by Leona Karr
“And?” he prodded, when her voice faltered.
“He was dead.”
He stared at her. “Dead?” Then he shook his head. “Poor guy. Doesn’t take long to freeze to death with temperatures plunging this low.”
“That’s what I thought at first. He was sitting there all stiff and rigid.” She moistened her dry lips. “But he didn’t freeze to death.”
“Then what?”
“There was blood. And an ugly wound. I think he’d been shot.”
“Shot? You’re sure about that?”
“I’m not certain. But it looked that way to me. Anyway I panicked. I started back to the Jeep and got disoriented, but I kept moving until I ran into that pile of rocks, and then, by some miracle, you found me.”
“What did the man look like?”
“Dark hair, bad complexion. Kinda stocky. About twenty-five, I’d guess.” She searched his face. “You know anyone like that?”
He shook his head. “Doesn’t ring a bell, but that’s not surprising. The whole valley is overrun with strangers. The blasted ski resorts are spreading out all over the place. Rampart’s becoming one of those tourist-infested towns. Never used to be anything more for Sheriff Perkins to do than to round up livestock that broke through a fence.”
“We’d better call him. Tell him about the sedan.”
Hal nodded. “Yes, I’ll let him know. But I suspect that Perkins has higher priorities right now than bringing in a corpse.”
She sighed, agreeing as she remembered all the emergency calls she’d referred to his office.
He started across the kitchen toward a wall phone, but before he reached it, the telephone rang as if on cue. “Haverly Ranch,” Hal answered briskly, and then his tone softened. “Oh, hi, Randy. Yeah, your ma’s here. Safe and sound. Just a minute.” He held the receiver out to her. “Your son’s checking up on you.”
Jill instantly felt guilty. “I should have called him as soon as my teeth stopped chattering.” She took the receiver from Hal and said brightly, “Hi, honey. Yes, I made it just fine,” she fibbed. “How you doing? Any more emergency calls?”
Leaning up against the wall with her head lowered, she listened to his excitement about referring several calls to the proper authorities. Thankfulness and love sluiced through her just hearing his almost-manly voice. “Good job, honey. Now you stay inside! Don’t leave the building for any reason. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Sure, Mom. Zeb says I’m taking up the slack even better than he could.”
“I’m not quite sure what that means, but keep it up.” There was a bubbling excitement to Randy’s chatter, and she was relieved that her son was regarding the situation as high adventure. “Bye now. I love you.” She smiled as he mumbled a whispered “Love you” back as if he didn’t want Zeb to hear him saying such mushy things.
She hung up and turned around. Hal had left the room, and when she heard a door closing a short distance down the hall, she wondered if there was a nearby bathroom. Anyway, it was time to go upstairs. She was slipping on her boots when the phone rang again. As she hurried over to it, her first thought was that Randy had thought of something else he wanted to tell her, but when she picked up the receiver and said, “Hello,” there was a moment’s silence.
A man’s puzzled voice asked, “Did I get the wrong number?”
“I don’t know? Whom were you calling?”
“Is this the ranch?”
“Yes. Did you want to speak to Mr. Haverly? He’s out of the room but if you’ll wait a moment, I’ll—”
“I just wanted to know if he’s got electricity. I’m his neighbor, Scotty McClure, at the fishing lodge. My wires went down. I don’t have a backup generator the way he does.”
“The lights are still on here, Mr. McClure.”
“Well, thank you very much. I’d be interested to know who Hal has answering his phone, Miss—?”
“Jill Gaylor. I’m a volunteer with Rampart Search and Rescue.”
“Is there a problem? Someone in trouble?” he asked anxiously.
Before she could explain about the stranded couple, Hal came into the kitchen. “Just a moment, Mr. McClure. Here he is.” She handed him the receiver. “Your neighbor.”
“What’s up, Scotty? No, we haven’t lost our power.” Then he turned and looked at Jill as he said, “Yeah. I’m running a rescue mission here.” He laughed at something the other man said and then quickly filled his neighbor in on the situation.
