“I don’t want you to see me like this, mi amor,” he explained softly. “I’ll be here for weeks, maybe even months, to get back on my feet. Insurance will pay the full bill.”

  Chase had effectively dismissed her from his life for now. But he’d also called her querida and mi amor. She rose and picked up her jacket, not knowing what to say, not knowing whether he’d welcome a hug or kiss now. “Can I at least call you?”

  Then, unexpectedly, Chase broke into a grin. “Don’t think for a moment you can get rid of me so easily. Of course you can call. And believe me, I’ll be back as soon as I can. I have to take you horseback riding in British Columbia. And don’t fix my broken porch step until I’m there to help.”

  Yes, Chase did know her.

  “I’ll see you later, mi salsa picante.” Smiling, she leaned over to plant a kiss on his lips.

  Chapter 48

  Gina unlocked her front door and limped into her house, then pivoted to help Sam bring in a sack of groceries.

  “Sit,” Sam ordered. “You’re not supposed to carry anything. You’re not even supposed to be back at home.”

  Her friend collapsed into a rocking recliner in the living area, wincing at even the slight motion the chair made as she sat. “I couldn’t take it anymore, being treated like I’m an invalid.”

  Sam resisted the urge to respond with, “You are an invalid.” Instead, she said, “I understand.”

  After setting down the groceries on the kitchen counter, Sam went back to the car and carried in the large canvas-covered cage from the cargo area. As soon as she whisked off the cover, Zeke began to squawk and bounce on his perch, shrieking “Hello! Hello! Hello!”

  When the macaw spotted Gina, he switched to Love, Love, Love! Gee-na, Gee-na!

  “I think he’s excited to be back.” Sam grinned.

  Gina grimaced. “I can tell. How’re you doing, Zeke?”

  “Gee-na! Love! Alexa!” the macaw squawked. “Good orning!”

  The Echo Dot on the kitchen counter began to speak, saying something about this day in history.

  “Alexa, stop!” Gina commanded. The device lapsed into silence.

  Zeke made a strange noise that sounded eerily similar to Simon’s meow. Then he uttered in a sing-song voice, “Dunk-en sai-la, dunk-en sai-la!”

  “Oh, happy days. New tricks,” the older woman commented drolly from her chair.

  Sam observed her friend carefully. “Will you be okay here on your own?”

  “I am so ready. I’ll be slow, but I’ll be fine. I have Zeke for company.”

  “Me-yow!” They both stared at Zeke, who bobbed his head excitedly, then followed up with a somewhat strangled but still recognizable owl hoot.

  “You have a cat,” Gina stated. “And an owl?”

  Sam laughed. “My cat, Simon, kept watch on Zeke for hours every day. They definitely made an impression on each other. The owl is Blake’s cell phone ringtone.” She moved to the kitchen and began to put away the groceries.

  Gina raised an eyebrow. “You seem excessively cheerful for a woman who’s been visiting the parents of dead kids.”

  “You forgot the shooting and attempted kidnapping in Marine Park,” Sam put a half gallon of milk into the refrigerator, then filled Gina in on the latest news.

  Both Maya and Nancy had been released from custody while the events were investigated farther. The pistol had yielded fingerprints from both Maya and Nancy, and Ethan Zeran’s were on the bullets inside. Along with their testimony, Sam’s photo of the license plate on the escaping car had led to the arrest of a man the police had long sought for human trafficking. And although James Winnow had not yet been arrested, witnesses to his drug deals and connections to prostitution were slinking out from the shadows, and his future as a free man did not look promising.

  Gina snorted. “Your life is so much more exciting than mine.”

  “It’s going to be a lot less exciting for a while,” Sam responded. “Chase will be in rehab for a month to six weeks, and Blake is taking a month-long absence to babysit some gorillas in Evansburg.”

  “Gorillas?”

  “Signing gorillas.” Sam grabbed an orange that had escaped to the bottom of the cloth grocery bag and stuffed it back into its original plastic bag. “There was an article about them in a magazine. It described how difficult it was to get anyone to care for intelligent apes in the rural area they live in, so Blake emailed the gorilla owner and offered to come for a month. He left yesterday. God only knows what they’ll learn from each other. Blake’s been practicing sign language for two weeks now.”

  She spun the bag of oranges, then closed it with a twist tie. “This doesn’t seem like Blake’s thing, but I think he wants to do something totally different for a while.” Gina didn’t know about Blake and Claude, and that wasn’t Sam’s tale to tell. “I wish I could go, too, but someone’s got to hold down the fort here. And feed the cat.”

  Unfortunately for now, James Winnow was still in the wind, and he knew where she lived. Sam told Gina about a few disturbing slow cruises past her house. Black or gray vehicles, all after sunset. One massive pickup had stopped in her driveway, switched on its hunting spotlights and scanned the yard. “I suspect they’re looking for Maya.”

  “Gawd. Aren’t you scared?”

  Sam hesitated. Of course, she was frightened. Every single time any car slowed past her house. She had even constructed an escape hatch for Simon, with a narrow cat ramp zigzagging up the walls and a cat door high in the utility room, where no human could go. She couldn’t stand the thought of her pet being trapped inside if the house was invaded again.

  “Before Blake left town, he helped me install security cameras and an alarm system.” She shrugged. “I hate that thing, and I’ve accidentally set the alarm off twice already, but what else can I do? I’m not going to let a bunch of thugs drive me from my house. And hey—I clawed my way out of an avalanche! I’ll handle whatever comes up.”

