Silence of the Wolf

Chapter 5

When Tom reached the expert slope, he saw Elizabeth’s skis placed in an X several yards above. All he could see down below were three male backsides as they hovered over the injured she-wolf.

Anthony, Cody, and Kemp.

Tom greeted them as he reached their location, praying all of this was overkill. Wolves were territorial by nature, and they’d staked their claim over the she-wolf, even if she was older than the teens. When he could maneuver around the others to observe the patient, he saw one annoyed looking she-wolf scowling up at him. He frowned, still worried she might be injured worse than she claimed.

Tom moved closer to where she rested on her back against a mogul, the wind whipping the snow about. The white fake-fur-trimmed hood surrounded her face. A black half balaclava covered her mouth and nose, making her appear ninja-like. Her eyes were narrowed at him, her ski goggles pushed up onto her ski hat.

“What happened?” Tom asked, crouching down to speak with her.

She pulled the balaclava down with her right hand.

“I’ll be all right,” she said breathily, as if she was having a hard time breathing or the pain was affecting her.

She might be all right, but Tom’s heart pumped way too fast. “Kemp said you probably have a mild wrist sprain.”

“Yeah.” Her breathing was shallow.

Tom thought maybe she wasn’t used to the thinner air and was suffering from hypoxia, or altitude sickness. Or possibly she had a broken rib that had collapsed a lung.

“Do you need oxygen? Having trouble breathing?” Tom asked. “Ribs hurt?”

“No.”

He didn’t trust the patient completely. He’d seen a case a week ago where a twenty-three-year-old hot dog had claimed he was okay, but his vitals had deteriorated rapidly. Tom had him medevaced out only to learn later that the skier had ruptured his spleen. Another was the case of a forty-five-year-old man who looked unsteady after he said a snowboarder had run him over. He swore he just had to catch his breath, but when he couldn’t, Tom had the ambulance take the man down to the hospital. Tom heard later from Doc Weber that the patient had suffered a mild heart attack.

“Vital signs?” Tom asked Kemp.

“Her signs are good,” Kemp said.

“Okay, good.”

“I found her camera,” Minx said. Tom looked that way, surprised that the teenaged girl was here, too. Not that he should be, since she was friends with the boys. She must have been in the woods next to the expert trail, searching for the camera. A couple of pine needles clung to her bright green ski hat, the pink and white pom-poms swinging from the ties as she tried to make her way down the steep incline to reach them. Snow clung to the camera.

“You were taking pictures when it happened?” Tom asked Elizabeth. When he’d learned she was on this slope, he had assumed she must be an expert skier.

“Yes.” She gritted her teeth, trying to mask that she hurt.

“Was anybody with her at the time?” Tom asked.

“No, she was alone,” Kemp said.

“Did anyone see what happened?”

She gave Tom an irritated look. She must have had her back to the skier and couldn’t see what had occurred.

“Two panting males saw her,” Kemp said, a lighthearted tone to his voice.

Anthony and Cody chuckled.

Tom liked Kemp because he always had a sense of humor. It also meant that Elizabeth must be in good shape, no really bad injuries, or he would be ultraserious.

As a lupus garou, she’d heal well on her own. Unless she had spinal injuries or bleeding that couldn’t be stemmed, she should be all right.

Kemp moved over to allow Tom to get closer. Kemp’s twin brother, Radcliff, skied down with the toboggan. He had darker blond hair than Kemp, and his eyes were a lighter amber. Both men were in great shape because they served on the ski patrol regularly each season and had all the women swooning when they shared smiles with them.

Tom checked over Elizabeth’s vital signs himself. They looked good.

“I’m fine,” she said, still frowning at him. “Go help someone who really needs your assistance.”

“It’s noon and I’m off the clock. We still have that lunch date.” Tom could imagine the boys taking notes on how to court a wolf. “You’re going down by toboggan. We have several other patrollers at the resort, so no problem there.”

“Except that you should have heard the flurry of ‘I’m coming,’ no matter how far away the other patrollers were stationed,” Kemp said, grinning.

Tom could imagine, even if they were joking.

“Fine. Get me down to the base so that the whole slope isn’t crowded with onlookers. I can’t believe you’re making that big a deal of this,” Elizabeth groused.

She didn’t know how much so until they placed a neck collar on her, strapped her to a board, and clamped an oxygen mask in place. She didn’t have to say a word for Tom to know she was pissed. He wasn’t taking a chance on her being injured further.

Peter Jorgenson, their local sheriff and a good friend of Tom’s, skied up behind them, and Tom wondered what he was doing up here.

“Okay, guys, move back and give us some room.” Tom meant Cody and Anthony, but when they didn’t budge, he said a little sterner this time, “Cody, Anthony, move.”

