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“Bob was in his bed,” Adam said.
“You hear the bit about the condom?” Ridley asked.
“I heard. I doubt it was Bob’s. The guy’s not so bad when you get to know him.” This was delivered in a voice so totally devoid of emotion A
“Get dressed,” Ridley told Adam. “Tell Bob to get up and get dressed. We’re going to need to get a jump on this… on whatever this is. Robin was stewed to the gills. She may have just gotten a sudden desire to go walkabout.”
A
Closing the window, she remained standing on Robin’s bed. No track, no sign: that was not indicative of drunken meandering by a naked girl carrying a sleeping bag. Robin had not left; she had been taken, spirited away, vanished into the night. There would have been a sort of poetic satisfaction if A
Ridley called, radioed and e-mailed the mainland, begging for help as soon as they could send it. The radio failed. The phone was almost unintelligible. E-mail got through. ISRO’s Superintendent promised Coast Guard, Forest Service, NPS search and rescue and law enforcement as soon as the weather allowed an invasion from the mainland.
That done, he and A
As had been the case when Katherine went missing, they found no track or sign to indicate which direction Robin had been taken. Again they searched the perimeter. Again they searched the permanent-employee housing area. Again they searched Washington Creek campground. Again they found nothing.
Ridley radioed the order to return to the bunkhouse. Layers of cold-weather gear peeled off and dumped, they sat in the living room on the three sofas, like a family at a deathwatch.
No one was anxious to go to bed.
Leaning her elbows on her knees, A
She couldn’t count the number of banal conversations she participated in where she was asked: “If you were marooned on a desert island, which book, man, song, tool would you want with you?” The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Paul Davidson, “Amazing Grace” and a real sharp knife.
Finally marooned and she had none of the above.
Another opportunity squandered.
Ridley and Jonah looked much as they had for the past few days, only more so. The pilot’s seamed face had lost its pixyish expression. Age dragged down his cheeks and dulled his eyes. Ridley was taking on the look of a lost soul. At each downward turn of events, he had stayed strong. A
Bob Menechi
Menechi
Following this train of thought, A
As the night wore on, she quit worrying about Ridley’s ability to cope and began to worry about hers. Night closed tightly around the bunkhouse, the poor lighting in the common room inadequate to push it back past the mirror of the windows. Claustrophobia grew up through the cement suffocating her brain till she could picture herself ru
“I was locked in the V.C.,” she a
“Someone locked me in before kidnapping Robin.” Her bomb fizzled. The men looked at her, faces devoid of emotion. If one of them had thrown the dead bolt, A
“Or some thing,” Adam said.
A
He shrugged.
A
“Where do you think you are going?” Bob demanded, rousing himself from his lethargy. He sounded angry.
“Out. Want to come with me?”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” he snapped. He glanced at Adam and then away. Whatever had been communicated was lost on A
She stared at him long and hard. Bob was scared and it was making him mad.
Scared of her? If he was, so much the better.
“I’ll go with you,” Jonah volunteered.
A
“Bring a flashlight,” she said.
“I’ll bring two.”
They went out the front door and down the deck stairs. At the bottom of the steps, A
“What?” Jonah’s head came up like a dog seeking scent.
“Nothing.” A
“Do we have a clue?” Jonah asked, and she appreciated the wisp of humor.
“I am clueless,” A
“What’s with Adam and Bob?” she asked, remembering the pregnant glance.
“Beats me,” Jonah said. “Adam’s a good guy. He’s worked Winter Study a couple times before. Canucks tend to see the best in people. But Menechi
The moose that liked to scratch its back against the drainpipe had churned snow and earth into a mass of frozen clods and ice. With her light streaming almost laterally across the tiny field, A