Fatal Descent Read online

  She flipped through the pages to try to make sense of the doodles. Names of all of Alice’s family members were embellished and turned into cartoon faces, animals and plants, but Les’s name was the most frequent. The L often formed the bottom point of a heart. And some of the drawings made from Amy’s and Alex’s names had Xs scratched over them. Was Alice angry at her siblings or just not satisfied with the drawings?

  A noise made her start and shove the books back in the dry bag. She stepped out of the tent and saw Alice Anderson running toward camp calling her name. What the hell?

  Alice stopped in front of her. She leaned forward with hands on her knees and heaved a bit to catch her breath. “It’s Dad. … He collapsed on the way down. … Rob said we need to make a stretcher to carry him. He said you would know where a tarp, some poles, and ropes are. Kendra and I volunteered to run down to get you and the supplies.” She sucked in more deep breaths.

  “Where’s Kendra?”

  “A few minutes behind me.” Alice straightened and cocked her head at Mandy. “What were you doing in our tent?”

  “Oh, I saw a chipmunk go in under the flap. They can do some damage chewing on fabric, so I chased it out.” She leaned down to zip the entrance flap tight, which also hid her face from Alice’s peering gaze. “Is your dad hurt? Is he conscious?”

  “No, he’s not hurt and he’s awake. He’s just too tired to walk any more.”

  “Okay, let’s get those supplies.”

  While they headed for the rafts, Mandy wondered if this was another murder attempt. Could Hal have been poked with a hypodermic like Alex, or was what she had seen on the Lathrop ruins hike indicative of a health issue?

  “Does your father have a health problem that we don’t know about?” she asked Alice sharply.

  Alice refused to meet Mandy’s gaze. “He swore us to secrecy.”

  Mandy grabbed her arm. “We’ve got to know what’s wrong so we can treat him. Is he diabetic? Does he have hypertension?”

  Alice removed Mandy’s hand. “No, nothing like that. Nothing you can treat. But you won’t get it out of me. You’ll have to ask him.” She turned her head as Kendra appeared behind them. “And I suggest you ask in private. The damn man has his pride.” She clamped her lips tight, indicating the conversation was over.

  “Girl, you took off like a shot,” Kendra said to Alice, while taking deep breaths. “I couldn’t keep up.”

  “Well, I am a runner,” Alice replied, then turned to Mandy. “So where’s the tarp?”

  Mandy clambered onto her raft and dug the tarp, poles, and rope out of the supply stash. She parceled out the items among Kendra, Alice, and herself and grabbed a water bottle. “Let’s go.”

  They took off at a quick pace, but by the time they had scrabbled up the first gentle rise to the base of the switchback trail up the cliffside, Mandy could see the group slowly making their way down the last few hundred feet. Rob and Gonzo had Hal slung between them in a fireman’s carry. They were picking their way sideways down the single-file trail while Cool preceded them and called out where to put their feet. The others followed silently.

  Mandy put the poles she was carrying on the ground. “By the time we get this stretcher built, they’ll be here.”

  She took the tarp from Kendra and used the grommet holes along the two sides to lash it around the poles. True to her prediction, by the time she and Kendra had finished tying the knots, the group had arrived. Rob and Gonzo eased Hal onto the makeshift stretcher and Diana fell down on her knees beside him. The others stood back, anxiety lining their faces.

  Mandy studied Hal’s face and didn’t like what she saw. The man’s skin was pale and clammy, and his breathing was shallow. What’s wrong with him?

  Before she could question Rob about what had happened, though, he said, “Let’s get him to camp.” He directed Gonzo, Cool, and Paul to each pick up an end of a pole while he took the fourth one.

  Mandy helped Diana to her feet and led the way back to camp. She found a flat shady spot under a dying tamarisk a short distance from camp where they could lay the stretcher. She was determined to find out what was wrong with Hal, but was mindful of what Alice had said about asking him in private. So, as soon as the men lowered him to the ground, she addressed the group.

