“Did anyone see anything? Was anyone where they shouldn’t have been?”
“No one saw anything,” Connor said. “How did you get here so quickly?”
“I was at the base area when I heard the explosion,” she said. “Someone said it was ski patrol doing avalanche mitigation, but I didn’t think you did that in the middle of the afternoon.”
“What else did you hear? Does anyone know anything?”
“Someone standing around the bottom of Lift Ten speculated it was a charge ski patrol lost track of, that detonated on its own.”
“We didn’t lose track of anything,” he said, a hard edge to the words. “No way are we going to take the fall for this.”
“So you think this was one of the stolen cast boosters,” she said.
“How do you know about that?” One of the other patrollers—Brian, a golden retriever by his side—spoke up. He sent Connor an accusing look.
“I know because I need to know,” Stacy said.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Brian asked.
“She’s law enforcement,” Nina said.
Brian turned to her. “How do you know that?”
“Come on,” Nina said. “Just look at her.”
Connor didn’t needNina to tell him to look at Stacy, since he had a hard time keeping his eyes off of her. He couldn’t remember the last time he found a woman so distracting. As he focused on her now, he saw an attractive brunette who gazed back at them with a hint of a challenge in her expression. Then Stacy nodded. “Right. Now that we have that cleared up.” She turned to Connor. “Did anyone see anything suspicious?”
“No,” he said. “And no one we talked to immediately afterward reported seeing anything. The only person who was injured said he was by himself on the ridge.”
“I’ll need his name,” she said. “It’s possible he was up on that ridge to launch the cast booster.”
“I’ll get his name to you,” Connor said.
“We need to put out an appeal to the public,” Stacy said. “Someone knows something—we just have to find them.”
“Doug isn’t going to like that,” Connor said. “He won’t want to upset potential visitors.”
“I can overrule Doug,” she said.
Her father moved in beside her. “Maybe if we can figure out why this was done, that will help determine who,” he said.
“To frighten people?” Lily suggested.
“Or to hurt people,” Brian said.
“I think they were practicing,” Connor said.
“Practicing for what?” Anders asked.
“They didn’t steal one cast booster,” Connor said. “They stole four boxes. They must want to blow something up. Or a lot of somethings. But if you’ve never used this stuff before, you don’t know its capabilities. I think whoever did this today was testing, seeing what it took to set off a snowslide. They chose a steep but out of the way area, but it’s just luck they didn’t do more damage. Next time they’ll know to adjust their aim.”
“What are you doing to make sure there isn’t a next time?” Nina addressed the question to Stacy and George.
Stacy glared at her, then pulled Connor away from the group. “I think Dad and I should talk to Shane.”
“Undercover?” George asked. “Or as law enforcement?”
“Undercover,” she said. “I’ll tell him we heard about the stolen explosives and were here today when the avalanche triggered. I’ll ask if his people had anything to do with this.”
