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In the river, she felt water all over her, icy and black, the irony that something she loved so much was now about to kill her. In that moment, her mind actually began to drift, to a scene from her childhood, her mother telling her she was too young to go out on the river by herself. She’d have to wait another year. She was maybe ten then. Then—
She felt herself being lifted back up. It’s working, she remembered thinking, sure that the current was giving her up.
But it wasn’t the current. It was Trey, a hand clamped onto her wet-suit collar, the other hanging on to a rock. Pulling her out. She broke free and sucked a desperate breath into her lungs. She gasped over and over, coughing out water, throwing her eyes back at the beautiful blue sky, heaving.
Free.
“I’ve got you, Dani. I’ve got you,” she remembered Trey saying. “You were in an eddy. But you can relax. Breathe in. I’ve got you now. You’re safe.”
She clung to him like he was a buoy in the middle of the ocean, and she wanted to cry.
“Jeez, and all the really hard stuff is still a ways downstream …” He grinned at her, in that offhand way of his and with a wink that at any other time she would have wanted to throw a punch at. But this time she just smiled and hugged him, nodding, wiping away the tears. He positioned her on his chest, feet forward, between his legs, and they followed the current downstream back to her raft.
She stayed with them and finished the Kirshbaum as if it were a Three.
What’s this all about? Wade had asked, not knowing what lay at the heart.
She owed Trey. Owed him everything. He hadn’t given up on her.
No way she was about to give up on him.
Especially now.
That’s what this was about.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#ulink_305411aa-59e7-57bf-9cf9-6d52a403848f)
That same night, Wade was in his home up the canyon in Basalt. Not where he used to live, on Red Mountain in Aspen. Those homes went for millions now. In a rented house, kind of a dilapidated eighties chalet, with a dirt drive and the garage filled with his things, so he had to leave his Bronco parked outside. He’d gone to see Allie Watkins at the end of the day, just like he’d said he would. First, to pay his respects; Trey’s father had come down from up north to take possession of his boy’s body. Then to ask her, just for appearance’s sake, if somehow there was anyone out there who would want to see her husband harmed.
Her raw, red eyes looked back at him quizzically.
“Just a formality,” he explained, “in these types of things. We’re just crossing off a line of investigation.”
She shook her head. She had her long blond hair wrapped back in a braid, and was in a kind of peasant dress with a shawl covering her shoulders. “I mean, there was someone who he had a dispute with over the patent they were applying for on his camera mount,” she thought back. “Mark Conners. He and Trey went to school together at CSU. But he lives in Massachusetts now. He wasn’t even here.”
“Massachusetts,” Wade said, nodding.
“Anyway, they seemed to have ironed it all out. Trey was giving him a small share of whatever he made. So no, no one, Chief Dunn. You knew Trey. Everyone liked him. I don’t know what you mean …”
“I’m not meaning anything, hon,” Wade said, putting his arm around her as he went to the door. “Now don’t go worrying about it. You’ve got enough to deal with as it is. You go take good care of that little boy of yours, okay?”
Later, he scraped together something to eat and sat down in front of the TV with a coffee. Tonight was one of those nights he longed for something a whole lot stronger.
She’s always been a tough one to rein in. Dani. Going back to when she was a kid. Whatever she did, she did as tough as any of the boys—rock climbing, hockey, snowboarding. Once she got on something, it was like a demon was in her head. One that wouldn’t let go. She had that headstrong nature. Like her mom. Wade hadn’t had much luck in that department, either.
This time, though, just this once, he knew, he would have to back her down.
There were things she didn’t understand. Things she would see in a different way if she persisted. A way that could cause trouble for him.
Things he had to make sure didn’t come out and that couldn’t get around. Too many things depended on it.
He drank up the last of his coffee and flicked on the TV. His cell phone sounded. He took a look and saw that it wasn’t his office. The words on the screen, UNKNOWN CALLER, made the acid in his stomach shoot up. He didn’t even want to answer, but, he knew, these weren’t exactly the kind of folk you left hanging. “Hello.”
There was no greeting, only a slight pause, then a firm but soft Oklahoma drawl almost hissing the words at him. “You said this would be a piece of cake, Chief. All buttoned up. So far, I’d say that’s anything but the case.”
“I know.”
“I don’t really want to hear that you know, Wade. I think you know the consequences of what happens if we can’t contain this.”
“I’ll handle it,” Wade said, though he saw the thing unraveling like a spool of thread in a cat’s paw.
