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Two big men emerged from the vehicle, but before introducing themselves, they rounded to the back of their ambo to pull out their medical bags and a portable basket litter that would be needed in case of an emergency extraction. In a mountain rescue situation, a regular gurney didn’t always cut it.
One look at the patches on the men’s sleeves as they approached, let Ever know the crew weren’t paramedics, but EMT’s, which may or may not bode well depending on Fleet’s condition when they found him. The pair would be able to successfully immobilize Fleet if there were a neck or spinal injury, but they weren’t certified to put in an IV line or administer drugs.
“Hi. I’m Brian and this is Holden.” The larger of the two man lifted his chin toward his partner since his hands were full. “What do we have?”
Ever looked to Mason.
“Listen up, everyone,” her husband barked, gaining the entire group’s attention. That included the five from E squad, and the two EMTs. “The man we’re here for is Fleet Eggers, he’s a friend of ours, and a bouldering expert. He arrived here today sometime between noon and one, with an anticipated ETA back in Orono of over an hour ago. We wouldn’t have thought much about him being on the mountain for longer than expected, except he’s not answering his phone. And as you all know, there’s good cell reception all over this mountain.
“We believe we’ve pinpointed where he was most likely headed because he invited me and Ever here a few weeks ago and took us to his favorite spot about an hour up the trail. We hope that’s where he is. If not, we’ll have to call in the entire team, along with Harvé and Muddy.”
Ever knew he talked of the expert tracker who was a friend of his, along with his very talented dog.
“What the hell is bouldering?” Brian asked as soon as Mase was finished. He gave a shake of his head, clearly confused.
Huh. He must not be a local, Ever thought, taking note of his slight, southern accent.
“It’s like rock climbing, but without the ropes and harnesses,” Cisco came back evenly. “Normally bouldering climbs are undertaken on outcroppings not more than fifteen or twenty feet high, but they’re differently challenging because in that sport, it’s all about hand and foot holds. There are no ropes, no anchors, nothing but a crash mat below to save you in a fall.”
Which was exactly what had Ever worried. If Fleet wasn’t answering, he could have taken a major drop.
While they talked, Talia and Cisco had decided on exactly what to bring and stood tall with several ropes looped over their shoulders, along with anchor supplies, quickdraws, and belay devices. Ever had never climbed before, but she was very familiar with the equipment, having grown up with parents who ran a white-water rafting venture. Often times climbers used their services to get to cliffs that weren’t accessible by car.
“This is about Fleet?” Doug finally jeered. “What an idiot to head out without a buddy.”
It was nothing Ever hadn’t expected to come out of his mouth. The man was not an easy team player. Point in case; he had troubles with a woman being his squad leader. The only thing that had kept him on the team was Talia vouching for him, saying he was an extremely competent officer. So they’d compromised to keep him active; having him answer only to Talia’s second in command, Cisco, with whom the man had been friends for years.
“I go without backup sometimes,” Cisco astonishingly admonished his buddy, shutting down Doug’s line of questioning immediately. “You can’t always dictate when the urge will hit to do some verticals.”
Doug grunted, and they all begun walking briskly toward the trail. At least it had buttoned the guy’s lips.
Funny, but Doug had never seemed to like Fleet during the few times they’d met. Ever didn’t know what the deal was. It could be prejudice against Fleet’s skin color. It could be—like everyone else—that he’d noticed Talia’s interest in the man and was…jealous? Or it could simply be that anyone connected to the arts community lay outside Doug’s jock-like comfort zone, so his disapproving attitude was all bluster.
Right now, Ever didn’t care what motivated his dislike. Doug could take his biases and shove them up his ass. He’d better just do his job.
Silence reigned for the first mile in, until Talia came up to walk beside Ever on a particularly wide portion of the trail.
“When did you discover Fleet was missing?” Talia’s face was a study in worried lines. Ever didn’t know if her synopsis would be of any comfort.
“Well, he was bummed because he hadn’t gotten a lot done this morning, so he called to find out if I’d be in tomorrow. When I told him I would, he was relieved. He said he needed a break and was headed out to do some bouldering to see if he could clear his head. He assured me he’d be back at the soundboard by late this afternoon, so I decided to go in and help him out as a surprise.”
“And when you arrived, he wasn’t there.”
“Right. Which worried me a little, but not overly much. I figured he was probably late because he’d gotten into his ‘zone’. But when I called a couple times and he didn’t answer, I started becoming uneasy. You know how seriously Fleet takes his work, and I couldn’t see him bugging out and muting his phone just to spend an extra hour on the boulders.”
“Yeah. Me either,” Talia responded with a grimace. “I…hate this,” she admitted, almost under her breath so that only Ever could hear. “We were actually together last night, and…had a little…disagreement,” she admitted. “Now I’m upset we left things the way we did. I had some pretty severe regrets all night, but now I feel even worse, knowing I might have added to his need to get away, and that whatever happened is partially my fault.”
“Don’t beat yourself up, Talia,” Ever told her, not wanting to divulge that she knew about the words that had passed between the two. “I know he had a really bad headache this morning, which is why he wasn’t having any luck in the studio. I’m sure his distraction had nothing to do with you.”
“I think it did,” Talia rebutted. “It was my fault, our falling out. I overreacted to something he said; basically, putting words in his mouth that he didn’t say. It’s because I’m super-sensitive to the whole ‘women shouldn’t ask for what they want’ thing, that I jumped on him. I couldn’t stop it. I’ve been espousing female autonomy my whole adult life,” she defended herself.
Ever kept quiet, knowing Talia needed to rant.
“Do you know how sick and tired I am of being looked at askance because of my size and my blondeness? Having people’s mouths drop open when I show I not only have a brain, but dare to give an opinion?”
Ever would have snickered if the situation weren’t so dire. Of course, she knew. She’d been part of the same type of old-boys network when she’d been on the PD in Chicago.
And Talia, bless her, gave off more than opinions. She was downright take-charge, but it was past time she understood that it wasn’t a bad thing. Fleet knew exactly who Talia was, and he liked her not despite it, butbecauseof it. Her confidence in a world that was foreign to Fleet, had him all kinds of interested.
