Cold Fear Read Free Page A

fell from Paige’s pack when she fled, a favorite from the Gap. It was
pink, now browned with his dried blood. The flag of his guilt.
    Shame would not allow him to admit to Emily what he had
done. Chased Paige away, cursing, bleeding. An ax in his hand.
    I am so sorry.
    The rain had stopped. Patches of cool dawn mist quilted
the forest slopes. Crows echoed in the valleys. Doug got busy restarting the
fire, using wood he had placed in the tent. To warm Paige in case she returned.
    While the kindling smoked and crackled to life, Doug
gently nudged Emily, who awoke weeping softly. It was time for him to get help.
    “Everything will be OK,” he promised her, preparing his
knapsack. She nodded tearfully, unable to utter words. “She’ll probably show up
a minute after I leave. We’ll get through this together, Em.”
    She hugged Doug tightly, as if her entire weight were
pulling her down into an abyss. Tenderly, he pried her arms loose, then left.
    Jogging, trotting, pushing himself to resurrect his
Marine Corps training, Doug moved swiftly. He hoped to encounter someone in the
remote region with a cell phone or radio. No luck. The area was isolated. To
get here, they had left their car parked half a day away at their motel near Columbia
Falls outside the west entrance to the park. They took a tour bus drop to the
main gate. From there, they took a park shuttle along Going-to-the-Sun Road,
the spectacular mountain highway that traversed the park. At a northern
junction, they caught another shuttle that took them due north along the new Icefields Highway, a serpentine roadway hugging steep rocky slopes and cliff edges. It was
dotted with hiker drop-off points at trail heads leading into the Devil’s
Grasp.
    Doug covered miles of primitive harsh terrain quickly,
praying Paige had survived the night. If anything happened to her. Don’t
think about that. She is just lost, huddled somewhere with Kobee.
    By midafternoon, Doug made it to the backcountry road
and shuttle bus pick-up point. He was spotted by a park shuttle bus frantically
waving. Its diesel roared after the driver picked Doug up, then radioed to the
new Devil’s Grasp ranger station.
    Ranger Mac McCormick met Doug outside the small log
cabin station.
    “My daughter is lost in the backcountry! We have to get
a search team! She wandered off yesterday afternoon. It rained up there. Please!”
    The ranger got Doug into the office where a seasonal
ranger was already talking on the radio about a lost little girl.
    Mac was one of Glacier’s brightest rangers. Fresh from
training at the Federal Law Enforcement Academy in Georgia, he was awaiting the
paperwork confirming him as a level 1 law enforcement ranger.
    “Yessir, we’re going to get help out there as quick as
we can.”
    Helping Doug to a padded chair behind the counter, Mac
mentally noted his haggard, unshaven, frenzied appearance and his wounded left
hand. He likely fell on the trail getting here.
    “Sir, we’re going to need some information. Sally,” Mac
instructed the female ranger, “Confirm to Park Dispatch to let the district
ranger know we have a lost person report. Find out what is available right now
from the air tours at West Glacier. Standby to send out a hasty team.”
    Mac quickly began completing a lost person
questionnaire, detailing Paige Baker’s case: full name, her parents, health,
physical description, time she was last seen, who talked to her last, what
area, clothing, outdoors experience, fear of animals, the dark, adults, her
personality. All while, he punctuated his questions by assuring Doug that help
was on the way.
    Doug told Mac about Kobee, Paige’s beagle.
    “Pets are not permitted, how did you--?”
    “We know. We sneaked him in for Paige. They’re
inseparable.”
    Mac noted Kobee. Then, in keeping with procedure, he had
the seasonal ranger fax the information to the park’s law enforcement rangers,
who would pass it on to other police authorities. Then Mac took Doug