Sarah Andrews - In Cold Pursuit

Her voice came between her teeth. “I think I killed him!”

“He was going to kill you, Valena. You had to protect yourself.”

“I have to tell you!”

“Then tell me.”

“You won’t hate me?”

“How could I hate a woman as fine as you?”

Valena put her arms around him and buried her face against his chest. “He dragged me out of the truck. I fought like hell, but he had me by the arms, p-pinned behind my back. Dragging me in here, trying to get my neck. I fought! Braced my feet either side of the door. I could see he’d been down here already, had the lid off the dive hole. I knew what he was going to do!”

“I am so glad you didn’t let him.” Dave began to rock her, soothing her.

“He kicked my leg to break my hold. I fell forward. He kind of… rolled over me. It slammed my head. Stunned. When I came to, I saw him there in the hole.” She squeezed him harder, looked up into his eyes, begging him to understand. “All I could see was the soles of his boots. He kicked once, and then…”

Dave shuddered at the idea of hanging head-down in a hole that narrow, encased in ice, in twenty-eight-degree water….

“He’s dead,” said Manuel. “The ice is thicker than he is tall. There was nothing to grab hold of to push himself up, and the hole was too tight to turn around in.”

“No!” Valena cried. “I did everything I could to pull him out!”

Chad Hill put a hand on her shoulder. “That’s okay,” he said.

“I want him alive, damn it! I want him to stand trial, so everyone can know the truth!”

Chad said, “We all do know the truth now, thanks to you.”

“But I want it in the papers! People have to know what’s happening in their world!”

Chad smiled. “We have our own paper here, The Antarctic Sun , and it’s online. And you’d be amazed how a story like this will be picked up by the wires.”

Valena took that in. A moment later, she hung her head. “Are you going to arrest me?”

“No, I am not,” said Chad. “You didn’t do this to him, Valena. He did it to himself. And I think there’s been far too much arresting of innocent people going on around here.”

Dave helped Valena to her feet and led her out into the bright Antarctic sunshine, where her great, big, mixed-up, miscellaneous new family had begun to assemble, some arriving by vehicle, and others coming by foot or on skis. Paul, who was flying the helicopter that was hovering overhead, waved to her and headed back to the helo pad. Marilyn Wood stepped forward, took off her scarf and used it very gently to wipe the blood off of Valena’s face. Hugh Muller gave her a big smile. The Boss grinned. Edith slapped her on the back.

“Hey, Valena, we were worried!” people were calling.

“We’re so glad you’re all right!”

“We want you to stay!”

Valena looked from face to face in happy disbelief and the simple joy of being alive, tightening her arm around Dave Fitzgerald’s waist. In the privacy of her mind, she thought, I’ve finally found my heart, right here in Antarctica, and it’s broken wide open!

THE C-17 MADE A LONG, STATELY APPROACH ONTO THE sea ice runway at McMurdo. When it had finished back-taxiing and had pulled to a stop, Ivan the Terrabus pulled up next to it, and out of the passenger door spilled thirty-five men and women dressed in big red parkas, black wind pants, and blue or white boots. They turned and took in the view: the broad sweep of ice, the grand mountains, the endless sky.

“Keep moving!” called the driver. “You can take your pictures later on!”

One tall, angular man stood in the midst of the crowd, oblivious to the driver’s urgings. He had been here many times before and was not to be hurried. And he was looking for someone, a special someone who had helped him in a way he could never hope to repay.

A Challenger 95 tractor pulled up next to the bus. The cab door swung open, and a young woman dressed just like the others, in United States Antarctic Program ECWs, emerged from the jump seat and climbed carefully but joyously down the steps that led out over the fender and down to the ice. The driver of the tractor smiled and gave her a wave good-bye as he headed out to Pegasus for another shift of rolling the runway smooth.

The young woman grinned and waved when she saw her professor. “Emmett!” she called. “Over here!”

A man with black hair and rich, tawny skin tugged at the tall man’s sleeve. “There she is!” he said.

“Where, Taha?”

“There!” Taha was grinning, waving a greeting to his fellow graduate student.

Emmett Vanderzee turned and saw Valena. “Ah, there you are, my clever, clever one.” He held out his arms and gave her a fatherly hug.

Thus anointed, Valena grabbed one of his orange duffels and pointed him toward the bus. “Right this way, gentlemen. We’d better hurry. We have a lot of work ahead of us, and we’re burning daylight!”

“[Em Hansen is] a clear-thinking, straight-talking heroine whose unabashed naiveté is endearing.”

“Compelling.”

“Another engaging chapter in a rock-solid series.”

“Fans of this series will find plenty to like in Dead Dry , and any mystery reader who enjoys the lovely rocks of Colorado will, too.”

“A terrific who-done-it… Fans will appreciate Em’s latest digging in the dirt gem.”

“Filled with moments of suspense and twists and turns that will leave readers stuck to their seats… The characters are engaging, and they are the sort of people you would like to meet again.”

“Fans of information-packed suspense should be satisfied.”

“Intriguing.”

“Ably combining science and suspense, Andrews once again entertains and educates.”

“The most intriguing complexities in Fault Line lie within Em’s own character.”

“Graphic, frightening, and entertaining use of earthquake science… Em Hansen is rapidly carving out a niche for herself as a forensic geologist …and may eventually make her field as popular as that of forensic anthropology or medicine.”

“The resourceful and intelligent Hansen makes a terrific series heroine …What has made the series shine has been the amount of ‘hard science’ that Andrews, a professional geologist herself, was able to work into the stories.”

“Em Hansen is plucky and smart …[and] the mystery is complicated and absorbing.”

“Suspense every step of the way… Twists and turns that [will] keep you turning the pages.”

“Andrews… has become a leading light. The fifth entry in her series rivets both as a crime story and as a discussion of the relationship between science and religion…Her novel is a suspenseful mystery spiked with dinosaurs, science, and religion: What more could readers ask for?”

“The latest Em Hansen mystery is by far the best yet… Andrews makes the most of her paleontological background. The novel is, in addition to a fine mystery, a lively exploration of the high-stakes world of dinosaur research and perceptive rumination on the debate between science and creationism.”