Chapter 1
the mountains hold secrets...
Claire Woods was no stranger to taking risks, as she held her breath the weight of her body fell beneath her as she sailed through the open air.... It was a brisk winter's day and the snow covered hillside was crawling with vacationers. It was the last chance of the season to get in a good run. She carried with her the experience that years of self taught discipline could provide. Weightless as she fell towards the earth, her beating heart raced as the ground rushed upward towards her. Suddenly as if inevitable her skis touched the powdered snow and as she sprung forward amid a plum of brilliant white snow she emerged from the free fall that took her 30 feet below and beyond the western barrier, into the off limits area of Purgatory Colorado.
Unknownst, in her youthful haste that morning she neglected to pack the transponder, a safety device which emits a signal in the case that she become the ill favored victim of an unwelcome avalanche. However, as fortune would have it the snow pack was rather low as compared to the previous year. She gracefully made her way down the slope towards the chalet as the ominous mountain overhang that took the life of three young skiers that same day one year ago, stood silent behind her as she passed by without incident.
Daphne had been waiting at the chalet for Claire to arrive. She had decided to finish her day on the slopes early for a warm bath before meeting up with Claire and the other girls down at the Chalet bar for dinner and drinks. Judy and Charlotte were also still on the slopes, but they had opted to finish up their final runs starting from the top of the mountain and taking a leisurely ski along Paul's Park Trail. Daphne was a couple years older than Claire and they had known each other since grade school. They both had grown up and lived in Purgatory all their lives. Claire was the adopted child of Mr. Mrs. Norman Woods. Norman's father Jack had migrated out west from Chicago in 1938, looking to settle among the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and established a hardware shop in the small quiet town of Durango. After Jack developed rheumatoid arthritis in his lower back Norman his only son took over the hardware business In 1985 he would marry Miss Joyce Pots the daughter of Dr.. Benjamin Pots, who was the head physician of the Durango hospital. He had purchased and bestowed upon Joyce the old Brewster residence the following spring after Mrs. Clementine Brewster passed away from a severe battle with pneumonia in 1986. It was only a few months thereafter that her husband Mr. Charles Franklin Brewster mysteriously disappeared, never returning from a hunting expedition alone up into the Flag Mountain region…...he was never heard or seen of again.
Judy and Charlotte had just arrived at the chalet and were about to remove their skis when Judy noticed a lone skier emerging from the treeline well below the western bowl that was adjacent to the orange flagged off limits area. “Hey Charlotte, would you look at that stupid person up there skiing outside the boundary?.” The figure was now coming closer into view and both ladies looked at one another and said…..”OMG, it’s Claire !” Not a moment later, a passing ski patrol catches sight of her as she turns and took a straight line towards the chalet. The ski patrol then turned and followed behind at a close distance.“Hey ladies, did you see that drop I made?!”
Both girls kept their mouths shut.
Some time passed in the ski hill lounge where Claire worked doing shots and drinking beer. When Claire felt she was good and sober she helped her boss close and then walked to the car.
She was sober enough to drive and capable of holding her own.
Her Vehicle cruised carefully down the road towards the highway junction, everything seemed alright, the roads themselves reasonably quiet for an April evening.
The early April snows brought about a strange heaviness. Every snowflake added to the reduced visibility and made it impossible to tell what was around. The highway was a sheet of thick black ice by now as Claire’s now crumpled sport utility vehicle lay in the ditch. Her head rested firmly against the seat as she came to. The world around was a cold blue fluorescence as night set in. even the bright lights of the ski hill were obstructed by the very sudden and unexpected blizzard. Around her were the remains of her vehicle and the scattered pilings of a lumber truck, the driver dead inside after falling over the road embankment some forty feet… The cab of the SUV smelled strongly of gasoline and blood and Claire was unable to open the driver door which had taken most of the impact from a lodgepole pine. The dim spectre of a man came down the embankment and rushed up to her vehicle…
Some time passed but the world around was a blur. She woke up under the bright lights of the urgent care facility, stable and alive, her heart monitor was normal, but the splitting concussion made her instantly sick as the room spun around her.
