A Forest of Corpses (17 page)

I could clearly make out the shirtsleeve now. It looked very similar to the one I was wearing, straight out of L.L.

Bean's closet. I skirted the deepest part of the quiescent pool, testing the ground in front of me. Stones shifted underneath my feet; I slid, caught myself and pressed forward. Mud and rotting leaves squelched and gurgled under my already soaked feet. Over the whoosh of running water and distant birdcalls I heard a familiar sound. Familiar, but out of place here. But then everything was out of place to me in this alien 158

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world. I paused to listen. A low, steady seething of sound that seemed to fit with the lazy, rising heat.

Jason heard it at the same time I realized what it was.

"What's that sound?"

"Flies," I said, a ripple of ice racing down my spine. "Stay back—"

My foot fell through a tangle of brush and I went to my knees. Something viscous exploded under my hands when I tried to break my fall. The stench that burst out made my stomach lurch and my throat close over a gag that threatened to spill my guts on the already reeking mess under me.

I threw myself backward, yelling at Jason, "Get back! Don't come near me."

"What is it? That smell... Oh God, Alex—" Panic and nausea filled his voice. He spun away and vomited into the water.

I wanted to join him, but I had to be professional.

Scrambling to my feet I backed away from the mass of decaying flesh, still mostly concealed by the snarled mess of branches and leaves that had formed a dense mat piled over the corpse. A grinning skull peered up at me through maggot eaten flesh. It was human.

"Get back!" I shouted again. This time Jason obeyed. I caught a brief glimpse of his pale face then I turned back to my discovery. It was easy to fall into investigative mode.

Easier than having to face the reality of what I had found. My mind started flashing through what I needed to do. First I had to clean my hands off; I didn't dare touch anything with this noxious mess on me. Then I had to figure out where we were 159

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so we could find our way back when I got the authorities involved. Jason would help me there. I was now thankful I had given him that iPhone. It had both a GPS and a compass.

Once I was sure I could get back here, we needed to secure whatever evidence might be lost if I left it here—once I decided what that was. I spared Jason another glance. His face was still colorless and when our eyes met we both knew the truth. Our vacation was officially over. Backing away from the corpse I crouched down over a pool of clear water where I dipped my hands and arms in, washing until I was sure it was all off. I knew the stench would stay with me for days. Might always linger, though that would be psychological more than physical.

"I need you to use your GPS to tell me exactly where we are. Can you do that?" I spoke slowly to break through his trauma. I had to repeat it twice more before his eyes cleared and he focused on me.

"S-sure. What do you want me to do?"

"I have to be able to get back here with the rangers.

They'll have to walk in like we did. Or find how they got that truck or whatever it was in." I looked around, hoping for what? A clearing big enough to land a 'copter? Good luck. This place was as inaccessible as they came. Nothing but a human on foot was getting in here. "Can you do that, Jason?"

Finally he nodded and turned away. He fumbled out his GPS and with trembling fingers began working the instrument. Finally he was shaking his head. "I'm still not getting a signal."

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I had no way to mark the site or cordon it off so I had to hope no one else would stumble across it before I could get back with the rangers and hopefully a coroner. But I had to think of the whole area as a crime scene, which meant I had to do a grid search. Normally I would have several officers assisting me. At least we had our digital camera. I pulled my pack off and opened the pocket holding the Canon.

Before I did anything else I checked how many images were left, satisfied when I saw it was still good for well over a thousand. That would serve my purpose.

Then I had to find something to collect samples of anything I didn't want to leave to the elements while I went down the mountain. That was going to present a problem...then I thought of the bear safe and knew it just might do the trick.

I looked over to where Jason hovered, doing his best not to look while he waited to see if he could help me. Brave boy.

Not many people could sit around like he did, knowing a rotting corpse was practically under their feet.

I stepped toward him. He looked up in alarm, then calmed when I stroked his arm. "I need the safe," I said. "We need to take some samples back in case the site gets compromised more before I can get back here."

"The safe—you want to put
what
in it?"

"I swear to you, I'll buy us a new one, but I have to do this."

"I-I understand." He swallowed. "Is there anything I can do?"

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"Just get me the safe and secure our coordinates. I don't want any problems finding the place when I come back with the rangers."

I took another step closer to him. I slipped my arm around him and held him while he buried his face against my neck.

"I'm sorry, Jason. I know this week meant a lot to you. I'll make it up to you."

He shook his head savagely. "Not your fault. I'm just sorry for that poor person..."

I kissed his cheek and set him away from me. "So am I.

Do you want to go up top? I can take care of this."

"No, I want to stay with you."

"I need to take a look around. You have to stay here and not touch anything. Go over there and sit on one of those rocks. I'll be as quick as I can."

He nodded and moved over to a large, flat, sunbaked rock that jutted out over the stream forming a natural seat. His eyes still had a vacant look to them. I wished I could have spent more time reassuring him, but time had suddenly become very important. Camera in hand, I set to work. I took photos of every angle around the dead fall concealing the body. Then I managed a few close-ups showing the skull and remnants of clothes. Clearly, the body had been buried in some way until recently. Insect activity wasn't advanced enough to be old, and the fact that larger animals hadn't found and scattered the remains also told me that. Maybe it had been buried under snow? I realized I might need Jason after all.

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I approached him again and crouched down in front of him. "Jason," I spoke firmly, letting him know he had to listen to me closely. I didn't have time to smooth away his fear. I took my Tilley off and held it in front of me. "When would the snow around here have melted? How much do you think there would have been? Enough to fully bury a body?"

