by Leona Karr
Hal ignored him. “How far did you get, Zack?”
His ranch hand shrugged. “Maybe halfway…maybe not. Until the wind dies down, it’s plain stupid to be out there throwing more snow in the air.”
“Seems like the sensible thing to do is wait,” Scotty agreed. “And we’re not even sure the truck will start when we get there.”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Hal answered shortly. “Come on, fishermen. Let’s go.” He turned to Jill. “Sorry, but you’ll have to stay here.”
“I—”
“Forget it. If we find the truck, if it starts, and if the phone is working, I’ll make the 911 call.”
If there’d been any way she could have reached the phone on her own, she would have defied him. Without his willing consent, she was stymied. “But I wanted to call Randy,” she protested as if this might have some influence on him.
“I’ll check on him. Make sure he’s okay. Anything you want me to tell him?” he asked gently, wanting to take her in his arms again. If the other men hadn’t been there, he’d have ignored the stiffness in her manner and pulled her close.
Jill bit her lip. She wanted to hear her son’s voice. It seemed ages since she’d hurriedly kissed him goodbye. So many things had happened that she felt they’d been separated for weeks instead of just three days. Relaying messages wasn’t the same thing as talking to him. “Just tell him that I’ll be home soon…that I miss him…and love him…and…” Her voice trailed off as a swell of emotion choked her.
“I’ll give him the message.” One of his hands cupped her chin as he looked down into her eyes. “I promise.”
She forgot about the horrible discovery in the barn, as the warmth of his eyes seeped through her. For a moment, there was nothing ugly between them. Then she heard herself say, “And make that call to the sheriff.”
“Sheriff?” Zack echoed. Larry and Scotty looked puzzled, and Kirby frowned as the three men exchanged quick looks.
“Why tie up the phone lines with something that can wait?” Hal asked in a dismissive tone.
“Because he needs to know.” Jill knew with sickening certainty that he wasn’t going to make the call. He’d had time to call the sheriff before the phones went out, and he hadn’t done it. Now, more than ever, she wanted to get to the cellular phone, but she couldn’t see any way to defy Hal’s orders to stay in the house.
“What’s she talking about, boss?” Zack asked.
“Some guy got stranded in his car. He must have thought he was going to freeze to death and decided to take a quicker way out. He shot himself.”
A flicker of caution kept her silent. Until she could tell someone else about her discovery, she’d better play along.
“I think we ought to take care of first things first,” Hal said briskly. “Come on, Scotty.”
“Keep your fingers crossed,” the Scotsman told Jill. “Could be we’re making all this effort for nothing.”
“Happy shoveling,” Zack told them with a grin as the two men left the den.
Jill walked with them to the front door. She was secretly hoping that conditions might have changed enough so that she could insist on going with them, but as the door swung open, a blast of snow poured through the opening, and the wind howled like a wounded beast. She knew there was no chance of Hal changing his mind.
“Holy cow!” cried Scotty.
Suddenly Jill was fearful that even strong men like Hal and Scotty would be at risk trying to make their way through the quickening blizzard. She remembered Hal telling her about people losing their way and freezing to death before finding their way back to the house. “Be careful! Don’t get lost. I don’t want to have to come after you two,” she yelled.
She thought Hal laughed but couldn’t be sure. As the two men put their heads down and pushed outside, she wanted to call them back. One minute they were in the doorway, and the next they had disappeared into a curtain of whipping snow. Jill had to put all her weight behind the door to close it.
She turned around just as Larry came down the hall from the den. “Come on, Jill. Kirby’s spreading out lunch.”
“Thank you, but I’m not hungry.”
“Sure you are. Food and drink are the antidotes for any trouble.” Strands of his blond hair waved wetly around his tanned face. “I’ve been trying to get Zack to tune up his guitar. Nothing like music to set the world right. All we need is the company of a pretty gal,” he coaxed as he smiled down at her. “You have to do your bit to keep our spirits up. No telling what Hal will send us out to do next. Besides, we’re having the cook’s specialty—cold beef sandwiches. Again.”
