Fatal Descent (11 page)

“I’m going to check on your ankle.” She started unwrapping the Ace bandage. “While I’m doing that, I need to tell you something that will shock you. And you have to keep it a secret. You can’t tell anyone or react to the news or make any loud noises. Can you do that?”

Looking puzzled, Elsa nodded. “What’s going on?”

Mandy took a deep breath and plunged in. “Your climbing harness was deliberately cut. That’s why you fell.”

Elsa’s eyes went wide and she hissed in a lungful of air, but as Mandy shook her head, Elsa clamped her lips shut. After she recovered, she said, “Are you sure someone cut it on purpose, that it wasn’t an accident or defect?”

“I’m sure. It was a clean slice done with a knife almost all the way through, so once any weight hung on it, the harness would break. It must have been done just before you put it on.”

“Who would do that?”

“That’s what I need to ask you. The people up there besides you and me were Cool, Les, Paul, and Tina. I’m sorry to say that the obvious suspects are your daughter and your ex-husband.”

“What? Why?”

Mandy shrugged. “That’s what I’m asking you. Maybe Tina—”

“No, Tina would never hurt me!” Elsa said vehemently.

“Even if you sabotaged her plan to get you and her father back together by having an affair with Alex?”

Elsa started to shake her head, paused for a moment, then said, “Yes, she was upset about that, but she wouldn’t get back at me by making me fall. I mean, I could have been killed!”

“Maybe she just wanted to hurt you after you hurt her.”

“It’s too unbelievable.”

Mandy was still skeptical, but she decided to move on. “What about Paul?”

“That wimp? Yes, Paul and I have our differences. We’ve had some shouting matches, but he’s never gotten violent with me. He wouldn’t dare! And he wouldn’t have the guts to pull off something like this.” She swept a hand toward her ankle.

The ankle was swollen and starting to purple. Mandy felt the cold pack. It was still chilled. “We’ll need to keep your ankle cool and wrapped for awhile longer.”

Mandy started rewrapping Elsa’s ankle and thought again about Paul. If the man had been too afraid to confront Elsa directly, it made sense that he might choose this indirect route to send her a message. She studied Elsa’s face.

“Are you absolutely sure neither Tina nor Paul knew about your
affair with Alex before the trip?”

“I really doubt it. Neither one of them is living with me now. Tina’s in the dorms and Paul has his own apartment. Alex and I were discreet, too, because we didn’t want anyone in the department knowing.” Elsa paused. “But why are you asking that? What difference does it make when they found out, whether it was before the trip or last night?”

“Well, there’s Alex.”

Elsa’s eyes went wide. “I thought he was killed by a bear!”

“Possibly,” Mandy said. “But there are signs that make us think it may not have been a bear.”

“What signs?”

“Sorry, I don’t think I can share that information with anyone yet.”

“You think Alex was murdered?” Elsa said incredulously in a loud voice.

Mandy shushed her and glanced at the others to see if anyone had heard. Thankfully, no one was looking at them.

“And murdered by Tina or Paul?” Elsa continued more quietly. She shook her head violently. “No, no way.”

Then she paled and clutched Mandy’s arm. “Maybe there’s some sick maniac on this trip who’s killing people randomly.” She stared at the others on the beach and whispered, “Trying to pick us off one by one.”

The hair on the back of Mandy’s neck rose, as if she was being watched. She jerked her head and scanned the other clients. None of them seemed to be paying any attention to Elsa or her, so she faced Elsa again, who now looked terrified.

“Rob and I haven’t ruled that out,” she said to Elsa, “but we’re thinking this person is choosing victims for a reason, and that if we figure out the reason, it will help us figure out who it is. In the meantime, we’re trying to play it cool, not let on what we know. I need you to do the same thing.”

Elsa’s palm on Mandy’s arm grew sweaty. “Okay, I will. But what’s
to stop him from coming after me again?”

