“One flight a day. But until they have a clue where to look, that’s a shot in the dark. An expensive one. If the kid’s last name wasn’t Endicott, I doubt they’d be doing that.”
“Lily and I skied over to Pandora yesterday,” he said. “No one was there. It didn’t look like anyone had been there since the first snow.”
“You and Lily Alton?”
“She was Jackson’s nanny. He’d be more likely to come to her than a stranger.”
“Guess so. Was there something in particular you needed to see me about this morning?”
“No.” Scott shoved to his feet. “I just wanted to know if you’d heard anything about Jackson.”
“I’ll let you know if I do.”
From Doug’s office, he made his way to ski patrol headquarters. Lily was waiting at the door, Shelby at her side. “You’re early,” he said as he unlocked the door.
“Only by a few minutes,” she said. She moved quickly past him into the office, but not before he saw the shadows beneath her eyes. She was probably as exhausted as he was. He was tempted to tell her to take a sick day and go home, but he couldn’t play favorites. She would probably resent the suggestion, anyway.
Over the next quarter of an hour, the rest of the team reported in. They fed the dogs, gathered their gear and assembled for the morning meeting. With light snow overnight, they had some routine avalanche mitigation to do, targeting the areas most likely to be unstable. “We need to plan on a delayed opening for Lifts 11 and 12,” Scott said. “After all the lifts are running, we need to reposition the pads on the lift towers for Lift 6. And the snow fence is down in part of the mid-mountain terrain park, so Raz, you and Trey take care of that.”
He read off each team member’s duties for the day, then dismissed them. As Lily gathered her gear, Scott found her. “How are you feeling this morning?” he asked.
She stowed a water bottle in her pack and zipped it shut. “I’m fine.”
“How is Shelby?”
“She’s fine, too. We both crashed after we got home yesterday.”
“I’m sorry if I was too hard on you yesterday,” he said.
She finally looked at him, clearly surprised. “You weren’t. You were right. If I’m going to do this work, I need to protect Shelby, even when she won’t protect herself.” She leaned closer, her voice a little softer. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“I was remembering what you told me, about your friend. The one who was killed in an avalanche. You must think of him every time you’re called out to search.”
“Yeah. I do.” He had to force the words out over the sudden constriction in his throat. “But you probably think about your brother.”
“Yes…but I don’t think it’s the same for me. I wasn’t with him when he died. I wasn’t there for the search, either. It was only after I started training with Shelby that I even thought about it much.”
“I don’t think these searches are easy on anyone. Maybe that’s something we need to stress more in training—the emotional toll this can take.”
She shrugged on her pack, then donned her helmet. “We’ll get through it,” she said, and left.
He followed her out the door a few moments later and spotted her standing with Denny Endicott. “Scott!” she called, and waved him over.
He jogged over to them. “Everything okay?” he asked, looking from her to Endicott. The grieving father didn’t look any better than he had the day before, his skin pale, eyes hollow. “Do you know where I can find Doug?” Endicott asked. “He isn’t in his office.”
“I can see if I can raise him on the radio.” Scott unclipped the radio from his pack. “What do you need?”
“I got another message this morning. From the kidnapper. They say they still have Jackson. They say I have to cooperate if I want to see my son again.”
TEN MINUTES LATER, Lily stood with Scott and Denny in Doug Elam’s office. Doug had summoned the sheriff, but he wasn’twaiting to question Endicott. “What do they mean, cooperate?” he asked. “What do they want you to do?”
“I don’t know. Someone called right after I received the note and said there would be more instructions later.” He looked down at the note that lay on the corner of Doug’s desk. Like the first, it was written on plain paper, and Denny had placed it into a clear plastic bag. “I asked to speak to Jackson, to prove he really is alive, but they wouldn’t let me.”
“If they say they have him, that must mean he’s alive,” Lily said.
“It could be a hoax.”
