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asking you the same favor. Where did it go?”
     
    “Huh?”
     
    “The snow mound. Where did it go?”
     
    “I…don’t know.”
     
    “It couldn’t have melted,” I said. “And if it had collapsed, there would be several huge piles of snow everywhere.”
     
    “I guess…”
     
    “Then where did it go?”
     
    “Fred,” he said. “I don’t know where the snow mound went. But I think it would be in our best interest if we stuck to trying to find the missing people we’ve got here.”
     
    His comments struck home. I had no idea why I was making such a huge fuss over something as silly as snow when we had such a tragedy on our hands. It was just that feeling of dread that I had yesterday…it was overwhelming. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
     
    “Nothing to be sorry about,” Alex said as he ushered me back to the trail. “You’re exploring every possibility. If the snow had been disturbed then that might have meant that Norm had been by here. It was definitely worth a look.”
     
    We continued up the trail. Eventually, we did run into Deputy Rogers and a few others, one of them being Tom Saunders. “Any luck?” Alex asked his deputy.
     
    “No,” John replied. “I have another group west of here.”
     
    “Okay, but nobody goes anywhere alone,” Jones said. “We use the buddy system.”
     
    “Absolutely,” John agreed. “We’ll catch you later.”
     
    We said our good-byes and we turned and started back down. “I’ll take you back to the station.”
     
    “Okay.”
     
    “And do me a favor Fred?”
     
    “Yeah,” I stopped.
     
    “Don’t go out on your own anymore, okay?”
     
    “Sure,” I said and started to walk again.
     
    “I want your brains not your brawn,” Jones said.
     
    I smiled. “I’ll do my best.”
     
    At that point in time, I never felt so old or useless in my entire life.
     

Chapter Four
     
    After Alex dropped me off, I headed to Smith’s Market to pick up a few things. I bumped into Henry Adams and his granddaughter halfway down the cereal aisle. “Good afternoon doctor,” I said. Henry was about my age, but with a lot more weight and a lot less hair.
     
    “Fred,” Henry smiled as he shook my hand. “How are you?”
     
    “Fine,” I said. “And how are you, Stephanie?”
     
    “Fine Mr. Harrison,” she replied, brushing her long, dirty blonde hair out of her eyes.
     
    “No Mr. Harrison,” I smiled. “Just Fred.”
     
    “Okay,” she said.
     
    “Now how old are you?”
     
    “Just turned seventeen,” she beamed with pride.
     
    I gave Doctor Adams a knowing look. “Oh boy. You’d better watch out Henry. All the boys in town will be lining up for a date with this one.”
     
    “They already are,” Henry winked.
     
    “Oh they are not grand pop,” Stephanie said, blushing.
     
    “I know a certain young man named Billy who seems to follow you all around town,” Henry said to her.
     
    “Billy who?” I asked. “Wilson?”
     
    “Yep,” Henry answered.
     
    “Well,” Stephanie said, turning an even darker shade of red. “He is kinda cute.”
     
    We all laughed. Then Henry said, “Stephanie, do me a favor and run up and get grandma’s favorite cereal. You know the one, right?”
     
    “Of course,” she replied and hurried off to fetch it.
     
    Henry leaned in close to me. “I guess you heard about poor Alice Saunders.”
     
    “Yeah, I heard,” I replied.
     
    “What a shame,” he said, shaking his head.
     
    “Yeah,” I agreed. Henry obviously hadn’t heard about Norm Donaldson yet and I wasn’t going to be the one to tell him. Besides, I wasn’t sure what information, if any, I was supposed to keep confidential. “Henry?”
     
    “Yeah?”
     
    “Make sure Stephanie doesn’t go near the recreation area for a while, okay?”
     
    “The ball fields? She isn’t likely to do that anyway, especially in the middle of winter,” he said. “Why?”
     
    “No particular reason. I just heard…there was