The Return of Cord Navarro

“No.”

“Then, where is he?”

“I don’t know.”

“Okay,” she said patiently. “How about your best guess? Where do you think he is?”

“On his horse.”

“On his horse where?”

“Probably halfway to Yellowstone.”

“What?”

“That’s what he said.” Kevin sounded exasperated. “He thinks he’s so smart. He tried to tell me he’s going on all his dad’s rescues this summer, that his dad needs him. I told him, no way. He doesn’t know nothin ’ ’bout searches and stuff. How can he when he doesn’t even live with his dad? When I said that, he got mad and told me he was too going to rescue people.”

“Yellowstone.” She had to struggle to get the word out, but it was important to keep Kevin on track. “He didn’t really say that, did he?”

“Just about.”

“Kevin.” It was Cord, his voice low and controlled, in command. “This is Matt’s dad. I want you to tell me exactly what he said.”

Chapter 2

Cord concentrated, not just on what Kevin was saying, but the boy’s tone, as well. His son’s friend was obviously more than a little miffed at Matt, maybe so focused on that that he was unable to remember the details of their conversation.

“Let me get this straight,” he said after Kevin had rambled on for several minutes. “Matt had brought over his gear so the two of you could spend the night at the Wagon Creek campground, but you don’t think that’s where he went. He didn’t say anything about coming back home, though, did he?” Kevin’s family lived some two miles from here, an easy horseback ride for a boy who’d been around horses most of his life.

“No. He called me a butthead. Said I didn’t know squat ’bout what you’ve been teaching him. Is it true? You’re really gonna take him wherever you go this summer, even if it’s to the top of the highest mountains in the world?”

Cord had never climbed the Alps, hadn’t so much as mentioned them to Matt as far as he knew. However, he saw no reason to say anything that would lower Kevin’s opinion of his friend any more than it already was. Besides, that wasn’t the point of this conversation.

“Kevin, I started tracking with my grandfather when I was younger than Matt is now. What I told him was, since we’re going to be together for the next three months, he’ll be as much a part of whatever I’m doing as possible.” He didn’t mention that there’d be times when Matt would have to remain at base camps while he was on particularly arduous or dangerous searches.

“Wow! Can I come? My dad-I know my dad’ll let me. And he can talk my mom-”

“Wait a minute,” Cord interrupted with a chuckle. “Let’s deal with one thing at a time. I can’t believe Matt didn’t say anything to you about his plans. Didn’t he at least hint at what he was going to do?”

“Well…”

“Well, what?” From his twice weekly phone calls with his son, he knew there was almost nothing Matt didn’t share with Kevin.

“He-is Matt’s mom still there?”

“Yes, I am,” Shannon said.

“I told Matt he was gonna get in trouble for this, but he said I didn’t know what I was talking about, that you let him do it all the time.”

“What do I let him do all the time?” Shannon asked. Out of the corner of his eye, Cord noted that she’d pressed her hands against her flat stomach, but her voice betrayed nothing of her emotions. Either that, or she had become too much of a stranger for him to know what she was feeling.

“Stay out all night.”

“When it’s something like your place, or a campground I approve of like Wagon Creek, yes,” she said. “But you’re saying he didn’t go there.”

“No,” Kevin said, and Cord felt the weight and heat of Shannon’s eyes on him.

“What did he say?” he prodded because Shannon was slow to speak. Besides, Kevin had a case of hero worship where he was concerned and this conversation might drag on forever if he didn’t exert a little pressure. “It’s very important that I know exactly what’s going on. You’re going to help me in this, aren’t you?”

“Y-yeah. Sure. ’Sides, it’s not like it’s some big secret. I just don’t know why Matt didn’t tell his mom himself.”

“Tell her what?”

“That he’s going campin’ on his own-I swear I don’t know where-for a couple of nights. He said for me to tell her not to worry. He made me promise.”

Not to worry. As if Shannon could do that. He again asked Kevin if Matt had given any indication of where he might be going, but although Kevin stuttered and stammered and then was quiet for too long, the boy swore he didn’t know more than he’d already told them. Cord’s thoughts all too easily fixed on their rugged surroundings, miles and miles of wilderness that had been his childhood backyard. Although Shannon’s address was the little town of ’Frisco, there were massive mountains on all sides. It was said that Summit County, Colorado, boasted more outdoor recreational opportunities than almost anywhere in the country. The area included the Snake and Blue rivers, the Gore and Tenmile mountain ranges, Dillon Reservoir, and a history rich in gold miners and Ute Indians.

In short, there was a hell of a lot of space, most of it capable of hiding a boy bent on proving something to his best friend-and maybe his parents. Mostly his father.

“You’re sure about this?” he pressed. “Matt definitely said he’d be gone two nights?”

“Yeah. He showed me his food. He’s got a lot. Neat stuff he probably wouldn’t have shared with me anyway. ’Sides, he said you weren’t going to be back for a while and he wanted to get into shape for when you needed him.”

“I understand: Being in shape’s important. But so too is letting people know where you’re going to be. I can’t believe he didn’t say anything about his destination. That’s the first rule of wilderness traveling. Kevin, I need you to think. Is it possible he was going to go to Wagon Creek on his own?”

“No way,” Kevin insisted. “He says that’s for babies. Uh, is he going to get into trouble?”

Cord didn’t answer for the simple and yet hard reason that Shannon was responsible for disciplining Matt. True, that would change once father and son were together, but right now Matt technically was living under his ex-wife’s roof, and although he and Shannon hadn’t sat down and had a heart-to-heart about shared child rearing, he’d never once questioned her competence in that department. After all, she’d grown up with parents. She, not he, knew how the roles were played out.

Although he sensed that Kevin was holding something back, Cord was unable to get the boy to reveal more than he already had. Shannon was no more successful, and after a few more minutes, she hung up the phone.

She walked over to her office chair and sank into it, staring and yet not staring at him. She opened her mouth but slowly closed it without saying a word. The mouth he’d once claimed for himself looked tight. Her hands lay on her thighs, the tips pressing into the flesh beneath her jeans. He might not know her thoughts, maybe he never had, but he could read her body language.

She was under control, barely.

Weariness hummed at the edge of his awareness, but he knew how to keep his body’s need for sleep at bay. More times than he could remember, the difference between life and death for someone he’d never met and would never see again depended on his ability to run on nerves and guts and determination. He would rest when