been skiing, so didn’t have any, of course, but she had no idea how she’d explain her presence here if pressured.
Cade frowned and stood tall, squinting as he skimmed the slope behind Leah. “What can you tell me about your friend? The man you were with?”
Leah’s heart stuttered. She forced a calmness into her expression she didn’t feel. “What man? I wasn’t with anyone.” True enough.
What am I doing? Why lie about Snyder now? Confusion crept over her like the cold trying to slip into the thermal blanket. She wasn’t sure how to handle this. But one thing she felt all the way to her chilled core: she wasn’t out of danger yet.
Snyder might not be working alone. That meant she had to stay on her guard and she couldn’t trust anyone. Until she discovered why he’d killed Tim that night and what he wanted from Leah besides her life, she couldn’t be safe. That meant she needed to disappear again somehow. And when she was gone, the less people in this area knew about her or what had happened to her, the better.
Cade stared down at her, his pensive gaze taking her in once again, wringing her insides as though he’d have the truth from her.
“Okay, then,” he said. “There was a witness—someone who’d seen the avalanche and called it in. He reported seeing a man and woman go under. We have another victim out here somewhere, and I need to help find him. If you think you’re not hurt, and are able, you can search, too. There’s only me and my partner until another team arrives, but they’ll take too long. And our witness seems to have disappeared after pointing me in your direction.”
What? He had no idea what he asked of her. How could she make herself help find the man who only moments before had tried to kill her?
Cade must have noticed her reaction. She saw suspicion in his eyes.
“Are you okay to rest here, then, while I help?”
No. She wasn’t okay. She didn’t want him to go. She hadn’t felt this safe, this secure, in so very long. And those things poured from this man. She’d never needed that before, and the realization stunned her. But she reminded herself she couldn’t afford to need anyone. To trust anyone. “Sure, I’ll be fine.”
“Someone will be here soon to evacuate you.”
Leah nodded and searched the canyon, reliving that moment only a few days ago when Detective Nick Snyder had shot and killed her boss, Tim Levins, in cold blood.
Tim was a lawyer and Leah was his legal investigator. She’d been leaving town that night for a three-week vacation. Tim had insisted she go and use the bonus he’d given her as thanks for her two years of service in his office. He’d bought her a present, too—a necklace that she’d forgotten on her desk in her rush to put everything in order before leaving. She’d stopped by the office late that night to pick it up, not wanting to hurt his feelings if he noticed that she’d left it behind.
Deep down, she knew she had wanted to stop by the office for more than just the necklace. She’d had a feeling something was wrong...that Tim had been trying to hide things from her. He’d been a little too insistent that she use the bonus to go on a long vacation. So she’d gone back to investigate.
She’d liked Tim, but thanks to the trauma of her childhood, she’d never met anyone she trusted, her lawyer boss included.
She’d arrived just in time to witness Tim’s murder. And Snyder—a decorated, trusted police detective and the town’s hero—had come for her.
So she’d disappeared on her own to figure it all out. It had seemed impossible that he’d find her in the remote cabin hidden deep in the Inside Passage of Alaska, hundreds of miles from Kincaid, the small town in the Seattle metropolis where she worked and lived.
Tim had recently inherited the cabin from a distant uncle. He’d wanted Leah to do some research for him regarding the man’s daughter, who Tim thought should have inherited the place. But the woman had vanished. With their case loads, researching anything about the cabin had been put on the back burner.
And when she’d known she had to run and hide, the cabin had been the perfect choice because she’d thought no one had known about the place or had any reason to connect it to her. That is, until she’d spotted Snyder at the cabin.
Until she found out why he’d killed Tim, she couldn’t be sure Snyder had been acting alone, which meant Leah didn’t know who she could turn to with what she’d seen. There could be others in the department who could make her disappear.
Pulling the thermal blanket tighter, she tried to ward off the double chill that told her she wasn’t out of danger, even if Snyder died on the mountain today.
* * *
Cade and Isaiah were still fruitlessly probing for the other avalanche victim when the whir of an additional helicopter echoed beyond the spruce trees covered in white icing. The second mountain rescue team had arrived.
He glanced up the hill at Isaiah who gave a shake of his head. By this time, it was highly unlikely the second victim would survive.
Disappointment corded through Cade and pulled tight. He glanced over to where rescue team members were already preparing to evacuate the woman and reminded himself that he’d succeeded, at least, in saving her. This could have turned out much differently for her. They could be placing her in a body bag right now, as they might be doing in a few minutes when they discovered the other victim. His chances of survival after all this time were almost zero. But they would continue the search for as long as they could safely do so.
Cade’s thoughts tracked back to the five snowboarding victims.
Five body bags.
Earlier in the week Cade and Isaiah had hiked into the backcountry to out-of-the-way paths in the higher elevations. On the north ridge they’d found packed cornices—heavy snow blown in by the wind and overhanging a ridge. After dozens of compression tests to determine the strength or weakness of the snow layers, Cade had been ready to call it a week when they’d received the callout for the snowboarders.
Before the mountain rescue team had even been able to begin searching for the snowboarders, Cade and Isaiah had tossed scores of explosives to trigger the snow that remained above the avalanche—the hangfire snow. Stabilizing the area so that the mountain rescue team could go in. All part of their jobs as avalanche specialists. That, and forecasting and educating the public. While rescuers had shoveled several feet of snow to uncover the victims, their hapless friends or family watching from the sidelines nearly always asked why this was happening to them.
There was no one standing on the sidelines today for either this woman or the other victim.
David, Cade’s older brother, was leading the second team. When he spotted Cade, he approached. “Tell me.”
Cade pointed to the debris field and explained what the witness had said. “We figured with the victim’s trajectory and where we found the woman, this would be the likely catchment area. But as you can see, we’re still probing.”
David grabbed Cade’s shoulder. “You did good, man. You saved someone today. You can take that to heart. Now go home and celebrate. We got this. We’re already setting up a probe line and shovel crew. Handlers are bringing the search and rescue dogs in, too.”
As David jogged
