Peril at Granite Peak (6 page)

“I don't know. But I know what I saw.” I put on a burst of speed as the side doors came into view.

“Maybe it was a bear,” Frank mumbled.

“Even bears don't go out in this kind of weather. Plus, don't they hibernate during the winter anyway?” I hurried over to the door.

“Hey! What's going on out here?”

It was Rick. He'd just emerged from a doorway down the hall, dressed in jeans, a sweatshirt, and weathered suede slippers.

“There's someone outside.” I reached for the door, but it wouldn't budge. It was locked! I moved to unlock it.

“What? Stop!” Rick hurried toward us, looking alarmed. “Don't open that—”

WHOOOSH!

I swung open the door, letting in a maelstrom of wind
and snow. Who said snowflakes are soft and pretty? They sure don't feel that way when they hit your face at a zillion miles an hour.

Shading my eyes, I took a step out. “Hello?” I called, my words whipped away instantly by the wind. “Anyone out there?”

“See anything?” As he joined me in the doorway, Frank sounded a little more awake. An instant forty-degree temperature drop will do that.

“No.” I glanced at the ground. “I can't even tell if anyone came out this way. The wind would've blown away any prints.”

“What are you guys thinking?” Rick sounded gruffer and crankier than ever as he rushed up and tried to wrestle the door out of my hand. “We've got to get this shut.”

“No, wait!” I faced him. “I saw someone out there from my window—I swear! We have to check. If we don't . . .”

I let my voice trail off. Rick hesitated, looking annoyed. Then he sighed. When he spoke again, he sounded a little less gruff.

“Well, what are we supposed to do?” he said, glancing outside. “If we go out there right now, we could all die.”

He had a point. I wasn't much in the mood for dying at the moment.

Suddenly I had an idea. “Wait right here,” I told the others. “I'll be right back.”

I hurried down the hallway, passing Rick's open door.
Just beyond was Cody's room. I knew where it was because we'd stopped by when we first arrived.

“Cody!” I pounded on the door. “Wake up! Emergency!”

Inside the room, Blizzard started barking immediately. After a moment, the door opened and a sleepy-looking Cody peered out.

“Joe?” he said. “What is it?”

Blizzard pushed past him, jumping out into the hallway, her ears and tail on alert. “I need Blizz.” I pointed at the dog. “You mentioned at dinner the other night that she's an excellent tracker, right? Like, she finds people who are lost in the snow.”

Cody blinked at me. “In theory, yeah. We've only trained for it, though; she's never been tested in a real-life situation. Why?”

I told him about the person I'd seen outside. By the time I finished, Cody looked more awake.

“Okay, we can try, I guess.” He sounded a little dubious. “But if it's too bad out there, we're coming right back. Let me just grab my boots and jacket.”

As he disappeared back into his room, Frank came over to pat Blizz. “Do you think this will work?” he asked.

I shrugged. “We'll find out.”

Soon Cody was clipping a leash onto Blizz's collar, and the two of them were diving out into the storm. We swung the door mostly shut to keep the snow out, leaving only a crack so we
could watch for them to return.

“I don't know about this,” Rick muttered. “I should wake up Cody's parents and let them know what's happening.”

But he didn't move, watching that crack in the door along with the rest of us. My heart was pounding. Would this work? Or would we end up having to figure out a way to rescue the rescuers?

The seconds passed slowly, each one feeling more like an hour. “How long should we give them?” Chet asked at last.

“Don't know.” Rick checked his watch. “If they don't come back soon—”

“Look!” Frank interrupted. “Is that them?”

We all leaned forward. A dark blob was just visible beyond the walls of snow. A moment later part of the blob broke free and bounded forward—it was Blizz, leaping through the drifts as she raced toward the door, barking.

“Help!” Cody's voice came, barely audible over the wind. “I can't drag him much farther!”

“Come on!” I rushed outside, barely noticing the cold wind ripping through my clothes or the snow soaking through my sneakers. Frank and Rick were right behind me.

It was hard going through the storm, but finally we reached Cody. A man was leaning heavily on him as he stumbled through the snow.