  “Do you think that dead guy’s friends are out for revenge?” Gina raised a hand to her mouth. “Isn’t Maya worried?”

  Sam met her gaze. “Blake took Maya with him. But that’s only for your ears.”

  Gina pinched her fingers together and made a zipping motion across her lips.

  “Maya’s got PTSD, according to her counselor.”

  “Blowing someone’s head off will do that to a girl,” Gina commented.

  Sam winced. “Yeah. Even if Eaze deserved it. She’s got to come back for a hearing in four weeks, but until then, she will be taking care of the gorillas with Blake. I think a change of scene and routine will do them both good.”

  Maya had extracted a tentative promise from Troy Johnson that if she got her act together, stayed drug free, and was found innocent of all charges, she could work at Wilderness Challenge again. Sam had placed the repaired quilt square in Maya’s suitcase for her to find.

  In a completely unexpected move, Troy had hired Nancy to watch over the office and answer phones. She cooked in the employee lounge and slept on a cot in the equipment storeroom, and Piquant had his own bed there, too. Nancy was also required to attend the upcoming hearing, where Sam fully expected her to claim again that she had fired the fatal shot to save Maya, keeping the police confused about who had fired the gun that night.

  “Me-ow! Dunk-en sai-la!”

  Gina groaned. “Zeke will motivate me to get back out installing wildlife cameras in no time.”

  Sam pulled her cell phone from her jacket pocket. “Speaking of wildlife cameras . . . Remember that I told you I picked up the camera at the wolverine site? It’s in the shop to get the screen replaced right now. But I took the memory card out first.”

  Sam held her phone in front of Gina and swiped with her finger through the photos. They had been captured through the dirty lens and were a bit blurry, but the image could be identified. A wolverine, her fur dark and matted around the snout and shoulders, carrying a dingy white snowball in her mouth.

  “Is that—?” Gina’s mouth fell open in astonishment.

  “Feisty,” Sam confirmed. “Bloody but unbowed. Not only did she escape from the carrier, she broke out of her collar.”

  “Unbelievable.” Gina grabbed the phone, used her fingers to enlarge the image, focused on the blurry brownish-white snowball sandwiched between the wolverine’s jaws. “Is that—?”

  “Yes. She’s carrying a kit.” Sam swiped to the next photo. “And here’s another one. This baby is a little darker than the other one. I’ll send these to your new cell.”

  “I’ve never seen a baby skunk bear before, not even on a camera.” Gina’s face was beaming. “Never underestimate a wolverine.”

  “I’m definitely going to add one to my quilt,” Sam said.

  Gina’s brow crinkled. “What?”

  “Never mind.” Sam waved a hand in the air. “Just thinking out loud. I’m making a story quilt, with squares that represent important moments in my life.”

  “Seeing a wolverine definitely qualifies as one of those.” Gina smiled at the cell phone as if it were her best friend, but then reluctantly handed it back. “Thanks, Sam. For everything.” Gina held out a fist.

  Sam bumped Gina’s fist with her own. “Meet you in the mountains.”

  Acknowledgments

  All authors need the opinions and suggestions of others to improve our work, and I am so grateful that my readers and editors always do that for me. I’d like to express my gratitude to the following people who graciously took the time to read my drafts and share their comments to improve Cascade: Worldkeeper Diane Garland, Barbara Ellis, Sue Brown, Jeanine Clifford, Alison Malfatti, author Elizabeth Crowens, and author Carole T. Beers. Janet Vincent gave me the title for this book. Ron Malfatti generously shared his knowledge of the Mt. Baker Ski Area topography and structures. And I could never publish a book without the careful scrutiny and clever suggestions from super-editor Karen Brown.

  And last but never least, thank you to my readers for being willing to go on another adventure with Sam Westin.

  Thank you all!

  Copyright Page

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Although many of the locations mentioned in this book are real, details have been changed and other places invented for the sake of the story. Any semblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  WILDWING PRESS

  3301 Brandywine Court

  Bellingham, Washington 98226

  Copyright © 2022 Pamela Beason

  Cover design by Christine Savoie

  ISBN-13: 978-0-9983149-5-2

  http://pamelabeason.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.

  Books by Pamela Beason

  The Sam Westin Wilderness Mysteries

  Endangered

  Bear Bait

  Undercurrents

  Backcountry

  Borderland

  Cascade

  The Neema the Gorilla Mysteries

  The Only Witness

  The Only Clue

  The Only One Left

  Romantic Suspense

  Shaken

  Again

  Call of the Jaguar

  The Run for Your Life Adventure/Suspense Trilogy

  Race with Danger

  Race to Truth

  Race for Justice

  Nonfiction E-books

  So You Want to Be a PI?

  Traditional vs Indie Publishing: What to Expect

  Save Your Money, Your Sanity, and Our Planet

  Keep up with Pam on https://pamelabeason.com

  Sign up for my newsletter and you can download a free copy of Race with Danger!

  About the Author

  Pamela Beason is the author of the Sam Westin Wilderness Mysteries, the Neema the Gorilla Mysteries, and the Run for Your Life Adventure Trilogy, as well as several romantic suspense and nonfiction books. She has received the Daphne du Maurier Award and two Chanticleer Book Reviews Grand Prizes for her writing, as well as an award from Library Journal and other romance and mystery awards. Pam is a former private investigator and freelance writer who lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she escapes into the wilderness whenever she can to hike and kayak and scuba dive.

  https://pamelabeason.com

 

 

  Pamela Beason, Cascade

 

 

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