Alex scrambled up the way she’d come down and ran for Quinn, for Sam, Mary—anyone. How could Quinn have been so very wrong about it being safe from bears here?
Gasping for breath on the upper level, she flung herself past the massive cedar tree and rushed toward the main path. She saw Ryker at the edge of the first cordoned-off area, filming.
No, don’t tell him yet...he would rush there...see Val like that. And they’d just had an argument, so that was his last memory of her.
Mary...where had she disappeared to? Back at the camp where Josh had gone?
She heard Quinn’s voice before she saw him. He was talking to one of the Denver women, the one Alex thought didn’t want to be here. She knew not to panic everyone, not scream out the nightmare she had seen. Poor Val, city girl, not wanting to even come out this far into the forest. Why had she? And alone when she’d clearly said she wasn’t leaving the lodge?
Alex stopped at the edge of this cordoned-off area and gestured madly to Quinn. He raised his head, said something to the woman and strode toward Alex, pulling her farther away.
For one moment, she was not sure how to say it.
“Quinn, Val came out of the compound. I think she fell—was pushed, I don’t know. Something got her. I think she’s dead, by the stream at the bottom of that little cliff.”
“Take me!” He held her arm tight, almost dragging her down the path.
They walked, then ran. “It was the direction I saw Mary go,” Alex told him. “Sam was looking for her—for Mary—and I saw where she went. I said I’d get her.
“That way!” she cried, pointing. “I climbed down on a narrow path beyond this big cedar by the stream.”
He moved ahead of her, carefully descending on the narrow, crooked path, and she followed. She wished this was a nightmare like she’d had again last night. It had felt real, too, that she was the one who had made blurred footprints; she was the one with long fingernails, clawing at the lodge to get in, to find herself, to find Allie.
He stopped when they reached the scene and threw out an arm to hold her back. Val’s sprawled body still lay on the edge of the stream. He bent to feel her neck for a pulse. He had blood on his hand when he stood.
“Yes, she’s dead. Stay back,” he told her. He looked stony-faced, though his eyes shimmered with unshed tears, and a deep frown furrowed his brow. He bent quickly to wash the blood off in the stream. “There are probably no footprints on this rock, but we might find some sign later. She could have slipped from above, so we’ll look up there, too, when the investigators come.”
“The police, clear from Anchorage?”
“State troopers and maybe the Alaska Bureau of Investigation. I swear, no bears have been around here lately,” he muttered as he bent closer to Val, “but then the stream could lure one.”
How stoic and brave Quinn was, she thought, for, as a child, he’d found his father and dog this way—bloody, dead.
His voice broke. “But I swear, a bear no more did that than put those claw marks outside your bedroom. She could have decided to come out to join us and, unused to the area, fell. Or someone was with her when she slipped—or she was pushed. I see her big purse is down by the stream a ways, so she wasn’t killed for it.”
“Yes—yes, that’s hers, but things could have been taken out.”
“We won’t touch it, or her again. Alex,” he said, gripping both her arms, “I’ll stay with her. You carefully climb up again. Go get Sam and tell him we need more of that flagging tape we use to cordon off this scene. Only tell him, maybe Mary if you see her, not Ryker yet. If you see Brent, tell him since he’s a lawyer. Do you have your cell phone on you, because I didn’t bring mine.”
“Yes. Yes, it’s in my backpack.”
“Let me use it to call the state troopers if it connects from down here.” He helped her fish it out of her backpack and tried it, telling her, “Good! The call area reaches here. We don’t have counties in Alaska and no police per se—just state troopers.”
Alex climbed up to the forest floor, then ran back toward the main path to tell others about Val. She was shocked to see Val had come out into the forest and Quinn had said a bear attack hadn’t happened here. If she hadn’t just fallen, that meant some human animal had killed her.
Only Quinn kept chaos away, even though he yelled at her not to climb down to the stream again. Sam came, shouting down to confer with Quinn, then went away to tell the students there had been a fatal accident, that it did not concern one of their fellow students nor the staff. They were to return to the camp dining hall because the state troopers were coming from Anchorage to investigate the scene.
Josh appeared from somewhere and, like Sam before, frowned down at Quinn guarding the body. Josh called down to him that he’d helped move the curious crowd toward the camp and that Mary had gone back to her house and was resting.
“And Brent Bayer’s handling Ryker,” Josh added, cupping his hands around his mouth again. “The guy’s flipping out. Wants to see her now. Going nuts to think somebody killed her. He doesn’t think she’d come out here on her own to even have a chance to fall. So,” Josh said, turning to her and lowering his voice, “you got any ideas who might have pushed her, if that’s what happened?” Talk about Ryker losing control—Josh looked and sounded panicked, like a time bomb waiting to go off.
“Of course not,” Alex said, holding up both hands as if she could calm him. “I’m so sorry this happened. I was looking for Mary and found Val instead. I’m sure they’ll let Ryker see her, say goodbye, when they come.”
“He was shaking hard—and crying.”
