Clearing the Doors and Searching the Snow

7:23 A.M

The outside was calm. Nobody knew yet that Milo was dead, now his body was buried due to the barrage of snow and ice that had come down the mountain. Everyone in the lodge wondered what exactly happened. Everybody was filled with a sense of confusion, all except one.

The shaking of the lodge had finally ended.

"Alright, everyone downstairs, one at a time, slowly." David stated. "I'll meet you guys when I'm done up here."

Everyone nodded. They knew that he knew what he was doing, and they were not going to question him.

David entered his room and opened his suitcase; he removed his safety vest and a black coat with white wool inside. He donned them both and headed downstairs. Once he arrived Billy handed him a toothpick and bowed. David put the toothpick in his mouth. It was clear that he had done this song and dance before, and Eugene knew about it.

David put his Auditorium crystal in the inside right pocket of his black coat. If it were near him, he would be able to hear the locals' Nepali words in English.

"Hello folks, I am David J Lancer. If you are not yet aware, I am a search and rescue officer. So, I know what I am doing. Does everyone agree that I am in charge?" David announced.

"If you agree, raise your hand." Billy added.

All parties raised their hands.

"Where's Milo?" David asked.

"Milo who?" Yvette asked.

"Milo Vandol, he was here yesterday." David elaborated.

Gerald laughed loudly. "I think we'd remember seeing someone that famous."

"He was not in his room. I cleaned it personally." Parvati Bhattarai stated. She was the eldest of the trio of lady locals that David and Billy met the other day, she was no older than thirty-four.

"Nobody has seen him since we went to quarters?" Billy asked.

"No." The trio of lady locals stated one after another.

David had a look of sadness on his face. "Then he must have been out there when the avalanche occurred."

"Then we will have to out and find him." Billy announced triumphantly.

David nodded. "Do any doors to the outside open outwards? I am certain the front door is one of them, but is there any others?" David asked.

"No sir." Laksmi admitted. "The front door is the only door that opens outward."

"Then I suggest until I can get outside and inspect the damage, no one should open the door at the rear." David announced. "Billy, see if you can push that door open."

Billy went to the front door and tried to open it. "No good. Its stuck fast."

"There must be a huge amount of snow piled up upon your welcome mat." David stated.

"But we have no welcome mat." Parvati elaborated.

"That was what we English like to call a joke." Billy retorted.

Parvati laughed. "Oh, it was a joke. Very funny." She laughed louder and dismissed herself before she tumbled from hysterics.

"Hey tall bald fellow!" David announced.

"Me?" Arbane inquired. His voice was dark and mysterious.

"Is anyone else here as bald as you?"

"No, I am the only one. But if you must refer to me, please use my name. My name is Arbane."

"I should have guessed that. That name is one of the most common Rhombodian names."

"But, Mr. Lancer, how can I assist you?"

"I need you to use whatever ability you have to move that snow outside."

Arbane straightened himself up and went to the door and stared at it. "Alright, here goes nothing." He stared for about thirty seconds; sweat was coming down his face; it was clear that he was exhausting himself since he was too far from the fireplace for that to be the reason for sweat to drop down his face. "No, my power is not working. Whatever caused that explosion uphill must have contained Phynéstone and contaminated the snow outside."

"Damn! All right plan B." David announced. "Do you guys have an axe or something?"

"You're not going to do something crazy are you?" Laksmi asked.

"No, of course not, I'm just going to make a hole to the roof so we can get out that way." David announced.

"But David," Gerald announced. "Won't it be likely that the roof is snowed under as well?"

"Good thought." David admitted. "I'll use my ski pole to poke a hole to the roof and see how much snow comes down, if we got fully covered by the avalanche there will be a lot of snow, if not, there will be not as much."

"But, if you ruin our roof, who will pay for it?" Laksmi asked.

"If the owner of this lodge does not pay for it, I will. Whoever owns this place will be forgiving when they discover our predicament." David added.

Laksmi nodded in agreement. "Well, you get started and I'll bring you the axe."

