Fatal Descent (18 page)

“Oh, please!” Alice turned away from him.

Diana had watched the scene with her mouth agape. While tears
filled her eyes, she clutched Hal’s arm. “What in the world happened? I can’t believe this is our little Alice.”

“She’s turned into a scheming, manipulative bitch,” Hal whispered. He stood and walked unsteadily over to his daughter. “How could you stand by while Les killed your brother?”

“Stand by?” Les snorted. “That’s a laugh. I had nothing to do with
Alex’s death. That was all her doing.”

“Shut up!” Alice yelled.

Les just gave her a venomous smile and said, “She stuck him with the needle, waited for him to conk out so he couldn’t fight her, then she—”

Alice rolled toward him, kicking and yelling, “Shut up, shut up, shut up!”

Rob gave Gonzo his gun and ran over to pull Alice off of Les.

“She clawed him with the bear claw,” Les went on, “then sat there and watched him bleed out. She actually enjoyed it.” Les glared at Hal. “He’d always been your pet, got most of your love and support and the best gifts. Alice actually gloated to me later that the favored son was gone now.”

Diana had come over and now stood by Hal, trembling and
clutching his arm. She looked from Les to Alice in wide-eyed shock,
until the dawning realization twisted her features into an anguished
grimace. She started sobbing again.

Mandy bit her lip. She didn’t know what she could do to help them. The terrible realization that one of their children had killed another must be almost too agonizing to bear.

“You killed your own brother—.” Hal choked up. He and Diana held each other and wept for their dead son while they stared at their daughter—a monster.

_____

The next morning, Mandy raised her face to the welcome sunlight breasting the east canyon rim across the river. Shards of white light danced on the water’s surface, blinding her eyes and forcing her
to squint. She hoped that the sun’s warmth and the hot cup of coffee
she brought to her lips would rouse her tired, aching body into some kind of action. She was almost too exhausted to chew, but she bit into a bagel slathered with peanut butter anyway. She needed the energy the calories would give her.

The camp was stirring behind her, at least an hour later than their usual morning wake-up call. Rob had forgone the coffee call to let those who had been able to go back to sleep in their tents get some added rest. Mandy hadn’t been one of them. She had tried, thinking she would take a later guard shift. But after lying awake in her sleeping bag for over an hour, she got up and relieved Gonzo as a guard over Alice, Les, and Cool.

They had wrapped sleeping bags around the three captives but left them outside, so if they said anything to each other, the guards would hear it. Mandy had sat watch with Kendra, periodically waking Cool to check for signs of concussion, until Rob relieved Kendra at six in the morning. He had asked Mandy then if she wanted to grab some sleep, but she shook her head. She wouldn’t be able to rest until she knew Amy had been rescued. Instead, she and Kendra took Alice to the portable toilet under guard, then Kendra woke Gonzo so he and Rob could do the same with Cool, followed by Les.

Mandy took another sip of coffee while watching the sun’s rays illuminate the canyon walls until they came alive again, glowing in layered shades of pink, white, beige, gray, and red. She took a moment to feel grateful that, although battered, she was alive, and to thank the river gods for bringing them safely to the end of their journey. Then she glanced at Rob’s raft, tied some distance downstream, with Alex’s body bag in the water next to it.

All safe, but one. And hopefully not two.
She glanced upstream and prayed that Amy was also warming herself in the sun while awaiting rescue.

Then Mandy remembered the odd conversation she’d had with Les and Alice after the toilet break and all three captives were tied up and sitting on the sand again. One unanswered question had been nagging her throughout the night. She had hoped to get the answer out of them before the three were handed over to law enforcement. She had decided to be blunt and hopefully surprise Les into a straight answer.

“You were the one who cut Elsa’s harness, weren’t you?” she said to him.

“You obviously think so,” he answered cryptically.

“Alice had already rappelled down,” Mandy said, “so it wasn’t her, and you two hadn’t recruited Cool to help you yet, so I don’t think it was him, either.”

“No way, José,” Cool said vehemently. “You’re damn straight it wasn’t me. And you’d better not try to pin that rap on me!”

