Chapter 25

The next morning, the team was ready to head out on a search for Jim and the trapper. Dylan called to let his boss know that they’d found four of the trapper’s lethal devices, but no luck on finding Jim or the trapper yet. His boss wished him the best of luck and to be careful.

After they finished the call, Dylan kissed Roxie goodbye and said, “I don’t know when we’ll return home this time.”

“Don’t worry about it. The party is over with and now it’s back to work for all of us. We’re going to spend the morning setting the ballrooms up for the functions for this afternoon and evening. So we’re going to be busy. It will be boring compared to what you have to do.”

“I wouldn’t mind boring if I could help you with all that.”

“Thanks, Dylan.”

Then he and the other guys left to try to locate Jim and the trapper. They hoped they’d be successful this time. They also spent the day again checking two of the three cabins that Jim was known to frequent just in case anyone had seen Jim again, but no one had.

“We ought to check out his grandfather’s place,” CJ said after they visited the first two cabins. It was about twenty miles from the abandoned cabin.

“All right. It’s getting late. I say we stay at the abandoned cabin tonight and check out his grandfather’s place in the morning,” Dylan said.

“Yeah, that sounds like a plan,” CJ said.

They headed out to the abandoned cabin, and Dylan wondered if they’d find Aaron still there.

When they finally arrived at the cabin, they smelled smoke and saw it curling out of the chimney, and a low light was on in two different areas of the cabin. They also only smelled Aaron’s scent around the cabin, no one else’s scent. CJ knocked on the door and called out. “Hey, Aaron, it’s CJ and our team.”

There was no answer, but when they peered through the window, they saw a couple of battery-operated lanterns were on inside.

CJ cautiously opened the door and peered inside. “He’s not here.”

They went inside and looked around the cabin. Quite a few of Aaron’s things that they recognized from before were there—his backpack, sleeping bag, and camping equipment.

“Does anyone feel that something’s off? That something’s not right?” Dylan asked.

“Yeah,” Daniel said. “He could be bowhunting at night but—”

“His bow and quiver of arrows are over there in the corner,” Michael said, pointing them out.

They set their backpacks in the cabin, and Daniel and Bryan added wood to the fire while the others pulled out their food packs to make a hot meal—campfire grilled-cheese sandwiches.

They filled the room with more lanterns and turned them on.

“I think we should look for Aaron before we eat.” Dylan drank some of his water. “Someone should stay and watch the fire, but maybe a couple of us can see if we can find him. I was thinking he’d gone into the woods to relieve himself, but it has been a long time.”

“Yeah, I’ll go,” Michael said.

“Me too,” CJ said.

“I’ll stay and tend to the fire and be here if he returns,” Daniel offered.

“I’ll stay behind with Daniel, and we’ll alert you if we have any trouble,” Bryan said.

“Good idea,” CJ said.

They all left the cabin. Even Daniel and Bryan went with them initially to get more wood for the fire. “Be careful out there,” Daniel said.

“Yeah, we will.” CJ brought the first aid kit in case they needed it.

They normally would go in stealth mode, but this time they had to call out if Aaron was close by and had been injured or lost his way back to the cabin. They all were calling out to him, trying to locate him. They could smell that he had gone in this direction, so they knew he had come out here. His scent continued on farther, and Dylan wondered why he would have walked so far away from the cabin at night. Unless it was like he’d thought before. Aaron had gone out to relieve himself and didn’t want to do it too close to the cabin.

Then Dylan thought he heard a moan way off in the distance. “Aaron?”

“Have you got something?” CJ asked.

They were all spread out, trying to find Aaron.

Dylan kept getting whiffs of Aaron’s scents in this direction. “I thought I heard him over this way. Aaron!”

“Help,” Dylan heard Aaron say, his voice strained.

It was Aaron! “Hey, guys, Aaron’s over here and I think he’s injured.” Dylan was trying to rush to his aid. “Aaron, this is Dylan and the rest of our law enforcement team. Keep calling out. We’re coming to help you.”

“Here,” Aaron said, his voice still really not much more than a whisper.

Dylan was worried Aaron was suffering from hypothermia. “Keep talking. I’m getting close.” He thought he was. But he wasn’t positive because Aaron’s voice was so distorted.