David went upstairs and all the other English-speaking guests followed him. David looked up at the ceiling and noticed there was a panel in the room with a rope. "Ah, this lodge has an attic." David announced. "That will make things easier." David pulled down the rope and the ladder to the attic revealed itself. David climbed it and the other visitors followed him. Billy passed David his ski pole and David started hitting the roof.

There was a small hole, and he made it bigger, but there was only so much damage he could do with a measly ski pole.

Fortunately, Laksmi soon arrived with an axe in her hand, and she handed it to David. Billy found a stool hidden in a corner of the attic and passed it to David. David climbed up and hacked away at the ceiling of the attic. Not much snow came in. "Billy, give me a boost!" David announced. Billy helped David get atop the roof. "It is all clear up here. The avalanche did not bury the whole lodge."

"That is good. We can all escape through the roof." Billy announced.

"Billy, gather all the males, we're going to clear away the back door." David announced.

"I'm sorry?" Gerald announced. "Why not clear the front door?"

"Well, if we cause a mini avalanche, we'll have a means of escape since the back door opens inward." David replied.

Gerald nodded. "Oh, I see."

"David is a search and rescue officer, this is not the first avalanche that he has had to deal with, so he knows the dangers of snow." Billy elaborated.

"I see, he's an expert at this stuff." Gerald noted.

"Come on fellow men, you start digging out back while I check the stability of the snow in front of the front door." David announced.

The men all got out and Laksmi passed each one of them a shovel, she surprisingly had enough for each one of them. All but David went to the back door and dug all the snow by the back door and David checked the snow by the front door. He found some spots which were dangerous, but others were more stable. David dug down to the front door carefully and cautiously. This was not the first time he had to dig through the snow. As Arbane had stated, there were tiny flecks of Phynéstone inside the snow.

David opened the front door and entered. The ladies were all surprised to see him.

"David, I thought you were digging out back." Yvette exclaimed.

"Your husband is out back." David announced.

"But I don't recall saying that Gerald was my husband."

"You are both wearing matching wedding bands, what are the chances that a man and a woman wearing the same wedding rings left their spouses for a trip to the Himalayas?"

"That's very clever, you ought to be a detective."

David laughed as if this was the most absurd idea to have ever been spoken. "Nah, I guess in my line of work that you must keep your eye out. I protect people from danger so of course I stay weary of my surroundings even when I am unaware of it."

David went to the rear door; he checked the first door to the left and it was locked again. David had to wonder what could be hidden behind it. The other three doors were not locked the other day, so David knew that the next door was a kitchen and that door beyond that was a bathroom and the last door lining the left of the hall was a bedroom.

David knocked on the rear door. "Are you done out there?"

"Yes!" Gerald announced. "We are too cold to open the door."

David opened the door and all the men outside all but fell in.

"I guess we all should have bundled up like Lance before we started shovelling away that snow." Billy announced.

"Remember Billy, when I'm on the job everyone calls me David." David stated.

"Well sorry, my brain must be so cold that I forgot, could you help us to the fireplace." Billy stated.

"Arbane, are you okay?" David inquired.

"As soon as I can get all this snow off me, I can use my ability again. It is as I suspected, the snow was indeed filled with Phynéstone. I do not know how the one who set off those explosives was, but they knew that an ability user was here." Arbane noted.

"We are very cold, I have never felt like this, and I'm from Ireland." Cathair announced.

"If only you had joined us, we may have gotten in sooner." Gerald stated.

"But the door was open, how could you not have come in sooner?" David asked.

"The door was locked." Billy noted.

"But it opened so easily when I turned the knob."

"It must be the type of lock that opens when someone on the inside turns the knob."

"But the man who didn't join us when we went on the roof, the local, why didn't he open the door?"

"I don't know, have you seen him?"

"Not since we went on the roof. He stayed inside; I knew he understood what I was saying because of the crystal in my pocket."

"I see. So now that we can leave, what do we do know search and rescue officer?"

"I recall teaching you morse code, get that fire really roaring and send out an S.O.S. I am going to talk to the locals about some flags."

Billy nodded and headed off.

"How about the rest of us?" Arbane asked.

"Warm up, and we'll head out again, this time make sure you will be warm enough the next time."

"But why would we head out again?" Mario finally spoke for the first time, he was still twitching, his face was flush, did he catch a cold.

