Rocky Mountain Mayhem (28 page)

“She was goin’ for the goods!” Kate said.

“Shhhhhh! I was not! His shirt, well, just
came untucked…accidentally.”

“Mmmmmmmmmm,” Vivian said. “That’s
mysterious.”

“Accident my ass,” Lucy said. “She was goin’
for the gusto. She had him pinned to the wall and was takin’ that
bull by the
horn
!”

“Wow!” Vivian said. “So unlike you!”

Wendy slapped her hand to her forehead. “I
know. I know. I’m a bad person.”

“Geez Louise, calm down. It was only a kiss.
It’s not like you did the nasty or anything.” She paused and looked
at Wendy. “You didn’t, right?”

“No!” Wendy screamed. It echoed through the
mountains.

Smith looked over at them with concern.
Vivian waved him off.

“Yeah, cuz there wasn’t time!” Lucy said. “We
interrupted their livin’ it up while they were goin’ down
session.”

“And thank god you did because apparently I
can’t control myself with him.”

“He is awfully cute,” Kate said. “And you
said you were going to break up with Jake. Maybe this is a sign
that you should.”

“Dammit. I did say that, didn’t I? But I
haven’t, and now I’ve kissed another guy. God, I’m a terrible
person.”

“Chillax, it was a moment of weakness,”
Vivian said. “That song has caused many a normal person to go for
lovin’ in an elevator. With strangers even!”

“Speaking from experience?” Kate asked.

“No comment.” Vivian said.

“Who’s the naughty girl now?” Lucy
laughed.

Vivian smiled sweetly and changed the
subject. “I’m cold, are we about done here?”

“Yep, I’m ready,” Wendy said and started
gathering up the liquor bottles.

They packed up everything and let Smith know
they were ready. He escorted them to their suite and saw they got
in safely. Agent Nelson was in the living area, laptop open and on
the phone when they arrived.

“I understand that, yes sir,” he said. “I’ll
ensure that’s done. Okay, I do appreciate the assistance. Yes sir,
goodnight.”

Lucy saluted him. “Sir, we are ready for
duty, sir.”

Agent Nelson half-smiled. “Are you
drunk?”

“Sir, no sir!!” Lucy grinned. “Well, maybe a
little, but not a lot, sir.”

Nelson tried to cover up a grin. “Okay, sit
down. Let’s talk.”

The girls jumped onto the couch and Nelson
stood in front of them, pacing. After a few moments he spoke.

“That was the chief of police for Frisco.
She’s aware of the situation and willing to help provide manpower
for the snow-tubing operation. I’ve gotten more details—”

Lucy raised her hand.

Nelson sighed. “Yes?”

“Did you just call a lady ‘sir?’ ”

“Yes. That’s what she prefers.”

“Weird.”

Nelson continued. “We will have agents acting
as employees outside on the tubing hill and a couple selling hot
chocolate outside. We’re set to leave at oh-nine-hundred. That
should give us enough time to get there, have you get checked in
and be in the first round of tubers, which, from what I’ve been
told, is the least crowded. “

Lucy raised her hand again.

“Yes,” he said, annoyed.

“We didn’t really bring the appropriate
clothing or shoes to do this type of activity, I’m afraid.”

“Do you have jeans?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have tennis shoes?”

They all nodded.

“Then that’s good enough for me. It’s only 50
minutes. Just don’t fall out or flail about in the snow. Now, may I
continue?”

“Yes. No wait,” Lucy turned to the girls.
“Maybe we can rent snow boots there.”

The circles under Nelson’s eyes seemed to
grow bigger and darker with each interruption. “Moving on. We’ll
have every vantage point covered. The area around the snow tubing
hill is pretty flat. There are snow dunes here and there, but
there’s not higher elevation from which he could shoot.”

A chill surged through Vivian, causing her to
shiver. She wrapped her arms around herself.

Nelson stopped pacing, knelt beside the
coffee table and turned a map to face the girls. “Here’s Frisco and
here’s the tubing hill,” he said, tapping two places. “You’ll park
and go inside the main building. After you pay, they’ll direct you
into an igloo-type hut to receive instructions from staff and pick
up your tube. From there, you’ll ride the conveyer belt up the side
of the hill and go tubing over and over, as many times as you can.
Some of the employees on the hill will be undercover agents and
cops. We’ll do surveillance and keep a close eye on you and the
surroundings.”

