Fatal Descent (19 page)

Hal nodded. “Good. I want to talk to you and Rob before you leave.”

Before Mandy could ask him what he wanted to talk about, he said, “Gotta go.”

The EMTs were wheeling Amy up the dock and Diana was walking alongside her daughter with a hand on Amy’s arm. Hal strode after them.

Mandy watched them go. At least part of the story had ended happily.

nineteen

He who postpones the hour of living rightly is like the rustic
who waits for the river to run out before he crosses.

—
horace

“
And that’s why Cool’s
in jail,” Mandy said. She had just finished telling the long story about their trip to the outfitter whose building they had borrowed, and who employed Tom O’Day.

The man’s coffee had grown cold while he listened in awed
silence, perched on a stool across his check-in counter from Mandy. When he realized she had stopped talking, he scratched his day-old salt-and-pepper beard. “I still can’t believe O’Day would do such a thing. How stupid can a guy get? What the hell was he thinking?”

Mandy looked at the dregs in the bottom of her coffee cup—her third that morning. The four guides had shared a room after returning to Moab past midnight the night before. After taking hot showers and gulping down aspirin, they had all collapsed into bed and conked out. It had taken a lot of caffeine to get them moving again. Especially Mandy, who woke up feeling like an arthritic old woman with all her bumps and bruises.

“I have no idea,” she said, then peered at the outfitter. “You going to bail him out?”

The man made a face and waved a dismissive hand. “He’d just skip town and leave me in debt to the bondsman. Nah, I think that asshole needs to sit and stew in his own juices.”

He tapped the inventory sheet that Mandy had prepared, showing what gear they had borrowed and returned. “As for you and Rob, you two have been total professionals. Anytime you want to use my building again for a similar trip off-season, I’ll be happy to rent it to you. And hopefully you’ll trust me to loan you another climbing guide.” He shook his head. “Though I would have sworn Cool was reliable. He was one of our best. I’m real sorry about that.”

Mandy smiled. “Not your fault, not at all. He fooled everyone. But I think we’ll bring our own climbing guide next time.” She nodded at Gonzo, who was walking past them with an armload of rinsed-off PFDs. “Gonzo should be fully trained and experienced by next fall.”

Gonzo smiled and gave a bow. “Just call me a Renaissance guide —a man of many talents.”

Mandy snorted. “Modesty not being one of them.”

With a hearty laugh, Gonzo went outside.

Rob came in the door soon after, rubbing his hands together. “We’re about ready to leave. Paperwork all set?”

The outfitter slid off his stool and held out a hand to Rob. “All set. Pleasure doing business with you.” After they shook hands he did the same with Mandy. “Now you two better skedaddle before the reporters come looking for you.”

Mandy rolled her eyes. “Too late. One cornered us as we were
checking out of the hotel. He wanted an exclusive, said he’d be will
ing to pay us for it.”

While she had been talking, the door opened and Betsy, Viv, and Mo walked in.

Betsy held up a hand, palm out. “Whoa, hold it right there. I hope you didn’t make a deal with him.”

Mandy shook her head and glanced at Rob. “Not yet. This is all new to Rob and me. We need to figure out what we want to do.”

“I hope you’ll consider an offer from me, first,” Betsy said. “I write for an adventure magazine myself.” She gave the name, and Mandy recognized it.

“I contacted the editor-in-chief last night,” Betsy said, “and told him what happened. He wants me to write an article for the magazine, and he authorized me to pay you for an exclusive. I hope we can match the other guy’s offer.”

The outfitter winked at Mandy and Rob. “Looks like you two stand to make quite a profit from this trip.”

Rob looked at Mandy. “What do you think?”

“I’d rather talk to Betsy, no matter what her offer is. After spend
ing so much time on the river with her, I feel like I can trust her.”

With a nod, Rob said, “I agree.”

Betsy smiled and clapped her hands. “Great! I’ll get a contract to you in a day or two. And we’ll throw in free ad space for your business. I’m sure the article will provide lots of exposure for RM Outdoor Adventures.”

“Exposure of the right kind, I hope,” Mandy said. “I don’t want anyone thinking that people die all the time on our trips.”