As he talked, Jill noticed that hair the color of sun-ripened wheat curled damply on the nape of his neck, and as he shifted his weight, solid buttocks swelled the fabric of his tight, western pants. She looked away quickly, not wanting him to know that she was the least bit aware of anything about him. She remembered his distant politeness when she’d picked up Randy, and she was determined to return the same while she was under his roof.
“Sure, we could use some extra grub. Thanks, Scotty.” He hung up.
His neighbor must be a good friend, she thought. There had been a lightness in Hal’s voice as he’d chatted with him. “Your boy all right?” he asked Jill, obviously concerned.
“Fine. He’s in good hands. Zeb will keep Randy under his thumb until I get back.”
“Good kid, and smart too. He has a natural way with horses. But I guess you know that”
She shook her head. “He’s never been around animals before. We’ve always lived in the city. I want to thank you for spending time with the 4-H kids.”
“I get as much out of it as they do,” he answered rather briskly. He didn’t like mothers gushing over him, and tried to keep his distance from them, even when it came to an attractive gal like Randy’s mother.
At that moment, the sound of stomping on the back porch told him that Zack had finished his chores. The kitchen door flew open and the ranch hand came in, briskly flailing his arms and sending snow flying in every direction. “Brrr. It’s like the North Pole out there.”
“Did you manage to get that feed out to the pasture all right?” Hal quickly asked the young cowhand. Zack had only been with him a couple of months. Keeping steady help on the ranch was almost impossible, especially with the ski resorts so close and needing lots of strong, young workers. Few unattached men wanted to put in hours of hard physical labor on a ranch when they could live on the fringes of the resorts and spend their time skiing. Hal suspected Zack had kicked around quite a bit. He was twenty-nine, kind of a loner, but he had the gift of gab when he wanted to use it, telling jokes with the best of them. Hal recognized a drifter when he saw one, so he had little hope that the ranch hand would stick around until spring.
“Dumped a half-dozen bales over the fence.” Zack said, shedding his knee-length jacket and cowboy hat. He was stocky, medium height, with dark hair lying longish on his neck, giving him the look of a country-western singer. “But the water tank’s frozen over. Drifts are already five feet in some places. Wouldn’t be surprised if we get snowed in for a week.”
“A week?” Jill echoed. “Surely the storm will let up…by morning?”
Zack gave her a slow, frank appraisal from head to toe. Then he grinned. “Hi. You’re the gal from the rescue patrol, right?”
She nodded.
“I’m Zack.”
“Glad to meet you, Zack,” she answered, a little unnerved by the cowboy’s broad, admiring smile.
“The boss said you were coming.” Zack cocked his head. “But I have to admit that I didn’t expect you to be so darn good-looking. Great to have a pretty gal around the place for a change, isn’t it, boss?”
Hal laughed and nodded. “I admit it gets pretty monotonous looking at the likes of you and Kirby.”
Jill was suddenly uncomfortable with this turn of conversation. “Where will I find the young couple and what are their names?”
“Sue and Gary Miller. Top of the stairs,” Hal answered. “First bedroom to your right. Front of the house.” Then he added, “You can take the bedroom a
cross the hall from the Millers.”
“What about Kirby and me, boss?” Zack asked. “We’ll have to be staying at the house. Too dangerous trying to find our way to the bunkhouse in this blizzard.”
“You can have the other two upstairs bedrooms.”
“Suits me,” said Zack with a bold wink at Jill. “Kinda cozy, all around.”
Jill ignored the wink and quickly left the kitchen. Lovely. What could be better? A handsome host triggering her hormones, his cook wanting to massage her feet, and his lusty cowhand trying to make time with her. Great. Just great.
She went along the hall to the front of house, where a staircase led to the upper floor on one side, and a pair of double doors on the other side opened into a large living room dominated by a huge stone fireplace. Through the doorway, she glimpsed Indian rugs scattered on the hardwood floor and comfortable-looking western-style furniture. Walls of knotty pine logs rose in varnished layers to a high ceiling. In spite of the homey furnishings, the room had a deserted air about it She wondered if Hal Haverly ever sat in front of the huge fireplace or let his hired help make use of the spacious room.
