Breaking Wild

“With my sister,” Farrell said.

I cupped my hand over his shoulder. I almost said, We’ll find her. Don’t worry. But I couldn’t. What if we didn’t?

I walked over to the stove, removed my gloves, and began to warm my hands. Jeff joined me. He would be heading home to Dinosaur to get some sleep before the next shift. The rest of the search members would be staying at a hotel in Rangely. I was used to these kinds of unexpected interruptions. They were part of the job. I kept a small duffel bag packed with my necessary toiletries and basic clothing, as well as food for Kona, in the Tahoe.

“I’ll be back in the morning,” Jeff told me. “Maybe earlier if the storm lets up and Colm sends us out again.”

“Drive safely,” I said.

I was sure Jeff sensed my defeat, and I knew he felt it, too. “Hang in there,” he told me.

I inhaled deeply, letting the warm air from the stove seep into my cold lungs. I hated to admit even to myself that I was tired. But I was. “At this point, that’s all we can do,” I said.

After Jeff left, I sat on one of the metal folding chairs. Kona sat in front of me. I wrapped my arms around him, buried my nose in his fur. I thought of Amy Raye and her husband before Amy Raye had left home. Imagined him hugging her good-bye, telling her to be safe.

Colm laid a hand on my head. I was still wearing my fleece hat. He offered me a cup of coffee. “It’s decaf,” he said. “You need your sleep.”

“You heading to town soon?”

“Still waiting for two of the containment volunteers to check in.” Colm pulled up a chair beside me and sat down. “I checked with the hunting party. The compass was hers,” Colm said.

“Any other ideas of what she might have had with her?” I asked.

“They said she kept waterproof matches in her pack. A fire-starter kit. She would have had her map. They weren’t sure what else.”

“She wasn’t new to this sort of thing,” I said.

“No, apparently not. Of course, with this weather, I don’t see how she could get a fire going. Not with the storm we got moving in.” Colm leaned forward, his forearms on his knees, a cup of coffee in his right hand. “There’s something else. A couple of the volunteers were checking out Coal Draw, just west of where you and Jeff were. A big tomcat was following them. One of them turned around and caught the cougar’s eyes with his headlamp before the thing took off.”

“How close was it?”

“Twenty yards.”

“Damn.”

“I’m just saying.” Colm gulped down his coffee.

“Did you let the other volunteers know?”

“It’s one of the reasons I called everyone in.”

“That’s not a lion’s natural behavior to get that close,” I said.

“Unless it’s hungry. Snow’s coming early this season. Hunters have already been through the area, firing their guns, scaring off the game.”

“What are you thinking?”

Colm looked over his shoulder as if making sure the woman’s husband wasn’t anywhere in earshot. Then he stared forward again.

“He couldn’t even picture the area,” Colm said. “He’s never been out here before. Do you find that odd?”

“The husband?”

“Yeah.”

“That may not be so odd. Maybe he doesn’t hunt. This could have been her thing. Mother’s day out.”

“Yeah? I thought moms went to the mall or to a day at the spa.”

“Not every woman fits Maggie’s description.”

“Maggie was never a mom.”

“Sounds like you’re still getting over her,” I said.

“I’m just trying to put this whole thing together.”

“Maggie or Amy Raye?”

Colm didn’t like what I’d said, and he let me know so by the way he looked at me.

I held up my hand. “Sorry.”

I changed the subject. “Cattle wander off cliffs on nights like this,” I said. “What’s the weather report for tomorrow?”

“Doesn’t look good. Supposed to get new snow. Little change in the wind. You turn around after five minutes and your tracks are already gone.”

Frustration was getting to both of us. We’d already put in almost a full day of search without finding a single clue as to the woman’s whereabouts. Not to mention we were almost into the third day since the woman’s disappearance.

“I know this isn’t avalanche country,” I said. “But there are some windrows beneath a number of the overhangs in the higher elevation. Could she be buried in the snow?”

“Could be.”

“You’ve thought of that.”

“I’ve thought about it. It’s not likely, but it’s possible.”

“Any ideas?” I asked.

“Mesa County has a new electronic detection device. It picks up energy off watches, cell phones, handheld radios. It can pick up a frequency as much as eighty meters away, as long as there is insulation.”

“Meaning snow.”

“Yeah.”

Colm sipped his coffee. I held mine to my face, tasted the steam.

“One of their deputies is bringing it out to us tomorrow,” Colm said.

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