Part 3
Frank went inside and turned up the shop heat a little. It was the only thing he could do for the leg without pretending to know more than he did.
When he came back, Tessa was speaking softly through the window. Juniper had opened her eyes. She raised her head, considered the woman beyond the bars, and put it down again.
“Does she know you?” Frank asked.
“I doubt it. She knows people bring food. I want her to hear us before anybody moves close.”
He stayed back by the house. The tiger’s eyes passed over him without any sign of recognition, and he felt foolish for having expected something else.
“What happens if they can’t save the foot?”
“They’ll decide whether there’s a surgery she can recover from. If there isn’t, they won’t make her endure one just to say we tried.”
“All right.”
Tessa watched him carefully. “You understand what I mean?”
“I understand.”
Ruth had hated the phrase put to sleep. She’d brought home an old dog once, knowing he had little time, and had insisted on telling Frank exactly what would happen when his pain became too much. Frank had been irritated with her then. He had already bought lumber for a doghouse.
He looked at the workshop window. The tiger had tucked her good forepaw beneath her chest.
“You tell me if that’s what it comes to,” he said. “Don’t let me sit here making plans for something you know won’t happen.”
“I will.”
They ate standing in the kitchen. Frank opened a can of soup and divided it badly, leaving more in Tessa’s bowl. She exchanged the bowls when he turned to put the pan in the sink. He noticed, but arguing would have required admitting what he’d done.
She called the hospital from the patch of signal above the porch. While she was outside, he found a roll of repair tape in the drawer and put it beside her wet boot. When she came back, she sat down to fix the sole without asking whose tape it was.
At two-thirty, Earl reported that the road crew had reached a fallen pine across the access track. They were clearing it, but the wind was filling the open stretches faster than the plow could pass. The transfer team had arrived at the junction. Deputy Bennett was with them.
Tessa asked for a new arrival estimate, then explained the precautions they were taking at the house. The groomer could reach them before dark if the crew got through the tree. Until then, Juniper had warmth, a secure place to stay, and a veterinarian close by. Frank could hear Earl repeating those facts to somebody beside him.
He had never disliked the four miles between his house and the plowed road. That afternoon, he began calculating how much of it he could clear himself.
“Sit down,” Tessa said, seeing him look at his gloves.
“You don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Were you thinking about letting the people with the road equipment handle the road?”
He returned to the stove and put on another piece of wood.
An hour later, an engine came from the east instead of the access track. Frank heard it before Tessa did. He stepped onto the porch and saw a snowmobile coming through the old logging cut across the ridge, towing a high-sided cargo sled.
Ray Henson stopped below the walkway. Behind him, a younger man got off the sled and stamped his feet. The younger man’s gloves didn’t match; one had a strip of cloth tied around the wrist to hold it shut.
Frank knew Henson from the feed store and from arguments at county meetings. He had a broad face and a way of making everyone wait while he finished something trivial. Now he took off his helmet and wiped its visor with his sleeve before looking at either of them.
“Where is she?”
Tessa reached for the radio on the porch rail.
“Mr. Henson, the deputy told you to stay at your property.”
“I told the deputy I was coming to help. My nephew knows her.”
The young man looked at Tessa, then at the workshop window. He had a long scratch beside his ear, already scabbed over.
“Cody,” Ray said. “Bring the catch gear.”
“Leave it in the sled,” Tessa said. “She isn’t going anywhere until the medical team arrives.”
Ray began climbing the porch steps. Frank moved to the top one, and Ray stopped with his boots on the lower tread.
“She’s my animal, Keller.”
“Then you should’ve answered when she needed somebody.”
Ray’s gaze shifted to Tessa. “You people always come in after the fact and tell a man what he should’ve done.”
“We can discuss that with Deputy Bennett. Right now Juniper has an injured leg, and another move could make it worse.”
Tessa spoke into the radio, telling the deputy who had arrived and which route he had used. Bennett answered almost at once. She would come ahead of the transport crew. Henson was to keep clear of the animal and remain outside.
Ray listened. He pulled his gloves off, one finger at a time, and shoved them in his pocket.
“That wire was supposed to hold her until I got there. It wasn’t supposed to hurt her.”
“How long was she in it?” Tessa asked.
He didn’t answer. Cody looked down at the packed snow around the steps.
Frank had to resist a desire to make him look up. The young man was trying to disappear without leaving, and Frank remembered workers doing that when a mill supervisor asked who had reported a broken guard.
“We’ve got a box,” Ray said. “I’ve moved her in it before. She’s twelve years old. She knows the routine.”
“Her foot doesn’t,” Tessa said.
Ray looked toward the container. Juniper had heard the voices and was lifting her head again. Cody moved past the sled, slowly, and stopped where he could see through the barred window.
“June?” he said.
The tiger looked toward him. Frank saw her ears move, then heard a low sound he couldn’t interpret.
“She wants him,” Ray said. “Let him go in.”
“Nobody goes in.” Tessa stepped between Cody and the walkway. “You can stay there where she can see you.”
Cody rubbed his hands together. “She hasn’t had much to eat.”
“I know.”
“I can get her to walk into the box. Usually.”
“Look at her leg before you offer that.”
He did. His mouth tightened, and he turned away from the window.
Ray saw the movement. “You’ll have that cat thinking something’s wrong with her if you all keep standing around whispering.”
Frank came down one step.
“Something is wrong with her.”
For a moment, Ray’s face went slack with surprise. Then he looked over Frank’s shoulder into the kitchen. On the wall beside the stove hung Ruth’s old work apron, washed and ironed so long ago that dust had gathered along the ties.
“I’d have figured you’d want to be rid of a tiger,” Ray said. “After what happened to Ruth.”
Frank heard Tessa draw a breath. The heat from the open kitchen door touched the back of his neck, and he had to concentrate on keeping his hands at his sides.
“Go stand by your machine.”
Ray’s eyes narrowed. “I wasn’t trying to upset you.”
“Go.”
Ray stepped down into the snow. Cody followed, looking back once at the window. Tessa shut the kitchen door behind Frank and left the radio where all three of them could hear it.
For a few minutes nobody spoke. The generator continued its steady run. Inside the shop, Juniper shifted on the sled, and the metal runners made a small sound against the floor.
Then Ray walked around the end of the porch. Frank followed him with his eyes, expecting him to check the box he’d brought. Instead, Ray stopped at the generator shelter.
“That’s what keeps the shop warm?” Frank came off the steps. “Leave it alone.” Ray put his hand on the power lead. “You can unlock that door, or we can see how long you’re willing to keep her in the cold…”
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