drunk the first one,’ said Mauser.
‘You sure do,’ said Little Dick.
‘They got twenty on their tab already,’ said the barman, smiling. ‘It’s like, bam – Will Smith, Men in Black.’
Mauser smiled. ‘This is what stranger danger is all about.’
Ren laughed. ‘But I’m really not drinking,’ she said, sliding her two toward her. She sucked each one up through a black straw. ‘Wow.’
Mauser raised his. Little Dick followed. ‘And we’ll go again, sir,’ said Mauser to the barman.
‘Ooh,’ said Ren.
An hour later, Mauser was leaning in to her. ‘I’m not an advice column here, but this Vincent guy is insane. That’s all I’ll say.’
‘Letting a pretty girl like you go,’ said Little Dick.
‘Aw, Vincent’s a really good guy –’ said Ren.
‘Insane!’ said Mauser.
‘Insane!’ said Little Dick.
‘I’m the insane one,’ said Ren.
‘Really?’ Mauser slapped the bar in front of them and looked at her with dancing eyes. ‘Join the party, sweetheart.’
And she did, smiling a slow-spreading MindErasersmile.
Breckenridge was between busy holiday weekends – Martin Luther King Day had just passed and Presidents’ Day was a month away. Kids were back at school. It was seven a.m. and skiers and snowboarders were heading to breakfast early before they hit slopes they were about to find out were quieter than they expected.
Bob Gage sat in Daylight Donuts spinning the playing card he was given when he placed his order. The ace of spades. He nodded his head to the beat. He was on his second coffee when a waitress walked by with the matching card and stepped back a few paces to his table to lay down her tray. She handed him a plate of bacon, egg, biscuits and gravy. His cellphone started to ring. He mouthed a thank you to her as he answered it.
‘Sheriff Gage? It’s Patrick Transom. I’m sorry. I tried to be understanding. I mean, I do understand. But I’ve had time to think about everything and … I want my sister. I need my sister back. I’m not going to wait months for warm weather to …’ His voice caught. ‘I … understand that Search and Rescue doesn’t want to go back up there. But I do. I’m an –’
‘Mr Transom, you’re right. It’s not safe up there. A snow assessment’s being done this morning, but –’
‘I don’t care if it’s not safe,’ said Patrick. ‘I want to –’
‘We cannot let you do that,’ said Bob. ‘It’s a crime scene up there as far as we’re concerned. We can’t let anyone in there. I’m sure you understand that. You probably haven’t slept, and maybe this seems like the only solution right now …’
‘If the snow report is good, if the conditions are stable enough, can I go?’
‘No. But …’ He paused. ‘OK … if the snow report comes back good, we’ll head on up there.’ He pushed his plate away from him. ‘I’ll get in touch with Search and Rescue.’
Gary Dettling pulled up into the small driveway at the Firelight Inn. The street was quiet. He turned off the engine and waited. After five minutes, he texted Ren. He got no reply. He knocked at the door of the inn. The owner was on his way out with a snow shovel.
‘Sorry to bother you,’ said Gary. ‘I’m looking for a woman checked in last night, Ren Bryce?’
‘Oh, yes … I’m sure she’s gone already.’
‘What?’
‘About twenty minutes ago.’
Gary shook his head slowly. ‘Great. Thanks.’
Ren sat in Bob Gage’s office holding a mug of coffee on her knee. She had started the day with Visine and extra foundation. A notebook lay on the low coffee table beside her and she was twisted in her chair to scribble on it. A night of drinking could take her to instant mental clarity or thick mental fog. Today, she was all-clear. RenBryce OS X. She smiled to herself.
‘Hey,’ said Gary, walking in, nodding at Bob and Mike, Gressett and Todd.
‘Wasn’t I meant to pick you up?’ he said to Ren.
‘Oh. Didn’t you get my text?’ said Ren, pulling out her phone, about to show him the text that she now saw was pending in her Outbox.
‘What were you doing, walking?’ said Gary.
‘I wanted to blast some cold air through my tiny mind.’
‘You didn’t think you were going to get enough up on Quandary?’
Gary had nearly been a lawyer. Ren was reminded of this with every question-after-question barrage. Gary Dettling couldn’t stand the thought of being made a fool of with lies.
‘Yeah and we’re going up up,’ said Bob, putting down the phone. ‘That was Search and Rescue. Patrick Transom called me an hour ago, insisting we go back up to try and retrieve the body. To be honest, I thought the snow assessment wouldn’t be good, so I said we’d give it a go. Turns out there was no snowfall overnight, the winds were less than five miles an hour, so we’re good to go.’
‘Can we all go up?’ said Ren.
‘Sure,’ said Bob. ‘I know I’m really looking forward to it …’
Ren gave him a sad smile. ‘You shouldn’t go back up. We can take care of –’
‘You know what?’ said Bob. ‘You’re right.’
‘Really?’ said Ren.
‘Yeah,’ he said, placing his palms down on his desk. ‘Take your digital cameras, video it, photograph it… and I’ll be down at the base with clean underpants.’
Ren could see that Gary wasn’t impressed. Mr Action Hero.
‘Good for you,’ said Ren to Bob.
‘For whatever good it will do, going up there,’ said Bob. ‘We’re not going to find her.’
‘Probably not,’ said Mike. ‘But maybe Transom will feel better being part of the search.’
‘Like all the families who look all over Breck for their father or brother or son or daughter who left a bar drunk in a blizzard and never made it back to the condo …’
Mike let out a breath. ‘What else can we do?’
‘Come
