Pursuit at Panther Point
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Cindi Myers
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Chapter One
Anna Trent had been drawn to search and rescue work because she wanted to help people. But sometimes, like today, helping hurt more than she had bargained for.
“I’m sorry to have to ask you to do this, but he’s been missing more than twenty-four hours now and Sandy is worried sick. We all are, really.” Eagle Mountain Search and Rescue Captain Sheri Stevens rested one hand on Anna’s shoulder. The women stood on the side of a snow-packed road in a remote section of the county, a brisk wind sending devils of snow swirling around their feet. “I know Dave is your friend, too.”
“He is. I want to find him as much as everyone else.” Anna looked down and met the gaze of her search dog, Jacquie. Maybe it was fanciful to think so, but the poodle’s brown eyes seemed to reflect Anna’s own concern. When word had spread that Dave Weiss, a popular volunteer fireman and owner of a local bakery, hadn’t come home the night before last, Anna’s first thought was that he had had an accident while out ice fishing or back-country skiing. Eagle Mountain Search and Rescue was on standby to look for him, but in a county comprised mostly of wilderness area full of ski trails and fishing holes, there was no logical place to begin.
Anna was a newer member of the SAR team and, ordinarily, would be grouped with the other rookies to sweep a designated area. But Jacquie, a three-year-old standard poodle who had recently been certified by Search and Rescue Dogs of Colorado, had already proved valuable in finding other missing persons. As tense as searches could be, she was glad to be able to do more to help find her friend.
A few hours earlier, someone had spotted Dave’s pickup truck parked in this out-of-the-way location designated on some maps as Panther Point. An inch of snow from last night’s storm covered the truck’s windshield and hood, and obscured any footprints he may have made after he’d parked the vehicle. Had he met someone here and driven away with them? Anna looked down at Jacquie. The dog’s black curly coat was flecked with snow, like a sprinkling of powdered sugar. She stared up at Anna with solemn brown eyes, as if she sensed that today wasn’t merely a training exercise. “If anyone can find Dave, Jacquie can,” Anna said.
Sheri moved in a little closer, her voice low. “I have to warn you. When Sandy called about Dave not coming home, she told the dispatcher she was worried he might have gone somewhere to kill himself.”
Anna rocked back on her heels. “Dave? Why?” She pictured the man who had become one of her first friends after she had moved to Eagle Mountain five years before. Dave was a cheerful, burly blond, who still had a distinct Austrian accent despite two decades in Colorado. She had been a newlywed who’d known no one other than her new husband, Jonas Trent. Dave had been one of Jonas’s best friends and he had welcomed Anna with open arms—literally enveloping her in a warm hug the first time they’d met. After Jonas’s death, Dave had always been there, to shovel snow or repair a leaky faucet, or buy her a cup of coffee when they ran into each other downtown. In the past six months, they hadn’t seen as much of each other. Anna felt more comfortable standing on her own feet and she suspected Dave’s wife, Sandy, had been a little jealous of the attention her husband had paid his friend’s widow.
“Sandy said he’s been worried about money,” Sheri said. “Apparently, they’ve been stretched pretty thin.”
That didn’t sound like Dave, either. Jonas had always said his friend was one of the smartest men he knew. He had a solid business and the couple didn’t live extravagantly. “I guess we never really know what is going on inside people,” Anna said. Maybe in the past six months something about Dave’s situation had changed.
Sheri patted her shoulder. “It’s terrible, but I wanted to warn you that this search might not have the happy outcome we’re all hoping for.”
Anna took a firmer hold of the long lead clipped to Jacquie’s collar. “We’ll do our best to find him. Even if the news is the worst, his family and friends deserve to know what happened.” She always reminded herself of this when she and Jacquie set out on a search. Not every hunt, or even most of them, ended with good news, but the work they did was still important.