Maybe waiting for Hal and Scotty to come back would be less stressful if she had lunch with the others. Gary would come and get her if Sue or the baby needed her. She sincerely appreciated what the skier and Zack had done to help out, and she didn’t want to appear rude or standoffish. “All right, I’ll join you for a little bit.”
HAL COULDN’T HEAR anything but the driving wind as they pushed ahead through the narrow passage that Zack and Larry had dug. Just as Zack had predicted, the. wind was busily filling up the shoveled path with blowing snow. Already the depth in the passage was back up to Hal’s knees. Fortunately, the powdered snow was soft and light, and they made pretty good time until they came to the high drift where Zack and Larry had stopped shoveling. Blocked by the bank of snow, Hal couldn’t see anything ahead. He hoped the blockage wasn’t a solid drift. As wind swept across the open ground, it made irregular mounds of snow, some shallow, some deep.
Side by side, like a pair of automatic shovels, Hal and Scotty dug their way forward. As the wind whipped around them, flying snow filled their eyes, ears and mouths. The only directional reference they had was a tall light pole that stood at the end of the drive, where Scotty said he’d left the truck.
Hal had to keep stopping to clear his vision and to make sure that they hadn’t been wandering off course. He hoped to heaven Scotty was clear about where he’d abandoned his truck. Their laborious efforts seemed to go on forever. Hal fretted at the snail’s pace. The clearing in front of the house seemed to stretch a mile even though he knew it was far less. Despite the fact that he was in good physical condition, his muscles were beginning to protest at the brutal exercise. If they didn’t reach the truck soon—
Scotty let out a yell. “Yahoo! Here she be!”
They might have missed the vehicle buried in the high drift if they’d been shoveling farther to the left. Just the black roof of the camper bed on the back of the pickup was visible in the mound of white snow.
With renewed energy, they dug away the snow until they could open the passenger-side front door. Scotty slipped in behind the steering wheel and Hal beside him. Once inside, the two men just sat in the front seat for a few minutes, breathing heavily, savoring victory over the forces of cold, snow, wind, and their own muscles.
Hal looked at the rectangular cellular phone mounted on the dash and his chilled body was suffused with new apprehension. What if the damn thing didn’t work? He turned to Scotty sitting behind the wheel. “Well, give the engine a try. See if she’ll start.”
Scotty fumbled in his pants pockets with his thickly gloved fingers. When his hands came up empty from one pocket and he shifted in the seat to try the other one, Hal choked back a spurt of exasperation. “You didn’t forget the keys, did you?”
Scotty frowned. “They’re here somewhere.” He finally jerked off his right glove and searched his pockets again. This time his round face broke into a grin as he pulled the keys from an inside jacket pocket. Finally locating the right key, he inserted it in the ignition. Hal’s chest tightened as Scotty turned the key.
A responding sputter from the engine was at once promising and threatening. There was still power in the battery, but only a few tries could wear it down.
“Start, damn you, start,” Scotty mumbled. As if his cursing had some effect, a few grinding sounds later, the engine sputtered, coughed and caught.
“Good girl.” Scotty laughed and patted the steering wheel. “Hasn’t let me down yet. We’ve been through a lot together. I don’t call her Queenie for nothing.”
To Hal’s relief, the cellular phone made a beeping sound and responded with a lighted face and a flash of its cellular number.
“There you go.” Scotty handed the phone to Hal. “Make your calls. Dial the number and push the ‘Send’ button.”
The emergency 911 number was answered immediately. As succinctly as he could, Hal identified himself and explained the situation. “We have to have medical assistance for the mother and baby immediately.”
The dispatcher’s response was evasive and Hal’s voice rose. “Don’t tell me there’s no way to get anyone here. Find a way! I’m staying on the line until you make the arrangements.”
Scotty chuckled. “That’s telling them.”
