While they’d been searching the lodge, Cookie had shifted to a semiseated position, though she still held the towel of ice to her head. Her color was normal. She opened her mouth when she saw them, then closed it.

“Cookie,” Wyatt said. “You were heading to the staff housing. I take it you didn’t get a chance to go inside?”

She shook her head, then winced.

“We’ll start there. But we can’t leave the four of you here unarmed.”

“Give Darby your rifle,” Bram said.

“Why don’t you give her your Glock?”

“Ah . . .” Darby had grown pale. “Give the gun to Roy.”

Bram clenched his jaw and handed his pistol to Roy. “Do you know how to use—”

“Yes.” He took the pistol, pulled back the slide, chambered a bullet, then gave Bram a jerk of his head.

“Let’s secure the lodge as much as possible.” Bram glanced around the room, then retrieved a chair, which he wedged under the front doorknob. “Wyatt, see if you can block the kitchen door. Darby, we’ll go out the back. I want you to do the same to that door if you can.”

She narrowed her eyes, tightened her mouth, and looked like she was about to punch him.

“Um . . . be careful.” He picked up a chair and headed to the back door. Darby followed. Wyatt soon joined them.

“You’re not wearing your glasses,” Wyatt said to Darby. “Looks good.”

Bram clenched his fist and bit back his reply. “Let’s go.”

Outside, they waited until they heard the bump of Darby wedging the chair under the knob. The sun was dipping behind the mountains and the air was cool and sharp. The staff building matched the rustic log structure of the lodge and was about two hundred feet from the main building.

Wyatt took the lead while Bram kept watch from the rear. They entered the shared living area, a comfortable room with well-worn furniture and smelling faintly of cigarette smoke. The men’s bunk room was on the left, women’s on the right. Swiftly they checked the men’s side. Empty. Returning to the living area, Bram leading this time, they opened the door to the women’s side. Also empty.

The long shadows and dense pines formed perfect locations for sniper’s nests. “We need to keep moving.” Bram nodded toward his right. “Darby and I were in the barn, but we didn’t look beyond the body in the stall. How well did you check the rest of the stalls, loft, and tack room?”

“It’s clear. Cabins?”