranormal explanation for every mystery I faced. That didn’t appear to be the case this time.

  But what had they been doing so far from the track? I kept circling back to that question.

  The dogs trotted back to me, the cold driving them to be quick about their business. I used baggies to deal with the necessary, depositing it in a bin as I left the frigid car park behind. Coming back through reception, I met with Hubert. He was dressed in head to toe ski-wear and carrying gloves and a hat with fold down ear muffs.

  ‘Good morning, Mr Michaels,’ he said with a small wave of greeting.

  I returned his greeting, then asked, ‘Will you be joining the search party?’

  He nodded gravely, his expression telling me what he thought about the young men’s odds of surviving the night. ‘I knew them both. I might not have liked them, but the villagers here are a community and we pull together when we need each other. Their families will want all the help they can get.’

  ‘When is first light?’ I asked.

  ‘In about an hour. It’s earlier here because the light is amplified by the snow and it will hit the side of the mountain above us to light that long before it begins to cast shadows here. There will be a hearty breakfast laid on for all those joining the search. I have a team setting that up in tents by Francois’s office now.’ That meant I had plenty of time to get ready and to prize Big Ben out from under his collection of ladies. I thanked Hubert and took the dogs back to my room.

  Hubert hadn’t asked me about the investigation. Perhaps he was preoccupied with other things. Usually though, my clients are all over me for updates, wanting to know what I have found out, what I can reveal so far. He didn’t seem interested at all.

  An hour later, I left the room and knocked on Big Ben’s door. The dogs were tucked up again with full bellies and empty bladders and were going to sleep through the morning without the slightest concern for my whereabouts. I had checked my phone but there was still no signal. Whatever damage the storm had done might take hours to fix or maybe it would take days. It seemed quite possible Amanda would find me at the resort before I got to speak to her.

  From deep in his room, I heard Big Ben’s voice calling in response though I couldn’t make out what he said. I shouted that I would meet him in the hotel lobby and went there to wait. I didn’t want to see who he had in his room this time. Thankfully the hotel was built to last and had thick walls so any noise he had been making last night hadn’t penetrated through to me.

  Downstairs, there were a few dozen people now moving around and drinking hot fresh coffee from the restaurant where staff were up and handing out warm croissants and pain au chocolat. It was still dark outside but when I crossed to see what people by the doors were looking at, I discovered they could see the sun hitting the very tip of the mountain above us. It was astonishingly beautiful. From this angle, we could only see the one mountain peak out of the hundreds the area contained. Outside, where the full spectacle of the Alps could be seen, the view must be spectacular. No one was going out though because the staff were still trying to dig their way to the doors. We could see over the top of the snow to a team of men working hard with shovels near the hotel entrance while noise from snow-blowing machines was shifting it in volume further afield.

  I grabbed some hot coffee, the caffeine welcome at this time of the day and then drifted back to the doors as the men outside were nearly done. They would be warm despite the cold, their exertions probably making them sweat beneath the layers of clothing they had put on.

  ‘Hey, Tempest,’ said Jagjit from behind me. I turned my head to find him dressed in much the same gear as me. ‘Alice is just getting coffee. Where’s Big Ben? Or is that a silly question?’

  ‘It’s a silly question, but I expect he will be along soon. There’s breakfast waiting for us at the rally point. Is Hilary coming?’

  ‘No. I think Anthea talked him into staying here rather than joining in the fun again. They came around with leaflets last night inviting people to join in if they were able, but Anthea said there would be plenty of volunteers and he should spend some time with her. I got the impression it wasn’t worth him trying to argue. You had gone to bed by the time all this happened though.’

  I had. Fatigue had driven me to take an early night and I felt refreshed from it. There was a knock on the door and the muffled shout of the man outside as he called for someone inside to open the door. The man nearest the door looked confused until a member of staff pushed through the crowd with a set of keys. Outside, the black had become very dark grey as the sun fought back the night and soon we had joined a crowd of about one hundred people assembled by tents from which hot breakfast was being handed out.

  Francois was moving among the crowd asking if people were carrying weapons. I watched as he held out his hand for a pair of men to hand over kitchen knives, then he raised his head to address the crowd in a loud voice, ‘This is search party ladies and gentlemen. We are not hunting the Yeti. I will send for a team of appropriately trained and armed marksmen from the city to hunt the creature once the cable car is operational again. I must ask that you do not bring weapons with you today.’

  ‘Why not?’ called a voice from the crowd.

  ‘Does anyone have a rifle or high calibre long range weapon?’ the police chief asked. Then he slowly turned on the spot, scanning the crowd for any raised hands. Seeing none he said, ‘That’s why. If you are close enough to use a knife on the Yeti, you are already dead. Today we will be searching in large groups, each group led by one of our mountain safety team. In the unlikely event that the Yeti is seen, the search party will get back on its snow cat and move away. No one will be in any danger as long as there are no fools carrying weapons.’ Then he lapsed into silence and drifted back to a table and raised map of the area he was using as a gathering point.

  Another question from the crowd stopped him. ‘Why aren’t we searching from the air?’

  He didn’t have to answer though as several new voices explained that we were far too high and the air all too thin for helicopters to fly.

  ‘Did I miss much?’ asked Big Ben when he found us, a coffee in one hand and a croissant in the other. ‘Sorry, been up half the night, I’m starving now.’ As he continued to shovel food in his mouth, Francois began addressing the assembled volunteers with a loud speaker. We were to be divided up into groups that would each search different areas of the mountain. They had twenty-seven Ski-Doos and six Snow Cats, large tracked vehicles that could carry half a dozen people. These would be used to get to one of the search areas to deploy the searchers inside.

  Radios were handed out and the groups were divided up. Francois continually reminded everyone to stay safe and be wary of the fresh powder. He had to deliver the briefing in three languages which probably still didn’t cover the diversity of the crowd but took up enough time anyway. By the time we set off, the sun was l
ighting the mountain and we were no longer standing in the dark. It would be a while before the temperature improved though.

  I noted that there was no sign of Vermont, but just as I had that thought, I heard his voice. ‘Anyone spotting the beast is to report it to me,’ he shouted in both English and French. ‘I have a five thousand Euro reward for the person that leads me to it.’

  ‘Where’s your magic sword, Vermont?’ I asked. He looked at me then as if noticing me for the first time, but he didn’t answer me, instead he produced the sword from a sheath on his back with a flourish. Obviously, his hunt for the Yeti last night had proved fruitless but at least today he was dressed more appropriately in full winter gear like everyone else. Arthur and Stefan flanked him as always, their particular outfits stylised to match their just escaped from the Matrix/vampire hunter fashion with long leather jackets where the rest of us wore ski-gear. They were an odd pair but then with Vermont for a boss, their outfits were in keeping.

  Big Ben, Jagjit and I had been assigned to a group that would drive some of the Ski-Doos. Francois said he knew we could drive them so the three of us set off first, getting paired with Gils and Gerard Chevalier, the rival hotel owner and his son whom I had already met, and one of their ski instructors whose name I didn’t catch. She was petite and probably had a pretty face though it was hidden beneath a hat and goggles and a snood thing that covered her mouth so only the tip of her nose was showing. She got Big Ben’s attention nevertheless and I saw Gils observe their exchange with a concerned frown as if Big Ben were touching his property. Curt pleasantries were exchanged as Gils politely asked if we knew how to operate the machines, they were his after all he pointed out unnecessarily.

  ‘Still here?’ he had said when we approached the Ski-Doo he was sat astride. ‘I thought you would have gone home after your run in with the Yeti yesterday.’

  I tilted my head to the side as I met his eyes. ‘How do you know about that?’ I asked.