As she climbed the stairs, she decided that the house must have been standing for a long time, probably built for a family. She’d heard that the Haverly Ranch was the oldest spread in the valley, and one of the last to hold out against land developers who were buying up everything in sight.
She was halfway up the stairs when she met the beanpole cook coming down. Much to her surprise and annoyance, Kirby stopped on the step above her, deliberately blocking her way. “Got thawed out, did you?”
Because of his tall rangy build, Jill had to bend her head slightly backward to look up into his lean face. “Yes, I feel almost human again.”
“Brandy’ll do that.” ’
She didn’t know what more to say. When he didn’t move out of the way, she stepped to one side so she could go by him. She was instantly uncomfortable when he deliberately crowded her so that his body brushed against hers as they passed. Controlling an urge to give him a scathing glare, she went on up the stairs.
An arched window on the landing might have given a view of the nearby mountains if the glass hadn’t been caked with snow, but as she passed the window, she was glad that she couldn’t see outside. The wailing, raging wind and the sound of biting snow hitting the house was enough. Would she ever forget the terror she’d felt stumbling blindly in the storm? Would it always be with her, the memory of how helpless she had felt, facing the near-certainty of freezing to death? She’d never understood such tragedies before, but now she realized just how quickly a person could become disoriented and surrender to the elements. She would never treat the challenges of threatening weather so casually again.
The upper hall was carpeted and lighted by a series of brass fixtures on the wall. A murmur of voices floated out of a front bedroom a few steps down the hall, so she knocked lightly on the open door and stuck her head in. “Hello, may I come in?”
A young man with curly blond hair and a freckled face sat on the side of a bed, holding his pregnant wife’s hand. Both of them looked relieved when she said, “I’m Jill Gaylor. I’ll be keeping you company until the storm’s over.”
He quickly stood up and held out a hand. “I’m Gary. This is my wife, Sue.”
They were just kids, both of them. Sue was a pretty blond girl of about seventeen, who should have been going to football games and hanging out in shopping malls instead of having a baby, thought Jill. Her husband, Gary, wore glasses and a Kansas City Chiefs sweatshirt that hung loose and baggy on his slight frame.
The young man’s harried expression eased slightly as he shook hands with Jill. “Mr. Haverly said someone was coming to be with Sue. She’s not due for three more weeks,” he assured Jill. “So we’ll be with her parents in Hartford, Kansas, when the baby comes.”
Jill nodded. “How you doing, Sue?”
“All right. Just tired,” she said with a wan smile.
“A little break in your trip will do you good,” Jill assured her.
“We had to call my folks and tell them we were held up,” Sue said, as if Jill needed to know that they were responsible people.
“Aren’t you cutting it close, traveling at this late date?” Jill could not help but ask. Didn’t they know that first babies don’t stick to a timetable? “Maybe you should have waited.”
“Couldn’t,” Gary said shortly. “I lost my job. We had to give up our apartment. I was working as a bank teller in Provo, Utah, when the bank was taken over. Most of the personnel were let go. Sue’s folks said to come and stay with them until we got things sorted out.”
“We came this way to check out a new bank branch opening in Steamboat Springs, Colorado,” Sue explained. “We gambled on the weather staying good.”
“We’d have made it to Hartford in a couple more days if we hadn’t hit this blasted storm. Anyway, the Steamboat interview went good. I think I’ll have a job in about six weeks. We’ll move back then.”
“We like Colorado.” Sue smiled at her husband. “Don’t we, honey?”
He nodded. “It’s a great place to bring up a kid. All this open space. Clean air. Are you from here?” he asked Jill.
“No, California.” Both of them looked at her as if she had said Hollywood. The next thing they would ask was if she knew any movie stars, so she said quickly, “But Colorado’s my home now. Are both of you originally from Kansas?”