“Thanks.” Sheri stepped back and looked toward the Rayford County Sheriff’s Department SUV parked at the edge of the Forest Service road. She raised her hand and the door opened; a man with ink-black hair in sheriff’s department khakis and a black leather jacket stepped out.
“Who is that?” Anna asked as the deputy started toward them. She thought she knew all the local officers, but this one didn’t look familiar. She guessed he was about her age—early thirties—fit and good-looking, at least from what she could see as he walked over, head down.
“He’s with the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department,” Sheri said. “He’s filling in while Jamie Douglas is on maternity leave.”
“Jamie had her baby?” Anna smiled. The force’s only female deputy was a familiar figure around town.
“Two nights ago,” Sheri said. “A little girl.”
“Hello.”
Anna turned her head to the deputy but realized he wasn’t addressing her. Instead, he had stopped to pet Jacquie, who vibrated the stub of her tail and leaned into the ear scratch he offered. Smiling, he looked at the women, his eyes meeting Anna’s. “Hello,” he said again. “Thanks for agreeing to help us.”
“Of course.” Anna tried to look away, but she couldn’t. She didn’t know this man’s name, but they had definitely met before. A hot flush of embarrassment rose to her cheeks as she remembered their last—and only—encounter. Over two years ago, at the Junction hospital. She had been screaming at a nurse in the corridor, furious that Jonas had been waiting more than an hour for something to relieve the agonizing pain of his end-stage pancreatic cancer. Not her finest moment, made even more embarrassing by the arrival of this officer, who had led her away and persuaded her to calm down.
Was it possible he wouldn’t recognize her? After all, she was two years older now, quite a bit calmer and better rested.
“You’re looking much better than the last time we met,” he said, proving that he hadn’t forgotten.
“You didn’t see me at my best,” she said.
Sheri looked from one to the other. “Do you two know each other?” she asked.
“Not really,” Anna said quickly.
“I’m Lucas Malone.”
He held out his hand and she took it, his grip firm. “Anna Trent.” Had she told him her name that long-ago evening? She couldn’t remember.
Sheri looked from one to the other, obviously curious. “We’d better get started,” Anna said before her friend could ask any more questions.
“I’ve never worked with a search dog before,” Deputy Malone said. “What do you need from me?”
“Since we’re looking for a specific person, it would be good to have something of Dave’s for Jacquie to scent,” Anna said.
They looked toward the white pickup angled into the brush on the side of the road. “I can probably pop the lock on the truck for you,” Malone said.
He returned to his SUV and came back with the tool for jimmying the lock open. While his back was to her as he worked, she studied him. That night at the hospital, she had been too upset for more than his general features to register. Now she noticed the way his leather jacket clung to his broad shoulders, and how the sun glinted on his thick, dark hair. The flutter this awareness sent through her startled her.
He pulled open the door of the truck and turned to her. “Try not to touch anything except the scent item,” he said as he stepped back to allow Anna access.
Mind once more on the solemn task ahead, she shoved her right hand into a wrong-side-out plastic bag and leaned into the truck. She scanned the interior, searching for something that might hold Dave’s scent. She spotted a can of snuff in the tray on the console. He probably handled that multiple times a day, but she worried the strong mint aroma of the tobacco might dilute his own smells. Jacquie was capable of distinguishing the different scents. Why make things difficult for her?
Instead, she chose a bandana tucked in the tray next to the snuff tin. She picked it up and withdrew her hand from the bag, turning the plastic inside-out as she did so, capturing the bandana neatly in the bag. Jacquie sat, eyes focused on the bag, every muscle tense with anticipation. She knew what came next.
Anna bent and offered the open bag to the dog. Jacquie stuck her nose inside, inhaled deeply, then sampled the ground around the open truck door. Snuffling excitedly, she walked around the truck to the passenger side, sniffed the snowy ground around the truck then turned and dove through a narrow gap in the underbrush alongside the road, tugging hard on the lead.