“You’ll handle it, huh? You’ll handle it how, Wade? We already thought you had it all neatly bundled up. And now there’s another person going around making even more trouble. Some girl …”
“Listen …” Wade said, his stomach tightening as if it were squeezed into a ball. “How do you know about that?”
“Don’t you worry how we know about things. Just worry how you’re going to set it right. This was all supposed to go easy. First we find the kid on the river. The same route he always goes. Tuesdays and Fridays, right? Bright and early. No one around. Other than some fool flying in a goddamn balloon who goes spouting his mouth off. We both better hope he didn’t take pictures.”
“He didn’t. And you didn’t have to do it the way you did. Now I have all kinds of trouble here to factor in.”
“Sheriff, I promise you,” the caller laughed, “your little town doesn’t even know the meaning of the word trouble, if that’s what it is.”
“This time you stay out of it. I’ll take care of it,” Wade said. He also knew these were not the kind of people you lost your temper with. “I’ll make it go away.”
“Stay out of it …?” The person on the other end chuffed back a laugh. “How do you think you even got yourself reelected, Lieutenant Johnnie Walker Black? We stay out of it, you wouldn’t have gotten yourself appointed to the prom committee of your local high school.”
“It won’t go any further. I give you my word.”
“Damn right it won’t go further … ’Cause if it doesn’t, everything stops. Today. Not another dime. That boy of yours will have to find his own way back in life without our help. That understood?”
“It’s understood.” Wade gritted his teeth and swallowed the acidy taste back into his stomach.
“I want to be clear, Chief. Carbondale’s a cute little town. But if we have to make another stop down there, it might just be for you this time. So factor that kind of trouble into your thinking, Wade.” After waiting a moment to let the words sink in, the caller hung up.
Wade placed the phone back on the table, anger roiling inside.
He needed them off his back, but he had let them in. That he couldn’t deny.
Yes, one long set of rapids to run, he said to himself. No different than Trey.
Dani better keep her trap shut, that was all there was to it. Or he didn’t know what he’d be forced to do.
One thing he should’ve learned a long time ago, you deal with the devil, you better get ready for the temperature to rise.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#ulink_6cdb8d07-cef4-5e40-9366-d15ece871ead)
Early the next morning Dani was back out on the river.
There was a ranger station at the beginning of the park road. Cammie was on duty. Dani knew her, of course; she was out here almost every day. She handed out maps and advised people on where to camp and the conditions.
And they also kept track of the car traffic. All day.
“No run this morning?” Cammie said as Dani drove up, leaning out of her hut. The river had just been reopened and Dani waited at the gate until a few vans and buses from both Whitewater Adventures and a few competitors went on through. There was no kayak strapped to the top of Dani’s Subaru.
“I’m doing the bus pickup later this afternoon. Cammie, listen, you mind if I talk to you about something?”
“Not at all.” The ranger leaned out and looked down the road, seeing no one behind them. “Lots of doings out here these past two days. What’s on your mind?”
Dani pointed to the camera at the gate that recorded the license plates of all vehicles going inside the park. “You keep that thing on, don’t you?”
“Twenty-four/seven. Even after the gates are closed. State law.”
“And you keep the film here? From the past few days.”
They’d known each other for years, even though Cammie was about ten years older. But she’d been part of the park detail for a long time and Dani had been coming here since she was a teenager. Her booth had a picture taped up with her and her female partner. “Just what date are you looking for, Dani?”
Dani looked at her. “Last Tuesday. The twenty-second.”
Cammie looked back at her. “Tuesday was the day Trey Watkins was killed, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, it was.”
“That must have been rough.” The park ranger stepped out of her hut. “I know the two of you were friends. He still came out here a couple of times a week. He always seemed like a nice young man. Always called me ‘Judy Blue Eyes.’ Like from Crosby, Stills and Nash.” Cammie kind of blushed.
“Everyone liked Trey. And, yes, it was rough.” Dani nodded. “Thanks.”
“Seems kind of hard to believe. Happening where it did. That far downstream. Some people are saying it must have happened up around the Falls, and the current took him down. It sure seemed he knew what he was doing.”
“He did know what he was doing, Cammie,” Dani said. “That’s why I’d like to take a look at that film.”
The ranger’s eyes widened a bit, as she got the sense of what Dani was asking. “Everything I heard said it was just a crazy accident. Even the state parks team was here.”
Dani shrugged. “Look, I know this may not be one hundred percent by the book …”
“I’m not so concerned about by the book …” Cammie said. “It’s just that, it’s not here. It’s been handed over.”