“Watch where…you’re…walking,” Aaron gritted out.

The other guys were getting closer to Dylan, and then Dylan saw Aaron half-buried in the snow, his face covered in a ski mask, which would help to keep him warmer. “Aaron! He’s over here,” Dylan yelled out.

“We’re coming!” CJ hollered.

Dylan reached Aaron and pulled his parka off to cover Aaron with. “What happened?”

“Leg,” Aaron croaked out.

“Leg trap? Crap! Hey, CJ, we need that first aid kit!” Dylan called out. “Aaron’s leg is caught in a leg trap, I think. We need to shovel out the snow around his legs.”

CJ called Bryan and Daniel to come help them.

Michael pulled out the first aid emergency blanket and wrapped it around Aaron and then was immediately on his radio while the others were digging Aaron out. “We’re bringing in an injured park ranger with a possible leg fracture after stepping into a—”

“Bear leg trap,” Dylan said, locating the dangerous device. “Aaron…also has hypothermia.”

“Bear leg trap. He has hypothermia. We’ll take him to a nearby abandoned cabin where we have a fire going, stabilize him, and then bring him in. Uh, okay. We’ll get him ready for transport then.” Michael gave them the GPS coordinates. “See you soon.” He ended the call and said, “EMS rescue is sending a team to pick him up.”

“Oh, even better,” Dylan said. He loved how they had so many people who were capable of dealing with problems in the area. But he wished he could trap the trapper with one of his own devices and leave him out to suffer—see how he liked that.

Bryan and Daniel soon reached them.

Once they had exposed the rest of the bear trap, Dylan and CJ carefully opened the trap and Michael eased Aaron out of it while Bryan and Daniel tried to stabilize Aaron’s leg as much as possible. The pain was too much, and Aaron cried out and then lost consciousness.

“Let’s hurry, but…carefully,” CJ said while he and Dylan released the trap and let it snap back into place. “It’s better that he has passed out for moving him to the cabin, but we need him warmed up, his leg stabilized, and then we need him conscious. I’ve been through this before myself, and I know how bad it can be.”

“Hell,” Dylan said, figuring CJ might even have PTSD from seeing Aaron experiencing the same trauma.

They splinted Aaron’s leg with the materials from the first aid kit. Then they carried him to the cabin. It seemed to take them longer while carrying Aaron and trying not to injure him further.

When they reached the cabin, Daniel immediately ran to open the door and threw it open. Daniel hurried to spread Aaron’s sleeping bag out for him.

The men settled Aaron on the bag.

“I’ll be right back,” Bryan said, but Daniel went with him as he left the cabin and shut the door.

Dylan began heating up some beef broth for Aaron to warm him up. “He’s mildly hypothermic.”

CJ and Michael removed the splint and swore.

“Compound fracture,” CJ said. “This is worse than I had.” He pulled out a bandage to wrap around Aaron’s leg to stop the bleeding, and then they splinted it again.

Aaron stirred. “God, how bad is it?”

Dylan brought him the beef broth as the others covered him up with their sleeping bags.

After giving Aaron the broth, Dylan helped him to drink it to warm himself up. If Aaron had been a wolf, he would heal twice as fast as a human. So CJ had been lucky in that regard.

“It’s a compound fracture,” CJ told Aaron.

Hopefully Doc could save his leg.

Aaron closed his eyes.

“Don’t fall asleep,” Dylan warned.

“Yeah. I’ve had the drill as a forest ranger, since I’ve assisted in—” Aaron’s face contorted with pain. He smelled of it too.

“Are you all right?” Dylan asked, wanting to do anything he could to help him through this until he could get real medical assistance.

“No. But I’ve helped on lots of emergency medical cases, so I know what I have to face.”

“Okay,” Dylan said. “We’ve got a team coming to pick you up. We need to get you sufficiently warmed up.”

Bryan and Daniel returned to the cabin with the bear leg trap.

“Good thinking,” Dylan said, though he’d planned to retrieve it once Aaron was picked up.