The wolves shuffled carefully away, avoiding sliding down the sharp embankment.

“So, Peter, what are you doing up here?” Tom asked as the sheriff motioned for the teens to shift further out of the way.

Peter seemed just as intrigued with the she-wolf and didn’t move to vacate the area himself. The slope was treacherously sheer here, and they all stood on the sides of the moguls to keep from sliding down the icier sections.

“Took a breather while it’s quiet in town. Deputy Sheriff Trevor’s holding down the fort.” Peter tilted his Stetson back, his dark sunglasses hiding his dark eyes, his forehead creased in a frown.

Kemp had pressed ice against Elizabeth’s wrist. Tom brought out an elastic bandage and wrapped it around her wrist to prevent swelling. He made a sling to keep her arm close to her body, her wrist elevated and protected. “Were you holding on to your ski poles when you fell?” Kemp asked.

She nodded.

“Always let them go. More wrist injuries occur when skiers hang on to their poles during a fall.”

“Your camera,” Minx said, sliding on the icier sections as she tried to reach them.

Anthony grabbed her arm before she fell.

Tom and Kemp lifted Elizabeth onto the toboggan. Tom wrapped the blanket around her and strapped her in, while Radcliff went back up for her skis. Once Tom had retrieved her ski poles from Cody and the skis from Radcliff and strapped them on the toboggan, Minx set the camera on Elizabeth’s stomach.

“Here,” Tom said to Elizabeth. “Let me secure your camera.” He hoped it hadn’t been ruined in the fall. Jake might loan her one of his so she could complete her story, if she could still ski later before she had to return home, but Jake was possessive about his photographic equipment. He might offer to take pictures for her instead.

Tom turned to everyone standing there. “So tell me, what happened? Anyone know? Who reported her injury?”

Anthony poked the tips of his ski poles into the mogul. “She was taking a picture at the top of the trail, I guess. We saw someone speeding across the connecting trail in front of us. He skied really fast and sliced the turn too short. I thought maybe the guy was out of control and accidentally hit her. I figured we’d see him in a heap down the slope somewhere, too. When we reached the trailhead, he had zipped down to the bottom as fast as humanly possible, and she had tumbled down the hill. Her arm flew out, and she cried out. She looked like she tried to stop her fall, but she hurt her wrist instead. She rolled until she stopped at the mogul.”

“She was unconscious?” Tom asked.

“She appeared that way,” Cody said. “She looked like she was asleep and didn’t move. Then her arm jerked and it appeared she’d come to. Anthony called the emergency in.”

“Is that what all of you saw?” Tom asked.

“Yeah, I guess.” Cody dusted snow off his black ski bib. He wore his trademark rainbow-colored jester hat, the bells ringing on the four tassels every time he moved.

“You didn’t really see what happened?” Tom asked.

“No, just like Anthony said. It appeared the same to me.”

“What about the guy? Did you recognize him? See what he wore?”

“Who cared about him?” Anthony asked. “We were too concerned about the lady.”

Tom looked at the girl. “Minx?”

She made a face, her cheeks red, her blond hair hanging half-loose from her knit hat. “Well, I mean, I guess. If that’s what they saw, that’s what happened.”

“You don’t think so?”

Their expressions skeptical, chins tilted down, eyebrows raised, the boys looked at her as though they didn’t believe she had seen anything different.

She shrugged. “Yeah, sure.”

Tom hated when kids caved in to peer pressure. “What do you think happened, Minx?”

“The guy hit her on purpose.”

That’s what Elizabeth had thought, too. At first, when she fell down the mountain, she was too shocked and too anxious about stopping her fall before she smacked into a tree and fractured her skull to focus on what had occurred.

She eyed Tom. His hair was ruffled by the wind, his cheeks red, his sunglasses too dark to reveal his eyes. Wolves liked to see a person’s eyes. They could gather a wealth of information from them. He gave her a dimpled smile despite her scowling at him.

“You’re sure the guy pushed you? Didn’t just lose control and shove into you?” Tom asked.

“Okay, possibly, yes, he was out of control, reached his hand up, and shoved at me to get his balance. It’s possible. Sure.”

Tom said, “But not likely.”

“No.”

“Come on down to the hut so we can get your statements in writing,” Tom said to the teens.

Elizabeth tried to remember what had happened right before the skier shoved her. She’d taken a picture of the man who had acted so hostile toward her on the chairlift. He’d taken off from the lift and headed for the slope. By the time she had reached it, he was already skiing down it. He’d stopped and peered up at her, as if checking to see if she was photographing him. How would he know she had followed him?