“Sounds easy enough,” Kate said.

“What do you think the chances are he’ll do
something?” Wendy asked.

He looked at her for a moment, then to
Vivian. “Honestly, I don’t really know.”

Day 6

VIVIAN thought she heard something beyond the
door. She pulled the covers up to her nose and listened, heartbeat
loud in her ears. She looked around the dark room. The clock read
4:42. The doorknob turned slowly and the door cracked open.

“Hello? Who’s there?”

“It’s me, Kate.”

“You scared me!”

“I figured you’d be asleep but wanted to
check on you. I had a dream.”

“I’m awake. Having a hard time sleeping. I’m
nervous.”

“I understand. I think we’re making the right
choice, though, trying to catch him here instead of sending you
home to deal with a potential problem around the kids.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Kate sat next to Vivian on the bed. “My
paw-paw came to me in a dream. He was young and spry, not like when
he died. He looked handsome and fit.”

Vivian sensed a calmness in Kate’s voice that
made her feel better.

“Did he tell you anything?”

“We never spoke in the dream, but he was
holding a picture of the four of us from our Playa trip. It was
torn and Wendy’s piece of the picture was dangling, about to be
torn off completely.”

“Then what?” Vivian sat up.

“He got a piece of tape and fixed the
picture. Then he handed it to me, waved and walked away.”

“Wow. That’s kinda freaky.”

“It was actually very peaceful. I never felt
bad in the dream, so I’m guessing things are going to work out. We
need to follow Agent Nelson’s instructions and everything will be
fine. I know it. Now you try to get some rest.”

“Okay.” Vivian scooted down in the bed and
said goodnight as Kate closed the door.

Eventually she drifted off, only to be
wakened by sunshine peeking through the curtains. This time the
clock read 7:11. She rolled over and found Lucy was already out of
bed.
Always the early riser
.

Vivian kicked off the covers and found Lucy
on the balcony, wrapped in a blanket, sipping on orange juice and
eating a banana.

“It’s a glorious morning,” Lucy sang out
around a banana chunk in her cheek.

“Mornin’. Chillaxin’ out here, I see.”

“It’s just so pretty. Wanna share my
blankie?”

“Sure.” Vivian scooted her chair over by
Lucy’s and huddled under the blanket.

A few minutes later the door opened and Wendy
and Kate joined them, both with a steaming cup of coffee.

“Y’all ready for some snow tubing action?”
Lucy asked. “I just know you’re gonna love it!”

“I am, especially if we can catch Craig in
the process,” Vivian said as she pulled the blanket closer.

“Let’s get busy. We’ve got inappropriate
clothing to put on,” Lucy said, “and I don’t mean inappropriate
like what you’re thinking, Viv!”

“You got me.” Vivian smiled. “I was imagining
us flying down the hill in our skivvies!”

They all went inside and got ready, putting
on jeans, tennis shoes and layers of shirts. Vivian unclasped the
necklace with the bumblebee pendant and hung it around her
neck.

There was a knock on the internal dividing
door. Nelson said they needed to be ready by 8:15, which was
creeping up fast.

Vivian scarfed down the last remaining donuts
and drank a glass of juice. “I’m thoroughly sugared up,” she
announced to the room.

“It’s about that time,” Nelson said, walking
to the door. “I’ve called the valets and your car is pulled
around.”

The girls were quiet in the elevator, their
nerves high. When they reached the lobby, Nelson went over the plan
one more time.

“Everyone’s got it, right?”

They acknowledged, went outside and got into
the SUV.

“You’ll get a text from me about Phase 2
should we need to go to that,” Nelson said. “Good luck.” With that
he closed Vivian’s door.

Phase 2 was lunch in Vail at Lucy’s
previously suggested Hail-Yeah. If there was no Craig activity
during snow tubing, they’d get lunch while Nelson formulated Phase
3, a hike.

Lucy drove down the mountain and took the
interstate to Frisco. She knew exactly where she was going, parked
and turned the car off.

“Y’all ready?” she asked, looking at
Vivian.

Vivian nodded. “Yep, let’s do this and have
some fun while we’re at it!”