“Wait here,” Sheri called over her shoulder to Malone as she took off after Anna and Jacquie. “I’ll radio when we find anything.”
Anna’s pack slapped against her back as she jogged to keep up with the excited dog. Thirty yards from the road, Jacquie swung right, up an incline, weaving around the white trunks of a thick growth of aspen, bare of leaves this time of year. Anna’s boots slipped in the snow and the legs of her pants were already wet from plunging through stands of post oak, dead leaves coated with snow.
“She’s heading to the river.” Sheri caught up with Anna. She carried the bag with the bandana, which Anna must have dropped in her haste to follow the dog. “I brought this in case we needed it,” Sheri said.
“Good idea,” Anna said. If Jacquie lost the scent, they could use the bandana to refresh her memory. But for now, the dog was definitely keen. They reached the river and Jacquie waded right in, crashing through the ice on the shore into the rushing water. Anna moaned. If Jacquie decided to wade or swim across, she would need to follow, but she didn’t relish doing so.
“That water isn’t deep enough to drown in,” Sheri said. “Did Dave decide to go fishing after all?”
But only a few steps into the water, Jacquie whirled around and headed south along the riverbank. Anna took a firmer grip on the long lead and stumbled after her, Sheri close behind. Jacquie veered around a large beaver dam and sniffed along the edge of the pond that had formed as a result of the beaver’s efforts. She slowed, her nose pressed to the icy mud, snuffling loudly. The trainer Anna had worked with had explained that this snuffling was a way of pulling in more scent particles. Dogs had the ability to store up these particles. There was more ice here at this stiller water, and Anna studied it, searching for any sign that someone had fallen through. Dave liked to ice fish, but surely he would recognize this ice wasn’t safe.
Jacquie tugged left, headed down a narrow path leading away from the pond. The neat imprints of deer hooves showed in the otherwise pristine snow of the trail. “She’s not following the deer, is she?” Sheri asked.
Anna shook her head. Jacquie didn’t do that. In the months since she had completed her training, she had proved to be an adept tracker, finding everything from lost hunters to—once—a discarded knife used in an assault along a jogging trail in Delta County.
Jacquie had slowed her pace, no longer eager, though her attention remained focused on the ground. Suddenly, she veered again, this time down another animal trail lined with wild roses, last year’s hips crimson against clumps of snow. Jacquie barked and Anna looked up then pulled back on the leash. A wave of grief washed over her as she stared at the figure swaying from the tree branch in the midst of a grove of cottonwoods. She looked at the face only long enough to make sure it was Dave—contorted in death but recognizable by his neat goatee and hatchet nose.
Sheri pressed her palm to Anna’s back. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I was really, really hoping he had just gone fishing.”
Anna turned her back to the body in the tree and called Jacquie. The dog came, tail down, head hanging. Though Anna told her she had done a good job and gave her treats and water, Jacquie knew finding a dead person was never as good as finding a live one. The dog had known Dave, too, and that probably made this even more upsetting for her.
“One of us needs to go back and get Deputy Malone and lead him back here,” Sheri said. “I can stay here with the body while you do that.”
“I’ll wait here,” Anna said.
Sheri frowned. “Are you sure?”
“It’s all right.” She looked up at the spreading branches of a cottonwood, the thick gray bark patterned with orange and white lichen. “It’s peaceful here.”
“Okay, then. It’s liable to take a while. Will you be okay?”
“I’ll be okay.” She offered a small smile. “I’m not the hysterical type, and this isn’t my first suicide recovery.” The first had been a teenage boy who had shot himself near the family’s summer cabin. That had been far worse, seeing those parents’ grief. Staying here with Dave’s body would be a last service she could perform for him. And she would rather do that than have to spend the long walk back in with Lucas Malone, knowing what he must think of her after that day in the hospital.
“All right,” Sheri said. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” She turned and trotted away.