  “Rob and I will stay with Hal, along with his wife. The rest of you need to break camp. Gonzo, Kendra, and Cool, you’ll be in charge of lunch, too.”

  With a few last concerned looks at Hal, the others wandered off to do what they were told. Diana had lowered herself onto the ground next to her husband and was holding his hand. Hal’s eyes were shut, but he had raised an arm to wipe sweat off his forehead, so Mandy knew he was awake—and being male, probably embarrassed about causing such a ruckus.

  She knelt next to Diana by Hal’s head. “Mister Anderson,” she started, to show some respect, “do you need some water?”

  He nodded, and she slipped a hand under his head to help ease it up so he could take a few swallows from a water bottle. After he lay back down, she caught his gaze and gave him a stern look.

  “I understand your desire to keep your medical condition private, especially from the other clients.” She swept a hand toward the bustling camp. “But Rob and I have to know what’s wrong, so if you get in trouble on the trip, we can give you the right first aid. You were supposed to list any health issues on your confidential medical form, but since you didn’t, you need to tell us now.”

  Hal shook his head, but Diana said, “We’ve got to tell them, Hal.”

  Rob sat down on the other side of Hal across from Mandy and Diana. “Yes, you need to tell us, but it will go no further than the two of us. We’ll keep it private, whatever it is.”

  Hal sighed and nodded at Diana, then closed his eyes again.

  She looked at Rob, then turned her head toward Mandy, exposing the bright tears pooled in her eyes. “He’s got lung cancer. Terminal lung cancer. He’s dying and there’s nothing the doctors or you or anyone else can do to stop it.” A tear splashed on Hal’s hand that she held tightly in hers.

  “Jesus,” Rob whispered.

  The horror of dealing with another death on the trip swirled through Mandy’s head. Then she realized Hal’s doctor probably wouldn’t have allowed him to go on the trip if he was that close to dying—or had he told his doctor his plans?

  She waited for Hal to open his eyes. “What did your doctor say about you taking this trip?”

  Hal grimaced. “She wasn’t happy about it.”

  “But she said he still had at least a few weeks before the cancer would incapacitate him,” Diana added. “Once she realized how important this trip was to the family, she read your trip description and decided Hal should be able to handle it. But she told him not to try anything strenuous, that his remaining lung capacity wouldn’t support it.” She gave Hal a disapproving frown. “Then stubborn you insisted on going on that damn hike.”

  “I had to try it,” Hal struggled to rise, and Rob helped him to a sitting position. “I’m sorry I caused all that trouble, but hell, this is my last chance to see views like that.”

  Mandy studied him to see if sitting up would make him dizzy, but his color seemed to be returning. “Did you get a chance to see the views before—”

  “Before I wilted on the trail?” Hal finished for her. “Yes, it was on the way down that my legs gave out. I hadn’t realized how shallowly I’d been breathing. My leg muscles just weren’t getting enough oxygen to work right.”

  Diana nodded. “That’s happened to him before.”

  Kendra called out, “Lunch is ready. Pasta salad!”

  “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m hungry.” Hal rolled over onto his hands and knees. “I’m okay now. I think I can stand.”

  He pushed himself to his feet, but Rob stood close with a hand under Hal’s elbow, just in case. Ma
ndy stepped closer, ready to help support Hal on the other side. They waited for a moment while he took a few breaths.

  He walked to Diana and took her arm, then turned and searched Mandy and Rob’s faces. “Not a word to anyone, right?”

  “Right,” Rob said.

  “But your family already knows, don’t they?” Mandy asked. “When I asked Alice if you had a health problem, she seemed to know something. But she wouldn’t tell me what it was, and said you swore the family to secrecy about it.”

  “Yes, they know,” Diana said. “A couple of months ago, after we found out the chemo failed, Hal and I sat them down to tell them the news and talk about how the estate will be settled. Each of the three kids will get a fourth right away, with me getting the other fourth. We wanted them to know that they’ll be comfortably well off and won’t have to worry about anything after …” She bit her lip.

  “After I’m gone.” Hal patted her arm, and they turned and walked toward camp.

