Part 3
“I called the people who can search forty square miles before the next storm,” Jack said. “I knew you’d be angry.”
Nora’s face remained turned toward the window. Below them, the lead snowcat crossed the meadow, its broad tracks pressing two clean lines through the snow.
“That doesn’t make it better,” she said.
“No.”
The answer brought her eyes back to him. She had expected an argument, and Jack did not give her one.
The rescue team entered with cold air and disciplined efficiency. Ben Aragon, the search leader, asked before touching anything and took his boots off when Nora pointed at the wet floor. His medic, Tasha Bell, examined Marco and Liam first, then Jack, Church, Tom, and Earl. When she asked, Nora let Tasha check her pulse, temperature, and hands. Tasha told them their cold injuries were mild, mostly because they had reached shelter when they did.
“Her shelter,” Marco said.
Tasha looked at Nora. “Then she did good work.”
“They carried the wood,” Nora replied.
The county caseworker introduced herself as Lila Grant. She was in her forties, wore snow pants instead of office clothes, and did not crouch or use a voice meant for toddlers.
“My job right now is to find an adult you know who can keep you safe tonight,” Lila said.
“I’m not a placement.”
“No,” Lila said. “You’re Nora. The land isn’t my job, and I can’t sell it.”
“But you can make me leave.”
“If staying isn’t safe. I’ll tell you before I decide anything.”
“Dad filed the homeschool notice in August,” Nora said. “My work is on the shelf.”
Lila wrote that down. “I’ll verify it.”
Nora assessed her. “Do you know Maria Alvarez?”
“Not yet. May I call her?”
Nora looked toward Jack, caught herself, and looked away. “Her number is on Dad’s map.”
She lifted the third board herself and removed only the folded map. The blue box stayed below. Lila noticed the hollow and then deliberately turned her attention to the number Nora was showing her.
Jack saw Nora notice that too.
While Lila took Church’s satellite phone onto the sheltered side of the porch to call Maria, Ben spread the county map on the crate. Nora stood beside him and traced Daniel’s intended route. He had planned to drive the lower county road to Del Norte, but a washout had closed one bridge. The old logging spur offered a shorter way around it.
“The gate should have been locked,” Ben said.
“The lock was cut in September,” Nora answered. “The survey crew used that road.”
“Have you driven it?”
“With Dad. There’s a switchback after the burned trees. The outside edge broke away last spring.”
“Why would he risk it?”
“The survey trucks had been using it for weeks. He thought they’d filled the edge.”
Ben marked the location. “That helps.”
Ben divided his team. His rope crew would take the spur. A second team would transport Nora and the riders to the regional hospital in Del Norte once the road was stable.
“I’m going with you,” Nora said.
“No,” Ben said. “The slope is unstable, and we may need ropes.”
“I know the road.”
“You already gave me the part I didn’t know.”
Nora’s mouth tightened. Jack wanted to follow just as badly, but the rope bags at Ben’s feet marked the difference between wanting to help and being able to.
“Let them work,” he said.
She rounded on him. “You don’t get to tell me that.”
“You’re right.”
Jack stepped back while Ben finished marking the route.
Later, as the rope team loaded its gear, Jack said quietly to Church, “You told me to stop in Pagosa.”
“I did.”
“I should’ve listened.”
Church nodded once. “Yeah.”
Lila came back from the porch, Church’s satellite phone still in her hand. “Maria Alvarez is on her way from Pueblo. Weather permitting, she’ll meet us at the hospital this evening.”
Nora went pale. “You found her?”
“She answered on the first ring.”
Nora’s relief lasted one breath. Then she understood that Maria had been reachable all nine days while Nora had had no safe way to reach her.
“What did she say?” Nora asked.
“First she asked if you were alive. Then she cried. Then she asked to speak to you.”
Lila held out the satellite phone. Nora did not take it.
“Later,” she said.
Lila set the phone back on the crate without comment.
They left the cabin shortly after noon. Nora locked the door with one of the small keys from the ring and pulled twice on the rope handle. Earl had fixed the split jamb while the teams prepared, but he had not touched the crooked corner.
At the regional hospital in Del Norte, a nurse weighed Nora, brought her hot chocolate, and asked questions about meals and sleep. Jack sat in the hallway with Church and listened to the low murmur through the closed door. He kept his hands flat on his knees and counted the ice machine’s hollow drops down the hall.
Maria arrived before dark. She was forty-one, with Nora’s dark hair cut to her jaw and a pharmacy badge still clipped to her sweater. She stopped six feet from Jack.
“Where is she?”
“With the nurse.”
“You found her?”
“She found us.”
Maria closed her eyes. One hand went to the back of a plastic chair as if the building had shifted. “Daniel told me he’d take care of her. He told me to stay out of it.”
Jack had no patience for an adult making an absent child absorb the consequences of pride. “And you did?”
Her eyes opened. “He texted me every Sunday from town. The last message said they’d be off the phone for a week. When Sunday came and nothing showed up, I kept thinking I’d call the sheriff the next morning.”
The door behind Jack opened. Nora stood there wearing borrowed sweatpants and thick socks, a paper cup held between both hands.
Maria stayed where she was. “Hi, bug.”
Nora’s face folded for one second at the old name, then steadied. “You stopped coming.”
“I did.”
“Dad said you hated the mountain.”
“I hated what grief was doing to him up there. I should have kept coming anyway.”
Nora looked down into the cup. “They’re looking for him.”
“I know.”
Maria moved one step closer and stopped. Nora held her ground.
That evening, Ben Aragon called Lila. Jack knew from the way she set down her pen that the search had changed.
Daniel Avery’s pickup had been found below the outside switchback on the old logging spur. Its windshield was broken, the driver’s door stood open, and a search dog had picked up Daniel’s scent on the uphill side…
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