A Matter of Trust(8)

“Excuse me, ma’am,” Jess said and eased past Hunter’s mom to unzip Hunter from the sled.

The woman turned to Gage. “Trudy Corbin. We can’t thank you enough.”

“It’s my job, ma’am,” Gage said, but her words landed on soft soil. See, what he did mattered.

Pete Brooks came up behind him, pushing a litter to transfer Hunter into their pretty blue Bell 429 chopper. “Ty called in the evac—said you’d need to get this one to the Kalispell Medical Center, pronto.” Pete, also in his PEAK jumpsuit, wore his dark blond hair pulled back in a man bun.

“Yes. Call ahead to my dad, see if he’ll meet you in the ER. I think he’ll want this case.” Gage looked at Trudy. “My father is an orthopedic surgeon at the hospital. He’ll know what to do to get Hunter back on his board.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think we’ll be taking any more trips out West anytime soon.” Her mouth made a dark line as she turned back to Hunter.

Gage knew the look of a disapproving parent too well.

“I thought you were on avalanche control today,” Pete said to Gage as he examined Hunter’s splint.

“I was—came out at 6:00 a.m. this morning. We bombed along the backside of Timber Bowl. But the snow is still pretty unstable. We’ll probably be back in the morning, if the forecast is right.”

“Come over to the ranch when you get off. We’re all watching America’s Missing tonight. They’re showing the episode about the girl we found this summer.”

The body PEAK Rescue found last summer in the Avalanche River had been reconstructed with the hope that her identification might unearth leads to the missing niece of local billionaire Ian Shaw. His niece, Esme, had vanished in Glacier National Park three-plus years ago. Only recently had they discovered that she was, indeed, alive, confirmed by a cryptic phone call Ian received from her last summer. But not even a backtrace of the call and all of Ian’s best sleuthing efforts had unearthed the origin. The missing girl might have nothing to do with Esme’s disappearance, but identifying her made Ian feel like he was doing something to help someone else find answers.

It didn’t mean he wasn’t also holding on to the wild hope that it would lead to answers for himself as well.

“I’m going to take one more run from the top, along the perimeter, make sure we don’t have any more renegades,” Gage said. “I caught a couple of teenagers skiing in the undesignated area today.”

A muscle pulled in Pete’s jaw, and it took a second for Gage to connect the dots, all the way back to the death of Pete’s father over a decade earlier, in an off-run ski accident.

He had no words, so he glanced up the mountain, saw it covered in shadow. He’d have to hurry if he wanted to make it back up on top.

Pete said nothing as he tested for a pulse in Hunter’s leg. Meanwhile, Jess radioed in his vitals to Kalispell ER. “We gotta get moving,” he said to Jess, who shot him a look, a nod, all business.

Whatever had gone down between Pete and Jess last summer had clearly cooled, not even a simmer remaining. Maybe it had something to do with Jess’s extra-friendly relationship with Ty. It seemed that the guy had been putting in more than average hours remodeling her money pit house, helping her paint her bedrooms and most recently gut her kitchen.

However, whatever had happened between Pete and Jess, they could still get the job done and now they worked together to get Hunter onto the litter and gurney.

“Need help getting him to the chopper?” Gage asked.

“No. But you’d better steer around the Base Camp Saloon. I saw Tallie in there, and you know how she loves a great hero story.”

“I leave all the hero stuff to you, Brooks,” Gage said, grinning, and hiked up to grab his board. He radioed in and confirmed his last trek up the mountain to resume his patrol.

The last hours on the mountain were always the most dangerous, with shadows masking the hollows and the bumps and runnels in the hill that could unweight a skier, send him airborne, only to land in a heap of broken skies, poles, and bones. And, with the lifts closing, some of the hotshots jumped off trail into the undesignated areas, took their last ride down through the trees and deep powder.

It was the patrols’ job to make sure everyone got down the mountain safely.

Gage skated over to the express lift and caught the last chair up. He clipped on his helmet and watched the skiers and snowboarders as they finished their runs. He didn’t see the T. rex.

The wind had whipped up, and Gage tucked his chin into his gaiter, the chill welcome after the heat radiating off his body.