Nothing.
But Mandy wasn’t going to say that and alarm Elsa. “The guides are watching everyone during the day, and we’re going to organize guard shifts at night. We’ll protect you the best we can.” She paused and locked her gaze with Elsa’s. “But if it’s Paul or especially Tina, who is sharing a tent with you, that will be hard, since they have good reasons to approach you.”

Elsa let go of Mandy and waved her hand dismissively. “I can’t believe one of them tried to hurt me. It’s got to be someone else.”

Rob and Paul reappeared from around the bend downstream. Hopeful, Mandy stood and waved to them.

When Rob spotted her, he signaled with arms crossing low in front of him that they had found nothing, no other campers.

“Damn, no luck.” Mandy put her hands on her hips and looked back at Elsa.

The woman was staring at her ex-husband and murmuring, “Absolutely no way …”

_____

After the confluence, the water volume in the Colorado River dou
bled, with the flow from the Green River added in. Mandy had checked
the water gauges before they left and knew the combined total was
a moderate 12,000 cubic feet per second (cfs). That would be enough to give their clients a fun ride, but hopefully none of the rapids would be truly life-threatening. They were already carrying one
body with them, after all, and Mandy didn’t want the river gods adding
any more.

Also after the confluence, a park regulation requiring all boaters to wear personal floatation devices (PFDs) went into effect. So everyone in the four rafts, guides included, now wore a tightly cinched PFD even though they planned to pull out for the night at lower Spanish Bottom. The campsite was just upriver from Brown Betty, the first of over two dozen rapids in Cataract Canyon. The exact number was dependent on the water level in Lake Powell, and how far it backed up into the canyon.

Cool explained to the group that Brown Betty was named for the cook boat, which got its name from the popular dessert, in the disastrous Brown expedition that went through the canyon in 1889. The cook boat lost valuable provisions and kitchen gear in the rapid. While he was telling the story, Mandy glanced at Alex’s body bag in Rob’s raft and at Elsa in Gonzo’s raft. She sent up a silent prayer that their body count would not go as high as the three men that expedition had lost, including Brown himself.

About two miles downriver, the four rafts pulled out at the huge, red-lettered “DANGER, Cataract Canyon, Hazardous Rapids” sign on river left. It was a good photo stop for groups, but it was also where campers registered for campsites in the canyon, on a clipboard in the waterproof metal box below the sign.

Mandy went with Rob to look over the registration sheet. It was totally blank for that day and the next day, so they were the only group, so far, going through the canyon those days.

“What about yesterday?” Mandy asked. “Maybe we’ll catch up to a group that’s taking its time.”

Rob flipped the page. It was empty, too. “There’s still a chance there’s a group in the canyon that didn’t bother to register.”

“Which means they’re not with an outfitter and probably don’t have a radio.”

They moved aside to let Betsy, Viv, and Mo take a group shot in front of the sign, their grins wide and just a little twitchy with nervousness. The Nortons waited for their turn, Elsa sitting on a rock after she had limped over with Gonzo’s help. Tina was chattering excitedly with her father about the upcoming rapids.

Rob put an arm over Mandy’s shoulder while they watched the photo-taking. “We knew the river would be almost deserted in October. That was part of the appeal of this trip, after all.”

Mandy looked at Diana and Hal Anderson, who were gazing worriedly downstream. She had a sudden scary thought.

“I wonder if that was the appeal for our killer, too. Knowing that after the radio was destroyed, we’d probably be stuck with no way out of the canyon and no way to call for help.”

eleven

(The river) communicates in extremes ranging from placid
to enraged, and its message may dip beneath the surface
of consciousness, telling us things
we don’t even know that we’ve heard.

jeff wallach
—
what the river says

After another mile and
a half float, the group
reached the huge flat expanse of Spanish Bottom in the late afternoon. The red-and-white striped pinnacles of the Doll House formation lay jumbled across the top of the canyon rim that overlooked the half-mile long, half-moon-shaped sandy bottom below. Dying tamarisks and native willows and cottonwoods formed a t
hin band of riparian greenery along the river bank, while the sparse vegetation on the bottom consisted more of cactus, yucca, and other desert-adapted species.