Les just shrugged.

“Why did you do it?” Mandy studied him with hands on her hips. “What did you have against Elsa? Was it because you knew about her affair with Alex?”

Alice’s brows went up, and Les chuckled. “Well, what a surprise. Alex was banging his professor.”

So that wasn’t it, Mandy thought. Then a dawning realization hit
her. “You didn’t have any reason to hurt Elsa. That was the whole
point. You or Alice must have overheard my conversation with Betsy
about the grizzly paw. That rustling I heard in the brush was one of you. You realized your attempt to make it look like a bear had gone after our food on the raft and killed Alex had failed. So, you decided to sabotage Elsa to throw us off track, make us think someone else was trying to kill people for some other reason.”

Les said nothing.

Alice kicked him, then peered at Mandy. “I had nothing to do with Elsa’s accident. It was all his idea.”

“Like hell,” Les yelled. “You agreed. And it almost worked, didn’t
it?” Les said to Mandy with a gloating smile. “After that, Paul and Tina were your number one suspects.”

“As I said,” Alice said smugly. “It was all your idea.”

“Fuck you!” His face mottled red, Les scooted away from
Alice. He clamped his lips tight, and Mandy knew she would get no more out of him.

She had gone to work laying out a cold bagel and fruit breakfast. After that was done, Mandy had walked to the water’s edge to look and listen for their pickup launch, which was due soon.

She couldn’t wait to turn over their captives to the authorities and to end her responsibility for the other clients, too. Her whole body craved relief from the tension that was the only thing keeping her on her feet now. She wanted nothing more than to climb into a warm bed and to fall into a worry-free deep sleep.

Not yet, though, not yet. We aren’t out of the canyon.

The three women friends came up to stand with her and watch the sun rise over the rim. They silently picked grapes off a cluster that Mo had brought with her and chewed on their bagels. Then Viv put an arm around Mandy’s shoulders, glanced at Betsy and Mo, and cleared her throat.

“We all just wanted to let you know how much we admire you, Rob, Kendra, and Gonzo, and how grateful we are that you kept us safe. You risked your lives for us.”

Mandy blushed. “Thanks. Paul helped, too, though, and I feel bad that he got injured.”

Mo stepped forward. “We’ll thank him, too. I’m sure Les, Alice, and Cool would have killed us all if they’d gotten the chance. We were all witnesses, and they had the weapons to do it.”

“Especially me,” Betsy added. “I’ve been thinking. I’m sure that one of them must have heard me tell you about the grizzly prints when we went to fetch the toilet that day. Remember the noise in the willows that we thought was a squirrel? I bet it was Les or
Alice.”

Mandy nodded. “It was. That’s when Les and Alice realized their
ploy to make Alex’s death look like an accident wasn’t going to work. And that’s why Les cut Elsa’s harness.”

All three women stared at Mandy.

“That wasn’t an accident either?” Mo asked.

“No,” Mandy said, “but we didn’t tell anyone her harness had been cut, because we didn’t want everyone to panic.”

“Then Les tried to kill you.” Betsy’s eyes went wide and she
wagged a finger at Mandy. “Because you knew about the fake paw—and the harness being cut. I’m sure I would have been next.”

Mandy couldn’t disagree with that, but before she could say anything, Betsy gave her a fierce hug. “Thank you. For everything.”

The distant roar of an outboard motor echoed off the canyon walls.

Mo looked eager. “Is that what I think it is?”

Mandy shielded her eyes from the sun’s glare and peered downriver. A motor launch appeared from around the bend, dwarfed by the towering striated cliffs hemming in the river. The boat headed toward them, and Mandy waved at it.

“Yes, that’s our pickup,” she said. “Hopefully he’s got a radio.”

And hopefully Amy had survived the night.

eighteen

And this, our life, exempt from public haunt,
finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
sermons in stones, and good in everything.

—
william shakespeare

With hope and relief
lifting her spirits, Mandy sent Betsy, Mo, and Viv to alert the others that the motor launch had arrived. The tanned, wiry boatman nudged the bow to shore. While exchanging howdies, Mandy took the anchor he handed to her and seated
it firmly in the sand. Then she climbed aboard and said, “I need you
r radio.”