Viv came up and put an arm around Mandy’s shoulders. “More people would have died, if not for the bravery you guides showed.
If Betsy doesn’t make that damn clear, she’ll hear from Mo and me.”

Mo mimed punching her hand into her palm, and Betsy laughed. “Don’t worry, Mandy! I’ll make sure our readers know how safety-conscious you and Rob are.”

The three women gave out hugs all around, said their goodbyes and left. On their way out, they said hello to someone just outside. It was soon obvious who it was when Diana, Hal, and Amy walked in. Amy was leaning on crutches, her lower leg in a cast.

Mandy ran over to hug Amy, then pulled out a chair and helped Amy ease into it. “How are you?”

“Pretty good, considering,” Amy said. “The doctor said the bone
should heal pretty quickly, and there wasn’t much muscle damage. He said you did a great job on the splint. Said that if you hadn’t splinted it and I had tried to move it, the damage could have been a lot worse.” She squeezed Mandy’s hand. “I owe you so much. I don’t know how to thank you!”

Mandy blushed. “Any guide who was with you would have done the same thing.”

“Well, I know how to thank you.” Hal moved forward and placed a check in Mandy’s hand.

She looked at it and gasped. “We can’t accept this!”

Rob came up and looked over her shoulder at the check. He let out a low whistle. “I agree. That’s way too much for a tip.”

Hal put up his hands, palms out. “It’s not just a tip. It’s a lot more. Think of it as an investment in a business that we believe in and a thank you for saving our daughter’s life.”

Mandy glanced at Diana and wished that she had been able to save their son’s life, too.

Diana gave her a nod, as if she knew what Mandy was thinking. “Yes, and it’s also a wedding gift from us to a beautiful, strong, and dependable couple we’ve come to admire and love.”

That brought a tear to Mandy’s eye, and she gave Diana a hug. When she could trust her voice, she pulled back and said, “Thank you. Very much.”

She hugged Amy and Hal, and Rob joined in the hug fest.

Finally Hal cleared his throat. “We also thought you should know
something else. We’ve made a decision about what to do with my estate after this cancer has its way with me.”

An involuntary moan escaped Diana’s lips, and Amy reached out to take her mother’s hand.

Hal glanced at his wife. “Diana and I talked it over with Amy, and she agrees with the decision. I’ll be cutting Alice out of my will, obviously.” He pursed his lips in a thin, hard line then continued. “Diana and Amy will split half of the estate. The other half will go to a river preservation nonprofit that has pledged to fight to save the Colorado River.”

He named the organization, and Mandy smiled. She sent a small donation to the organization each year herself.

“After traveling a hundred miles down the river on this trip with you,” Hal continued, “we all fell in love with its beauty and power, just like Alex thought we would.” He paused for a moment, while Amy and Diana bowed their heads with him in a brief silent remembrance of their departed son and brother.

“We want to take an active part in protecting the Colorado River,”
Hal continued. “The nonprofit will open a special account to receive
the money from the estate, and Amy and Diana will share the responsibility of administering it.”

The outfitter gave out a cheer and started clapping. Rob and Mandy joined in.

“That’s wonderful news,” Mandy said.

Gonzo and Kendra came in hand-in-hand and looked around. “What’s the celebration about?” Gonzo asked.

In an excited jumble of voices, everyone jumped in to explain. Soon the two of them were thanking and congratulating the Andersons, too.

Mandy held up their check. “And you two are getting a big piece of this, too.”

“Oh, no,” Hal said, shaking his head.

Momentarily confused, Mandy opened her mouth to speak, to say that Kendra and Gonzo deserved a tip, too. Then she saw Diana draw two more checks out of her purse.

With a smile, she handed them to Kendra and Gonzo. “You get your own checks.”

When they saw the amounts, Kendra’s and Gonzo’s eyes grew wide. “Ohmigod,” she said, while he whispered, “Jesus, this is way too much.”

Hal grinned and rocked back on his heels. “I think there’s an echo in here.”

Mandy laughed and explained. “We said the same thing when he gave us our check.” And she knew that Hal appreciated their appreciation. His chest was swelled with the accomplishment and pride of doing something meaningful before he passed away. She wasn’t about to take any of that thunder away from him. “Just take it and say thanks.”