The screech of a hunting raptor high above them was the only sound that broke the silence of the deserted and desolate scene before them. There were no signs of human activity.

As they neared the far end of Spanish Bottom, Mandy scanned along the edge of the four-foot shelf of packed sand along the river, looking for a good landing spot. Rob had said they would camp at the downriver end of the bottom, right before the Colorado River made a sharp left turn to enter the narrower Cataract Canyon.

The base of the Doll House trail was near there. It was likely their last chance of finding people before reaching the end of Cataract Canyon. This trail and the Lathrop Canyon trail were the only two that zig-zagged down from the canyon rim to the river along the whole expanse of their 100-mile river journey.

The group would hike up the trail the next morning before hitting the rapids after lunch, but Mandy was anxious to spot somebody, anybody, on the trail or the rim right then and there. She kept glancing up high as well as at the river bank.

Rob, Kendra, and Gonzo searched, too, for both a good landing and human activity. Kendra was the first to say, “How about there?” She pointed at an alcove in the bank. A collapsed shelf of firm sand provided a stepping-up point to a small break in the thicket of brush lining the bank.

“Looks good to me,” Mandy replied.

Kendra paddled her raft in and jumped out to tie it to a large cottonwood trunk. “I’ll do a quick scout.”

She trotted into the brush while the other rafts jostled in next to hers. Gonzo hopped out to tie his raft to the same tree that Kendra had. Then he took ropes tossed from Rob and Mandy and tied their rafts to a thick tamarisk trunk a dozen feet upstream.

Kendra returned as he finished the last knot. “It’s just a short walk to a nice open sandy area on the other side of these willows.”

“Okay, let’s set up the bucket brigade, then,” Rob said.

While Rob and Mandy unlashed gear, Cool hopped out. He and Gonzo gave all of the clients a hand-up onto the bank. Rob and Mandy lifted Elsa to them, so she wouldn’t have to put weight on her injured ankle. Then Kendra helped her hobble to a shady spot to rest in. Familiar with the routine, the other clients formed a line to the campsite to pass gear along, with Rob and Mandy doing the hard part of hoisting the gear up to Cool and Gonzo from river level to sand bank level.

After the unloading was complete, everyone but Mandy and Rob scattered to pitch tents. The two of them lowered Alex’s body bag into the river again to keep it cool overnight. The corpse’s arms and legs were less stiff, indicating rigor mortis was receding. Mandy knew that meant bloating was not far behind, and with it the stink of decomposition. She fervently hoped they would be able to hand off the body soon.

When she jumped onto the bank after the job was done, she noticed that Hal had returned. He was watching them with an anguished expression.

“I’m sorry we haven’t been able to find a way to get him out of the canyon yet,” Mandy said.

“I understand,” Hal replied. “I’ve seen all you guides scanning the river and cliffs for people. I know you’re trying.” He gulped hard and blinked. “In the meantime, you’ve been very respectful of his body. I want to thank you for that.”

Mandy did what came naturally. She hugged him. The poor man had lost his son and was stuck with the body in the wilderness, with no way to properly mourn his son or honor his life.

She released Hal and gazed into his hang-dog eyes. “I wish we could do more.”

He patted her arm. “You’re taking care of him the best you can. That’s all I can ask.” He turned and walked back toward the campsite, his head lowered and his hands jammed in his pants pockets.

Rob joined Mandy and silently watched Hal go. “Unfortunately, I think we’ll be doing this again tomorrow night.”

They walked to the campsite, quickly pitched their tent and threw sleeping bags inside. Then they rolled up their sleeves and went to work on dinner preparations with the other guides. The menu was grilled squash and Spanish rice with shrimp and leftover breakfast sausage. Dessert was an assortment of large soft cookies from the City Market bakery in Moab, including Mandy’s favorite, peanut butter. She hoped that the menu would tempt the Anderson family’s appetite. She was especially worried about Diana and Amy, who had only managed to pick at their food since Alex had been killed.