With a question in his gaze, he handed it to her. She contacted the Canyonlands Park Service dispatcher, reported that an injured client needed rescue, and gave directions on where to find Amy. “Please radio back as soon as you find her,” Mandy said. “I’m worried about her.”

“Why didn’t you take her with you?” the boatman asked.

“That’s a long story,” Mandy replied. “A very long story.” Then she told the dispatcher that they had a body in a body bag and three captives to turn over who had committed murder and attempted murder.

“What?” both the boatman and radio dispatcher exclaimed.

Mandy summarized the events quickly for the dispatcher while the boatman looked on, gape-mouthed and periodically shaking his head in disbelief.

The dispatcher said, “Hold on.” After a few moments, she came back on and said, “We’re sending a helicopter down the canyon. They’ll locate your injured client and relay the GPS coordinates back to us so we can send a boat to rescue her. Then they’ll drop a ranger at your campsite to arrest your captives and secure them. He’ll take over custody.”

“Good,” Mandy said. “I’m more than ready to get them off my hands.”

“They’ll have to ride to Hite Marina with you, though,” the dispatcher said. “We don’t have room in the helicopter for all four of them. State police will meet you there.”

The boatman took the radio and spoke into it. “I’m more than a little wigged out about having killers on board.”

“That’s why we’re sending an armed ranger,” the dispatcher said, then added with admiration in her voice, “Plus it sounds like Miss Tanner and her crew have things under control and can lend a hand if the ranger needs it.”

After signing off, the boatman turned to Mandy. “Damn! You’ve
had more excitement on this trip than a spring run at flood stage.”

“I’d much rather have that kind of excitement,” Mandy replied. “Fighting for our lives against the river gods would’ve been a lot less scary than battling armed human killers.”

The boatman nodded somberly. As the clients arrived with armloads of gear to be stowed in the rafts, he said, “Let’s get this flotilla roped up. Hopefully the chopper will arrive by the time we’re done, and I can get you back to the marina as fast as possible. I’ll have the willies until those crooks are off my boat.”

It took about an hour to fill the rafts with gear and link them in a chain behind the motor launch. By mid-morning, they were ready to go. The helicopter landed at about the same time, and a National Park Service ranger hopped off with a bag of gear.

Mandy hurried over. “Did you spot the injured woman?”

“Yes,” he replied, “though she didn’t make any movements when
we flew over.”

Mandy’s knees went wobbly. “Uh-oh. I can’t believe she didn’t hear
the helicopter. I hope that doesn’t mean she’s too weak to move or unconscious.”
Or dead from exposure and her injury.

The ranger’s expression was sympathetic. “We were pretty high.
If she was sleeping, she may not have heard us.”

“How long will it take to get a boat to her?”

“One of our rangers came down the Green River in a motor launch
yesterday and spent the night at the Confluence. Dispatch is sending him to pick up your client, so it shouldn’t take too long. Now, where are your captives? I’ve got handcuffs and ankle cuffs in here.” He hefted his gear bag. “I’ll feel much better once I get them properly restrained.”

“Me, too,” Mandy said. She motioned the ranger to follow her as she started walking toward the campsite. “And I’ll feel much better when you take charge of them.”

She took him to where Rob and Gonzo stood over the captives, who sat in the sand and glowered in the sun, since there was no shade on the beach. Mandy pointed to each one. “Alice Anderson, Les Williams, and Tom O’Day, who likes to be called Cool.”

Cool winced. Obviously, he wasn’t feeling very cool that day.

The ranger read the three of them their rights. Then he had Mandy
and Gonzo replace their rope and duct tape constraints with the ones he brought while he and Rob stood guard.

Mandy breathed a sigh of relief when the ranger confiscated Les’s two handguns from Rob and put them in an evidence bag. Though she had some law enforcement training as a seasonal river ranger, weapons training hadn’t been included. This guy was an armed career officer, and his no-nonsense approach showed he knew how to manage the situation.