“Hell, that’s it?” Aaron shook his head. “I heard someone out there. I thought it might be Jim—that maybe he was afraid to approach the cabin in case someone else was staying there. I went out to see if it was him and talk to him. I kept hearing the sounds of someone roaming around out there and saw a man’s tracks. The snow was deeper there. I didn’t even realize it until I stepped off, sank down into the snow, and the trap closed onto my leg. I heard a snap and felt pain a few seconds later. That was a horrible feeling. I tried to dig out around the trap, to see if I could free myself, but I kept passing out from the pain. I called out over and over again, but whoever it had been didn’t come to my aid. I knew unless you guys, Jim, or possibly the asshole trapper were about, I wasn’t getting out of there. Unless someone else just happened to come along, and I didn’t think that was likely.”

“We’re glad we returned here,” Dylan said.

“Me too,” Aaron said.

Dylan heated up some more broth for Aaron. “Are you feeling a little warmer?”

“Yeah. Thanks. The fire, all these sleeping bags, and the heated beef broth are helping. I take it if you’re here, you haven’t found Jim yet,” Aaron said.

“Not yet. But we’re also looking for the trapper who’s setting the illegal traps,” Dylan said.

“I sure as hell would be too, but it looks like I’m going to be out of commission for a while,” Aaron said.

Dylan had mixed feelings about staying here. He wanted to see that Aaron arrived home fine and came out of surgery without any problem. He wanted to be with Roxie tonight.

They made their grilled cheese sandwiches, ate, and made sure Aaron had enough to drink and fed him some more beef broth.

Two hours later, they heard snowmobiles off in the distance. It appeared Aaron’s medical team was nearly here.

CJ went outside with his flashlight and waved at the men coming for Aaron.

They were soon greeting each other and hurrying inside to take care of Aaron. “Hey, we’ll get you out of here pronto, on heavy pain medication and into surgery,” the one man said.

Then everyone helped settle Aaron on a sled. Dylan and Bryan packed up all of Aaron’s gear and secured it on the back of one of the snowmobiles. Then the EMTs took off.

“That, I hadn’t expected,” CJ said. “Let’s get something hot to drink and then get some sleep.”

Everyone was kind of just standing there, and then Dylan began making hot cocoa.

“I suspect everyone was kind of hoping we could return home for the night,” CJ said.

“Yeah, I was sure thinking of that. I would want to know that Aaron came out of the surgery just fine,” Dylan said.

“And stay with our mates,” Michael said.

CJ got on his phone. “Hey, Eric, your friend Aaron caught his leg in a bear leg trap. We’re still searching for Jim and the trapper, but I know you’d want to go see him in the morning. Is he married? Single, okay. His boss and his family should be notified… Okay, thanks.” He ended the call. “Eric’s going to notify their boss about Aaron.”

“Okay, good,” Dylan said. “I want to catch this trapper.”

“Yeah, me too,” Bryan said.

The other men all agreed. Then they got on their phones to let their families know where they were and what they were doing.

“Hey, Roxie, I thought we might be coming home with an injured bowhunter.”

“Oh, I wish you could be here.”

“Yeah, the EMT rescue team came and took him to the clinic. He had a compound fractured leg so we could have done more damage than good if we had tried to transport him with what we have.”

“I don’t blame you for letting them take care of it. Is…is the bowhunter a friend of Jim’s?” Roxie asked, sounding dreamy, like maybe he’d woken her, and he wished they’d been together tonight even more now, just thinking of snuggling with her, making love, and enjoying each other’s company.

“He is.” They talked for a while longer, then finally ended the call so everyone could go to sleep.

Then the guys started unrolling their sleeping bags and setting them up to sleep on. Dylan couldn’t stop thinking about Aaron and how he could have died if they hadn’t found him.

“I smelled the trapper in the area.” Dylan climbed into his sleeping bag and zipped it up. “Maybe a week to a week and a half old.”

“Yeah, I did too,” CJ said. “If the bastard was in the vicinity, just farther away and had heard Aaron’s cries and didn’t help him, I’ll charge him with even more, beginning with attempted manslaughter.”

“I would too,” Bryan said.

The next morning at daybreak, they made campfire skillet peppers, onions, potatoes, cooked ham, and eggs for breakfast over the fire in the fireplace. Dylan called Doc to learn how Aaron was doing and put it on speakerphone so everyone would know what was going on with him.