Gonzo and Kendra didn’t disappoint her. They were effusive in their hugs and expressions of gratitude.

After a time, the Andersons left, a momentary lightness in their steps that temporarily lifted the pall of grief Mandy was sure they were all feeling for Alex. Arm-in-arm with Rob, she watched them go and gave out a little sigh. When he crooked a quizzical eyebrow at her, she said, “I’m all right. I’m just thinking of the grieving that they’ll have to go through.”

Rob nodded. “Yes, you would know about that.”

Mandy leaned against his chest and closed her eyes for a mo
ment to send a silent message to her Uncle Bill.
Please welcome Alex, wherever you both are.

Within a half hour, Mandy was ensconced in the front passenger seat of the pickup truck next to Rob as he drove north out of Moab pulling the equipment trailer. Kendra and Gonzo followed in the passenger van behind them.

“In less than six hours we’ll be home,” Rob said.

“I can’t wait to fall asleep in my own bed,” Mandy replied. She reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out her cell phone—that had been turned off since the night before the trip. “Let’s see if anyone missed us.”

After the phone powered up, a message appeared announcing
new voice messages. “I don’t believe it,” Mandy said, as she paged through the list. “There’s a whopping twenty-seven messages here,” she said to Rob, “and all but two of them are from your mother.” She threw her head back against the seat and groaned.

Rob’s brow crinkled in worry. “I’ll talk to her after we get back, tell her to back off on the wedding plans.”

Mandy looked out the windshield at the highway winding toward the horizon in front of them, a fitting metaphor for their life to come. Given the life-and-death experience they had just gone through, an overeager mother-in-law no longer seemed like such a big deal.

She put a hand on Rob’s knee. “No, don’t. I love your mother, Rob, I really do, and I can do this for her.”

Rob covered her hand with his. “You sure?”

“I’m sure.” As sure as she was about spending the rest of her life with the man next to her.

the end

acknowledgments

I had a lot of help researching the Colorado River in Utah and its
Meander and Cataract Canyons for this book, particularly from the
staff of Tag-A-Long Expeditions (http://www.tagalong.com/), the outfitter that organized the scouting trip my husband and I took down the Colorado River from Moab to Lake Powell. Jennifer, Sarah, and the other office staff at Tag-A-Long were very helpful. Our boatman, Dave Pitzer, and river guide, Justin King, provided a wealth of information and colorful stories and lingo while taking excellent care of us on the trip. Dave Pitzer was kind enough to stop at all the beaches where a 5-day trip would stop, even though we were on a 3-day trip, so I could take notes and soak in the atmosphere of each while my husband took photos. And I owe another huge debt of gratitude to Dave, who later provided me with expert and detailed descriptions of the paths for running various rapids, because all I remembered was fun roller coaster rides and water splashing in my face!

Thank you to my husband, Neil, for the wonderful photos and videos you took of that trip, so I could reconstruct locations and experiences months later. I read many reference books and articles about the area, but the most useful book that I referred to often was
Belknap’s Waterproof Canyonlands River Guide
, and I recommend it to anyone planning a trip on the Colorado River. The state and national park rangers at Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyonlands National Park were helpful in answering questions and providing brochures on the geology, flora, fauna, and history of the parks.

Thanks to my critique group, Jeff Campbell, Vic Cruikshank,
Maria Faulconer, Barbara Nickless, MB Partlow, and Robert Spiller
, for making it abundantly clear when my writing wasn’t up to snuff and I had more work to do. Their high standards made me work that much harder to turn out a quality story. I don’t know what I’d do without my literary agent, Sandra Bond, who works tirelessly on my behalf and keeps me out of contract trouble. Thanks, Sandra! Terri Bischoff, Acquisition Editor at Midnight Ink, and Connie Hill, Senior Editor, made sure the book’s prose was the best it could be. Thanks to Donna Burch for the book design and to Lisa Novak for the gorgeous cover art that was exactly what I asked for and more. Thanks also to all of the staff at Midnight Ink who toil behind the scenes to produce and market the books in my RM Outdoor Adventures series.

And lastly, I would like to thank the avid readers of the RM
Outdoor Adventures who take the time to write me and tell me what
they like—and don’t like—about the books. I write them for you!