“Handed over? Handed over to whom?” Dani said in surprise. “The Parks Service?” If everyone was so sure this whole thing was nothing but an accident, why would it dawn on them to take the film?
“Not the Parks Service. It was Chief Dunn who came and took it. Day after it took place.”
“Chief Dunn?” Wade? Wade had it all along. All the while he was saying this was just an accident. Cut and dried …
He was either hiding something from her, or he believed it, too.
“But we take ’em when people leave here, too.” Cammie pointed to another camera, this one facing the exit gate. “And he didn’t ask for that one. It’s all digital these days. Fine with me if you want to come in and take a look.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#ulink_79e0713e-7dbc-5397-885b-8b4378dbb91e)
He had it. The realization twisted inside Dani. Wade had it when she went into his office yesterday. When he made that big scene about her overreaching and butting out. It meant either that he suspected she was right—that Trey’s death was suspicious, and then Ron’s, too. Or worse, that he was protecting something.
He’d had it all along. Before she even found the helmet.
Which, after what Dani and Cammie saw was on it, also meant he knew …
There was a meeting under way at the police station. Another officer Dani didn’t recognize was manning the front, and Dani went right past him, the officer going, “Wait! Hold on. You can’t—” And she pushed open the door and barged straight into the chief’s office.
Wade was at the head of the small conference table with his one and only detective and another officer around it.
“You took it.” Dani glared at him.
“What?”
The two others at the table looked up in surprise.
“The camera roll from the ranger station at the river. On the morning Trey died.”
Wade’s face grew heated. “Dani, I’m gonna ask you to step out now, if you please …”
“Cammie said you came and got it two days ago. So you knew. You knew all along it wasn’t an accident. You knew there was someone out there even before I brought in the helmet yesterday.”
The air hung like lead. Wade put down his pen and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry for my stepdaughter’s outburst here. You all mind giving us five minutes and we’ll reconvene.”
The two of them left with a series of eye rolls and awkward glances that Dani knew would be around the station in two minutes. She realized this time she’d gone too far. She couldn’t help it. Wade had led her on. When the door finally shut behind them, he turned back and glared at her. “That’s my staff you just embarrassed me in front of. You do that again, and I don’t care if you’re my stepdaughter or not, so help me I’ll …”
“I’m sorry. I was out of line. But, Wade, you’ve had it all along. You let me go through that whole thing about Trey and Rooster and the helmet and the path I found … You know who it was, too. Who was out there that morning? Whose tire tracks I saw.”
“First of all,” Wade said, coming around the table, “it’s my job to look at anything that might—”
“That’s a load of bull, Wade. You told me Rooster was crazy. There’d be no reason to even request that film if it was all just an accident like you said. Unless you suspected there was something suspicious that went on out there. At least I’m damn well hoping that’s the reason for it.”
Wade leaned his hands against the table. “And what other reason might there be?”
“I don’t know. That you’re hiding something.” Dani didn’t back down. “That there was something on it you didn’t want anyone to see.”
Wade’s eyes took on a hardened expression, a space between hurt and outright anger. “That’s a mighty strong accusation, Dani, coming from someone who I’ve only been a friend to in life.”
“So convince me it isn’t, Wade. Who else has seen it? Who else did you show it to, if this was some kind of big investigation? I’m sorry if I don’t exactly believe you, but there’s a lot of recent history between us that doesn’t exactly rule that out.”
He swept his arm in anger, the papers on his table flying onto the floor. “I don’t have to convince you, Danielle. I’m the goddamn chief of police here! And whether there’s something there or not, that’s my role to determine, not yours. Just let me do my job!”
“Well, then do it!” Dani’s eyes lit up with accusation. “But next time you might want to requisition the exit tape as well. They keep it, Wade—just so there’s a record in case people get lost or stranded in the park. So they know exactly who’s still in there.”
Wade’s mouth opened a bit, and he stood there, as if he’d had a gun drawn on him.
Dani opened the manila envelope she had with her and removed the black-and-white photo. The one she made after she and Cammie looked at the film. She put it on his desk.
It was of a white Jeep Cherokee. Colorado plates. D69-416. “He came in at seven-oh-nine that morning. Just after Trey. And he left forty minutes later. Forty minutes, Wade! Just enough time for him to set up and do whatever he came to do and for Trey to take his first run.”
Wade’s fists dug into the table so hard Dani thought it was going to collapse. “You don’t know what you’re stepping into, girl …”
