Jack Frost: Detective Jack Stratton Mystery Thriller Series Page 19

  36

  Two-Headed Monster

  Leah had put out all her worries and warnings, and now stood silently with Jack and Chiri as they checked their packs and equipment. The two men, once committed, already had one foot on the path into the unknown future, where they had only their trust in each other and in their gear against the force of the mountain. They spoke in low tones, strapping on their gear, closing buckles and tightening straps.

  Chiri pulled out a six-foot rope. He clipped one end onto his climbing belt and the other onto Jack’s. “This short-roping will keep us from getting separated out there. You ready, Jack?”

  Jack pulled his goggles down. “Ready.” He stepped to one side. “Experience first.”

  “I like the sound of that.” Chiri grinned and opened the door.

  Chiri gave a thumbs-up, hunched over, and marched out.

  As soon as Jack stepped through the doorway, the wind tried to push him sideways. He’d been through a sandstorm and a hurricane, but in both cases, he found shelter and hunkered down; he hadn’t deliberately walked into the jaws of the storm.

  Every couple of steps, he had to adjust his path to stay on course behind Chiri. He marveled at how easily Chiri moved in comparison, especially considering Jack outweighed him by at least sixty pounds.

  And the wind by the lodge, shrieking in their ears, was only the beginning. As soon as they crossed the protection of the ridge, the wind hit with its full fury; it felt like an icy hand grabbed Jack’s shoulder and tried to yank him off his feet. He leaned so low his hands touched the ground, and still the pull of the wind was relentless. The rope danced away ahead of him, disappearing into the whirl of snow and darkness beyond. Chiri was invisible, just six feet ahead.

  Suddenly, like a fishing line when a bass strikes your lure, the rope shot forward and jerked to the left, pulling Jack upright, and at the same moment a hundred-mile-an-hour blast of wind knocked him off his feet and sent him tumbling across ice and rocks. Remembering one of Chiri’s pieces of advice before they left the lodge, he kicked his legs out, and his boots found a foothold. Then he tightened his hands around the rope and pulled himself hand over hand until he felt Chiri.

  The ever-present smile was missing from the Sherpa’s face, and a spot of blood ran from his cut lip. He pressed his face close to Jack’s and screamed over the wind, “It’s no good! We’ll never get there and back!”

  Jack nodded, though he hated the thought of giving up. For a brief moment he considered sending Chiri back and pressing forward. But without the Sherpa’s help, he knew he didn’t stand a chance.

  Jack pointed back to the lodge, and he and Chiri turned around. All around them, the two-headed monster howled in delight.

  37

  Night Watch

  It was close to midnight, and the storm pounded against the windows. The whole building creaked and groaned as the wind pushed and pulled, striking anything that dared stand in its way.

  An invisible tension filled the room, and it was getting thicker with each passing hour. Jack knew he wasn’t the only one feeling the strain. Nearly everyone was still awake, staring at the ceiling and each other. Only Wally appeared to be asleep. Jack had laid out a sleeping bag for him and retied his bonds to make sure he was secure but not losing circulation. He had considered untying the man altogether. Wally had admitted to writing the first threatening note, but his shocked reaction to learning of the explosion at the weather station appeared sincere. Still, Jack was taking no chances. The list of people here he trusted completely on this mountain was short: himself and Abe. And he could probably add Chiri.

  Jack thought of the photo Abe had showed him of his daughter, Annabelle, just a little girl. A little girl who loved her father. Involuntarily, his mind filled with grim possibilities. Annabelle at her next birthday, wishing her father could be there. Annabelle graduating from high school, staring at an empty seat. Annabelle dressed in white, standing alone at the back of a church, no one to give her away…

  Jack prayed for the hundredth time that the weather would clear tomorrow—and that the PLB had survived the explosion. It was Abe’s only chance. And maybe the only chance for all of them.

  Gradually, the others drifted off to sleep, one by one, until only Jack was left awake and fatigue dragged him down as well. When his head tipped forward, he crept over to Leah and woke her up.