“Got him!” Frank said, slinging the guy's other arm over his shoulder.

Working together, he and Cody rushed the man toward
the door. I led the way, shouting for Chet to open wide. Blizz raced back and forth, barking.

It was only when we were all safely inside, with Rick shoving the door shut, that we all got a good look at the guy we'd just rescued.

My mouth dropped open as I recognized him.

“Stanley!” I blurted out.

J
OE SOUNDED STUNNED AS HE
said Stanley's name. I knew how he felt.

Stanley's teeth were chattering, and his face was very pale. He had to be at least half-frozen despite his coat and hat.

“Are you all right?” I asked him.

“What were you doing out there?” Rick demanded at the same time.

“You okay, dude?” Chet asked Cody, who nodded. Blizzard shook the snow off her thick coat and then danced around all of us, letting out an occasional bark.

Meanwhile doors were opening up and down the hall as the commotion woke people. Mr. and Mrs. Gallagher were among the first to arrive.

“What's going on out here?” Mrs. Gallagher asked, tying her robe shut as she hurried over to Cody. Then she saw Stanley and gasped. “Oh, my! What happened to you?”

Stanley's teeth were still chattering, but his face was already returning to its normal sallow shade. “I could have f-f-frozen to d-d-death!” he exclaimed. “I've b-b-been locked out there for hours!”

A gasp went up from the people gathered around us. Mrs. Gallagher rushed back into her room and returned with a blanket, which she threw around Stanley.

Meanwhile Blizzard perked up her ears and bounded down the hall, wagging her tail. Josie had just emerged from her room with her little dog clutched in her arms. As I watched the big dog and little dog touch noses, I realized Toy Toy wasn't a Chihuahua after all—he was a poodle. But I wasn't too concerned about that at the moment.

“Oh, you poor man!” The lodge's head chef, a heavyset woman with a beet-red face, stared at Stanley. “You must be absolutely frozen!”

“Yes. But how did you get outside in the first place?” Mr. Gallagher sounded confused.

Stanley turned to glare at Josie. “I only intended to step outside for a moment,” he said. “Someone failed to empty the wastebasket in my room, and I couldn't sleep from the smell of my old banana peel rotting away in there. I figured
there had to be a Dumpster out there somewhere.” He waved a hand in the vague direction of the door. “But I couldn't find one, and when I tried to come back in, the door was locked!”

“Oh, dear,” someone said.

I glanced around. It was Mrs. Richmond. She and her husband had just emerged from the back stairwell, both of them wrapped in fluffy white robes with the Granite Peak Lodge logo on them. Clearly the noise had carried from the employees' quarters up to at least some of the second-floor guest rooms.

“The door must lock automatically, eh?” Nate Katz spoke up. He was right behind the Richmonds, dressed in sweatpants, a T-shirt, and bare feet, though his wife was nowhere in sight.

Rick frowned. “No,” he said. “This door doesn't do that—it's an emergency exit. It can only be locked with a key.”

“Who has the key?” I asked.

Rick shrugged. “We all do. There's a master key that works most of the door locks around here.”

“That's right. Everyone who works here has a copy of the key,” Mr. Gallagher confirmed, turning to his staff. “So did any of you lock this door tonight?”

All the employees present shook their heads. Stanley frowned. “Well, I got locked out there somehow,” he insisted, letting out a sudden shiver.

Mrs. Gallagher tut-tutted. “Enough talking,” she said,
putting an arm around Stanley. “Let's get you to the infirmary.”

As she bustled him off down the hall, Stanley was still complaining. Mr. Gallagher sighed and rubbed his beard as he watched them go. There was a worried crease in his forehead, and I could guess what he was thinking. Why did this have to happen to Stanley Wright of all people?

“All right, everyone,” Mr. Gallagher said. “Go on back to bed. We'll take care of this and update everyone in the morning.”

People started drifting back toward their rooms. I stepped over to Cody. “Nice work out there, you two,” I said, patting Blizzard on the head. “Stanley might not seem very grateful right now, but I'm sure he'll realize he owes you his life.”