Maybe the guy in the chair behind them was this guy’s friend, and the man had looked back to see if his ski buddy was joining him. That would make more sense. But if they were ski buddies, why hadn’t the two men ridden the lift together?

“Let’s get you to the base of the mountain and our first-aid hut,” Tom said to her.

She took a deep breath, feeling warm, wrapped snug in the blanket.

She had to admit that despite being annoyed they’d make such a fuss over her, the guys were all cute. The ski patrollers, the teens, the sheriff. And as wiped out as she felt, she would have had a really tough time making it down the slope on her own—and very likely would have taken another spill.

“Do you suspect that the man targeted you specifically?” Tom asked.

She frowned at him. He couldn’t know anything about her uncle, could he?

Tom looked at her questioningly, then smiled a little. “All right. We’ll discuss it more after we get you to the hut.”

“I thought you were working until sunset,” Peter said. “I can follow her to the hospital.”

“I’ve got it covered. Jake’s coming to relieve me,” Tom said.

Radcliff shook his head. “You notice how the brothers stick together?”

Yeah, Elizabeth thought, and they might stick together to kick her out of the territory when Tom’s brothers learned what she was.

Tom wasn’t sure what to think concerning Elizabeth’s allegations. Skiers and snowboarders knocked others down on the slopes all the time, and it didn’t mean anything except that they were out of control and practicing unsafe skiing or snowboarding. Since she wasn’t from here, he didn’t think she’d have any enemies. Unless she’d annoyed someone on the slope, and Tom had yet to learn of it.

He fully intended to get to the bottom of this. Peter would handle it from a police perspective, while Tom would stay on top of it from a pack sub-leader point of view.

He took hold of the trace of the toboggan while Kemp took the tail rope to help guide it down the trails. The patrollers all preferred grabbing the trace rather than the tail rope to transport a patient. The lead was responsible for primary braking, choosing the best route, and any change in speed and direction. In other words, he was in charge, which was the way Tom liked it.

The tail operator usually wasn’t needed much unless the trail was particularly steep, as this one was, and then he might be required for secondary braking. He might also be needed to observe the patient’s status, though in this case, Elizabeth wasn’t in any kind of life-threatening condition. Peter pulled that duty instead of being the tail operator, trying to stay close to the toboggan and still interested in the she-wolf, Tom suspected.

Kemp was also responsible for monitoring traffic, as well as keeping the rope under proper tension and parallel to the fall line to halt the toboggan immediately if necessary.

Tom put his hand on the crossbar to brace during the steepest parts of the descent while side-slipping down the mountain. Kemp gripped the tail rope with both hands, underhanded, through the loop at the end. He matched Tom’s speed.

“You okay?” Tom asked Elizabeth as he paused.

“Yeah.”

Once he got them off the expert trail, he eased them onto Fox Run, an intermediate slope.

The teens skied past them, while Peter followed behind the toboggan and Radcliff skied next to it. The ski patrollers got another emergency call and Radcliff answered it. He waved at Tom and Kemp. “A guy jumped off a chair on Lift 3. Possibly broke both legs. Got to go.”

Tom shook his head.

“Automatic revoking of ski pass,” Kemp said cheerfully.

Tom smiled at him. “You think he’d ski the rest of the season with two broken legs?”

Kemp laughed. “As gung ho as some of these guys are? You never know.”

When they finally reached Meadow Lane, one of the bunny slopes, they had to watch out for all the new skiers taking spills, running into each other, or falling without even taking a step.

“We’re almost there,” Tom said to Elizabeth, glancing back. She had closed her eyes, and he worried she might have passed out from a head trauma. “Elizabeth?”

“Elizabeth, are you all right?” Peter asked, getting close.

“Yes,” she said, sounding annoyed. She still didn’t open her eyes.

Peter smiled at Tom. “She doesn’t like the attention.”

She would get it whether she liked it or not, Tom vowed.

When they arrived at the first-aid hut, Tom came around to the right of the toboggan and unstrapped Elizabeth. He and Kemp lifted her onto a gurney that a couple of the staff brought out to them. The teens were waiting for them to give Peter their full statements.

“This is so unnecessary,” Elizabeth griped, her voice still muffled by the oxygen mask.

“Are you always like this when you’re a patient?” Tom asked.

She snorted. He chuckled.

Peter took her skis and poles, and Minx offered to hold her camera. Tom wheeled Elizabeth into the hut.

“I’ll pick up your bag at your locker and follow the ambulance to the hospital in Silver Town.” Tom winked at her.

She rolled her eyes. That earned her another smile.

Jake walked through the door to the hut, his expression dark. “I received updates about the lady as I drove over here to take your place this afternoon. Do you need me to take her to the hospital instead?” Jake sounded damned serious.

His brother had to be kidding!