Nine Lives - Danielle Steel Page 0,81

the thrill for him.

“We’ve had some really nasty weather,” the dispatcher told her. “They may all be fine, and we’re just too far away to pick up their transceiver signals. We need to get in and be a lot closer. They know what to do. There are no novices in the group. And they’ve got the best lead guide in Western Canada.” But Maggie knew, as he did, that sometimes the experts and the best guides died too. He suggested that she call again that evening, and when she did, he had no news then either. The predicted storm had come in, and all their helicopters were grounded. The rescue patrols had been alerted, but there was nothing they could do. “The weather dictates what we do up here,” he said, and Maggie thanked him.

Helen was sitting in her kitchen with her by then, and had been there since Maggie called her in a panic that morning and told her what had happened. Maggie hated to do it, but she had called Aden too. She didn’t want him to see it on the news. He sounded devastated when she told him, and he had stayed home from class all day to watch CNN in case there was any news.

“When he comes back, I’m going to kill him for doing this to my kid,” she said to Helen through clenched teeth. Aden had nearly burst into tears when she told him.

“Never mind Aden,” Helen said, “he’s doing this to you too. This is why I won’t let Jeff go up there. He thinks he’s such a hotshot skier, and he’s never climbed Everest like Paul.”

“That was sixteen years ago, he’s fifty now. He’s too old for this and he knows it. He said this was going to be his last year.”

Helen refused to leave Maggie alone that night and stayed with her. Jeff felt terrible about what was happening and said he’d stay with the kids. Maggie called Aden again that night, but there was no further news. And it was worse the next morning, on Wednesday. The dispatcher told her they had confirmed reports of a second avalanche in the area during the night. But at least the sky had cleared enough for the helicopter rescue patrols to go in and cruise around, searching for signals.

Maggie reported back to Helen, and they spent another day in her kitchen, watching the news channel, waiting to hear something and periodically calling the dispatcher. Maggie had insisted that Aden go back to class. She didn’t want him sitting there, agonized the way they were. She promised to call him as soon as they heard anything. Paul’s group had been missing for forty-eight hours by then. It felt like a year. She remembered his stories about Everest and wondered if it had been anything like this.

It was another endless night waiting to hear something, and Helen had to go home to her kids. She was back at eight the next morning, after her boys left for school. It was Thursday by then, and by noon the other group had been found. Four of them were dead. Two had died of asphyxiation in the avalanche, two had died of broken necks, and the other two had been airlifted out and were in critical condition. There was still no sign of Paul’s group. The patrols had hovered over the entire area for as long as they could, and had picked up no signals from their transceivers. There was no evidence of them anywhere. The patrols had questioned if they may have moved faster than expected and left the area, but there was no sign of them in a wide radius. It was almost like searching for survivors at sea.

That night was even harder for Maggie, alone again. She felt like she was reliving Brad’s death. All her old signs of PTSD returned and she tried to ignore them. But there was no way she could justify this to herself. He hadn’t died in the line of duty for his country like her brother in Iraq, even though that had seemed senseless to her too. He hadn’t died while doing his job, like her father. He had done this for sport and to prove something no one cared about, about how big a man he was, and now they couldn’t goddamn find him under the snow, and he had probably suffocated or died of a broken neck like the other men. And for what? The