No One Else to Kill (Jim West Series) (17 page)

I had put the keys in the ignition but hadn’t turned my
car on yet.
 
As I began to turn my keys
in the ignition, I saw Sean
Bettes
walk out of the
lodge.
 
He seemed to be in a hurry and
almost jogged across the front of the building, disappearing around the side of
the lodge.

If he had gone toward the other end of the lodge I might
have driven away.
 
But the dilemma of the
missing screen had its hooks in me.
 
I
climbed out of my Mustang and started after him.
 
By the time I rounded the corner he had disappeared.
 
I figured he had gone behind the lodge.

I cut through the side yard.
 
Off to my right I could see a deputy walking
around in the trees. I wondered if he was looking for the missing screen or for
the place where someone may have positioned themselves to take the shot at
Benson.
 
Once I was behind the lodge, I
noticed another deputy scouring an area of heavy shrubbery just beyond the tree
line.
 
I still couldn’t see any sign of
Bettes
.

A well-worn path led from the lawn into the forest.
 
I followed it and passed within a few yards
of the deputy, who looked up at me.

“If you’re looking for your friend he went by here less
than a minute ago,” he said.

“Oh, thanks,” I responded.

“You might want to walk a little faster, mister.
 
He was quick timing it.”

“Thanks,” I said again. “Quick timing,” now that was a
term I hadn’t heard in a while. I figured the deputy had a military background
since the only time I had ever heard that term used was when I was a
cadet.
 
It referred to a fast paced
march.

Well, I had wanted to hike through the forest, so I guess
this was going to be my opportunity.
 
I
picked up my pace a little.
 
I didn’t
need to catch up with him if he never stopped.
 
I was more interested if he stopped somewhere.

I actually suspected that he would not stop, but turn
around at some point, and I would run into him on his return to the lodge.
 
I wouldn’t have bet a nickel that he was
involved with either death, but I was still curious.

The trees blocked enough of the sun’s rays to keep the
chill in the air, but soon the path took on an upward slope and the exertion
warmed me. The thin air smelled of pine. Every now and then I came to a
clearing and was amazed with the beauty of the scenery around me.
 
Large Douglas firs and
pinyon
pines towered over everything but the distant mountains that seemed to surround
me out here.
 
A few aspens added color
and variety to the landscape. The further I got from the lodge, the less I
cared whether I ran into
Bettes
or not.
 
Besides, he wouldn’t have discarded the screen
this far away from the lodge.

My cell phone clock indicated I had been walking about
twenty minutes when the terrain became very rugged.
 
The ground changed from soft dirt covered
with centuries of pine needles to rock or thinly covered rock.
 
I walked another five minutes, climbing up
and down a series of small gorges.
 
I
knew I could use the exercise, but this was no longer fun.
 
Maybe the effort would be good for
Bettes
, but I’d had enough.
 
I turned around and in doing so caught a glimpse of someone standing on
the precipice of a small cliff.

Despite the distance of about a hundred yards from the
path, I recognized
Bettes
immediately.

“Oh, come on,” I said to myself, in more of a groan than a
statement. Rather than start walking back to the lodge, I cut diagonally across
the rough terrain toward
Bettes
. I contemplated
shouting at him from this distance but couldn’t decide whether that would just
spook him into jumping.

I didn’t need to be around another person dying – ever. I
stumbled over some loose rocks and fell. My right knee took a direct hit on a
larger rock and the impact reignited the pain in my right shoulder.
 
I stood up cursing at myself and continued
toward
Bettes
.

“I don’t know if you’re up high enough to effectively do
the job,” I said to him from about twenty yards.

He turned toward me and then looked down.
 
From where I was I couldn’t see over the
ledge.
 
I walked closer to him.

“I appreciate your concern, and I’d be lying if I said the
thought of jumping hadn’t crossed my mind.
 
However, I didn’t come out here to kill myself.”

“Oh.
In that case, sorry.
So then
why the long pose at the edge of a cliff?”

“Come look,” he said and stepped away from the ledge.

Heights don’t necessarily scare me, but for whatever
reason walking by Sean
Bettes
to the ledge sent
shivers up my spine. A slight gust of cold wind struck me at the same time and
enhanced the effect.
 
I peered over, my
eyes searching for whatever he wanted me to see below, my ears listening for any
movement from behind.

I didn’t hear anything behind me.
 
I glanced back at him. He didn’t look like he
had any intention of pushing me over the cliff, so I looked again at the ground
below.

“See it?” he asked.

“
Oooh
!
 
The dead elk?”

“Yes.”

It looked pitiful to me and disgusting.
 
While I’m in no way an expert on elk, this
one looked very large and old. I had no idea how the elk had died, but since
its death nature’s scavengers had done their thing. The elk’s front half
appeared to be mostly intact, but the back portion had been ripped open and now
appeared hollow.

“Not a pleasant sight, I know,” Sean said.
 
I realized he had moved up next to me.
 
So much for my ears.

