That someone was a couple of hikers connected to the station wagon. Brill watched them descend the far trail at a leisurely pace, and pull out bottled water from a wet cooler under a tarp on the car.
He stood up, waved to get their attention as he walked over.
“John,” he stuck out his hand.
“Deborah,” said the white haired woman he pegged at ten years older than he was.
“Sue,” said her partner. “You’re new.”
Astute powers of observation aside, she seemed nice. Brill nodded.
“Came to do some running, but found trouble instead,” he shrugged.
He kept his eyes moving. Not because he couldn’t hold a stare, but most people got uncomfortable when he did. He looked at their foreheads, their noses, eyes shifting from one woman to the next.
“Anything we can help with?” asked Sue.
She looked a few years younger than Deborah, a few pounds heavier through the trunk and middle. They both had the air of experience about them, and car camping to hike a remote spot in the Dakota’s was no joke.
“If you have a phone, does it work out here?”
Deborah shook her head.
“We can get service at the entrance,” she tilted her head in the
direction three miles away.
The entrance to the park was a generous description of the culvert and rock bridge they crossed to roll up the dirt road to this spot.
“Is it an emergency?” Sue asked.
He nodded and noted the approach of another camper on the trail behind Deborah and Sue. A good looking younger man, sweat stained and dirty, climbing gear hanging off his shoulder and hips.
He saw Brill speaking with the women and angled toward them.
“Hey man,” he held out his hand. “Des.”
“John,” Brill shook back.
“He needs a phone,” said Deborah. “I told him it won’t work unless you go to the entrance.”
“Can’t order pizza out here dude,” Des joked. “They won’t deliver in thirty minutes or less.”
“It’s an emergency,” Sue confided.
Des nodded.
“I figured,” he said. “I was joking about the pizza. Come on, I’ll give you a ride and you can use my phone.”
He took off toward one of the 4Runners parked a few cars down and tossed his gear into a chair set up by the fire.
“Watch my spot girls?”
He waved to Deborah and Sue. Des reached across and unlocked the passenger door to let Brill climb in.
He handed him a flip phone and started up the SUV.
“You climb?” he asked.
“No,” said Brill.
“Too bad. We’ve got some great passes up here. Guess that’s good though,” Des grinned out of the side of his face, both eyes glued to the road.
“Why is that?”
“Cause I don’t have to share my secret spots with you.”
They drove in silence for the rest of the three miles and Des pulled off to the side.
“Is this a wait for the ambulance kind of emergency or a-?”
“Ambulance won’t help,” said Brill.
He held the phone back to Des.
“We need the police.”
Des looked at the phone for a moment but didn’t reach to grab it.
“No police out here. Sheriff’s office patrols the county.”
“911?”
“You can try.”
Brill didn’t want to make the call. 911 tapes were recorded, and a voice analysis would pop him on radar just as fast as prints. He was pretty sure the NSA wasn’t pulling random recordings from cell towers just yet, but he knew computer programs existed for just that purpose.
Making the call started a clock.
He figured he would have three or four weeks from the time it started.
Ten days he calculated.
That’s how long it would take for the Sheriff to clear him from the crime.
That was his window.
He held out the phone a second longer, just to see if Des would take it. Maybe the man was on a clock of his own.
He dialed 911 and let it ring ten times, then ten more.
Brill wasn’t surprised he felt relieved when no one answered.
“No luck.”
He pressed zero for the operator.
She answered on the first ring.
"Operator."
"Can you connect me to the police?" he asked. "There's been an emergency."
"Oh," she said. "You need to call 911."
"I tried," he explained. "No answer."
"Try again," she hung up.
Brill stared at the phone a moment, then dialed 911. The operator's out of breath voice answered.
"911, what's your emergency?"
"Didn't I just speak to you?" he asked.
"Yeah, but this is 911," she answered as if that was explanation enough.
He told her about the body and the camp location.
"Stay there," she stammered. "I'll send Jo."