Mandy scanned the campsite while she chopped onions, wiping tears from her eyes. Hal and Diana sat with Paul and Tina at one of the camp tables, talking quietly. All four were sipping wine, but only Paul and Tina were snacking on the tortilla chips and guacamole that Kendra had set out. Betsy, Mo, and Viv had enticed Amy into joining them in a game of bridge at another table.

Elsa was resting in Tina’s and her tent, which Mandy noticed was pitched right next to Cool’s and Gonzo’s. Mandy knew it was a cautious move on Elsa’s part to put herself right next to two guides. However, it also put her next to one of Mandy’s suspects, Cool,
though while he may have had a motive to hurt Elsa, she hadn’t found
any reason for him to go after Alex.

Les and Alice approached the kitchen with beer cans in their hands. “We’re going to reconnoiter,” he said and held up his camera pack that was always with him. “And I want to get some photos of that field of big white flowers near camp. What are they?”

“There’re multiple names for them,” Cool said. “Moonflower, jimson weed, locoweed, or sacred datura are some of them. The plant’s hallucinogenic. Native Americans would smoke it for ceremonies.”

“How appropriate,” Alice said with a nod. “All those flowers reminded me of the poppy field scene in the
Wizard of Oz
movie.”

Cool cackled like the Wicked Witch of the West. “Poppies will put them to sleep!”

With a grin, Rob said to Les, “Just plan to be back in about forty-
five minutes. Dinner will be ready then.”

Les saluted him with his beer. “Will do. Don’t want to miss one of your great meals.”

Alice looked at the dinner preparations and made a face like she didn’t agree with that assessment, which raised Mandy’s hackles. She sank her knife in another onion. Here she had been slaving away to make an appealing meal for the grieving family.

When Tina stood a few minutes later and headed off in the direction of the portable toilet, Mandy whispered to Rob, “Now’s my chance to talk to Tina alone. I’ll catch her on the way back.”

He nodded, and she waited a couple of minutes. Then she headed
through the thicket, stopping about halfway along the path from the camp to the toilet to wait for Tina to reappear. When she did, carrying the key, Mandy waved to her and said, “I’m next.”

“Here you go, then.” Tina handed her the plastic bag containing the roll of TP.

Tina started to pass, but Mandy stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Wait. I wanted to talk to you, alone, and I haven’t had a chance to until now. You seemed pretty freaked out about your mom and Alex last night. Are you okay?”

Tina put her hands on her hips. “Not really. I still can’t believe Mom was sleeping with Alex. I mean, he was young enough to be my brother!”

Mandy nodded, trying to look sympathetic. “I guess the news was pretty hard to take.”

“Damn right!”

“How’d your dad react when you told him?”

Tina pursed her lips. “He took it better than I thought he would, said Mom wasn’t married to him anymore, so she could sleep with whoever she wants. I can’t believe he wasn’t more upset!”

“Do you think he already knew about it?”

Shaking her head, Tina said, “I asked him if he did, and he said no, that last night was the first he’d heard about it.”

“And you didn’t know about it before either?”

“Hell no! If I did, I sure wouldn’t have brought Dad on this trip, knowing her boy toy was coming, too. And, I would have told Mom how pervy it was that she was screwing one of her students.” Tina threw up her hands. “Think of the trouble she would have been in if the department chair or university administration found out!”

Mandy was sure professors had had affairs with students before, and Alex was over twenty-one, an adult, so she didn’t agree that Elsa would have been in trouble. But, she wasn’t going to say that to Tina. Instead, she flung out something provocative to see how Tina would react. “I bet you were ready to wring her neck.”

With a laugh, Tina said, “I guess that’s one way to put it. I’m still not talking to her.”

“I noticed.”

Tina’s brow furrowed and she worried her lip for a moment. Finally
she spoke. “I guess I should apologize to her. That’s probably what you came out here to ask me to do, because our fight is yet another downer on the whole group.” She sighed. “I’ll go talk to her now.” She turned and walked away before Mandy could say anything else.