There was a muffled exchange on the other end. Then a man came on the line and identified himself as a paramedic with the county hospital. “The only option we have is to try to bring the mother and infant in by helicopter. Is there a clear spot near your house where it would be feasible to land? No trees, cliffs, or canyons.”
Hal’s mind quickly ran through the possibilities. “There’s a pasture on the west side of the house. The wind always whips across it and piles up the snow around the bordering fences. If you land there, we can shovel out a gate and you’ll be able to bring a stretcher to the back of house and pick up the patient.”
“All right. But we won’t be able to make the lift until tomorrow. Wind is supposed to die down by then. If it doesn’t, we won’t be able to put a whirlybird in the air.”
Hal wanted to argue that tomorrow was too long to wait, but common sense told him they’d be lucky if the weather settled down enough by then to land a copter. “I understand,” said Hal with a prayerful breath that for once the forecasters would be right
“Shall we say high noon? We’ll fly over the locale and check it out. If we can land, we will. If not, you’ll have to wait until ground rescue can make it.”
“I hope to hell that’s not the case,” Hal answered
“We’ll do our best.”
There was nothing more Hal could do but assure the man that he’d have the mother and baby ready for transport once the copter landed. Before he hung up, he asked if there was anything they could do for their patient in the meantime.
“Give her aspirin and keep her comfortable.”
And call me in the morning, Hal silently finished with a sour curve to his lips.
Scotty had been listening to the one-sided conversation with undisguised curiosity. “They’re going to send a whirlybird?”
Hal nodded.
“When?”
“Tomorrow. They’ll land in the west pasture. We’ll have to dig out the gate so they can bring a stretcher to the back door. Of course, everything depends upon the wind dying down. If it’s safe to land, they’ll set down about noon. I hope to heaven Sue isn’t any worse by then.”
“There’s not much we can do about it if she is,” Scotty said philosophically.
Hal dialed the Rampart Mountain Rescue office and recognized Randy’s eager voice, “Mountain Search and Rescue.”
“Hi, Randy. It’s Hal Haverly. Your mom asked me to call and check up on you.”
“Is she all right?”
“Fine. She sends her love. How are things going? You doing okay?”
“Wow, you wouldn’t believe this place.” His boyish voice vibrated with excitement. “What a bummer of a storm. All kinds of calls coming in. I keep telling ‘em to call the sheriff or 911.” With a tinge of bragging, Randy told him about all the emergency calls that had come in and how he and Zeb were completely on top of the situation.
“Good job. I’ll tell her that she left good men in charge. You’ll have some stories to tell when this is over. Your mom’s mighty proud of you.”
“We tried to call the ranch but couldn’t get through.”
“Our telephone lines are down. I’m using a cellular phone in a friend’s truck.”
“Zeb and I have been worried. We were thinking that maybe Mom shouldn’t have gone.” There was a slight hint of blame in his boyish tone. “She’s never gone out on a call before.”
“We couldn’t have managed without her, Randy,” Hal said sincerely. “She’s a special lady.” He could have added that she was an intelligent and strong-willed woman, utterly feminine and provocative. He settled for a contrite admission. “I never realized what a remarkable mother you have. I can see why you’re proud of her. Anyway, she wanted me to call and see how things were going.”
“When do you think she’ll be coming home?” There was less bravado in the question and more of a little boy wanting his mother.
“Maybe as early as tomorrow. If the wind dies down, they’ll start clearing the roads.”
“Did Calico have her foal?” Randy asked eagerly.
Hal smiled, remembering how wide-eyed the boy had been when Hal had explained to the 4-H youths how mares were mated with certain stallions to keep a line going. “Sure did. A beautiful spotted filly.”
“Awesome.”
“Haven’t named her yet. You’ll have to come out and give me some ideas. Your mother calls her Princess.”
“Ugh!”
Hal chuckled. “Maybe we can outvote her.”