"You can stay since you appear to be rather sickly, but the rest of us, including Gerald's wife, are returning to the outside to find Milo." David announced.

"Me?" Yvette asked.

"Sometimes a search and rescue needs a lady's touch, believe it or not but whenever a lady is with us, we find people twice as fast." David chuckled.

"Is that a tone of modesty I detect, well if you think I will be that helpful, then I will go upstairs to put on something much warmer." Yvette laughed as well and moved upstairs to do as she said.

"Little local lady." David stated.

"My name is Laksmi." Laksmi added.

"Laksmi, where's the local man?"

"Siva Acary? I am not sure, after you men left, I went to the kitchen to make cocoa as I expected you would have needed it after digging, so if you would excuse me." Laksmi returned to the kitchen and brought out five cups of cocoa and allowed David to pick up one of the cups.

"There's a strawberry on my plate." David noted. "Is that the Rhombodian's ability?"

"I wouldn't know the tall bald man's ability, but you speak in your sleep and with that crystal of yours I could hear you say how you really like strawberry."

David's face flashed red with embarrassment. "Did I say anything else?"

"No, that was all."

David felt relieved. "Next time I go to bed, I will put my Auditorium crystal in my suitcase, where it can't possibly reveal the crazy things, I dream."

"You dream crazy things?"

"Forget I said anything."

"Your secrets are all safe with me, remember I can't speak much English, I'm just grateful that the crystal in your pocket allows you to understand me even though I have been speaking Nepali this whole time."

"Oh, I'm well aware of that, and the crystal allows you to understand me even though I'm speaking English."

"Oh, I was wondering why your lips were moving so oddly."

"Shouldn't you be serving the rest of the men before those cups get cold."

Laksmi laughed. "Oh, you are right. You would make a wonderful husband."

"I didn't know Nepalese people knew sarcasm."

Laksmi laughed louder. "Always expect the unexpected." She served the cocoa to the rest of the men.

#

8:30 A.M

"Alright men, and lady." David announced.

"Yvette." Yvette stated.

"Sorry, men and Yvette."

"Thank you."

"Mario, you look better."

"Yeah. I got over it." Mario stated. He was not as pale as earlier and his twitching had calmed but there was a small twitch every now and then.

"Would you care to join us, Mario?" David asked.

"I'm going back to my room, it's on the other side of the wall of the fireplace." Mario announced. "But I have to wonder David, when did you discover my name, I don't recall ever telling you, my name."

"I read the names in the registry. I figured that you were either Mario or Gerald, but Gerald's last name matched the Yvette's last name so you could not be Gerald, so thus you are Mario." David stated.

"I could have been Cathair." Mario stated.

"No, Cathair is an Irish name, and you look Italian, so you couldn't have been Cathair either, so, when did you read the registry?"

"I didn't, I'm already acquainted with Cathair."

David thought this was odd, so he decided to file it away for later.

"Hold on David." Yvette interjected. "If you read the registry, then how did you not know my name?"

"Your name was written in such a fancy script that I could barely make it out, but I noticed that Gerald's last name and the last name you wrote looked remarkably similar despite the handwriting been so different. That is how I determined you and Gerald were married to one another and you said that your husband's name was Gerald." David explained.

"Good memory." Yvette giggled.

"Anyway, if Milo is still alive, he is on borrowed time. I asked the staff members to gather up some flags, they had a bunch for slaloms. There are red flags and yellow flags." David explained.

"What's with the flags?" Gerald asked.

Billy put a book on the coffee table, it was a book about snow.

"We need to be safe out there." David stated. "Otherwise, we'll have to wait for the Himalayan search and rescue officers to dig us out."

"That sounds serious." Yvette added.

"It is. Some snow will be incredibly soft and touching it may cause another avalanche. So, for those areas, we will mark them with red flags, so we know to stay away from those areas, and the safe areas which are heavily packed with snow. The areas which we can touch without causing an avalanche. We will mark those areas with yellow flags." David explained.

"Are you completely certain about what you are saying?" Gerald asked. "It sounds completely preposterous."

"I'm sorry, are you David J Lancer, search, and rescue officer with four years of experience?" David asked.

