Waking the Dead (4 page)
He cut the engine. “We’ll have to walk in.” He nodded to the forest that surrounded them. “Head east until we get to the bottom of Castle Rock. Then I’ll try to select the easiest climb, but I’m not going to lie to you. It will be a climb.”
“So you’ve mentioned.” She was already slipping out of the truck and opening the back door to reach in for her pack.
He did the same, although he was going to shed the pack before entering the cave. It was a tight fit. The first time he ended up leaving his pack at the entrance before belly crawling his way inside and he’d still gotten caught a couple times. He wasn’t anxious to spend a lot of time wiggling around trying to get unstuck this time. Not with the woman following him.
Digging in the pack he pulled out a khaki ball cap emblazoned with his business logo, OREGON OUTDOORS, and tugged it on. Everything else could wait until they drew closer to the cave. He hesitated, looked down at his black T-shirt. It was plenty warm in the sun, but the temperature cooled a bit in the forest. And he’d want more protection for the climb. He ducked his head in the backseat of his Trailblazer again, rooted around until he found a long-sleeve tee to match the hat, and jammed it in his pack. Then he slammed the door and rounded the vehicle, prepared to wait for the woman.
Caitlin Fleming
.
Caitlin Fleming
.
But she was already prepared to move out. She’d pulled her hair back into a ponytail, and the tail was looped through the opening in the back of her ball cap. Fingerless rock-climbing gloves covered her hands and a pair of expensive-looking mini binoculars hung from a strap around her neck. His quick once over ended at her shoes.
“You’d do better with boots.”
She picked up one foot, turned it over to show him the grippers on the bottom. “I like these better for low-level climbing. And for caves.”
Shrugging into his pack, he gave up arguing. She’d come equipped, but she still was likely to be unprepared for what was ahead of them, and it would be his job, unwilling or not, to get her through it. “We’ve got a hike ahead of us. Give a holler when you need to rest or take a leak.” He started off for the forest entrance at a good clip, pretending not to hear her muttered remark behind him.
“If I feel like taking a leak you can bet yours will be the first name on my lips.”
Because his mouth threatened to smile, he deliberately firmed it. And considered it just as well for the boy he’d been all those years ago that her poster hadn’t been accompanied by voice.
There was no telling the damage that might have inflicted on his tender young male psyche.
Cait’s legs were nearly as long as Sharper’s so she didn’t have much trouble keeping up with him. Which was lucky, because he seemed to spare no thought about whether or not she was falling behind. He made his way steadily through the forest without a backward glance.
She knew from experience they could have started from tougher spots. They weren’t having to hack their way through brambles or scrub brush, the sort of barrier that sprouted so easily in less well-traveled areas in a forest. Which made her think that if they discovered the bodies had, in fact been dumped, the offender wouldn’t have entered this way.
The old logging road was easily accessible to the highway, for one thing. There was too much risk someone would notice a car turning off this way. Too many questions to answer if they did.
Of course, she thought, as she jumped nimbly over a rotted-out fallen tree, the cover of darkness would offer protection against detection regardless.
The forest floor was dense with understory vegetation in some spots, barren but for pine needles in others. The trees were mostly firs, interspersed with some deciduous species, and towered overhead in a fifty-foot canopy. But the spindly trunks allowed brilliant slants of light through. She could think of far worse ways to spend a day than quiet hours strolling through the forest.
But her mind wasn’t on enjoyment. Nor was it on the man walking surely several yards ahead of her.
It was on the UNSUB who might have followed a very similar path.
“How did you happen to find that cave?”
“I’ve given my statement to Andrews’s office,” Sharper said shortly. His pace didn’t slow. “I’m sure Barnes will show it to you if you ask.”
Rough edges were one thing. No one was this abrupt without design. Rather than following him over a pile of rocks, Cait detoured around it. Maybe he was the sort who didn’t trust cops. It was a common enough feeling among people she encountered in the course of an investigation. And most of them had a reason for that distrust. She couldn’t help wondering what had caused Sharper’s.
“How long have you been a guide in the area?” She didn’t bother telling him that his statement had been included in the case file Andrews had given. Given the opportunity, Cait preferred to ask her own questions, in her own way. Sometimes that elicited different details.
“I grew up around here. Came back and started Oregon Outdoors five years ago.”
She kicked her foot free of a tangle of ferns. “So you know the area well. Yet your statement said you’d never explored this cave before.”
He turned around so suddenly she had to apply the brakes to avoid running into him. Whipping off his sunglasses, he regarded her, his expression grim. “I’ve noticed the opening before, yeah. Never bothered finding out if it went anywhere. I’m not into caves myself. And when clients want to go cave exploring, they’re usually satisfied with Sawyer’s Ice Caves or the lava tubes over in Bend. But this client wanted something different. I thought of the place I’d noticed before in Castle Rock and decided to give it a closer look.”
She studied him calmly, despite the hostility emanating from the man. He wasn’t the type to cultivate that stubble on his lean jaw for effect, so she assumed it was just carelessness on his part. It went with the slightly shaggy sun-streaked brown hair. Was emphasized by the golden lights in his whiskey-colored eyes, which were surrounded by absurdly long lashes.
Eyes that were shooting sparks at her right now. “If you’re suggesting that I hauled seven skeletons up to that cave, dumped them, and then called the cops on myself, you should have stayed with modeling. At least that didn’t require thinking.”
She could drop him right there, Cait thought grimly. One well-placed shot to the balls would be adequate payback for that crack. But as satisfying at the action would be, she needed him upright. At least until they got to Castle Rock. “I’m not suggesting you put the remains in the cave.” Yet.
“Yeah? Well then you’re one up on Sheriff Andrews. She grilled me about it for so long I think she was outfitting me for prison blues.”
