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While Penny is alive, she’s slipping away fast. Whoever put her here might have left a canteen of water, but there’s a small pool of it in a divot, and I can picture her, fumbling in the near blackness of the cave, woozy from her head injury, spilling that precious water and only getting a few mouthfuls. She’s badly dehydrated and suffering from God knows what injuries I didn’t find.
Dalton lowers water right away. Penny’s unconscious, though, and nothing I can do will wake her, so I’m stuck dribbling liquid through her lips, knowing it’s not enough.
“We need to get her back,” I say. “I don’t know how to do that. Maybe you could run it, but then people need to come and get her, and I don’t know if we can even hook her up to an IV down here—”
“Casey?” Dalton gently cuts in. “We’re getting her out.”
“But we only have—”
“I’ve got this. We have light until nearly midnight, remember? We can do this. Give me twenty minutes. If you need me, shout. I’ll hear you.”
He crawls out of the tunnel, and I am left alone with Penny,dribbling water between her lips, careful not to choke her, and then when she doesn’t choke, worrying that she’s too far gone. I feel a pulse. I know I do. But it’s weak. So damn weak, and the town is two hours away, more than that if we’re carrying an unconscious woman, and what if she doesn’t make it because we chose the wrong option?
Dalton knows what he’s doing. Trying to get her back to town—even if we fail partway and have to run for help—is better than me waiting here with her, praying Dalton gets back with help in time.
It’s less than twenty minutes before Dalton returns. He’s brought woven vines to extend the rope. My shaking hands fumble attaching it, and then I have to get the rope fastened around Penny.
I get it under her armpits and heave her up and then help, as much as I can, while Dalton pulls. It is not easy, and it is not graceful. It is hauling an unconscious woman out of a pit, and then, once she’s up, dragging her along the tunnel. I do not want to even think of what additional damage we’re doing. Nor do I want to think of how deeply unconscious she must be not to wake during the ordeal.
Once she’s out, Lilith has a look but, like she’s said, she’s not the forest healer kind of witch. I undress Penny quickly to check for wounds I’ve missed, wounds that might mean we shouldn’t be carrying her five kilometers back to Haven’s Rock. There’s nothing. Just the head injury. I get a little more water into her while Dalton and Lilith fashion a stretcher. Then Storm pulls it while Dalton runs ahead to bring back help.
We’re about halfway when running footfalls thump toward us along the path. Lilith disappears into the forest with a quick goodbye. Then Anders and Dalton appear. Anders checks Penny. He’s brought a makeshift IV, but declares that she’s stableenough to make the rest of the journey to where April is preparing a proper fluid drip.
We get her to town and into the clinic. Then it’s time for me to surrender her to April and Anders, while we take up vigil on the back deck.
Penny is stable. She’s badly dehydrated, and April is concerned about that blow to the head, but not enough to start fretting that she can’t handle this. She has it under control, and now it’s just a matter of waiting for Penny to wake.
Waiting for Penny to wake and tell us what the hell happened to her.
I suspect Bruno did this, but Pierre remains on my list. I even consider Mark. What if that’s where he was that night, instead of hunting? Penny stumbled over his camp and he hit her from behind, realized what he’d done, and dumped her into that cave? Except that dumping her with food and water but letting her die only makes sense if whoever did it was no longer around to go back for her, which works for Bruno. It doesn’t work for Pierre or Mark.
I do have one clue to pursue before she wakes. Or two clues, to be precise.
I’m in the town hall with Yolanda, having just updated her on the situation. Dalton made us coffee before he slipped out with Storm, and now that I’m done with my story, Yolanda is silently processing. I’ve told her everything, including about the mining camp and the theorized plans to steal it. Does that mean I trust her completely? No, but I trust her enough to take this risk in hopes that, with her knowing everything, she can be more helpful.
I stare down into my coffee cup while she thinks it through.Gunnar wondered why I chose Dalton, and one answer lies in this cup. It lies in the million things he does because he knows me, from slowing me down in that cave to not giving me too much shit for jumping to figuring out how to get Penny out while I panicked to bringing me a coffee and a cookie because I’m stressed and exhausted. Normally, I reciprocate all that, but I’ve been so caught up in this case that I can’t, and that’s okay. I don’t have to feel guilty about it. I just make a mental note that I owe him.
“Penny will be okay?” Yolanda asks after at least five minutes of silence. It’s not the first time she’s asked, and my answer doesn’t change.
“She’s stable. April says it’s mostly dehydration. Possibly a little hypothermia. Also a head injury, which is concerning, but April believes she’ll wake up soon.”
Yolanda crosses her arms and leans back in her chair. This is clearly not the answer she wants. After a moment, she sits up again. “Why aren’t you questioning this photographer woman? Isn’t she the obvious suspect?”
Before I can comment, she leans forward and continues, “I don’t like her story. It’s too weird.”
“Up here, it’s all weird.”
“All right. So you can accept that a successful professional woman goes full-on hermit in the Yukon wilderness where shecontinuesher career of nature photography while taming a wolf for a pet. If that’s feasible, then why not a woman who brought a tame wolf-hybrid pet with her and pretends to be a wilderness photographer while scouting for mining sites.”
“I’d accept that.”
“Good.” She picks up her own coffee cup and takes a deep drink before setting it down with a clack. “So we can consider Lilith for the role of partner in crime. She pushes Bruno off a cliff, returns later and realizes he’s not dead, so she threatens himinto silence if she brings him to town. She also hits Penny and, again, can’t bring herself to kill, so she eventually leads you to her. Penny didn’t see who hit her from behind, so Lilith is safe.”
I could point out the many, many holes in this theory, but I settle for the main one.
“Whoever put Penny in that cave carried her at least a half mile,” I say. “That’s how she lost her glove, and it’s why Storm didn’t pick up her trail.”
“This woman has a dog, right? Possibly a wolf-and-sled-dog hybrid.”
