Snowman by Norman Bogner Read Free Book Online Page B

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    "We'll never cross-collateralize again. God, to think that we borrowed money from our own savings-and-loan to finance this project, and then, to compound things, our own insurance company has to make the payout! What'll it run?" he demanded.
    "About two hundred thousand," Bill Hammond replied. He had devised the scheme of providing mortgages through the savings-and-loan for approved buyers at the resort. The mortgage business was more profitable than the actual sale of the property. "A quarter of a million if the girl's parents kick up a fuss."
    "Maybe the legal department can beat them down on the settlement," Wright noted.
    "Let's not look for trouble with them," Monte said. As Wright rose to leave, Monte caught his eye, indicating that there was more to come. It was for Monte a delicate and dangerous moment. His career might collapse on the basis of the material he had prepared. The photographs of Janice's remains and the tracks would be construed as shock tactics. These men could be easily unsettled when faced with the grotesque realities, and he might compromise his position with them. Fear dictates its own laws, and Monte was in a terrifying bind. He opened iris attache case and took the pictures out.
    "Christ, this is gruesome," Wright said, and hurriedly passed the photographs on, then gesticulated futilely to Monte. "You said on the phone that some kind of bear was loose. Did a bear kill her?"
    "I don't know. The tracks weren't made by any animal we can identify."
    Wright poured himself a glass of water from a silver thermos and popped a Valium into his mouth.
    "What's up there?" Hammond asked nervously. "I was going to send my kids to the lodge for Christmas."
    "Cathy, we'll make whatever money you need available. You don't have to account for any of it. It's all in cash—but somehow you've got to find a way to contain this."
    Wright rose from the table and moved sluggishly toward the door.
    "I've never seen anything like this," he muttered.

Chapter Six
    Holiday Inns were all the same; no surprises, ran the commercial. Ashby checked into the one in Westwood. His room looked as if it were made out of disposable plexiglass. They probably just threw the whole thing down the incinerator when the guest left.
    Ashby had spent the afternoon at the AAA trying to figure out a route to the reservation. It was inaccessible by plane. Forty miles from Blythe, it showed up as a minute crescent in the heart of the Mojave Desert. The Colorado River angled through it, but there was no sign of a road.
    He phoned his secretary and learned that the only newsworthy event was the merciless snowstorm, the heaviest one of the winter thus far. The balmy late-Indian-summer weather in L.A. was a relief.
    "You've had calls from Monte and Cathy all day." He was not surprised. "They've been on my back about your story on the girl."
    He poured a Scotch from the pint of Dewar's he had bought before checking in. No point in paying room-service prices.
    "They give any reason for being so concerned?"
    "Not to me."
    He swallowed some Scotch. It was wise to play possum.
    "Margaret, call them back and read them the obit. That should calm them down. Anything else happening at the lodge?"
    "Not that I've heard. It's packed. Seems all the advertising they did paid off."
    Over a cold hamburger in the coffee shop, the vision of this mass of visitors rushed through Ashby's mind, and his unease increased. Weren't they all in danger? But if he warned them off, he might be starting needless hysteria. He had no proof of a Snowman—would have none unless Bradford could identify the marks on the body. Besides, he wasn't sure he believed it himself. Wasn't the only Snowman ever seen thousands of miles away in the Himalayas? Did the creature have the ability to reproduce?
    In the moonlight the ski lodge was the size of a small pearl from the glacier below the summit of Sierra Mountain. A thin, veinlike crevasse slowly appeared in the glacier. It gradually