  “Comfortably well off,” Mandy said to Rob, after the couple was out of earshot. “There’s a motive for you. A big inheritance. Either one of Alex’s sisters could have killed him to make their share even larger.”

  A puzzled expression crept onto Rob’s face. “That makes sense. But what about Elsa? Why go after her? And neither one of them was on the cliff with Elsa.”

  thirteen

  The important thing to remember is that you’re

  dancing with the river—and you’re not leading.

  —boatman john running

  Mandy and Rob grabbed some pasta salad, then walked to where the rafts bobbed in the water to eat a hurried lunch and to talk. Mandy told Rob about her search. “Unfortunately, I didn’t find either the bear paw or a hypodermic needle. And I never got to the girlfriends’ tent.”

  “They don’t have a connection to either Alex or Elsa,” Rob said, “so maybe we can rule them out.”

  “That’s why I left their tent for last,” Mandy replied, “but I don’t think we can rule anyone out. Not yet.”

  Rob nodded solemnly. “True.”

  Mandy changed the subject. “I gather you didn’t find anyone up there.”

  “No, no hikers, and no evidence of campers, either. That couple we spotted yesterday must have just been passing through. They could be anywhere in the Maze now. I left Cool with the clients, and Gonzo, Kendra, and I split up and searched the whole Doll House area. We found nothing. I almost feel like I’m in one of those disaster movies, where the whole world’s destroyed except for one small group of people.”

  Mandy shuddered. “More like the opposite. We’re the disaster, and no one’s around to help us.”

  “The only thing left to do is to keep moving down the river and make sure we rendezvous with our pick-up tomorrow morning.” Rob ate his last bite of pasta salad and glanced at Mandy’s watch. “I wanted to be on the river a half hour ago. Let’s get moving. You ready the rafts and I’ll ready the crew.”

  Mandy helped Kendra pack the kitchen gear. After they stowed it in the rafts, she checked the lashings on all of the other gear and on Alex’s body bag in Rob’s raft. Mandy wanted the ropes to be as tight as possible before hitting the rapids in Cataract Canyon.

  “The last thing we need now is to lose Alex’s body to the river after carrying it this far,” she said to Kendra while tightening a knot. “His poor parents have been through enough.”

  When she got no response, she looked at Kendra and saw her fellow river guide was staring at the body bag. “You okay?”

  “Why can’t we smell him?” Kendra asked. “Shouldn’t he be stinking by now?”

  Mandy sat back on her haunches in Rob’s raft. “Yeah, he is, plenty. But the bag’s airtight, which keeps the odor from getting out.” Thank the river gods.

  They returned to the camp, where Rob was giving all of the clients a safety briefing and a review of paddling techniques. Cool and Gonzo circulated among the clients, checking their PFD straps and cinching them tight.

  Les tugged on his PFD. “I can’t breathe with this lifejacket so tight!”

  “Our mantra is that if you can’t breathe you can’t drown,” Cool said while rechecking Les’s straps. He loosened the one over the middle of Les’s chest a fraction of an inch. “We don’t want the water ripping the PFD off you. How’s that?”

  “Not much better,” Les grumbled.

  After Cool’s statement, though, no one else seemed inclined to complain. Mandy scanned their faces and recognized the familiar stink of nervous tension coming off the clients. As with all of her past whitewater rafting trip clients, eyes were bright, limbs couldn’t keep still, and tongues were licking lips suddenly gone dry as they anticipated the excitement ahead. She hoped the only dangers they would face would be those posed by Mother Nature, not by their mysterious killer.

  Rob finished his safety briefing with, “It may sound obvious, folks, but stay in the raft. If you have to, stop paddling to hold on. Okay, let’s get this show on the river!” He turned and signaled for everyone to follow.

  All of the clients had opted to try paddling the rapids, even Hal Anderson, so they piled into Kendra’s and Gonzo’s rafts. Cool joined Rob in his raft. Rob’s raft was taking the lead position, and he needed Cool in the front. Since Cool had run the canyon multiple times, he and Rob would pick out the routes to run in each rapid.

