But the thought of leaving her out here alone, in the cold, tore at him. He cupped his gloved hands to either side of his mouth. “Lily!” he shouted again.
Hunter barked, then bounded away. “Hunter! Come back here!” Scott stumbled after the dog. “Where are you going?”
Then Scott saw the light—a small bluish moon bobbing through the trees in the shrouded darkness.
Hunter barked again, and raced toward the light.
“Over here!” a woman called. “I’ve found something!”
LILY HAD SPOTTEDthe shoe print half an hour before, just when she was about to turn around and make her way back to her car. It was the clear impression of a single ski boot, but boy-sized, about twelve inches long. Just the one clear print in a line of trampled snow, as if someone had traveled this way.
She followed that trail of disturbed snow, Shelby right in front of her. The dog began to whine. “Do you smell Jackson?” Lily asked.
Heart in her throat, she tried to move faster. The narrow beam of the light from her headlamp allowed her to avoid the largest obstacles in her path, but outside of that light was a black void.
Shelby barked again, then whirled and barreled past Lily, almost knocking her over.
“Shelby!” Lily shouted, but the dog paid no attention.
Lily peered ahead, trying to determine what had made the dog change direction so suddenly. Was there a big animal up ahead—a mountain lion?
In the distance, another dog barked. Not Shelby. Lily turned to look behind her again. Shelby barked in answer, then Lily heard someone calling her name.
Relief surged through her. She wasn’t going to have to do this alone. “Over here!” she shouted. “I’ve found something.”
She told herself she should have been surprised to see Scott moving toward her, but she wasn’t. He knew her feelings about Jackson’s possible fate, and he was just stubborn enough to venture out in the darkness to look for her.
He arrived just behind the two excited dogs—red-faced and scowling. “What are you doing out here by yourself?” he growled.
“I think you already know the answer to that question,” she said. She dipped her head to illuminate the path at their feet. “I’ve been following this trail. I think it’s Jackson’s.”
His frown didn’t fade. “This trail could have been made by anything. You could be following an elk, or even a moose.”
“Earlier, there was a boot print. A clear impression, just the size of a boy Jackson’s age. Come on. Maybe we can catch up with him.”
She started forward, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back. “You’re going to get hurt if you keep floundering around in the dark.”
She tipped her head enough to shine her light right in his eyes, fully prepared to tell him he had no right to lecture her as if she were a child. But then she realized all of the redness on his face wasn’t due to the cold. She lifted her hand to his cheek, but stopped just short of touching him. “You’re bleeding.”
He put a hand up and smeared the trickle of blood. “It’s nothing. I tripped and fell a little way back.”
“You can’t just stand there bleeding. Do you have a first aid kit?”
“It’s nothing,” he repeated. “I’ll deal with it back at the cars.”
She turned away. “I’m not going back. Not when I finally found Jackson’s trail. If he’s out here, I’m not going to leave him.”
He took out his phone. “I’ll make note of the GPS coordinates and we can come out here in the morning, with the search-and-rescue team.”
“No. By then it might be too late.”
“Lily!”
“Scott!” she mimicked his tone and glared at him. “I’ll be fine. I know how to take care of myself, and I have a satellite phone if I run into trouble.”
“Where did you get a satellite phone?”
“I borrowed it from a friend.”