“Yes.” From Sue’s excited chatter, Jill could tell she was eager to get back home to her parents and the small town where she’d grown up. “Both our grandparents, Gary’s and mine, are still living,” Sue told her. “They were all at our wedding. The church was filled with flowers. And that’s where our baby will be christened.” Her eyes glowed with such happiness that Jill breathed a silent prayer that the good Lord would do his part to make her dream come true.
Both Gary and Sue were interested in hearing about the Mountain Search and Rescue volunteers. As she talked, Jill wondered what challenges the rest of the members were facing. There would be plenty to share when they got together again. “I’ve only answered the phone, until today,” she admitted.
“I guess everything is quiet and peaceful in a place like Rampart”
Jill thought about the nagging worry she’d been living with for the last month. She’d made up her mind to report the disturbing phone calls and weird gifts. She probably should have done it earlier, but she hated to put herself in the public eye. Rampart was a small town, and no doubt the gossip grapevine was hale and hearty. Foolishly, she’d kept hoping that the person would tire of the game, but the suggestive photograph had banished that hope. She had no choice but to go to the sheriff. Maybe just reporting the harassment would put an end to it.
“We could be on our way tomorrow.” Gary smiled at his wife as he said this, but the worried frown on her forehead remained.
“Traveling is hard on anyone,” Jill said. “It’s good that you can rest up before you take off again.” Then, trying to guide the conversation into a lighter vein, Jill asked them if they had names picked out for their baby, and for a few minutes the storm outside was forgotten.
“I remember how excited I was when I was carrying my son.” Jill chatted about her own pregnancy in a bright, uplifting way and was rewarded by a lessening of tension in Sue’s face. When the young woman closed her eyes sleepily, Jill nodded to Gary and they quietly left the room.
“When do you think we can get back on the road?” he asked anxiously once they were in the hall. “I haven’t heard the forecast.”
“Neither have I. If it stops snowing tonight, the roads could be cleared by late tomorrow. Until then, you might as well relax.” She gave him a reassuring smile. “This layover might be a blessing, give your wife a chance to rest up for the last part of your trip. Try to relax. Get some rest yourself.”
“I don’t feel much like resting. Too keyed up.”
Jill had no idea if there wer
e any current magazines or books in the house. She’d only brought one paperback with her, and she doubted the historical romance would be this young man’s choice of reading matter. “Why don’t you look around and see if you can find something to read,” she suggested.
“I like. Sports Illustrated.” He grinned. “Especially the swimsuit issue.”
Jill doubted that Hal Haverly subscribed to anything as cosmopolitan as that, but who knew? She was ready to admit he was an enigma. Gary thanked her again for coming and she urged him to relax. “It’s going to be all right. Better get some rest yourself. You’ve still got a long drive ahead of you.”
He nodded and disappeared back into their bedroom. Jill decided to go down to the kitchen and get the backpack that she had dumped by the back door. She let her hand trail down the polished oak banister as she went downstairs. Just as she reached the bottom step, she heard a fierce banging on the front door and a muffled voice shouting, “Open up! Open up!”
As quickly as she could, she crossed the front foyer and jerked open the door. When a snow-covered skier clutching skis and poles bolted in, she pulled back in surprise. She couldn’t see anything but the man’s eyes through the holes in his ski mask.
“Brrr!” He dropped his skis and poles on the floor, slipped off a backpack, and pulled off the knit face covering. She stared in disbelief at the tall young man with a blond ponytail and an earring in his left ear.
“Thanks, honey. That’s some storm out there.”
“What on earth?” she gasped aloud. “The ski resorts are miles from here. How did you…?”
He laughed at her bewildered expression. “Ever heard of cross-country skiing?”
“In this weather?”
“Wasn’t like this when I started out yesterday. Spent last night in a ski hut on Silver Mountain, but I knew I’d better find my way down before I got stranded without food and wood to keep warm.”
“You’ve been out in this storm all day?” She had no idea where Silver Mountain was, but she couldn’t imagine anyone skiing anywhere in such blinding snow.