  Mandy took the sweep position in the rear since she would be running the canyon for the first time, having missed the scouting trip. She planned to watch the routes the other rafts took through the rapids before lining up her own. And, she was responsible for picking up any swimmers. She hoped there wouldn’t be any.

  When the flotilla rounded the sharp left turn the Colorado River made below Spanish Bottom, Mandy could hear the roar of the Brown Betty rapid. Her heart beat faster in anticipation, the adrenaline rush flushing her cheeks. She felt the familiar surge of joy, confidence, and pure power that kept bringing her back to whitewater for another fix.

  Used to running the clear, blue-green waters of the Arkansas River, Mandy found the milk chocolate–colored waves of the Colorado disconcerting. But when she focused on the structures and features in the roiling water—the whitecaps glinting in the sunlight, the downstream and upstream Vs, the swirling holes—she began to feel at home. She watched Rob run Brown Betty cleanly and made a mental note of the turns and cross-river ferries he executed. Then she turned her attention to Kendra’s and Gonzo’s rafts.

  Kendra’s raft made a clean run, to the whoops and hollers of the passengers, then it was Gonzo’s turn. Just as his raft reached the lip of the first drop, Paul let go of his paddle with one hand and grabbed the waterproof camera that hung on a lanyard around his neck.

  Damn it, Mandy thought. We told them more than once not to try to take photos while in the rapids.

  Paul compounded his error by raising himself to hold the camera above Tina’s head in front of him.

  Gonzo yelled, “Get down! Put your hand on your paddle!” at him to no avail.

  The raft dove and smacked into the first standing wave of the rapid. As Mandy expected, the jolt pitched Paul out of the raft.

  Gonzo had anticipated it, too. He shouted paddle instructions at the others in his raft and reached a hand out over the water. He tried to grab Paul as the raft bobbed past him.

  But Paul was so disoriented he flailed away from the raft instead of toward it. He missed Gonzo’s hand. After the raft passed him, Gonzo shouted at Paul to swim toward Mandy’s raft.

  Mandy gave up aiming for the rapid’s ideal entry point. Hauling on her oars, she pointed her raft at Paul. She took a moment to cram the whistle tied to her PFD in her mouth and blow on it. She knew her voice wouldn’t carry to Paul over the roar of the rapid, but she hoped he would hear the whistle.

  Thankfully, he spun in the water as if searching for the origin of the whistle
blast. When he saw her, he started dog paddling in her direction.

  Good, Mandy thought, he’s thinking clearly again.

  When she got close enough, she yelled, “Grab the rope!”

  Mandy angled her raft toward Paul so the side would graze him as they both bounced along one side of the rapid’s train of standing waves. They had told the clients that if they fell in the river, they should immediately swim for the nearest raft and grab the rope running along the outside. They were to hang on for dear life and ride out the rapid that way until the raft guide or a passenger could haul them in.

  When Mandy’s raft hit him, Paul snatched frantically at the rope while waves crashed over his head, temporarily blinding him. He finally grabbed the rope with his left hand toward the back of the raft. Mandy pulled back on her oars, working against the current to slow the raft. She wanted to give Paul a chance to get his right hand on the rope before it was ripped out of the left.

  She watched over her shoulder as Paul scrabbled for the rope. Finally, his right hand closed around it. Relieved, Mandy turned her attention to the rapid itself. The jagged edge of a mostly submerged massive boulder approached on Paul’s side of the raft.

  Shit!

  Mandy hauled like a demon on the oars so they would skirt the rock with enough room for Paul to avoid getting hurt. Once they were past that, she saw that they had reached the short lull between Upper and Lower Brown Betty. She boated the oars and clambered back to where Paul was hanging on.

  She knelt and grabbed the shoulders of his PFD. “On the count of three, kick hard and push up on your hands.”

  He did as he was told, and Mandy yanked as hard as she could. His upper body flopped over the pontoon. With Mandy pulling on his PFD, he managed to get a leg over and roll the rest of the way into the raft. He lay there panting.