Anna led Jacquie back up the trail until she spotted a fallen log where she could sit. Why had Dave chosen to end his life here? she wondered as she contemplated the snow-covered scrub oaks and bare trunks of cottonwoods. The county was full of more scenic spots and places that were easier to get to. Had he come here because he hadn’t wanted to be found? But parking his truck along the road guaranteed someone would eventually spot the vehicle and make inquiries. People who didn’t want to be found at all tended to disappear in mountain wilderness, miles from anyone, not within a quarter mile, as the crow flies, from a road.
Jacquie leaned against Anna’s thigh and rested her head in Anna’s lap. Anna combed her fingers through the dog’s curly hair and thought about Dave. When was the last time she had seen him? Last Friday. She had gone into his shop to buy cookies to bring to a SAR meeting. He had smiled a big smile and clasped her hand warmly. “How are you doing?” he had asked, and looked into her eyes. “Tell me the truth.”
“I’m good,” she had said. “Things are starting to feel more...settled.” She felt more in control of her life now, still missing Jonas, but the pain wasn’t as intense. She could go whole days without thinking of her husband. She wasn’t exactly happy, but she was content.
“I’m glad to hear it,” he had said, and turned to box up her order, as usual throwing in a few extra cookies. The heady aromas of cinnamon, vanilla and chocolate perfumed the air of the shop, and she’d resisted the urge to tell him to add in one of the pink-frosted chocolate cupcakes in the display case. Surprise Cakes, the label read. That was one of Dave’s specialties. The center of the cupcake was hollowed out and contained a surprise—a dollop of fruit filling or ganache, a marshmallow, nuts or a chocolate truffle. For Anna and Jonas’s wedding, Dave had made a cupcake tower, each cupcake containing a silver charm.
I should have asked him how he was doing, she thought now. If she had, would he have told her the truth?
Jacquie’s whimper interrupted her thoughts. The dog was staring toward the clearing where Dave’s body hung. “You don’t want to go back there,” Anna told her.
Jacquie stood and headed toward the clearing. “Jacquie, come back here,” Anna called.
But the dog pretended not to hear. Anna caught up the end of the long lead before it slipped away and stood to follow.
At the clearing, Jacquie avoided the body but circled the area, sniffing among the trees. Anna shivered as a chill wind swept through, but she was grateful for the cold, which would keep down the smell. She told herself she shouldn’t, but something in her compelled her to look again at the body.
Her first thought was that it was so high in the tree. Standing ten feet away, Dave’s feet, in Merrell hiking boots with red laces and red trim, hung at about eye level. How in the world had he gotten up that high? More curious than horrified now—or maybe just numb—she walked to the base of the tree. It was an old cottonwood, with a trunk five feet thick or more, towering a hundred feet overhead. The trunk rose straight up ten feet before it divided. She didn’t think she could have climbed it. But Dave had, and with a rope in his hand.
Jacquie had moved over to join her, then put her nose to the ground once more and headed toward the ground directly beneath the body. “Jacquie, come back,” Anna called. She didn’t think either one of them should be there. Maybe they were disturbing a crime scene. Well, not exactly a crime, but would the sheriff’s department want to investigate?
Again, Jacquie played deaf. That wasn’t really like her but, like people, dogs had moods, too, Anna had discovered. Maybe because she had been asked to find a dead person instead of a live one, today Jacquie was being contrary. The dog stopped now and alerted on something in the ground. With a growing sense of dread, Anna moved forward to see what had caught the dog’s attention.
She stared at four square indentations in the ground beneath the body. They were deep enough to still be discernable in spite of the snow. The first two were about two feet apart. The second set was parallel to the first, three feet away. Anna stared. Where had she seen indentations like that before?
She thought to this summer when she had decided to repaint her bedroom. When she’d finished the job and cleaned up, she had found indentations just like those in the carpet, where the ladder she had used to reach the top of the wall had stood.
She looked around her, confused. If Dave had used a ladder to get into that tree, where was the ladder now?