Suddenly shouts rang out from camp.

Tina looked back at Mandy, her eyes wide.

What the hell is going on?

Mandy took off running toward camp, and Tina turned and followed her. When they broke through the thicket, Mandy saw that everyone was standing and shouting and waving their hands toward the top of the canyon wall, where the Doll House formation sat.

Mandy shaded her eyes and searched the formation.
There.
She saw two tiny figures dressed in blue and green clothing, so they stood out against the red, pink, and white backdrop of the wind-carved sandstone. They were waving, too, but if they were shouting something back, the sound wasn’t carrying down to them.

The people in camp were yelling, “Help!” “Come down!” “Do you have a radio?” and other phrases, all jumbled into a mishmash of incoherent noise.

Mandy ran to Viv. “Where are your binoculars?”

“Good thinking.” Viv ran to her tent to get them and Mandy followed. After taking the powerful binoculars from Viv, Mandy trained them on the two figures. They were a young Asian couple with black hair, wearing backpacks. They had wide grins on their faces and waved gaily at the group far below them.

“They can’t tell what we’re saying,” Mandy yelled to Rob.

Rob shouted, “Hush, everyone! Quiet!” until he had everyone’s attention. “Now, on the count of three, we’ll all yell ‘help us’ at the same time.”

He counted and they all yelled while Mandy watched the couple through the binoculars. The couple laughed and waved back again. Either they couldn’t make out the words of their shouts, they thought the group was joking, or they didn’t understand English.

“They aren’t getting it,” Mandy said. “Someone needs to go up there.”

“I’ll go,” Cool said, grabbing a bottle of water. “I know the trail best.”

As he took off running, Rob yelled to him, “If you don’t see them when you get to the top, come back. Don’t run around up there in the dark!”

Mandy looked at the sky and realized the sun was dipping below the canyon rim. They would be losing the light soon. She focused the binoculars on the couple again. They had turned away from the rim and soon disappeared from sight. If they were heading back into the Doll House formation, or somewhere else in The Maze district of the Canyonlands up there, it would be impossible for Cool to spot them after he reached the top. Even scrambling up the trail as fast as he could, it would take him almost an hour.

She crossed her fingers and said to Rob, “Hopefully they’re coming down the trail to Spanish Bottom and Cool will run into them on the trail.”

He nodded. “And hopefully they have a radio.”

_____

Almost two hours later, Cool returned, dragging himself into camp and looking dejected. He slumped into a camp chair at one of the tables. Mandy was glad to see he had made it back okay but was not glad to see his expression.

“Gonzo and I were just about to form a search party and go after you,” Rob said to Cool. “I wasn’t sure you could make it back in the dark.” The last bit of twilight had just faded.

“Bummer, dude. No sign of ’em, huh?” Gonzo said from the next
table, where he had most of the clients ensconced in chairs with their heads tilted back. He had started another session of stargazing, since the night sky was clear and the Milky Way was blanketing the sky with brilliant stars. Diana and Hal peered hopefully at Cool.

“No, never spotted them. I ran out of water, so I figured I should head back.” Cool held up his empty water bottle.

Looking disappointed, Diana and Hal turned away. Mandy took Cool’s water bottle and refilled it from the fresh water jug while Kendra brought him a plate of food.

“We kept it warm for you,” she said as she handed him some utensils.

“Thanks, I’m starving.” He dug into the Spanish rice and took huge gulps of water while Kendra kept him company.

“We need to talk,” Mandy said to Rob. She pulled him into a
willow thicket, well out of earshot of the clients and Cool. She filled
him in on her conversation with Tina Norton. “It sure seemed like neither she nor Paul knew anything about Elsa and Alex before last night.”

“That’s the story I got from Paul when we searched the confluence beach together.”

“Did he seem upset or angry about Elsa and Alex?”

Rob shook his head. “Not really. He seems like a pretty laid-back guy to me, not one to get hot-headed, like his ex-wife.”