He raised his face to me, his look earnest. "Yes, probably.

Even if the snow's not really heavy, it accumulates. It could easily bury a body, plus the rangers probably don't get up here as often once winter comes, if at all."

"So a corpse put here in late fall would stay here, hidden?"

He looked sick and I was sorry to make him think about the subject. "Yes. It could. Who do you think it is?"

"I don't know."

"Who could have done this? Or was it an accident?"

I had wanted to consider that possibility, but knew it was a false hope. I had seen the hole in the skull's forehead. Dead center kill shot. Execution style. Like Isaac Simpson.

But all I could tell him was, "I don't know, Jay." Sad commentary for a man who was supposed to have all the answers to the dark questions. "But it might have something to do with the drug dealers. Someone stumbles on them, they can get nasty."

His throat convulsed. "Like us?"

I squeezed his kneecap. "I'm not letting anything happen to you. Got it?"

He nodded, and even tried to offer me a sickly smile.

I went back to searching the crime scene, using one of my walking sticks to pry apart brush, lift branches and poke 163

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through piles of rotting wood and other debris. I quartered along the stream bank first, hopping carefully from stone to stone looking for anything else that looked out of place.

I looked back at Jason still sitting on his stony perch, watching me, hands dangling limply between his legs. His binoculars lay forgotten on his chest.

I turned away. Nothing I could do for him right now.

I saw the tan boot and denim pant leg first. Like the first body it had been buried under a pile of leaves and branches.

Unlike the first body though, this one hadn't yet been decimated by insect activity. Gently, I pushed the branches aside. But even before I saw the face I knew who it was. The man from the car lot, the one Jason and I had scoped out.

The one with the dog we had heard barking last night and this morning.

Had it been barking at this man's death? Where were the two women he had been traveling with? With less caution now, I searched through the piles of wood and damp rot but there were no more bodies.

Perhaps that should have cheered me. But I'd been a cop too many years. I didn't know what had happened to those two young women, but I was pretty sure it wasn't anything good.

* * * *

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I expected Alex to take his time on his search. I tried not to pay attention to what he was doing and I avoided looking at the horror he had stumbled upon. The second time a dead body and Alex had figured together. The first time, with George Blunt, had been bad enough. This was unbelievably worse. The stench still clung to my nose and throat and all I could smell was corruption and vomit. Both made me want to throw up again, and it took all my will power to keep my stomach from emptying itself on the rocks around me.

I was startled when Alex hurried back to me, scooped the backpack I had set beside me and shoved the gear at me. He jammed his hat back down on his head. "Come on," he said.

"We need to get back down to the rangers."

"What happened?" I cried. He was scaring me. "What's wrong?"

"There's another body. This one was recent. We need to get out of here. Now, Jason. I'll explain on the way, but we can't stay here—"

A sharp crack split the air. At first I thought a tree branch had broken off. Then I found myself lying on my stomach with a mouth full of dirt and water and Alex lying on top of me.

"What the fuck—" I tried to sit up but Alex held me down with an iron grip.

"Stay down! Don't move."

"What—"

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"Shhh," he hissed and I shut up. He was a good forty pounds heavier than me and while normally I didn't mind having his weight on me, this time he wasn't trying to fuck me. When I got my head turned around enough to see his face, I realized he was terrified. That scared me more than whatever was freaking him out. His eyes frantically moved back and forth like he was looking for something that wasn't there.

Then the sharp crack came again and the dirt less than two yards in front of us exploded in a shower of stone chips, sand, and debris.

"Shit." I tried to scramble out from under him and move backward as realization slammed into me. We were being shot at.

Alex rolled off me but before I could do more than take a deep breath he jerked me backward, until we were crouched behind the large boulder I had been sitting on moments ago.

With one hand he held me down, and at the same time he rose up on his other arm to peer over the top of the boulder.

His hat lay under both of us, squished now beyond recognition.

I wanted to grab him and haul him down with me. What was he thinking? That was a man with a gun out there.

And I'd made Alex come to the park unarmed.

"Stay low," he said. "We have to try to get out of the open and into the trees."

"How are we supposed to do that?" We were sitting ducks if we moved out from behind this rock.

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"As fast as we can. Keep a low profile and don't run in a straight line. And whatever you do, don't stop for anything."

When I nodded he shook me. "Anything. Do you understand?

You. Don't. Stop."

What was he saying? That I was supposed to leave him behind if something happened? I nodded because he clearly wasn't going to let me do anything else, but there was no way in hell I was running away if it would mean leaving him to face a man with a gun while he was unarmed.

I set my mouth but when it was clear he wasn't going to let it go, I nodded again. This time he must have been satisfied. He turned away from me and once more rose from his crouch to peer over the lip of our hiding place. A third shot pinged off stone. He flinched and dropped back beside me.

When I saw the blood on his face, I panicked.

"Alex! Oh my God, you were hit—"

He grabbed my shoulders and pinned me to the rock behind me. "No. It's a stone chip. I'm fine."

I took a deep breath, knowing panic wasn't going to do us any good right now. Alex knew how to handle situations like this. He was a cop. I had to trust him.

I touched the wound on his cheek, smearing it. His glasses were gone. His eyes were hot and intense. He was all business now. The man I loved was buried beneath Detective Spider. "We're going to be okay, Jason."

I wanted to believe him. I needed to.

"Are you ready?"

I followed him as we first retreated straight back from the boulder, sloshing through shallow water over our stone 167

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bridge, trying desperately to keep our feet under us while we watched for the hidden shooter.