After sending one last gunshot into the air, Mattie stood and asked Robo to heel. He weighed almost as much as she did, and she feared she couldn’t carry him. He stayed by her side, limping, while she gathered the wood she’d dropped and headed back to the campsite, refusing to leave behind their hard-won bounty. She observed him as they went. She prayed the damage wasn’t too severe. He continuously stopped, chuffing his displeasure and looking behind. “Robo, come.”
Back in the relative security of the campsite, Mattie dumped the wood and threw a log on the fire. Taking an extra magazine from her utility belt, she reloaded and holstered her Glock. She took out her first aid kit, bent to retrieve her water supply from her backpack, and called Robo to her. Sitting on a large log she’d placed near the shelter, she gently cleaned his wounds. Inspecting the shoulder injury, she saw that it was about four inches long. She cleaned it the best she could by sloshing water on it. Blood flowed steadily and it looked horrible. She fought the bile that rose in her throat.
She pressed a gauze pad on the wound and bound it tight with an elasticized bandage. It was a tricky place to wrap, but she alternated between chest and ribcage and was satisfied with the job. The bandage appeared to apply pressure at the shoulder without infringing on his neck and airway. “There.”
She hugged him close while she gently applied more pressure on the wound. It was important to stop the bleeding. He could bleed to death from a tear this big. She buried her nose in the fur at his neck, continuing to apply pressure on the bandage with her hand. What should she do? Stay here and guard Adrienne’s grave or take Robo down for medical care?
He licked her face, a stolen kiss. She usually didn’t allow him to lick, but this time she made an exception. “Be still now. Let me hold you.”
Robo started to shiver. Was it from shock? Blood loss? Still holding him close, she leaned back so that she could see his face. He tipped his head to gaze up at her, looking into her eyes. “Are you okay?” He trembled, and she placed her cheek against his.
She realized she was shivering, too. She knew her trembling was from the letdown after the adrenaline had charged her system. Maybe that’s what was going on with Robo. She hoped so.
They sat together for a long time, Mattie holding Robo while she pressed directly on the gauze bandage. Shivers that wracked his body gradually subsided as he relaxed against her.
The cat screamed again, this time from farther away. Robo struggled against her, facing the eerie sound and trying to stand. Mattie wouldn’t let him and continued to hold him close. “It’s okay, boy. I think it’s going away. At least for now.”
Shining her flashlight on the gauze pad, she saw that blood had saturated through but was no longer dripping. She noted the size of the stain. She would check it again in a half hour to see how much larger the bloodstain had grown.
She couldn’t go anywhere while Robo was still bleeding. It was imperative she stop the blood flow, or she could lose her partner. And she wasn’t going to let that happen. Covering the wound to hold it tightly, she settled onto the log and hugged her dog. It was going to be a long night.
Chapter 12
Snowflakes gave off tiny hissing sounds as they fell into the fire. The storm didn’t show any sign of letting up. She’d checked Robo’s bandage a couple times and thought the blood flow was slowing.
“Mattie!” she heard a voice shout off to the east. “Mattie! It’s Cole!”
“Cole!” she called to him. “We’re over here.”
Robo pulled against her to stand, so she let him, not wanting him to struggle and aggravate the bleeding.
“I see your fire,” Cole called out. Moments later he materialized through the trees, the shod hooves of the horse he rode creating a muffled click against snow-covered rocks as he approached.
She walked out to greet him as he dismounted, and when he opened his arms, it felt natural for her to step into his embrace to give him a hug. His arms and body were warm; the fabric of his down coat felt smooth against her cheek as she rested it against his chest. He smelled of winter, snow, and pine forest. But it took only a few moments for her to grow uncomfortable with their closeness. She shivered.
“You’re cold,” he said.
“A bit,” she said, pulling away. She avoided his eyes, looking at Robo instead. “I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you. Robo’s been hurt. Mountain lion attack.”
Concern filled Cole’s face. “Robo, come here. Let me take a look at you.”
Cole bent over the dog while Mattie trained the flashlight and regained her composure. Cole’s arrival created such a wave of relief; she thought she might melt into the ground.
“I think I’ve been able to slow the blood flow. But the stain has gotten bigger, so it must still be seeping,” she said.
“I’m not going to take the bandage off yet. It’s best to keep some pressure on it, and let’s make an icepack with some snow to put on it. That ought to stop the bleeding.”
“I didn’t think of that.”
Cole stood up. “You’ve done a great job. Let me unpack some things and look for a plastic bag to make that pack.”
Mattie started toward her own backpack. “I have an evidence bag we can use.”
“Are you okay, Mattie? The lion didn’t get at you, did it?”
“No, I’m fine. Robo got between us.”
“He’s a brave dog.”
She leaned down to scoop snow into the evidence bag. “He is. We were both pretty shaken up afterward.”
Cole placed a hand on her shoulder. “I can imagine.”
Mattie bent toward Robo to refocus attention on him. Cole took the bag from her, tied the top, and handed it back.
“Hold this against the bandage while I unpack,” he said.
Mattie settled down onto the log and pulled Robo in to cradle him against her chest. She pressed the makeshift icepack over the gauze pad. “We’d decided we were going to have to stay here by ourselves tonight.”
“I couldn’t let that happen.”
“Thank goodness. Did you hear the lion scream?”
“I did,” he said, while he unpacked the panniers. “It’s the eeriest sound in the world.”
“It scared the bejesus out of me when I first heard it. I decided to build up the fire and went to get wood. That’s when it attacked.”
“Atypical behavior,” Cole said. “But I suppose this time of year, it could have been a female with a cub.”
“I saw fur and bones in the area right before it jumped Robo.”
“You might have stumbled onto a cache. They often store a kill and come back to it. Especially if they’re feeding babies.” He paused and looked around, searching outside the ring of light made by the fire. “Where is Adrienne buried?”
“About forty feet over that way.” Mattie nodded toward the site. “I also have some evidence marked out between here and there. I camped here to keep anyone who might come from accidentally disturbing it.”
“I’ll stay away. Poor Adrienne. I feel terrible about this. I didn’t know her well, but what I knew was all good.”
“That’s what I’ve gathered.” Mattie wondered if the dead woman’s soul still lingered and was listening in.
“Do you know how she died?”
Cole’s participation in the sheriff’s posse gave him a semiofficial status. And after he’d ridden up here in the face of a snowstorm to help, she felt like she could give him information—what little she had to share. “Not yet. But she’s buried in an unmarked grave. I doubt if it was natural causes.”