“Once I age the bones we’ll have a better idea of how long they were down there.” She didn’t bother telling him that part of her job would be by far the most difficult. “Who knows? If you’ve been absent from the area for a number of years, my findings may clear you.”
“
You’ll
be aging the skeletons.” He regarded her skepti cally. “In between scaling Castle Rock, leaping buildings with a single bound . . .”
You’ll
be aging the skeletons.” He regarded her skepti cally. “In between scaling Castle Rock, leaping buildings with a single bound . . .”
Her smile faded. “My qualifications aren’t your concern, Sharper. But if I were you, I’d be hoping I discovered something to suggest you couldn’t possibly be involved instead of intentionally pissing me off.”
The tension in his expression eased. The flint in his eye didn’t. “It’s not intentional, it’s natural. And I could care less what you do, as long as it doesn’t suck up my time.” He turned then and began walking again.
“I understand you’re being compensated for your time.”
“I prefer to choose my own clients.”
And somehow Andrews had forced his hand with this duty. Cait could imagine the scene that had elicited his reluctant help. She just didn’t much give a damn one way or another. So she finished the hike in silence, ignoring, as much as possible, the broad-shouldered man in front of her. And when her muscles began to burn from the workout, it suited her to blame that on Sharper, too.
A couple hours later she was leaning against the huge pile of rock outcroppings at the base of Castle Rock, scanning the face of it through her binoculars. “Which one is it?”
She lowered the glasses to note the direction Sharper pointed, raised them again to follow the direction with her gaze. Difficult to see from down here whether the indentation in the rocks actually led anywhere. A person would have to be a determined climber, with an avid curiosity to scramble up and check out each shadowy opening in the cliff.
Most would lead nowhere, of course. She knew that from experience, too. She did her share of climbing in the Blue Ridge Mountains, although she wasn’t a huge fan of caves. Some would plunge inside the cliff only a few feet before hitting rock again. The one documented in the police report was an exception rather than the rule.
“Any sign of animal life inside?”
Sharper shrugged as he lifted a water bottle to his lips and guzzled. Lowering it, he said, “No snakes or bats that I saw. Plenty of spiders, but didn’t see any poisonous ones. Doesn’t mean they aren’t there, though.”
Cait dropped the binoculars and reached for her own water bottle. She drank, still eyeing the face of the stone wall, plotting her approach. “I’ll go in first. I want to take the branch to the chamber, and from the description in the report there’s not room in there for both of us at the same time.”
“Your party.”
Because that was true enough she made no comment. She took a few moments to finish drinking, and then found a private place nearby to relieve herself. When she returned Sharper was exactly where she’d left him, and there was no surprise in that either. He’d exchanged his shirt for a long-sleeve one and had replaced his ball cap with a collapsible hard hat. She reached into her bag and withdrew a similar one, the kind recommended for spelunkers with a battery-operated light on the front. She’d rammed her head on stones jutting down from the roofs of caves often enough to not need a reminder to use one. The binoculars went into the pack. She didn’t need them swinging and hitting the rocks as she climbed, or worse, catching on something and strangling her.
Then she packed her bag up and shrugged into it again. Without a word, she strode toward the face of Castle Rock. She heard Sharper’s voice behind her.
“Best way up is to start over here to the right of the opening. Then when you’re about two hundred feet away start making your way over.”
Cait forged ahead. Minutes later, a hundred feet in the air, she was ready to admit that Sharper and Andrews had been right. Oh, it was hardly an effort worthy of hard-core climbing enthusiasts. But it was more of a workout than the rock-climbing wall at the gym she frequented. She found herself glad she had as much experience as she did in the wilderness.
She was even happier to see no snakes on the way up.
The sun was warm after the relative coolness of the forest, and the pack made for an extra layer of insulation. She was sweating before she was half way. If not for Sharper’s infrequent commands behind her, it would feel like woman against nature. An exhilarating, isolating process.
She began moving toward the left to the cave opening, and the way got a bit trickier. One toehold gave beneath her foot, and her fingers scrabbled, gripping fiercely while her feet swung for a moment, unsupported. In the next moment she found another jutting rock to push off from and regained her stability. And continued climbing despite the fanged hollowness in her stomach.
“You want me to follow you in.”
Sharper’s words were more statement than question as she hauled herself up on the narrow ledge before the yawning darkness of the cave. Cait reached up to flip on the light of her hard hat. She took a moment to slip out of her pack and withdraw a flashlight before shrugging it back into place. “Be easier,” she called over her shoulder belatedly. “Just make sure I don’t miss the turn off.”
With that she plunged inside. Although she started off crawling she quickly had to drop to her stomach as the ceiling of the cave pinched in. Cait wasn’t claustrophobic, but there was nothing as absolute, as impenetrable as the darkness in a cave. The slight sunlight from the opening behind her was lost once she rounded the first bend. And she was fervently glad for both lights she had. The one on her hard hat offered glimpses of where the ceiling dipped and curved. The flashlight in her hand shone on the surface she was currently flattened against. Lit up fingers of rock jutting out from the side that could catch and snag at her clothing or pack. Spotlighted the spiders and cave crickets skittering along on the walls beside her.
It felt more like a tunnel than a cave, but there was plenty of room for her to move as long as she remained on her belly. She had a feeling Sharper wasn’t faring as well. An occasional muttered curse drifted forward to her ears. The width of his shoulders would make this a tight fit. She could see why he’d shed his pack at the entrance.
The stone beneath her, to the sides of her were cool but dry. Not smooth by any means, but not so ragged that she’d have to worry about bruises and lacerations when she finished. But she was still thankful when, twenty or so feet inside, she saw the yawning opening to her right.
“Is this the branch to the chamber up ahead?”
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