Snowstorm of Our Past novel · Chapter 18 of 32

Chapter 18: Independence Pass

I picked up the diner phone and called dispatch.

"Lake County."

"It's Mallory Brooks. I need the team. A white SUV went past the winter gate on 82, heading up Independence Pass. One adult, one infant."

There was a short pause.

"Copy. It's snowing hard up there, Mallory. They're saying two feet overnight."

"I know. Page Gabe."

I hung up.

Clint was already standing.

"I'm coming."

"You're not on the team."

"That's my son."

I looked at him in his uniform shirt with no coat, his eyes red, his hands still shaking.

"Then you do exactly what I say," I said. "Every single thing. Or I'll have the deputies sit on you at the gate."

"Yes."

Gran was already at the coat rack.

She pulled down an old green parka of my grandfather's that had hung there since before I was born, and threw it at Clint.

"Don't you dare get that torn," she said.

I ran upstairs.

Tilly was asleep in her crib with her arms flung up over her head.

I stood over her for three seconds.

Then I pulled on my gear, my new beacon, my red harness, and went back down.

"Go," Gran said. "I've got her. Bring that baby boy back."

Gabe's truck pulled up out front four minutes later.

He saw Clint and didn't say anything.

He just reached behind his seat, pulled out a spare beacon, switched it to transmit and held it out.

"Wear it under your coat," he said. "And don't touch the switch."

Clint took it.

We drove south in the dark with the wipers going full speed.

The snow came at the headlights.

At Twin Lakes, two sheriff's deputies had parked their trucks across the road by the winter gate with their lights going.

The gate was bent.

Somebody had driven right around the end of it and taken out a reflector post.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Snowstorm of Our Past from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.