“Did Mom say she wanted to learn to ride?” Randy asked hopefully.
“No. But you should have seen her help feed and water the horses.”
“My mom?”
Hal laughed at his astonishment. “For a city gal, she didn’t do half bad.”
“Maybe she’ll bring me out to the ranch lots now,” he said wistfully.
“Maybe,” Hal answered, but there wasn’t much conviction in his tone. He didn’t know what had happened, but he sensed a gulch a mile wide between them. He must have come on too strong, frightened her with the exploding desire that made him want her more than he’d ever wanted any woman.
“I was kinda hoping that you two might be friends now,” Randy said with touching honesty.
“To tell the truth, I was kinda hoping the same thing,” Hal admitted.
After he said goodbye and hung up the phone, he didn’t say anything until Scotty made a noise that might have been a snicker. Hal glared at him. “What was that for?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all.”
“All right, out with it.”
Scotty chuckled again. “It’s just that I never thought I’d see the day. That pretty gal’s about to get you hog-tied. My, my, when the tough ones fall, they fall hard.”
“Mind your own business, Scotty.”
“Sure…sure. Just making a harmless observation.”
Hal dialed another number.
“Who you calling now?”
“Jerry’s garage.” Hal was relieved when a gravelly voice on the other end answered on the third ring.
“Hi, Jerry. This is Hal. I’m at the ranch. Our phone lines are down, but I’m using Scotty McClure’s cellular truck phone.”
“This modern stuff beats all, don’t it? What can I do you for?”
“I need to have you send me out a battery as soon as the roads are open. Maybe even one of the fellows headed this way with a snowplow could drop it by.”
“Sure thing, but it ain’t going to be today. The way this thing is settling in, it may have to be tomorrow or the next”
“Make it as soon as you can. I’ve got some important things to do and I’m stuck without my Bronco.”
Jerry just snorted, and Hal knew he was rightly disgusted with people like himself who waited until an emergency arose before taking care of things like a worn-out battery.
“Are you through with all your calls?” Scotty asked when Hal hung up. “What about the sheriff? Jill wanted you to call him. Remember?”
“I remember.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“Well, are you going to do it?
What’s this all about, Hal? Is there something going on that I don’t know about?” Scotty looked puzzled.
“I’ve had a call in to Sheriff Perkins’s office for a week.”
His closed expression stopped Scotty from asking any more questions. “Well, then, I guess we can get back to the house,” the Scotsman said.
“Is there anyone you want to call, Scotty?” Hal asked. “Might as well take care of everything while we’re here.”
The Scotsman shook his head. “There’s nobody at my place. Everything’s shut down for the winter. That’s why I headed this way when my power went out. By the way, I’ve got some foodstuff in the truck’s camper that we could take back with us. Kirby said he was running short on flour, beans and a few other things I’ve got stashed away. Feeding eight people, three times a day, takes a lot of grub. You’re darn lucky to have a cook like Kirby.”
Hal had to agree. The truth was, he’d gotten so used to Kirby’s cooking that good meals were something he took for granted. He didn’t know what he would have done if Kirby hadn’t been around to cook for the stranded guests. The fare would have been a darn sight skimpier, he knew that.
“Okay, but we’d better make it back before Jill panics and sends someone out to rescue us. Or comes herself,” he added with a wry smile.
AS JILL AND LARRY entered the den, she looked around in surprise. From what Larry had said about food, drink and music, she had expected that Kirby and Zack were waiting there for lunch. “Where is everyone?”
“Oh, they’ll be along. Let’s sit over here by the bar.” He motioned to a corner sofa on the far side of the room. “Kirby put out these sandwiches and coffee. How about a beer or something stronger to whet your appetite?”
“No, thanks. Coffee is fine.” She sank down wearily on the couch. Her emotions had been on a roller coaster since she woke up that morning in Hal’s bed. She was already regretting her decision to stay downstairs and make conversation. She only took half a sandwich from the tray Larry offered.