  She shook her head groggily and glanced at her watch. “You look like hell.”

  “Thanks.”

  Jack slipped over to Ollie.

  “I’ve got this,” Leah said. “Let him sleep.”

  Jack shook Ollie’s shoulder. “You’re on watch with Leah,” he said.

  Leah frowned. “Both of us don’t need to be up,” she whispered.

  Jack shook his head. “Two on watch. It makes it easier to stay awake if you have company.” He didn’t want to tell her the real reason he didn’t want anyone on watch alone: because there was no one in this room he could trust. Including Leah.

  Jack flopped into a recliner and folded his hands behind his head. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep. His thoughts drifted to Annabelle again. When he was a policeman, it had, on occasion, fallen to him to tell someone that their loved one was dead. Each time was harder than the time before. Most people cried—a wailing sound that seemed to come from the soul itself. Everyone handled the news somewhat differently, but there was one thing they all asked.

  Why?

  Jack cast one more gaze around the room and closed his eyes. He was so tired he knew he’d fall asleep. Even if there was a good chance he was sleeping in the same room as a killer.

  38

  Fire in the Hole

  “So it was actually Charlie who jumped out of the helicopter that day,” Mrs. Stevens was saying. “He was pretending to be Gavin—not Ollie.”

  “Yes, Charlie had to,” Alice agreed. “With his cast, Ollie couldn’t pretend to be Gavin. Charlie was the next stunt double in line. My guess is Gavin was waiting for Charlie behind the hill. It was Charlie who jumped out of the helicopter and performed the dangerous skiing part, but when he skied behind the hill and out of the shot, Gavin was supposed to take over. Gavin would ski over the hill, down a gentle slope, remove his goggles, and finish filming his hosting shot. On TV, it would look like Gavin did it all—but really he just skied down the bunny slope.”

  “And that put Charlie in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Mrs. Stevens said. “When the helicopter set off the avalanche, the poor boy was right in the path of it.”

  “Actually, about that. We don’t know that the helicopter was the cause. The insurance company came to that conclusion because they didn’t have any evidence to the contrary. But we may have found it. I now think it’s possible someone may have deliberately triggered that avalanche. That’s where the missing avalanche charges come in.”

  “I followed you up to this point, Alice, but why would someone deliberately set off an avalanche?”

  “Money is the motive,” Alice said. “More ratings equal more money. More danger equals more ratings. Therefore, more danger equals more money.”

  “It’s all so fake!” Mrs. Stevens exclaimed, practically bristling with indignation. “And Gavin Maddox is such a phony. It’s like finding out that Elvis lip-synched.”

  “Oh, wait, no way…” Alice leaned over and rewound the video of the accident, then stood up triumphantly. “Mrs. Stevens, you’re a genius!”

  Mrs. Stevens smiled lopsidedly. “What did I say?”

  “Lip-synching. An audio recording consists of different tracks. There’s a track for music and another track for the vocals. Videotape has multiple audio tracks, too. Planet Survival records the cast audio on one track and the crew’s audio on another for editing.”

  “But I’ve never heard the crew talking.”

  “That’s because you can silence an individual track’s audio. If we turn the crew audio on, then we can listen to the isolated audio of the crew.” Alice had rewound the vi
deo to just before Charlie jumped out of the helicopter. She silenced the cast audio and turned on the crew audio, then pressed play.

  Ryan’s voice came over the computer speakers. “Okay, everyone. We’ve got one take on this, so make it count. Mack is in position. On three, two, one—action!”

  A second later Charlie jumped out of the helicopter and started down the slope.

  “On my mark,” Ryan said. “Three, two, one, it’s a go.”

  Someone else said something in the background, but Alice couldn’t make it out.

  Alice paused the video right at the moment the avalanche started. “Look at the snow,” she said. She pointed beneath the helicopter. “It’s flying upward.”

  Alice rewound the tape and cranked up the volume. They watched Charlie jump out of the helicopter once more.

  “On my mark. Three, two, one, it’s a go.”

