Chapter 12
Twelve
“ARE YOU SURE Brady isn’t just taking a snooze in one of the rooms?” Joel asked his brother as Cassie leaned against the wall, easing the pressure off her swelling leg.
“I’ve been in the parlor the whole time,” Jayce said. “I see everyone who walks by from the outside. Brady and Lyle went out together to search the first set of buildings. Lyle came back twenty minutes ago but still no Brady. I even checked his beacon, but I’m getting no signal.”
“The blizzard must be messing with the reception, or he’s too far out,” Joel said.
“But everyone knew to switch it on when they went out in the storm.” Jayce indicated his hooked by a carabiner to his pocket zipper.
Joel shifted his attention to Lyle. “Where’s Brady?”
Lyle shrugged with his hands held out. “I don’t know.”
“But you two went out together,” Jayce jumped in.
“We hit the first shed on the property. Didn’t find anything useful there. It was basically empty.”
“Okay.” Joel shifted his stance to the one he used when he questioned suspects. She’d seen it before.
“And then?” he continued.
“We thought we better come back. The blizzard’s fierce. It’s a total whiteout. It’s a wonder I even made it back.” He shivered and rubbed his arms.
“And Brady?” Kendra asked.
Hmm. Cassie sank down on the sofa arm. Maybe Kendra had a thing for Brady she hadn’t noticed before.
“I don’t know.” Lyle sighed. “He followed me out of the shed and then I lost him in the snow. I just figured we’d meet up here.”
“It’s been too long,” Izzy said. “Someone needs to go look for him.”
“I will,” Jayce offered.
“I’ll go with you,” Joel said, then cast his gaze at Cassie and mouthed, You okay?
Not at all. But she mouthed Yes back.
He nodded, but his expression said he knew better.
“We should find a rope or even a twisted sheet, so we don’t lose each other,” Jayce said.
“Good idea, I’ll go get one.” Joel disappeared from the room and was back in a flash with two white sheets.
They’d seen them on all the beds in guest rooms. Cassie rubbed her arms as Devon finally got the fire lit. Light and warmth started to penetrate the space, but the room was too large for it to make a big dent.
Joel twisted the sheets together and tied knots in each end.
“If Brady got disoriented in the blizzard, who knows where he is,” Izzy said, more than a twinge of panic in her voice.
Of all of them, Brady, Mr. Outdoor-Adventure-Dude, should be the last to get lost out in a storm.
Cassie scanned the room, studying the faces, then realized they were missing one more. “Where’s Heath? Is he still out there?”
“Must be,” Nat said.
“So we have two out there,” Joel said. “I think anyone else who goes anywhere should go in pairs.”
“Surely we don’t have to go in pairs in the lodge,” Nat barked.
“It’s not a bad idea. It’s dark, the lodge is old, things are rickety, just humor me, okay?”
The majority in the room followed Cassie’s lead and nodded at Joel’s request.
Joel looked to his brother. “Ready?”
Jayce nodded.
“We’ll be right back,” Joel said, his words directed at Cassie as he passed by her.
She prayed he would. If anything happened to Joel it would be like losing him all over again. She was probably being ridiculously dramatic, but her emotions were in the agitation session of the washer—jolting back and forth—fear and love warring for her words and actions.
After checking the first shed and finding no trace of Brady, Joel and Jayce swapped their sheets for a strong rope they found in the shed, both tying one end around their waists, then they moved for the second building—heading straight into the driving storm.
Snow crested thigh high and continued to pile by the second, it seemed.
“I got it,” Jayce hollered over the wind—its howls mixing with the wolves’.
Joel stiffened and reached for his county-issued weapon only to realize he’d done so out of habit.
Being a sheriff wasn’t just what he did, it was part of who he was.
Who God created him to be. His shoulders drooped as a realization struck.
He hadn’t brought his gun heli-skiing. He should have at least grabbed one of the kitchen knives. Something for a weapon just in case.
“I got it,” Jayce said again.
“Got what?”
The rope slacked as his brother walked back to his side. “Brady’s beacon signal.” Jayce held up the transceiver he’d brought. “We must be in range now.”
“Smart, bro.”
Jayce studied the instrument. “That can’t be right.”
“What can’t be?” Joel shifted his legs back and forth in a stay-in-place march to keep them warm and the blood flowing.
“It’s at the outer bans of the reading capacity. Several hundred feet north, then another fifty or sixty west.”
Joel shook his head. “That’s way past all the outer buildings.”
“What do you think he’s doing all the way up there?” Jayce asked.
“We’re about to find out.” Joel moved forward, the rope gaining tautness between them.
Moving uphill went far too slowly for Joel’s liking. Perhaps Brady got turned around and lost in the whiteout. But going so far north didn’t line up. Guys like Brady possessed an internal compass, just like he and Jayce.
The pelting frozen mix battered against them like an invisible, unmovable wall in their uphill battle.
“Zeroing in,” Jayce hollered, and then the rope went slack.
His chest squeezed. “Jayce?”
“Yeah, I’m here. A dozen feet to your one o’clock. Hang on to the rope and I’ll tug you to me.”
Joel did so, and soon he was standing by his brother and the oversized oak tree they loved to climb as children when their parents weren’t looking. But now as an adult, he couldn’t blame them for warning them off it.
Half the boughs hung over the drop-off. It looked bottomless when he was a kid, but it couldn’t possibly be as far down as he recalled.
“Where to?” he asked, seeing no sign of Brady.
“I’m afraid down,” Jayce said, leaning toward the cliff’s edge.
Please let Brady be okay.
But his gut screamed otherwise.