Overkill(95)

Still holding his pistol aimed at Zach, Morris leaned forward slightly and again peered over the edge into the crevice. “He fell?”

“Yes,” Kate replied.

“He wasn’t pushed if that’s what you’re implying,” Zach said.

“Cool it, Bridger. How’d you two get across?”

“We jumped,” Kate said.

Morris snorted. “You expect me to believe that?”

Before Zach realized what she was going to do, Kate moved back several feet, got a running start, and leaped. She made a sure-footed landing, but Zach’s heart almost burst from his chest. He hadn’t been there to catch her. Morris held something in each hand. He’d been too astonished to have grabbed her if she’d faltered, and he was too much of a lummox to have done so even if he had been prepared. Christ!

“Everything I’ve told you is the truth,” she was saying to the deputy. “Eban Clarke would have killed us.”

“Are you going to shoot me if I come across?” Zach asked. Without waiting for Morris’s permission, he jumped. Ignoring Morris’s bluster, he said, “Put the pistol away. Kate and I don’t pose a threat to you.”

“No, just to my job. You’re keeping me off the payroll.”

“That was the sheriff’s decision, not mine.”

“But you—”

“Do your job now, and he won’t have an excuse to keep you on suspension. Have you called in what you discovered at my house?”

Morris, still looking hacked, slid the firearm somewhere inside his jacket. “Yeah. They’ll beat us there. But I need to let the sheriff know to dispatch Rescue and Recovery for Clarke. Helicopter’s out of the question,” he said, looking through the fog toward the sky. “Cell signal is weak, but it might work.”

Morris got the call through and soon was speaking to the sheriff in stops and starts, frequently asking, “Can you hear me?”

Kate placed her hand in the crook of Zach’s elbow and turned him to face her. Speaking softly, she said, “Fourth and short. I get what you meant now. You faked Eban out to draw him offsides.”

“That’s what you try to do when you only need inches for a first down. Most of the time the ploy doesn’t work. It did this time.”

She placed her hand on his chest. “Thank you for saving my life.”

“Thank you for coming into mine.”

Whatever else might have been said went unspoken. Morris rejoined them. “Service was spotty, but we were able to communicate the main stuff. Sheriff’s assembling the rescue squad. Wants to hustle them down here in case Clarke’s alive. But they won’t know where to find him. Says if I lead them down here, I’ll get my job back.”

“Let’s not waste any time then. Stick close.” Zach claimed Morris’s flashlight and held it pointed down at the ground as he started up the trail in the lead, Kate’s hand in his as she followed. Morris brought up the rear.

Speaking over his shoulder, Zach said, “Morris? What were you doing up here tonight, anyway?”

“Oh, Jeez. I forgot. I had an important message for you.”





They made their way uphill as quickly as they safely could. Knowing Dr. Gilbreath must have an update on Rebecca’s condition, Zach postponed calling her until he could get a clearer cell signal. He told Kate he didn’t want their conversation to be fragmented.

After that, he said very little except to warn her and Morris of obstacles along the trail. The flashlight was of some help, but by the time they reached the plateau at the top, every muscle in her body felt like jelly, and her lungs were on fire.

In the cul-de-sac, her SUV was the only vehicle that didn’t have multicolored flashers. Fog created halos around them and limned everything with a pulsating aura that made the scene appear even more surreal.

Uniformed emergency personnel wearing reflective vests were milling about, conferring with one another. Some were stringing crime scene tape from tree to tree.

Zach approached one of the officers and asked to borrow his phone, then went over and sat down on the stump where he’d set his coffee mug the morning she’d disrupted his peaceful existence.

Sheriff Meeker had been alerted to their arrival. He jogged over and met her and Morris at the twin stone pillars flanking the walkway. He introduced himself to her. An accompanying deputy passed her a bottle of water, which she gratefully accepted. Another draped a Mylar blanket over her shoulders. She clutched it closed against her chest.

The R and R team were geared up and standing by. Morris gulped a bottle of water, took another with him, and struck off down the path with the crew following. She actually felt sorry for him. She would hate having to make that trek again, especially knowing the difficult task awaiting them at the crevasse, even if Eban were still alive.

“Over here, Ms. Lennon.” The sheriff indicated an ambulance where a paramedic stood waiting in the open doors.

“I’m fine.”

He pointed down at her knee. The fabric of her slacks had split open. The blood was fresh. “I fell down and scraped my knee. It’s nothing.”

“Let’s take a look.”

She got the feeling he wasn’t giving her a choice. Under the sheriff’s guidance, she walked over to the ambulance but insisted on sitting down in the opening, not being lifted inside.