They made their way inside the building to
check in, signed their life away like they had at the bicycle and
rafting places, and were told to head out to the igloo.

“Do y’all rent snow boots?” Lucy asked the
college-aged kid behind the counter.

“No ma’am, sorry, we don’t.”

Lucy turned away from him, sad.

“It’s okay, Lucy, we’ll make do,” Kate
said.

“I’m not upset about that. Did you hear what
he said? He just called me ma’am.”

They girls laughed and headed to the igloo.
Only a few others waited, some of whom Vivian guessed were
undercover cops. She was glad there weren’t any children
around.

A staffer introduced himself and asked that
they watch the safety video. It was a bit corny, little penguins
with body parts that didn’t touch. Oval body, round head, narrow
arms and no feet. Vivian watched as the disjointed penguins
demonstrated the right and wrong way to go down the hill.

Butt in was the only acceptable way. No belly
flops allowed. The penguins demonstrated the “magic carpet” and how
to enter and exit properly and not take everyone else with you in a
big snowball. The video ended and the staffer opened the back door
of the igloo and passed out tubes.

Vivian’s shoes didn’t offer much traction so
she slipped and slid in the snow as she pulled her tube by the
leash. She was glad the tubes had a bottom — the ice would be cold
and wet on her butt. On the Guadalupe River, no bottom meant rocks
hitting your butt. Either way, she was a with-bottoms kinda
girl.

The girls waited at the magic carpet as those
in front of them stepped on the slow-moving conveyor belt.

Vivian looked around, wondering if Craig was
watching. She drug her tube up to the edge of the carpet, took a
deep breath and stepped on.

Come out, come out, wherever you
are
!

THE wind whipped, cutting through Vivian’s
three layers of shirts, as she waited her turn to go careening down
the hill. She held the tube upright behind her, trying to block the
worst of the wind. Kate waited with her, but Wendy and Lucy had
opted for a different course to their right.

The hill offered eight route options. Vivian
and Kate had picked the one with the most humps. Lucy and Wendy
went for the one with fewer, but bigger, humps. None of them wanted
to go down the lazy river.

When it came her turn, Vivian asked the
muscular, buzz-cut tube pusher if she and Kate could go together.
He said yes and helped them settle into their tubes, then he gave
Vivian Kate’s tube leash and vice versa.

“Don’t let go,” he told them as he gave a
push. “And once on the bottom look out for people coming downhill
as you cross the lanes.”

“SPIN US!” Kate yelled right as he was about
to give a final shove. He did and they flew over the humps, going
round and round, laughing and squealing the entire time. The wind
whistled in Vivian’s ears, and bits of snow and ice flew into her
face.

At the end of the run, they bumped along what
looked like an industrial-sized rubber kitchen mat, then went
halfway up an incline that slowed them down. At the tip of the
incline, orange plastic safety netting pinned across metal stakes
kept them from zooming off the hill.

“That was awesome!” Kate said, hopping up
easily out of her tube.

“Woo-hoooo!” Vivian yelled. Her shoes slipped
on the snow and she flopped out of her tube on her hands and knees.
Kate helped her up.

They stood at the bottom of the hill and
watched as Lucy and Wendy churned their way down the path next to
them. They, too, went about halfway up the incline toward the
plastic netting.

“I told you!” Lucy said. “That rocks,
right?”

“I loved that,” Wendy said, getting up. She
slipped in the snow, too, and landed back in her tube. “My hiking
boots really aren’t cutting it out here, but it’s worth it!”

Vivian gave her a high-five and all of them
made their way across the lanes, back to the magic carpet, and
loaded up, one at a time. As Vivian rode uphill, she looked at the
parts of Frisco that lay beyond the adventure park.

It was a quaint town, not too big, not too
small, with numerous family-owned businesses. She scanned the
windows of those stores but couldn’t see Craig. No rifles pointing
out any windows, no crazed man behind the glass. She knew that was
extreme, but couldn’t help it. Or was it? He could be hiding
anywhere.

“Let’s see if they’ll let all four of us go
together,” Kate said as they stepped off the magic carpet at the
top.

They went to a different lane, one with
medium moguls, and asked the tube pusher if they could go as one.
He glanced around and shrugged. “Not a problem.”