A nurse came in…
“Claire Woods? Welcome to Purgatory Mercy Urgent Care Center, you have been in a very severe car accident but we were able to stop the bleeding and stabilize you. Claire mumbled something from behind the thick walls of her rattled head. The nurse who was checking the charts looked up…. “oh , did you need something?”
“Water…” Claire rasped…
The nurse left to get her water
After a little while her father entered the small hospital room. “Claire?, sweetie, what happened?!” Her dad rushed up to the side of the bed, his caring brown eyes fixated on the young woman’s bandaged head with her tufts of red hair sticking out… “I was turning onto the highway and I got hit by a logging truck, the rest is a blur... “
He exclaimed “OH GOSH HONEY!!”
The nurse walked in with a cup of water. “Excuse me sir but visiting hours are over in fifteen minutes, we will be keeping her here overnight for observations, if you would like you certainly can wait in the waiting room and we can send a nurse by to talk to you if something comes up…
It was a long thirteen hours of being woken up but nurses and doctors who checked in or Claire periodically.
A mundane visit made all the more intolerable by blood tests and the snoring of overweight tourist whom hours before had a heart attack on the ski slope.
About four in the morning a rather gruff looking sheriff entered into the hospital room. Which stirred her awake...
“Claire?”
She looked at him… the officer clenched his belt firmly, she recognised him as Sheriff Jerry Burns.
“Haven't seen you around the hardware store in a couple months… so I heard over the radio that you were involved in this godawful mess and I came up here to check on ya. Oh gosh heck you are lucky to be alive. I just came off the call out to the wreck site at the 550.. Oh god damn it, you are one lucky woman, I know you are in a big mess what with your head being bonked and all but can you remember anything about the crash?
Claire closed her eyes. “I remember the silverpick lodge sign coming up on my right side and the snow was coming down so I kept it down to about 70 miles an hour… up ahead I saw the truck coming up the road and as he came close he veered into my lane… the truck swerved violently and the load slammed into me… he went off the ditch and everything just went black from there. I woke up here…
“Well from the looks of it you are lucky to be alive. The whole SUV was crushed practically flat. I think someone was looking out for you that day...”
Claire was too exhausted to really be able to talk much to the tall officer in his ushanka hat with his friendly eyes and heavy demeanor.
“You know what?? Let me just make my statement later. You need your rest”
The nurses checked on Claire and determined that she was able to leave the hospital by the end of a three day visit. During that time. Her grandpa who was chief physician at the care facility had paid her an unexpected visit and brought flowers from the local florist.
Claire’s father drove her home that day, of her minor injuries she still ached from the concussion which made it difficult for her to handle too much work around her tiny house. The one morning she was sitting on her porch overlooking the neighbourhood It was warm and mild, the winds light. Down the road the sound of a distant wood chipper could be heard which had persisted for a couple of hours now. A few cars drove past here and there only adding to the serenity of the scene.
As Claire went to get up the neighborhood cat sauntered up the steps and carrying something in it’s mouth.
“ Hey Kitty!. What do you have there…”
The tiny calico promptly dropped a human finger which looked like it was dusky and in a state of decay, around the base of the finger was what looked like an indentation of a ring.
Claire rushed and called the police, within a few minutes the sheriff arrived on scene…
The finger was just sitting there on the step as the officer came to the door…
Claire stood there waiting inside the door with a concerned look on her face.
Sheriff Burns was at this point picking up the finger and depositing it into an evidence bag… “Claire, so you were saying over the phone to dispatch that the neighbourhood cat had dropped this finger on your doorstep and that you have no clue where it came from?”
She replied… “that’s correct, the cat is the neighbours, he just comes over from time to time.”
The Sheriff took some notes with a serious look on his face.
“So did you notice anything unusual or seemingly out of place?”
Claire looked back at him…
“No nothing really out of place just the usual dripping off the gutters and the thaw across the ground… I was just getting some fresh air because my head is still throbbing from the car crash... “
Sheriff Burns simply nodded, finished taking notes and stepped back off the porch
“Well, it looks like I have some investigating to do, so give us a call again if anything else comes up…”
Clare nodded and waved.
For a few hours the sheriff's office probed the neighborhood and scoured back yards and the wooded areas behind the houses on the street.