  They listened intently several times with the volume maxed out, before they made out Ollie’s reply: “Fire in the hole.”

  The snow shot upward, and the avalanche began.

  Alice stopped the video. She stared at the screen as the realization of what happened made the bile rise in her throat. “This was no accident.”

  “Oh, dear Lord. They killed the poor man.”

  39

  Dereliction of Duty

  Jack’s deep-brown eyes fluttered but he forced them to stay closed. His aching body told him that he hadn’t been asleep long, and he didn’t want to wake up now.

  Why would someone want to kill Abe?

  The unanswered question rose from the back of his sleepy mind. That question had been driving him crazy.

  Why kill Abe, unless… I was wrong.

  Someone hadn’t tried to kill Abe. Abe had just gotten in the way. And Jack had missed it. Abe wasn’t the killer’s target.

  It was Ollie.

  Jack’s eyes snapped open, but everything was pitch-black; not a single light shone anywhere. For a moment the irrational thought that he’d been struck blind in his sleep grabbed at him. He dismissed it and rose from the recliner.

  He fumbled for his flashlight. The click of its switch echoed loudly in the quiet room.

  He turned the light’s beam toward the stairs. Leah was sitting there, her head on her arm, fast asleep in a sitting position. He panned the light around the room. He spotted Ollie stretched out on another recliner, his head drooping to his chest.

  No one was on watch.

  Concern switched to frustration. Leah wasn’t a soldier, but Ollie had been, or so he claimed, and now he’d fallen asleep at his post. And he was in danger.

  He kicked Ollie’s foot. “Get up.”

  The Australian snorted a couple of times and sat up. “I’m awake. I wasn’t sleeping.” He ran a hand down his face and stumbled to his feet.

  Across the room, Leah’s eyelids fluttered. She sat bolt upright and rubbed her eyes. “I fell asleep. Damn it.”

  “I think the power’s out.” Jack walked to the kitchen and flicked the light switch. Nothing happened.

  “Must be the generator,” Ollie said, pulling on his boots.

  “I’ll wake up Harvey,” Leah said.

  Harvey twitched like a frightened rabbit when she touched his shoulder. His brown hair stuck out at all angles, like he’d been electrocuted in his sleep. “What’s wrong?”

  “The generator’s out. Get dressed. You and I are going to check it out.” Jack turned to Ollie. “You’re coming too. Just in case.” He shined his light around until it landed on Vicky’s crimson mane.

  “I’m awake. Move your interrogation light, I’ll talk,” she groggily joked.

  Jack turned to Leah. “Two on watch. You’re with Vicky.”

  Leah’s cheeks flushed as red as Vicky’s hair. “I’ll stand up this time.”

  40

  Powerless

  When Harvey opened the side door, a gust of wind ripped it from his grasp and smashed it into the wall with a bang. The three men stepped out into the punishing gale and stumbled over to the generator. A snowdrift had built up behind it, but the cement platform it sat on was clear.

  “I expected more snow,” Jack said.

  “It’s a ground blizzard,” Harvey yelled.

  “It’s the wind that’s a killer,” Ollie explained. “You only get a little snow, but the wind’s like a frozen Caribbean hurricane.”

  Jack shined his flashlight at the generator. “That’s not a good sign.”

  A metal door on the side of the generator’s housing banged in the wind. The control panel inside had been smashed in. Bits of plastic and metal spilled out like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it.

  “Damn it!” Ollie yelled.

  Harvey pointed back at the lodge, and the three hurried back inside.

  “That wasn’t an accident,” Jack said. “Someone bashed that panel to bits.” He couldn’t stop thinking about his new theory. The soldier in him wanted to warn Ollie that he may have been the killer’s target, but the policeman in him still wasn’t completely sure Ollie wasn’t the perpetrator rather than a potential victim…

  “Why would they smash the generator? Are they trying to freeze us to death now?” Harvey asked.

