Page 37 of Cold and Bitter Snow

She looked up to see another figure skiing erratically towards them. He ignored the patroller’s warning not to get any closer. The man dropped his poles—he looked ready to punch someone.

“Those are my kids! Please!”

The patroller moved aside. Ryan and Amy ran towards the man. “Daddy!”

Siena and Conor looked at each other. He looked as relieved as she felt.

Jacques’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the burning, collapsed pylon. “We need to keep people away in case the fire spreads.”

Jacques spoke quietly on his radio. Siena understood they were closing down the whole resort.

“The weather’s worsening,” Jacques explained. “We can’t afford any more accidents while we work here. I’ve got my team spread out over the lift. We’ve deployed cable gliders. We’ll have everybody down soon.”

Siena shook her head, amazed at his matter-of-fact tone.

“Don’t worry,” he said, winking at her. “We’ve trained for precisely this scenario. We’ll have these people off the lift by the time the firefighters get here.”

Then he was off.

Chapter 12

Conor

Conor pulled Siena away from the rescue operation. There wasn’t much they could do now that the ski patrol team and EMTs were there.

He brought out a small orange object.

“Check this out,” he said. “I picked it up near the pylon.”

“What is it?” she asked, holding the unfamiliar orange object in her hand.

“I think it’s a piece of an explosive. That noise we heard, when we first arrived?”

“It wasn’t an accident? You think somebody meant for this to happen? Why would anyone want to cause an explosion in a chairlift?” Siena asked.

“I think all these incidents are related. And it all started the day you saw the crate.”

“You think the bomb was in the crate?”

“I think it was one of the things in the crate, but not the only thing, given what we know of its size and weight.”

“What else?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“Why would anyone want—”

“Exactly. Why would anyone want the police and the firemen busy down by the town, and now the ski patrollers busy here?”

Conor saw the wheels turning in Siena’s mind. Like him, she’d been running on adrenaline since the fire first started. Now they were both thinking through the problem. And there was only one possible answer.

Siena reached the same conclusion before he could verbalize it.

“It’s a distraction,” she said. “That’s all these incidents are.”

He nodded. “But a distraction from what, is the question.”

She looked up at him, her hazel eyes widening.