"No."

"Remember, we all agreed that I am in charge here. If you listen to me then we can all get out of here without further injury."

Gerald nodded. "I am sorry, but the things you said seemed farfetched, but that was then, and this is now. I was not aware of how many years of experience you had under your belt, and I certainly will not doubt you ever again."

David nodded.

"But how can we tell the difference?" Yvette inquired.

"Billy!" David shouted.

Billy read the passage that denoted the differences between safe snow and dangerous snow. Everybody understood and had a basic idea of what they were looking for.

"So, lets waste no more time, and get out there." David announced and everyone left. Everyone went in different directions. The one who killed Milo made sure nobody was looking at them as they were among the search party, they went to the spot where they were certain they had left the body. The snow here was safe to dig away without causing an avalanche. The killer made sure that there was nobody else around and dug down and the first thing they saw was the ski pole still sticking out of the heart of the dead skier that they killed earlier. They reburied him, stuck down a red flag, and went back the way they came and covered their shoe prints since they were sure that the shoe prints would have revealed their identity.

David skirted the forest, starting near the north, he was the fastest to mark the safe and unsafe areas and made his way southward. It took him five minutes to get to the red flag that the killer had placed.

David believed that the placement of this 'unsafe' flag was odd, he knew very well about snow, and he was sure that the snow mound that this flag marked was safe.

"Billy." David stated quietly.

"Yes?" Billy asked, even though he was far away, he could hear David with his Auditorium crystal, the two crystals had become makeshift walkie-talkies.

"Gather the others and bring them to my location."

"Okay, will do."

Five minutes later everyone was beside David.

"What's going on David?" Yvette asked.

"We should dig here; I have a bad feeling about this area."

Gerald touched the flag. "But this mound is dangerous, if we dig here than we will become buried too."

"Remember, this is your first day doing this. So, of course you cannot tell that this 'unsafe' area is a safe area. I must wonder why someone mis-marked such an obviously safe area." David explained. "Billy, I'll need a new toothpick soon; this one is getting old."

"I'll get you one once we are back inside." Eugene stated.

"But why is this mound mis-marked?" Yvette asked.

"Only reason one I can think of off the top of my head, that's why I'm hoping I'm wrong." David announced with a dreading tone. "Let's dig here."

The members of the search party shrugged and started digging and they found Milo's lifeless body with the skiing pole sticking out of his chest, there were two ski poles beside him and the skis he used were still on his feet.

David looked sad. "I knew it. He was murdered and to stop us from checking this mound the killer marked it as unsafe. Let us take him inside and all his items."

"Why his items?" Gerald asked.

"Well, I think that his fans would want to see them on display." David stated.

Gerald nodded. "Yes, I forgot that this man was famous. It is a damn shame, to be murdered by something he always had by his side. Poetic irony. If I were strangled with one of the ropes in my rope shop that too would be poetic irony."

"You own a rope shop?" David asked.

"That is right, my wife and I tie the best knots in the USA, they are so good that even sailors who visit our shop are jealous on how good our knots are. We checked to see if we have that 'higher class' ability, but we are both rank F, we are just naturally talented." Gerald laughed.

"You shouldn't laugh out here, the air is so cold out here that you are likely to choke." David noted.

"Is that true?"

"No, it just increases your chances of catching a cold, but you stopped laughing now because you thought the consequences would be more dire."

"Oh clever."

"So, are we actually going to move the body inside?" Arbane asked. "Or are we to stand out here and freeze our buts off?"

"Oh right. Yes, let us take this inside."

So, the search party worked together and moved the body, the skis, and the poles into the interior of the lodge. They put it in front of the fireplace and on top of the mat after the locals moved the coffee table aside.

What clues could this body be hiding?

David saw that one of the ski poles seemed just a bit out of sorts, but he really paid it no mind.

"David." Yvette stated. "I think you can figure out what happened to Milo before the Himalayan police arrive."

"Maybe, but first I must relieve myself, excuse me." David then passed through the hall, the first door on the right was now nailed shut. David believed that one of the four locals who did not join the search party must have done it. But who, and why? David did not have time to figure it out, he had to use the toilet before he peed all over himself.