  Jack’s mind came up with several reasons why the killer might want to make them powerless. Now they had no cameras, no monitors. No lights would make picking them off in the dark a lot easier, too. And the cold… yes, eventually that would become a factor, too. But seeing the panicked look on Harvey’s face, Jack decided not to walk him through any of those possibilities.

  “We have enough cold-weather gear; we’ll be fine.”

  “There’s no way Wally did this,” Ollie said. “He’s been tied up all night.”

  Harvey’s eyes widened. “You’re right. And if it wasn’t Wally… that means someone else killed Ryan.”

  “It was Eric,” Ollie said. “I’m sure of it. I bet he cut the power and then snuck back into the lodge. He can’t be far ahead of us. Harvey, you and I can head up the back stairs. Jack, you check this area.”

  “No,” Jack said. “We need to stick together and go warn the others.”

  “But we can catch him. The power just went out,” Ollie said.

  “You don’t know that. You were asleep. The power could have gone out hours ago.” Jack grabbed Harvey’s jacket and pulled him down the hall.

  Ollie growled as he followed. “We should still look for Eric. You were in the Army, right? I thought you Army guys didn’t run from a fight.”

  Idiot, I’m not running. The fight’s coming to us.

  41

  Target Practice

  Jack and Ollie stood facing each other in the kitchen. Harvey had located a couple of LED lanterns that cast a soft glow. Ollie’s face was beet-red, and veins stood out in his neck like angry worms as he scowled. He put his hand on the climbing ax in his belt.

  “Are you hearing me, mate? Eric killed Ryan and now he’s knocked out the generator. I say we go after him.”

  “We don’t know if it’s Eric,” Jack said. “All we know is that Eric is missing and someone smashed that generator. Everyone was asleep when it happened.” Jack resisted pointing out that if Ollie had stayed awake on guard duty, they might not even be having this conversation.

  “Who else could it be?” Ollie demanded. “It sure wasn’t Wally. He didn’t untie himself and tie himself back up, did he? Eric’s a survivalist. He could have easily holed up in one of the tents. I’m telling you, by now he’s snuck back into the lodge and has been staying in an empty room all warm and safe this whole time.”

  Jack still didn’t know whether he could trust Ollie, but it was time to use another approach that might yield information—and find out whether Ollie trusted him.

  “Or, it could be someone else in the cast or crew,” Jack said. He paused. “Ollie, have you considered that knocking out the generator might have been a trap, to draw someone outside?”

  Ollie scoffed. “What, you think Eric was hoping one of us wou
ld go out there alone in the dark, so he could kill us? Or maybe he thought we’d go chasing around trying to find him? Yeah, right. Who else besides me and you among this group of pansies would do that? We had to drag Harvey along with us.”

  “Except for the part about Eric, that’s exactly what I’m saying. If any one of us would go out to check the generator, it would be you or me. More likely you, since you know the equipment. And if anyone would go looking for the killer, well… you’re the only one who’s eager to do that right now. Look at the facts, Ollie. You’re a target. The killer has already tried to kill you twice.”

  Ollie looked like he’d swallowed a bug. “What?”

  “I realized it this morning. Abe wasn’t supposed to be carrying that bag of avalanche charges. You were. You made Abe lug it up the mountain, but it was your job to carry it. And when Leah sent you out to get Frida, you took Abe’s backpack with you because you’re lazy and hadn’t restocked your own pack. Because of that, Abe loaded your pack with your gear and headed out to get Chiri. The carabiner that broke was yours.”

  Ollie went a little paler. “Someone is trying to kill me.”

  “That also makes you the only person I trust to look after everyone while I go to the weather station, as soon as the weather breaks a little. Why don’t you think about that before you decide to hunt this killer on your own?” Jack stared at the frightened man, hoping his words would influence him to stay put.

  “So, what are we supposed to do in the meantime? Sit here and wait?”

  “That’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

  42

  Sitting Ducks

  Abe muttered something unintelligible in his fitful sleep. Jack leaned against the door and Leah stood with her back to him, staring out the window. Bree was sitting next to Abe’s bed, her eyes staring out from the dark circles of shadow.