Winter Study by Nevada Barr

Author:Nevada Barr [Barr, Nevada]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, General, Mystery, Mystery & Detective, American Mystery & Suspense Fiction, Suspense, Detective, Mystery & Detective - Women Sleuths, Fiction - Mystery, Women Sleuths, Michigan, Wilderness areas, Wolves, Pigeon; Anna (Fictitious character), Women park rangers, Isle Royale National Park (Mich.), Rocky Mountain National Park (Colo.), Isle Royale National Park, Isle Royale (Mich.)
ISBN: 9780399154584
Publisher: PUTNAM
Published: 2008-04-01T05:00:00+00:00

18

Anna would have thought any self-respecting werewolf or wog would have taken Robin’s show of weakness as an invitation to come to dinner, but, after she’d cried out, the slithery, sneaky sounds of their uninvited escort ceased. Robin didn’t bounce back. Youth and strength and athleticism went out of her. Her skis tangled and tripped her as if she were the rankest novice. She stumbled and fell, and each time it was harder for Anna to get her up. Finally Anna removed Robin’s skis, stowed them on the Sked and put the harness on her own shoulders. To keep the biotech close, she insisted Robin keep one hand on the lead rope and help.

Help

was the word Anna used to try to break through the walls that had formed around the young woman’s brain and were suffocating her body. Robin had lost even the strength to close her fingers tightly enough to keep her hand from constantly falling away from the rope and her feet from slowing to a stop.

The flashlight began to brown out. Ski tracks leading back to the main trail were filling with blowing snow, becoming harder and harder to follow. Wind carved up the storm and slung freezing snow at them from every direction. Anna’s eyes watered and the tears froze her lashes together. The drag of the Sked on her shoulders grew heavier. Her feet turned to chunks of concrete in leaden boots the size of canoes.

Ridley never came back. Then Anna forgot she’d once hoped he would.

There was a place in her about the size of a softball just behind her sternum. A surgeon or MRI or X-ray would never find it, but it was where her center of energy resided; the tiny machine that had to be kick-started at the beginning of every hike, revved up when the natural laziness of mankind wanted to crawl back into the hammock. Muscles could be tired or weak or cramping, and she could push on as long as that motor kept running.

Whatever it was — will, stubbornness, pride — ground to a stop.

The Sked hit the back of her knees and she went down on all fours. Robin stopped beside her the way an old dog will stop when its master does.

“Fucking Ridley,” Anna gasped. “Fucking Bob.” The fetal position Robin had adopted was looking pretty good. Being devoured by beasts wasn’t looking all that bad either.

She tried to push herself up. Her arms buckled as if the bones had been boiled to the consistency of overcooked noodles and she fell face-first into the snow. She tried to find her feet and couldn’t. Her fingers, around the grip of the flashlight wouldn’t close.

“Robin!” she yelled. “Help me.”

Robin looked down into the sepia pool of light where Anna struggled. The biotech said nothing. Her face showed no emotion, not even recognition.

“Help me up, God dammit!” Anna snarled. “Do it or we both die.”

“Don’t die,” Robin whispered. Anna barely caught the sound under the sawing of the wind.

“I will fucking die and so will you if you don’t help me.

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