Chapter 1

"All we need now is a roaring fire and a bottle of wine," Jane Jeffry said contentedly as she looked out the window at the snow.

"I've never found a rental car with a fireplace," Mel VanDyne said, hunching over the steering wheel and glaring into darkness.

"I didn't mean 'now' now. I mean when we get there."

"Which will probably be well into the next century at the rate we're going. Do you realize that we left Chicago at six o'clock and it's now almost eleven and we're still not there? We could have flown to London instead of Colorado in this time. And we probably wouldn't be stuck in a blinding blizzard, either."

"Now, Mel. It's not exactly blinding. You can see all sorts of— Oh, my God! What's that thing?"

Mel slowed the car to a crawl. "I think it's an elk."

A herd of extremely large, hoofed animals were near the side of the highway and one had wandered out into the slow lane, apparently to amuse and alarm tourists. Fortunately, there was practically no other traffic on the interstate and Mel could slow down without being rear-ended. The big animal shambled off before Mel had to come to a complete stop.

"Wow! What a great-looking animal!" Jane exclaimed. "It's a good thing we were going so slowly. Imagine if you hit something like that."

Mel nodded. "Yeah. It'd be like clipping the Sears Tower. Only bloodier."

"Look, Willard! Wild animals," Jane chirped over her shoulder.

There was a muffled dog groan from the backseat.

"Are you sure that dog's all right?" Mel said.

"It's just the tranquilizer the vet had me give him before we left. I knew he'd be scared by the plane ride, so I really doped him up."