“So why the fascination?”

“It’s complicated,” he said.

“Must have been a grand animal in his
prime.”

“Weren’t we all?”
 
He said it without emotion, but I figured deep underneath, the tone was
covered with self-pity.

“Don’t I know,” I said without knowing why.

He looked at me. “I guess that poor creature reminds me of
myself.
 
Half there and half eaten away.”

“Except he’s dead.”

“Perhaps, I ….” He paused for a second, “I’m sorry, I
don’t need to bore you.”

I didn’t say anything to encourage him to change his mind.

“You know, I was the first one that got to you last
night.”

I studied his face for the first time.
 
His eyes had the look of someone who had been
beaten down too many times to have any fight left.
 
I’d seen it before in the eyes of some
refugees who had lost everything and suffered continued abuse in the camps.
 
I hadn’t seen it on many Americans.

“I don’t remember that.”

“You were too busy trying to keep that poor woman alive.”

I nodded in acknowledgement, and then looked back down at
the elk. “Pitiful thing,” I said and realized I was now shaking my head.
 
I also realized I was talking about Randi,
not the elk. “Did you see anyone else up on the third floor?”

“No,” he answered, “the cops asked me the same thing.
There was no one else there.”

“I didn’t see anyone either.”

“I couldn’t stay and help,” he said. “I should have, I
know, but I simply ran downstairs and called for help.”

“That was just as important.”

“No, but it did get things moving.
 
I guess I was coherent enough.
 
One of the clerks called 911 and another one
ran back upstairs with me.”

“You’re too hard on yourself.
 
Getting the ambulance there was the most
critical thing that needed to get done.”

“He offered to help you, but you just kept at it.”

“I don’t remember that either.”

He paused for a moment before saying anything else.
 
I wondered if he was deciding whether to
believe me or not.

“They had to pull you away from her.”

“I do remember that.”

“Do you think you could have saved her?”

“I tried.
 
If I were
a doctor maybe I would’ve known to do something different.” After I answered, I
wondered why he asked me such a direct question.

“Do you think you could’ve saved that lady?
 
The one that came to your cabin long ago,” I
asked.

He studied my face. I looked at his.
 
No shock or surprise there.

“I could’ve tried.
 
I should’ve tried.”

“You would’ve Sean, but the shock of it all affected
you.
 
There’s nothing shameful or wrong
in that.
 
Your body reacted on its own,
in probably the same way the majority of people in the same situation would
have reacted.”

“I returned to the third floor last night with the guy
from the lodge,” he repeated. “I watched you try. You were almost frantic in
your efforts.
 
I thought that there was
no way you were going to let her slip away, but she still died.”

I wondered what he was getting at.
 
I didn’t think he meant anything disparaging
by his comments.
 
He spoke softly, like
he intended the remarks for himself as much as for me.

“It’s not always our choice, you know.”
 
I tried to sound like my failure didn’t haunt
me, that the dreams I had last night never happened.

“I know.
 
Colt has
told me that a thousand times.”

I didn’t know what Sean was trying to say, if he was
trying to say anything at all. I didn’t feel comfortable giving him advice, and
to be honest, I didn’t have a lot of interest in giving him any.
 
Colt could help him get through his issues.
 
I would probably only set him back a few
years if I tried.

“Want to head back?” he asked.

“Sure, it’ll be lunch time by the time we get there.”

I expected him to be not much of a conversationalist on
the return hike, but he surprised me.
 
He
seemed to be more alive and in a better mood than just a few minutes earlier or
the last few times I had noticed him. The lifeless look on his face
disappeared.
 
We discussed the wildlife
that lived in the mountains around us and the development that now encroached on
portions of their natural habitat. That led into the prices of real estate in
the area and the pros and cons of living at nearly seven thousand feet above
sea level.

Just before we reached the lodge some clouds blew in from
the northwest and a light, but steady rain began to fall.

ack in the lodge, I returned to my
room to change clothes.
 
The rain hadn’t
soaked through but they were damp, and my fall had left the right knee of my
jeans soiled on the outside and bloody on the inside.
 
The abrasion on my knee wasn’t serious and
only needed some cleaning.

By the time I reached the dining room for lunch, I found
what was left of the hunting group huddled together at the same table they had
selected earlier. A couple of them looked up and saw me, but returned their
gazes to each other without acknowledging my presence.
 
I strolled over to their table.

“How are you all doing?” I asked.

They looked up at me.
 
No one rushed into conversation.

“Mr. West,” Geri finally broke the silence.
 
It also sufficed for all the conversation
they intended to waste on me. Pretty much in unison they all looked back down
at their meals or each other and ignored me. A couple resumed their internal
discussions.

Part of me would’ve loved to have grabbed a nearby chair
and squeeze in, uninvited, among them.
 
However, most of me simply wanted to eat in peace, so I walked off to
another table, not too far away and sat down.
 
A young, female server approached me.

“Soup of the day is tomato basil,” she said as she placed
a glass of water down in front of me.