“He’s on so much pain medication, I don’t think he’s feeling any pain. He’s had lots of swelling in the injured area. He wanted Peter to set him on a snowmobile and he’d come and join you on your hunt for the trapper.”

Dylan smiled. Aaron would make a good wolf. “Is his leg going to be all right?”

“It’s difficult to say at this point. I wasn’t about to allow him to join you. I pumped him full of antibiotics to ward off infection. I was able to set the bones so that he should be able to walk again. But he has had some tears in muscle and tendons, so I had to repair those too. They take longer to heal than bones. Time will tell as to his recovery.”

“Okay, Doc, thanks,” Dylan said.

“Yeah, well, don’t any of you get caught up in those blasted things. They do a lot of damage.”

“We don’t intend to. Tell Aaron we’re all rooting for him,” Dylan said.

“I will. Eric’s coming in to see him shortly. And Aaron’s parents are arriving this evening to be with him. Roxie’s made a room reservation for them at the lodge until they can take him home.”

“That’s good. Tell him we’ll let him know when we catch the trapper, even if it takes a while,” Dylan said.

“All right. We’ll talk later.”

“Thanks, Doc.” Then Dylan ended the call and they all cleaned up and packed their gear onto their snowmobiles. “Let’s find some perps.”

Before they started their snowmobiles, CJ got a call. “Okay, thanks, Peter. I’ll let the others know. We’re on our way there.” He ended the call and said, “A couple of our wolves out cross-country skiing found Eddie’s vehicle. We’re closest to where it was abandoned, so we’re to go there and investigate it.”

Which meant smelling scents around the vehicle to see who had been in it last. Fennel? Or Jim?

“I’ve got the coordinates,” CJ said. “Let’s go.”

Though Dylan and his teammates would be more assured Jim was telling the truth and Fennel had lied if they found Fennel’s scent was the strongest one left behind, they still couldn’t use it as evidence in a court of law.

They drove to an old logging road that was closed during the winter and found the SUV half-buried in snow. Which made sense because whoever took it had left before the snowstorm got really bad.

They parked their snowmobiles and peered in through the windows. Several bags were sitting in the SUV. Dylan was surprised the driver hadn’t dumped them somewhere else. He opened the driver’s side door. It wasn’t locked. And the keys? In the ignition. Dylan wondered if Fennel had hoped someone would locate the vehicle and steal it and everything in it. But then the snowstorm hit, and it was half-buried instead. He smelled Fennel’s scent more than any other scent, and his scent was much more recent.

What’s more, Dylan saw Jim’s clothes, and when he checked them over, he could smell Fennel’s scent on them too. “These are the clothes Fennel wore when he killed the elk and Eddie,” Dylan said. “I see blood spatter on them.”

CJ said, “Bag them.” He looked at the bags in the back. “This is Eddie’s bag. It’s got his name on it, but it also smells like him.”

“This is Jim’s,” Michael said, looking through it.

“Xander’s bag is over here,” Bryan said.

“Fennel’s bag isn’t here,” Daniel said.

Dylan said, “It appears he truly was the one who took the vehicle, dated Jana, and killed Eddie over it. Had to have been.”

“Yeah, I agree,” CJ said.

“He should have left his bag with the others,” Dylan said. “But if he thought someone might steal the SUV, he probably didn’t want them to take his stuff. There’s a bow and quiver of arrows back here. Smells like both Jim and Fennel. So maybe someone had thought to hunt legally.”

“Or wanted to give that appearance if anyone caught them out here hunting. It’s about a five-mile hike from here to Jim’s grandfather’s cabin,” Michael said. “He could have taken his bag with him there, since that’s where he was caught.”

“When we took him into custody, we confiscated his backpack. We searched for anything that would lead us to Jim,” CJ said. “I don’t remember finding a bag there like the other guys had.”

“Should we investigate Jim’s grandfather’s cabin again?” Dylan asked.

“Yeah. As soon as we get someone here to pull the SUV out of the snow, we can do that. They’ll take it into town and check it for fingerprints or any other evidence that could link Fennel to the crime,” CJ said. “I’ll call a plow.”

This was the part of the job Dylan didn’t like. When he had to sit and wait on something. He knew he would have times like that with the sheriff’s department too, but he still didn’t like the waiting part of it.