“I wouldn't have even known he was out there if you guys hadn't sounded the alarm,” Cody said. “Anyway, Blizz is the one who found him.”

“Yeah.” I shot Joe a proud glance. He might seem like kind of a spaz most of the time, but once in a while my brother really comes through. “That was good thinking, running for Blizz.”

“I'm just glad she was here.” Joe shrugged modestly. “Come on, might as well try to get some sleep.”

But when he, Chet, and I reached our suite, none of us were feeling sleepy. We sprawled on Chet's bed, talking about what had just happened.

“It must have been an accident, right?” Chet said.

Joe shrugged. “Rick said that door shouldn't lock unless someone locks it,” he reminded us.

“Yeah.” I'd been thinking about that. “He was awfully quick to speak up about it, actually.”

“What are you saying?” Joe raised one eyebrow. “You think Rick locked Stanley out there?”

“Not on purpose.” I picked at a loose thread on the bedspread. “I imagine it was an honest mistake. He was awfully worried about doors blowing open earlier, remember? He might've locked that one just in case the wind picked up even more.”

“So why didn't he say so?” Chet wondered.

“Maybe he was afraid he'd be blamed—might be afraid of losing his job over it or something.” I chewed my lower lip, thinking it over. “We don't know anything about him or his history here, after all.”

Chet looked troubled. “Then again, maybe it wasn't an accident,” he said. “Did you guys notice that Rick was still dressed just now?”

Come to think of it, I had. “So what?” I said. “It's not that late. Some people are night owls. Or maybe he was supposed to stay up and keep an eye on things tonight because of the storm.”

“Maybe,” Joe said. “Still, if we were investigating this incident—and I'm not saying we are—I'd probably have to put Mr. Rick Ferguson on the suspect list.”

“I'd put Stanley on it too,” Chet said. “It's pretty weird how all the mysterious stuff happens to him, right? Besides, the guy is just a jerk, and he complains about everything.”

Joe grinned. “You think he locked himself out in the snow to die? Yeah, that would give him something to complain about, all right.”

“Whatever.” I stifled a yawn, still turning everything that had happened over in my head. “For all we know, it could've been Josie who locked him out there.”

“Josie?” Chet echoed. “How do you figure?”

“I'm just kidding, mostly,” I said. “It's just that she seems really worried about losing her job. Maybe she thought all of Stanley's complaining would make business even worse. Or something.”

Joe snorted. “Bro, I think your brain's already asleep, even if the rest of you isn't.”

“Sleep.” Chet rolled over and yawned. “Yeah, that's starting to sound good.”

I had to agree. “Come on, Joe, let's go back to our room.” Chet's yawn was contagious, and my mouth stretched open so wide I was afraid my head would crack in two. “We can worry about all this in the morning.”

•  •  •

In the morning the storm was still going strong. The wind battered the windows, swirling the snow around so much it
was impossible to see more than a few feet. But the lodge was warm and cozy. Joe, Chet, and I got dressed and followed the enticing scents of coffee and bacon to the dining room.

The Richmonds were sitting over near the kitchen door, making a racket as usual. The honeymooners were at a table for two near the entrance. They smiled at us as we passed before going back to making moony eyes at each other.

Poppy was sitting by herself nearby, sipping coffee and typing on a laptop. When she spotted us, she shut the computer and waved us over.

“So what happened last night?” she demanded before we could say a word. “I can't believe I slept through the whole thing!”

Joe flopped into a chair and reached for the coffeepot in the middle of the table. “What have you heard so far?”

“Not much,” she said. “I just got here. But one of the Richmond kids said someone almost got turned into a snowman last night, and the dog rescued him?” She grinned. “What's the real story?”

The honeymooners heard her and looked up, and Nate leaned closer. “That's pretty much it, actually. Stanley Wright accidentally locked himself out in the blizzard, and by the time Cody's dog tracked him down, he was half-frozen. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy.”

“Nate!” his wife exclaimed, sounding horrified.

“Sorry.” Shooting us a sheepish look, Nate returned his attention to his own table.

“Wow.” Poppy turned to us. “Is all that true?”