Today's Reading
Recognition jolted through Bet. Grant Marsden was a local teen she knew on sight. His father, Doug, was a contractor who lived in the valley; he'd done some work on Bet's house in the past but also worked out of town on bigger jobs. She bit her lip to push her emotional reaction aside and shucked her gloves to search for a pulse in his neck.
Finding nothing, she leaned over and got her face close to his mouth, hoping for any sign of life. She sat back on her heels and looked at Jeb with the slightest shake of her head. Jeb repeated her actions first the neck, then the mouth. He failed to find a heartbeat as well. Both of them grabbed an arm, resting their fingers on the pulse point in his wrists. Bet considered what lifesaving measures she and Jeb could do out here in the middle of the wilderness with the storm of the century on its way.
Cold sometimes slowed death to a crawl. It could keep a person's brain alive. Bet looked at Jeb. 'Should we try CPR? And hope the cold...'
Jeb was already shaking his head. 'He's stiff. Too far gone. There's nothing we can do.'
Bet knew it too, even before the words left Jeb's mouth. It would be different if he was just cold, but the onset of rigor showed it was too late to try to revive him.
When Bet didn't move, Jeb touched her lightly on the shoulder. 'I'm sorry, Bet, but we have to go.'
'He can't be dead.' Julia Crews stood a few feet away. Her voice quivered, and it wasn't from the cold. 'We covered him up. He can't be dead. I thought maybe...'
Julia Crews could go into shock over the trauma of the experience and exposure to the elements. Bet sprang into action at the reminder there were living people who needed her help. She asked the woman to sit down on her own snowmobile, parked not far away, and take a few deep breaths. Julia followed Bet's request, and her breathing evened out.
'Mrs Crews, we need to bring him down to the valley now.' Bet carefully avoided any comment on Grant's condition. 'But I need to make sure you are going to be able to ride your own machine down. How experienced a driver are you?'
The last thing Bet wanted was for this out-of-towner to drive into a tree and become another casualty. They all needed to get off this ridge before the storm hit.
'Julia,' the woman said. 'You can call me Julia.'
'Thank you, Julia. My name is Bet.' Bet reached out and took Julia's wrist as they continued talking. She checked the woman's pulse and respiration.
'I'm OK,' Julia said, though she let Bet tend to her. 'Really. It's just so awful.'
Bet understood her reaction. Julia's son Jeremy looked about the same age as Grant. The mother no doubt made a comparison to her own child. The thought that Julia might not want Jeremy on a snowmobile again after Grant Marsden's death crossed Bet's mind. The fears of the mother transferred to the son. Bet understood the impulse, even if she didn't have a child. She had an entire valley of dependents who were her responsibility.
Julia's pulse was steady, and her breathing continued to slow as they spoke. After confirming Julia was experienced driving a sled and wasn't going to faint, Bet and Jeb wrapped Grant back up in the Mylar emergency blanket and strapped the boy down in the Snowbulance, a struggle because of the stiffness of Grant's limbs.
Cold slowed rigor; it didn't speed it up. Why was rigor so far advanced? The boy must have been dead when the Crews found him. It was possible Julia never actually checked his condition and Mark and Jeremy had reportedly left the scene before Jeremy could see it too closely.
But wouldn't Julia have checked when she covered Grant?
Bet felt a shiver that the weather couldn't account for. Something was off up here on the ridge.
Bet waited for her instincts to show her something useful. There were other snowmobile tracks, but both Mark and Jeremy had used the trail too, so that didn't prove anyone else was involved in the accident.
Deciding it would be helpful to get the registration from the snowmobile, she walked over to the kid's ruined machine. Doug had worked at Bet's house, but she didn't know his home address. Besides, it would help to have that registration in her hand when she contacted the boy's father to tell him that his son was dead. She'd have to explain to Doug that he would need to identify the body with the medical examiner at the morgue in Ellensburg.
The coroner would pick Grant up and take him to the morgue for the ME to confirm cause and manner of death. It wasn't Bet's job to show Doug the body for the formal identification.
Without seeing the body, it might be hard for Doug to accept Grant's sudden death. The registration would provide tangible proof it really was Grant in the accident and keep Doug from holding out hope there had been a mistake with his son's identity.
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