When she returned twenty minutes later, Farley was sprawled in a worn upholstered chair, and Connor was at his desk, unwrapping a sandwich. Stacy sat across from him and removed the top from her cup of chicken corn chowder. “That smells good,” he said.
“I could have gotten you some,” she said.
“No, thanks. I’d go broke eating here every day.”
“So would I,” she said. “Fortunately, the government is paying for this.”
He grinned. “My tax dollars at work.”
Farley moved from the chair to sit by her side.
“No begging,” Connor said, his voice stern.
“He’s completely innocent,” Stacy said. “Can’t you tell by his face?”
The dog looked at her with liquid eyes. Eyes not unlike his owner’s, she thought.
The door burst open, and a young man raced in. He pushed his goggles on top of his orange knit hat and stared at them, eyes wide. “There’s a guy in the trees, upside down in a tree well. I tried to pull him out, but I couldn’t. I’m afraid he might be dead.”
Chapter Five
Connor shoved to his feet and took the frightened young man by the arm. “What run is he on?” he asked.
“T-Tessa’s Trees,” the boy stammered. Connor could see now that he was maybe sixteen or seventeen, the barest hint of a mustache over his thin lips, acne dotting his chin.
“Where on Tessa’s Trees?”
“Maybe…halfway down? On the right side. I just saw the bottom of his board. It’s, like, sky blue. I tried to pull him out, but he’s stuck fast. I yelled at him to hang on, but he wasn’t moving or anything. I just flew down the mountain to get here. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You did the right thing.” Connor put a hand on the kid’s shoulder, steadying him. “Is this a friend of yours? Do you know his name?”
The boy shook his head. “I just saw the board and went over to check it out.”
“Was anyone with him?”Or her, Connor thought. It could be a woman under there.
The boy shook his head. “Nobody.”
“All right. Can you ride up with us and show us where this person is?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I can do that.”
Connor was already putting on his jacket. He grabbed his radio and keyed it as he headed for the lift, with the boy, Stacy and Farley in his wake. He could have ordered Stacy to stay behind, but he didn’t want to waste time or his breath. “We’ve got aboarder in a tree well on Tessa’s Trees,” he radioed to his team. “Anyone in the vicinity, meet me over there.”
Farley sat on the lift between Stacy and Connor. The boarder, whose name was Charlie, sat on Connor’s other side. The kid was fidgeting so badly Connor lowered the safety bar.
“What happens now?” Stacy asked, her voice low, one hand on the dog’s back.
“We have to get whoever is trapped out of there.” Connor angled toward her. “Snow can collect around the base of trees, but it doesn’t pack like on the runs. If someone skis or boards over it, the snow gives way beneath them. The well underneath can be deep enough to swallow up a person. The snow can collect around them, trapping them.”
“But how did he end up upside down?” she asked.
“If he hit the edge of the well, the snow could give way and pitch him forward.” A person could smother within minutes as the snow closed around them.
At the top of the lift, the four of them exited, Farley bounding ahead. Charlie took off, leading the way down Desi’s Trees. Connor scanned either side of the run, searching for any sign of a blue snowboard in the trees.
A little more than halfway down the run, Charlie veered to the right. Connor spotted what appeared to be a discarded snowboard, upside down in the snow. He was almost on it before he recognized someone was still attached to the board.
Farley barked and began digging furiously around the trapped boarder’s feet. Connor unstrapped a folding shovel from his pack and began digging. Brian Weeks arrived seconds later and began shoveling too. Within a couple of minutes, the two men and the dog had cleared the boarder almost to the waist, but the person hadn’t moved or made a single sound.