The ranger watched over them with his gun raised while the guides lifted Alice, Les, and Cool to their feet, helped them duck-walk in their ankle restraints to the water line, then assisted them into the motor launch. Then Mandy got into the first raft in the chain behind the launch, which held Diana and Hal. She gave them the news about Amy.

“She didn’t move? Oh my God,” Diana cried, her anxiety evident in the way she tightly clutched Hal’s hand.

“She could have just been sleeping,” Mandy said. “It doesn’t mean
anything bad.” Mandy mentally crossed her fingers. “We’ll know how she is as soon as the ranger gets to her.”

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Hal said to Diana. “Our little girl is stronger than you think.” But his worried glance to Mandy belied what he was saying to his wife.

The boatman fired up the launch engine and pulled slowly away from the shore.

“Better hold onto the raft,” Mandy said to Diana and Hal. “There
will be a jerk once he gets underway.”

The three captives rode in the motor launch under the watchful eyes—and gun—of the ranger, while the rest of the clients and guides were scattered among the rafts for the two-hour trip to the marina. The Nortons and the three girlfriends had readily agreed to skip the last planned hike into Dark Canyon so they could get to the Hite Marina as soon as possible. Plus, Diana and Hal were obviously anxious to be reunited with Amy.

Mandy spent the whole ride back fretting about Amy—her leg injury and possible dehydration and hypothermia—while trying to seem unconcerned in front of her parents. Finally, as they crossed under the high arch of the Route 95 bridge across northern Lake Powell, their first sign of civilization in days, the boatman got a call from the National Park Service dispatcher on his radio. He cut the engine so Mandy could hear him while he relayed what the dispatcher had to say.

The park ranger who had spent the night at the Confluence had just called in that he had found Amy and examined her. She was awake and in some pain. But she was glad to see him and asked for water. He was going to load her on the launch and bring her to the marina. Mandy whooped and shouted the good news to the others in the rafts behind hers.

Diana and Hal beamed and hugged each other while everyone else clapped and hollered with joy. Everyone, that is, except Alice,
Les, and Cool. Alice’s face was twisted in an angry scowl and Les’s eyes were shooting fire. Cool’s pale forehead, though, was lined with fear. Mandy was sure he was regretting throwing his lot in with the two cons
pirators.

Then the flotilla rounded a bend, and the Hite Marina boat ramp
and white support buildings came into view. Another cheer went up from the rafters.

Mandy spotted their vehicles, the fifteen-passenger van and the pickup truck and raft trailer, sitting in the parking lot. On the road between the parking lot and the boat ramp sat a coroner’s van and three Utah State Police cruisers with their lights flashing. The officers from those cruisers stood on the dock with arms crossed and sunlight flashing off their dark shades.

_____

A couple of hours later, Mandy and Kendra packed up the remains of the last meal they had served the clients in the parking lot of the marina—a smorgasbord lunch of sandwiches and whatever leftover food would get thrown out if it wasn’t eaten. Mandy glanced at Rob and Gonzo securing the rafts on the trailer. They had already loaded all of the gear onto their vehicles other than the trash the women were bagging.

“Looks like we’ll be able to leave soon,” she said to Kendra.

“I can’t wait to jump in a hot shower,” Kendra replied and rolled
her shoulders.

“Me, too.” Mandy smiled at the thought of her aching muscles melting in the hot steam. “But we’ve got the long drive back to Moab first.”

Kendra nodded. “Makes me wish I could hop on the sightseeing plane with the clients.”

“I don’t think I want to ever see Cataract Canyon again, even from the air,” Mandy replied.

The Nortons and the three girlfriends had opted to take the forty-minute flight back to Moab in a small plane over the Canyonlands. They had already said their goodbyes to Rob, Mandy, Kendra, and Gonzo, and pressed generous tips into their hands. They would see and be able to take photos of the route they took on the river from above. And, they would be snug and clean in their motel rooms by the time the guides arrived three hours later with the vehicles and gear.

