Tough Cookie

“Hmm.” The poor security woman tried to sound as if she were pondering my question, but her dubious tone said she thought I was some kind of nut. “Well …”

“Look,” I said patiently. “The snow slides down. Say it knocks down a house. Do the chimney bricks and furniture end up at the bottom of the hill? How and when do you clean up the debris left by an avalanche?”

“Actually, in an avalanche everything gets thrown all over the place.”

“So how does the debris get picked up?” I persisted. “I mean, not just from an avalanche, but from the whole ski area?”

She sighed. “When our maintenance guys groom the slopes in the spring, they scoop up everything they find. Wallets, jewelry, hats, mittens, you name it. Those items get logged into our Lost and Found for sixty days. You mentioned an avalanche. Where did it come down?”

“Elk Valley. Three years ago.”

Her voice stiffened. “I see.” After a pause, she went on: “Even though it’s an out-of-bounds area in the winter, Elk Valley is used in the summer as a nature trail. Each year before the trail is opened, our maintenance team cleans up the valley. The items they might have picked up would have come to Lost and Found. For sixty days. All

items would have been logged in, and logged out to go to charity.” She added tentatively, “Unless the item happened to be very valuable. We keep jewelry in the safe for longer. Up to a year.”

“And your log goes back how long?”

“Five years.”

“Can you do a computer search,” I said, feeling my heart start to race, “for a certain log entry? I’m looking for a—” What was it Rorry had said? “A Sony, um, VX-One Thousand. A videocamera.” Quantum mechanics, I reminded myself. The camera might have been thrown anywhere. Might have been found anytime. “It might have been turned in at any point in the last three years. If it went to a shelter or police auction, I can try to track it down. I just need to know if you ever had it.”

She tapped buttons. “Okay … nothing from three years ago.” More clicking. “Nothing from last year.” She paused and tapped some more. “Hmm,” she said at length. “How about that.”

“What?”

“Our construction workers in the expansion area were cutting down trees this September. They found a camera inside its case under a pine tree and turned it in.”

“Is it a Sony—”

She wouldn’t let me finish. “So, it’s yours? Were you caught in that avalanche?”

“I, I—It’s not important after all this time, is it?”

“Yeah, it is. There are initials on the case. Can you identify them?”

My heart was pounding in my throat. “N.B.”

She said, “Yes. Is that you?”

“No. It was Nate Bullock’s camera. He was killed in the avalanche.”

“Okay,” she said blithely. “Bring ID to prove you’re a family member, and you can get it between nine and four any day of the week.” She hung up.

My skin was cold. Bring ID to prove you’re a family member. I tried to call Tom on his cellular but the mountains were obscuring the signal. Even if I could talk my way into claiming Nate’s camera, would it actually work after all this time? Wait: Julian’s film class. I reached for the phone.

“Hey!” Julian cried. “Twice in one morning. How’d the bread come out?”

I turned on the oven light and peered in at the risen, golden-brown loaves. “Almost done. And the scent is heavenly.”

“Great,” he said, pleased.

“Listen,” I said, “I have a video question for you.”

“Shoot,” he replied. Then he laughed. “Sorry. Film joke.”

“If cassettes have been in a camera, or in a case, outside

, for three years, would they be usable?”

“Gosh, Goldy. First bread, now old cameras. The stuff you come up with.” He reflected for a few seconds. “Was the case protected?”

“Under a tree.”

“Wait, let me ask my roommate.” He left the line for a few minutes, then came back. “Okay. The film should be all right unless the camera’s rusted shut and moisture has gotten into the apparatus itself. Just the cold alone shouldn’t hurt it. In Colorado, some folks even keep their film cassettes out in their garages, to keep them fresher. But … why do you need to know this? Are you going to film your cooking show in the snow?”

“I’ll tell you Christmas Eve.”

He laughed again. “Whatever.”

I hung up and contemplated the problem in front of me. I desperately needed to prove I was a family member. I punched in the numbers to Rorry Bullock’s trailer. She picked up and dropped the phone. Then she declared in a gritty, sleep-saturated snarl: “Whoever you are, you better have a great reason for waking me up. Otherwise, I’m going to kill myself for forgetting to shut off my ringer.”

I identified myself and apologized. Working a double shift that included nighttime, of course she’d be upset to be roused.

“It’s okay,” she said grumpily. “Goldy. I’m glad you called. I broke off a chunk of the frozen lasagne and heated it in the microwave. Fantastic! The baby loved it so much he twirled around in utero. I thought I was going into labor.”