back. When he didn’t show up for work the following
Tuesday after the long weekend, his co-workers back at the
company weren’t concerned. They figured he was tired out
from his catering duties. But later, one of the executives asked
about Barry because they hadn’t seen him after he left the
lodge Friday afternoon. I guess he was listed as a missing
person, and that’s what he still is—missing.”
“The executives didn’t miss him that Friday?” Judith was
incredulous.
“I guess not,” Renie replied, negotiating the wide, sweeping
switchback turns. “They probably thought he hadn’t been
able to find what he was looking for at the summit grocery
and had gone all the way back into the nearest town. It had
started to snow hard by then, so maybe they figured Barry
couldn’t get back up the pass. Bear in mind, coz, these big
business types are all wrapped up in themselves. They don’t
pay much attention to underlings.”
The executive suite was a world that Judith didn’t understand. The B&B, the Thurlow Street branch of the public
library, and the Meat and Mingle hadn’t prepared her to face
an officer corps. Renie, however, was accustomed to
captains of industry. It seemed to Judith that her cousin regarded them much as she would observe animals at the zoo.
They were interesting, they were different, they could even
be amusing, and only upon rare occasions did they do
something vulgar in public that would be better done in
private.
As they approached the summit, driving conditions
worsened, with deep piles of snow alongside the road. Not
once had they glimpsed the mountains. The clouds were low
and heavy, creating a foglike atmosphere that kept the Chev
down to a crawl.
“We take a side road at the summit,” Renie said, again
pointing to the envelope on the seat. “Check the map. I’ve
never been there before, but the directions looked easy.”
It was a few minutes after ten when they reached the
turnoff. Renie pulled into a service station that also featured
a small grocery store. “This is where Barry supposedly went,”
she said. “As you can tell, they don’t carry much beyond the
basics. That’s why he might have gone back down the pass.
I’m going to fill up now because I didn’t take time to stop
at the BP on Heraldsgate Hill.”
While Renie pumped gas, Judith got out of the car and
walked around the wet tarmac. The area around the station
had been plowed, but there was snow everywhere, perhaps
as much as twenty feet. Judith spotted the main ski lodge
through the drifting clouds and managed to catch sight of
some of the chalets utilized by winter sports buffs.
Having used her credit card to pay at the pump, Renie got
back in the car. “It can’t be more than a mile from here,” she
