A Cache of Trouble: A Cassidy Callahan Novel. Kelly Rysten

a simple solution, which later turns out to be more difficult than imagined. So there I was, two days up a fading trail chasing down an emotional teenager.

      Victor wasn’t much help. He was along for two reasons. One, because they wouldn’t let me go out alone, and two, he knew how to use a first aid kit. EMTs are handy that way, but this call was more my area of expertise. I doubted Victor could have followed this trail. He tried keeping track of the footprints for a while, but after many attempts to see what I saw and getting left behind, he gave up and followed me. His job would come later.

      “Cassidy, do you ever slow down?” Victor gasped, short of breath.

      “Do you see these tracks?”

      “Barely.”

      “In an hour you might not. One more rain like we had this afternoon and the trail will be gone.”

      “Neither rain, nor snow, nor dark of night…” Victor said.

      “Nope, that doesn’t work for tracking. Can’t track at night. And rain is murder on tracks. We need to find Angie before it rains again. The only good thing about rain is that maybe she was able to get enough water to stay alive. As far as snow goes, I’ve seen my share of snow for a lifetime. How many times did we go after lost skiers this winter?”

      “Me, or you?”

      I’d just joined the team in January, so I guess I couldn’t complain about the snow trips. I’d only gotten two months worth and then the snow had melted enough to make the snow birds stay home. Lou, Victor, Landon and Rosco sure had their share of snow shoeing even before I came on board.

      “Aaaangie!” We called out as we tracked along. Time was getting critical. At first we hadn’t called her name because following her trail seemed sufficient. However, as we thought we were getting closer and Angie’s time was running out we started calling her by name, hoping for a response. So far, the hills had been silent. When darkness finally stopped our search I became torn. Another night out in the open and I would put the chances of Angie’s survival at almost zero. Nights were still cold. We’d woken up to frost on the ground the two nights we’d been out. Angie’s family had slept snug and warm in a motor home but she was a city kid out to get her yearly dose of the outdoors. She’d taken off without water. I needed to find that kid and I needed to do it yesterday.

      After we made camp, ate some dinner and cleaned up, I put a headlamp on and walked a circle around camp. More than one lost person had spotted headlamps and then called out to us, so I wanted to give Angie a chance to spot us too. Two circuits around camp and still no response. I went to bed dejected.

      “Up at first light,” I called out to Victor as I crawled into my tent.

      The next morning the trail was noticeably fainter. Frost again covered the ground. I called out to Victor as soon as I got up and then I started my little one burner camp stove to heat water for hot chocolate and breakfast. I was tired of oatmeal and so determined to not eat it again that I made a pouch full of powdered eggs, then couldn’t eat it all. Victor looked at it and went to his pack and pulled out a sweet roll, gooey with glaze and begging to be eaten.

      “Where’d you get that?” I snapped. It wasn’t cheesecake but it would doin a pinch.

      “The grocery store.”

      “You’re lucky it isn’t cheesecake. I’d do anything for a piece of cheesecake!”

      “Anything?”

      “Well, almost anything.”

      “Sorry, I don’t have cheesecake.”

      We hit the trail and I could hear little sweet rolls whispering to me from the bottom of Victor’s pack. I wasn’t going to ask for one, though. Nope, I would be tough. I’d ignore the call of the sweet roll.

      The only way I knew I was still following Angie’s trail was the fact that her tracks were the only footprints around. All distinguishing marks had been erased by the rain. The one thing that kept me going was the fact that Angie was not experienced in the woods. She didn’t walk carefully and she was tiring. She dragged her feet a lot now and she was growing unsteady.

      We finally caught up to her around mid morning but the sight of her was so disturbing I had to stop, taking a second to let things register. Not wanting to rush into this all panicky, I calmed myself and then walked over to her. Victor was still several steps behind me. She was lying on her side out in the open. She was covered with muddy raindrops, so she had been lying there for a long time. I felt for a pulse and almost fainted with relief when I found one.

      I ached for her, though. Victor stepped in, handed me the radio, and started his work. Still feeling overwhelmed, I contacted base camp and arranged for pick up. Missing person found. Condition serious. Send airlift. Stat. Lou could tell just from my voice that I’d been hit hard this time. I was glad he didn’t know why.

      After a seemingly endless wait the helicopter clattered overhead and lowered the basket. Victor and I lifted Angie’s still form into the basket and strapped her down. Victor rode up with Angie and then the basket was lowered again and I hopped in. I rode the basket up into the helicopter and found a place that was out of the way. I sat beside a very still Angie all the way to the hospital, Victor and Nathan monitoring her vital signs as we flew along. Dehydration and hypothermia were the main concerns. She didn’t appear to have been attacked by animals or have any broken bones from a fall. She’ll be okay, I kept telling myself. One good thing I noticed, we were headed towards Joshua Hills. If Angie were in real danger Victor and Nathan would have sent the helicopter to L.A.

      At the hospital Angie’s family found me, clapping me on the back and thanking me profusely. I was embarrassed. They were thanking me for taking three days to find their daughter and she’d lain out in the open for close to a day unconscious. How could they be thanking me when I felt so guilty?

      I should have called Rusty and gotten a ride home, but I was still so disheartened that I shouldered my pack and started walking towards the condo. A half mile from the hospital a big, white, older model car pulled up and a little old lady tottered around to the sidewalk. She pressed a bag of fast food into my hand and handed me a flyer about her church’s upcoming revival.

      “God bless you,” she said pleasantly, tottered back to her car and drove away. I guess she didn’t notice the 9mm still strapped to my thigh or she would have kept driving. I was puzzled. She either knew about the search or thought I was homeless. I was going with the homeless theory. Backpack, dirty clothes, no bath for three days, walking through town… Oh well, who could blame her. I opened the hamburger and ate it as I walked. Even fast food cheesecake would have been an answer to prayer right then, but I only found a burger and fries.

      I entered the condo hot, tired and discouraged. My dog, Shadow, raced around, happy to see me. I petted him until he calmed down then I dropped my pack by the front door and went upstairs to shower. The warm water went a long way toward perking me up, but I still needed a warm hug, a slice of New York cheesecake with something gooey on top, and a good report about Angie to make me feel like my old self again. I put on a tank top and shorts and stretched out on the big, soft bed and was out like a light.

      I didn’t sleep long before I felt the bed move and an arm came around me. My hug had arrived. I really needed that hug. I turned over and put my arms around Rusty’s broad shoulders.

      “I missed you,” he said, “Why didn’t you call?”

      “I rode in with the helicopter.”

      “I know, Strict told me. He was as puzzled as I was about why you weren’t at the hospital, though.”

      “I’m sorry, I was discouraged and I thought a long walk would help so I just walked home from the hospital.”

      “You spent two days hiking those rugged mountains and you still needed a walk? What could have you that discouraged?”

      I got a big lump in my throat. I really needed that hug so I snuggled closer.

      “Oh, Babe,” he said pulling