Cold Pursuit

Twenty-Six

Nora knew she needed to calm down and keep herself from sweating in order to retain body heat, but she couldn’t help herself. She broke into a run, her heart pounding with excitement. For the first time since she’d started up the mountain, she didn’t care about the weight of her backpack. She’d found it-she’d discovered what Drew Cameron had been up to on the north side of Cameron Mountain.

It made sense now…why he’d asked for Devin’s help, why he’d come up here in April.

She made herself stop running and hold her breath to the count of three, then exhaled slowly as she crept up the last few yards to a small cabin-a tiny little house, really. It was obviously new, not quite finished, built on what appeared to be an old foundation. If she imagined the land cleared and a well and some roads and maybe a neighbor closer than there were any now, the location, on level ground just beyond a quiet, beautiful cluster of tall evergreens, was perfect.

With the dense woods and all the contours on that side of the mountain-the dips and sags and knolls and gullies-Nora could see why no one had come upon the cabin in April. Devin had found Drew’s body at least two hundred yards through the trees near the trail down to the old logging road. It might as well have been a million miles.

Forcing herself to breathe normally, she pushed open the solid wood door and entered the cabin. It was small, smaller, even, than her room at home. The interior smelled of fresh wood. It had brand-new glass windows on one side of the front door and on each of the side walls and the back wall, but the walls themselves were unfinished. Open beams crisscrossed in the ceiling, and there was a second door on the back wall.

Nora looked around for nests-mice, bats, squirrels-but didn’t see any. There was no insulation, no wiring, no generator-no outhouse, even. A simple black woodstove stood against the windowless wall, but it wasn’t hooked up yet. Lengths of round metal stovepipe for a metal chimney were stacked neatly next to the stove, and Nora wondered if Drew had been on his way up here in April to install it.

Why hadn’t he ducked in here for shelter? She couldn’t imagine him getting lost, even in the snow. She hadn’t really known him, but he’d struck her as a man as rugged and competent as his sons, just older.

“I can’t wait to tell Devin,” she whispered.

He was searching in another spot on the other side of the evergreens. They’d agreed to take a look around for what Drew had been building, then go on back down the mountain and talk to Jo and Elijah-one or both of them-about Melanie. Nora had obsessed all night and finally came to her senses. Her concerns about Melanie were real, she’d decided, but she had to keep them in perspective.

And of course her father wasn’t involved in Alex’s death.

Alex had often warned her against speculating ahead of the facts.

He was right. Searching for what Drew had been building up on the mountain and knowing Devin was there and they had a plan had helped her feel less out of control. She’d awakened before dawn and smashed Devin’s cell phone in a panic at the prospect of someone tracking them. It seemed crazy now.

When she’d spotted the cabin, she’d spiraled right up again, not panicked and crazed this time but excited. She’d have something to show for her two nights on Cameron Mountain. She’d be able to give Drew’s children some closure on what had happened to their father. He hadn’t just wandered up here. He’d had a purpose.

She set her pack on the plywood floor. She was dirty and smelled, and she wanted hot water, hot food, a hot fire. But she could see snow falling in fine, tiny flakes and wasn’t sure now that she and Devin should risk descending the mountain in the middle of a storm. They could take the trail down to the old logging road, but it wouldn’t do them any good; they’d still have to trek miles to get to civilization. If one of them had left a vehicle there, that would have been a sensible option. On foot, they’d get to warmth, electricity and running water faster if they headed back to the lodge the way they’d come.

And now that she’d smashed Devin’s phone, they couldn’t just get to a spot where there was service and call for help. Not that there was one close by, anyway.

We could sit out the storm, Nora thought, surveying the dry, cozy cabin.

She and Devin had enough supplies to last at least another day, and maybe he could figure out how to install the chimney and get the woodstove working.

Nora liked the idea that no one else would be able to find the cabin, either. They’d be safe there.

She’d get Devin, and tell him her idea.

As she started back for the door, she heard someone moving fast in the evergreens out in front of the cabin and went still, stifling a startled scream.

“Nora!”

Devin.

“Run, Nora, run! Hide!”

He was yelling frantically, and she could hear the terror in his voice. Her heart jumped, a painful jolt of adrenaline surging through her as she gulped in air. She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t have a weapon or know how to fight or anything.

“Stay away from her!”

Devin, Devin, Devin.

Nora bolted for the cabin’s back door, tore it open and scrambled outside, over scrap lumber and an old tarp slick with snow. She dived into the trees and crouched down low, snow whipping into her face and down her neck, sharp branches clawing at her.

My backpack…

She’d left it in the cabin. She had on her hat and gloves, but her tent, her sleeping bag-all her supplies were in her pack. She couldn’t turn back, and she moved fast down a short incline into a steep, shallow gully.

The leaves were wet and slippery under the snow. One wrong step, and she could fall and break an ankle, knock herself out on a rock. Even if she was able to get right up again, she didn’t want to lose her head start.

Devin, where are you?

She kept moving. She didn’t call him, didn’t say a word. She tried to make as little noise as possible as she descended the short, very steep hill into the crevice of the gully. She couldn’t hear the sounds of running anymore-just her own panting, and, she swore, her thumping heart.

The sky seemed to disappear, become a part of the endless trees towering over her. The snow came down nonstop. She looked up at it and felt as if she were in the middle of an all-white kaleidoscope that just kept whirling and wouldn’t let her out.

Choking back tears, too frightened to cry, she stumbled and fell onto one knee. The deep, sopping leaves and evergreen needles immediately soaked through her pants. She got up, shaking now.

Rotting fallen trees and huge boulders, some taller than she, littered the crevice, offering places to hide. Nora knew she had to stop, or whoever was chasing Devin would hear her, see her, follow her footprints…find her.

I need to help Dev.

But what could she do? She was defenseless, helpless. She didn’t know where he was. Who was after him.

Maybe it was just a bear chasing him, and he’ll be all right.

She dropped behind a massive boulder, into snow and brown, wet leaves. She sank as low as she could, squeezing herself between the cold granite behind her and the gnarly roots and trunk of a tall evergreen in front of her. She curled herself into a tight ball, trying to make herself as invisible and as hard to find as possible.

She knew it wasn’t a bear chasing Devin.

She realized her hat had come off and pulled up her hood, which she should have done sooner to keep the snow from going down her neck. She thought of Elijah explaining how to trap body heat. Wind and cold, wet conditions were the enemy.

And here she was, tucked against cold, wet rock and sitting on cold, wet ground, both of which would suck the warmth out of her and send the cold straight in.

It was snowing. Hard.

At least I’m out of the worst of the wind.

Without her pack, with her pants already wet…

She started to cry, but she could hear Elijah warning the class not to waste energy and body heat panicking.

And she didn’t want whoever was out there to find her.

She drew her knees up under her chin and watched the snow collect on the spruce needles and dead leaves.

Now she knew how Drew Cameron had died up here.

He was murdered.

Just like Alex.

She strained to hear even the slightest sound out above the gully, but all she heard was the howl of the wind whipping through the trees.

Don’t think.

Nora squeezed her eyes shut tight and silently repeated her mantra.

Don’t think, don’t think, don’t think…