“Poor Val, like a fish out of water here. But if someone like Ryker—however angry he is—is crying in public...” Her voice broke and she blinked back tears again. Val had meant something to him, even though their lives seemed so different—likes, dislikes, ideas, plans for the future. Or else he regretted their argument today.
Shortly after Josh hurried away, Brent appeared. He nodded to her, patted her on the back. “I’m here if you or Quinn need me during questioning when the troopers arrive,” he said, then called that offer down to Quinn before he turned back to her. “Quinn’s savvy to stay with the body so no one and nothing tampers with it—with her. A tragedy. I’ve seen too damn many of them.” He shouted to Quinn again. “You want me to come down?”
“Why don’t you go back to the camp with Sam to wait for the troopers?”
“Will do.” He looked back to Alex, his eyes narrowed as if to assess her mood. “I hope this doesn’t change things too much around here,” he said, frowning. “Our wilderness ambience is about to be invaded, and we don’t need that, though I suppose, for some, it will make the area and show more intriguing.”
He turned and jogged away. A big-city lawyer indeed, Alex thought, cold-blooded in a way. The poor woman had been a pain to some, yes, but a deeply unhappy woman. Sad. So sad.
She pitied Ryker, too. She recalled that, more than once today, she’d seen him go off into the forest to visit different sites and students. Would the troopers take photos for evidence? Would Ryker want to when he came to his senses? Was his shock sincere or had Val come out to continue her argument with Ryker and then...
And something else Brent had said hit her hard: if this was a murder—and not an accidental fall or a bear attack—even though they were miles from a TV station or newspaper, this place could soon be swarming with reporters. Brent had intimated that, too. Reporters with questions and cameras of their own. Quinn had asked Ryker not to film Alex or any other nonstudents to keep her location secret in case someone she used to know saw the program.
But she was the one who had found the body. If someone was arrested for murder, she’d be one of the witnesses in court. Damn, her safe and secret spot might soon be public knowledge.
It took nearly two hours before Troopers Reed Hanson and Jim Kurtz arrived with a rescue squad vehicle. Still standing at the brow of the rocky outcrop above Quinn and the body, Alex heard the distant, shrill sirens cut out as the official vehicles came closer and parked at the camp. When she told Quinn they were here, he climbed up to join her. Sam brought both troopers to the scene, and two medics followed carrying a gurney and a tarp. Quinn introduced her and names were exchanged all around.
Trooper Hanson was stocky with red hair that barely showed under his flat-brimmed, blue hat; Trooper Kurtz was tall with narrow, sharp eyes but a kind face. Kurtz seemed to be the spokesman for the two.
To Alex’s surprise, Quinn knew the troopers. Kurtz told him, “Good work on that SAR team effort to find the lost kid last fall. Sorry for the tragedy here. We need to go down to the scene, but glad you’ve been guarding it. You discovered the body?” he asked Quinn.
“No, Alex did. She lives and works at the lodge down the road. She was here as an observer today, was looking for Mary Spruce, who works with us, and stumbled on the body. Since then, we’ve learned Mary isn’t feeling well and is back at our camp.”
Trooper Kurtz turned to her. “How about you and Quinn come down to the scene with us, Ms. Collister? We’ll start with learning what you saw and did, then take photos. When the scene’s secure, the medics will remove the body to the morgue for an autopsy.”
“Yes,” Alex said. “Anything I can do. I didn’t know her well, but I did give her a ride here from the lodge today. Her—her friend Ryker would like to see her before these men take her away.”
“Okay, all that in due time. Hopefully he can tell us next-of-kin information. We want him to know we are deeply sorry for his loss.”
Alex dared to wonder if there was any way that Ryker could have already seen Val’s body. They had been arguing, and not for the first time. Had Val really stayed behind, or had she dared to come out to harass Ryker? No, Alex told herself, she had to let these troopers—and poor Quinn, who didn’t need this terrible publicity—settle all that. She had enough to worry about with her name and picture perhaps going public. Surely she and Quinn could make a plea with these troopers for her privacy, or was this all now just a matter of public record?
“Let’s go,” Trooper Kurtz said. “Quinn, lead the way.”
Off they went down the path Alex had already traveled twice today.
Quinn could not believe this terrible turn of events—this tragedy. And he’d bet everything that a bear had not killed Valerie Chambers, even if she had changed her mind about coming out of the compound. Sadly, it had been long ago seared in his brain what claw marks from a bear mauling looked like. And he was just as sure the marks outside Alex’s bedroom were ones not attached to a bear.
Not only did Val’s gruesome death make him sick to his stomach, but he hated that Alex had found the body. He thought the inevitable autopsy would show broken bones from a fall, but maybe not. Someone could have killed her by the stream or carried her body there. But she’d seemed so hesitant about being in the woods—and alone?
It scared him that Sam had seemed so nervous about protecting Mary, but surely he didn’t think she could be involved. He well knew both Sam and Mary fervently wished Val was gone.
But he was still convinced a bear had nothing to do with Val’s death. So what or who did?