It would be dark by the time they pulled in, but the delay hadn’t
been up to them. After sending two cruisers with Alice, Les, and Cool in the back seat to the jail in Monticello, Utah, the remaining two Utah State Police investigators had insisted on interviewing everyone in turn before they left.

Mandy’s session with one of the investigators had taken almost an hour, the longest of everyone’s by far. He took her camera and promised to mail it back to her after he had made a copy of the photos she took of Alex’s death scene. When he wrote down her contact information, he assured her there would be more questions later and she would be called to testify if the three captives didn’t plead out and the case went to trial. Though she wouldn’t be on the Colorado River again anytime soon, Mandy figured she would be seeing a lot more of Utah.

She slung a trash bag over her shoulder and gazed down at the boat ramp, where an ambulance sat waiting for Amy. Hal and Diana stood nearby, shielding their eyes and scanning the entrance to the long, skinny finger of Lake Powell that stretched into Cataract Canyon. After making plans to meet later with the coroner, they let the van with Alex’s body in it leave without them. Instead, they both planned to ride with Amy in the ambulance to the hospital.

The ranger who had picked up Amy had radioed the marina that he was close. Mandy could see from the tense set of the older Andersons’ shoulders that they were anxious to see their youngest daughter.

She was, too.

A faint hum sounded in the distance. Mandy scanned the water and spotted a launch approaching the marina. She dropped the trash bag she was carrying on the ground.

“Can you finish here?” she asked Kendra. “I’ve got to see Amy.”

Kendra gave an understanding nod. “No problem.”

Mandy trotted down to the boat ramp, arriving in time to help
the ranger tie up at the dock. Diana and Hal hovered close by, peer
ing into the boat. Amy lay pale and still atop a bench seat on the launch, her eyes closed.

“Can we get on the boat?” Hal asked.

“Oh, sure.” Mandy tore her gaze from Amy and turned to help Diana climb aboard. Then she gave Hal a hand up.

Diana leaned over her daughter. She reached a hand out to gently swipe a lock of hair off her brow, then bent down to kiss Amy’s forehead.

“Amy? How are you, honey?”

Amy’s eyes fluttered open. She squinted at her mother. “Not great. I’m a little seasick, and every time the boat bounced, I felt it in my leg.”

Hal caressed Amy’s shoulder. “We’ll get you fixed up soon. We’ve
got an ambulance to take you to the hospital in Monticello.”

“Not Moab?” Amy asked plaintively.

“Monticello’s an hour closer, and I talked to the emergency room physician,” Hal said. “He assured me that they can take good care of your leg.”

“But what about our car and stuff ?”

All of that was in Moab, except for what they had taken on the river trip. Having climbed aboard, too, Mandy felt relief washing over her that Amy was feeling well enough to complain.

She stepped up next to Hal. “Don’t worry. We’ve arranged to get everything to you.”

Rob and Hal had been busy making calls from the marina office
while Mandy was being interviewed by the police. They changed the Andersons’ motel reservation, and Rob had found someone to drive their car from Moab to Monticello.

Mandy patted Amy’s arm. “You just focus on healing.”

Amy grasped Mandy’s hand in hers. She squeezed it hard and stared at Mandy. “I’m so happy to see you. I spent the night worrying about you—having to swim across the river in the dark and cold, then fighting it out with Alice and Les.”

Mandy smiled. “And I spent the night worrying about you! I’m glad to see you here safe and sound.”

“Only because you left me all your survival gear. While I lay there wrapped up in the space blanket and nibbling on the granola bar, I thought of you, wet and cold and hungry, with nothing.”

Mandy felt her face flushing while Hal and Diana stared at her.
Anxious to get the spotlight off herself, she straightened and stepped
away from the boat. “I could walk, though, and you couldn’t. Speak
ing of which, let’s get you on this thing.” She waved over the EMTs, who had wheeled a stretcher down the dock.

While the two EMTs worked to get Amy moved and strapped on the stretcher, Hal pulled Mandy aside. “Will you be in Moab tomorrow, or are you heading straight back to Salida?”

Mandy thought about all they had to do and said, “I doubt we’ll leave before noon.”