2. Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Dylan
E lise had lied to the sheriff who drove up the next morning to meet us at the base of the hiking trail. That was so not like her. Not that she ever let me get close enough to do much more than silently watch how she reacted in whatever situation she was forced to share with me. Okay, maybe not quite so silently, but I had definitely watched her since the first time we met, and her dad, our coach at the time, gave me the “don’t ogle my daughter” look when he caught me staring at her.
Now, we were slowly making our way to the place Elise told the sheriff she had found the fanny pack. There were only two logical reasons she would have told that lie. Either she didn’t want to be left out of the investigation, or she wanted to save Gabby and Eden from being more traumatized than they already were.
“It’s not much farther,” she said to the pudgy guy who was too busy huffing and wiping at the rivers of sweat dripping off him to even look where he was going.
We were all sweating. The sun beat down so hard that it felt like my back was going to light on fire if we didn’t find shade soon.
Judging by the determined look in the Elise’s shockingly bright blue eyes that made my heart stop every time she looked at me, and the way she ground her teeth in irritation at this dude’s slow pace, she was super anxious to see if she could find her dad’s body. Even though we weren’t supposed to.
Before we’d even started out, Sheriff-What’s-His-Bucket had warned us that we wouldn’t be searching for a body. He said his job was to figure out the lay of the land based on where she’d found the pack and figure out next steps before calling in a search and rescue team. Then, the guy had the nerve to tell Elise there wouldn’t be much of a rush to bring people in since her dad’s corpse wasn’t going anywhere.
I’d bet every tube of hair dye I’d ever used that Elise planned on finding her dad today, no matter what that sheriff said about leaving the second he told us to.
Should I try to stop her? Seeing your parent’s dead body had to be upsetting. I wasn’t even that close to my dad, but if I found him dead, I’d probably never forget that mental image.
We took another “water break” under a tall pine tree while the sheriff laid huffing against a rock, and Elise offered Bessey some of her drink. The dog pranced around, whining. I’ve heard dogs could sniff out human remains. Was that what was happening here? For Elise’s sake, I hoped not. Let the cops deal with that stuff. They were probably pretty used to it, and at least weren’t related to the guy.
Besides, I’d rather have my last memories of Coach Dave be him running beside us in his scandalously skimpy running shorts, telling us jokes, and giving us pep-talks.
Finally, What’s-His-Bucket caught his breath enough to keep going, and we got to the top of the hill overlooking Silver Lake.
Screeching, a hawk circled overhead before diving to snag something from between the rocks below. A few seconds later, it took off in the direction of the lake with something wriggling and squeaking between its claws. Something about the scene made me shudder.
“Alright, Miss, now where exactly did you find that pack?” What’s-His-Bucket wheezed.
“It was down here,” she said, stepping carefully down the rock covered hillside.
How did she know that? She’d spent a few minutes talking quietly with Eden and Gabby when we got back to camp before everyone except for us packed up. They must have told her. Barking, Bessey hurried after her.
“Hold on there,” the dude called after us, but the dog didn’t care.
She sent rocks flying in her mad scramble downhill. For a second, she even started to roll before catching herself. Even then, she didn’t slow down.
“Bessey, stop!” Elise called, rushing to catch up.
The dog shook herself, then froze. She sniffed first at the air, then at the rocks. Next, she dug.
“Get that dog under control!” the sheriff yelled.
Elise reached her dog and yanked at her collar. Bessey must have been possessed, because no matter what Elise tried, that dog would not settle down. She jerked back and forth until she broke free. Then, it was right back to digging.
I reached them and tried wrapping my arms around Bessey’s middle. She whined as I pulled her back, then went still at her owner's gasp. I shouldn’t have looked, but a sick curiosity gripped me, and before I could stop myself, I was staring at a dingy looking skull.
“It’s okay, Honey; we see it.” Elise’s voice cracked. “You found him.”
Elise
The Sheriff snapped a few pictures of Dad's skull with his phone before ordering us to follow him back up to the trail. As I scrambled up the rocky hillside, I alternated between stealing glances of the exposed skull to never wanting to see it again. How could I ever forget those hollow, haunting eyes? They stared back at me everywhere I looked. Searching for Dad had been an awful idea.
As we hiked, the rocks slid and sometimes rolled from under our feet. The plunk of falling stones reverberated off the surrounding mountain peaks while the rest of the landscape sat eerily still. Despite the intense heat, I shivered and rubbed my goose-pimpled arms.
Nothing in my situation had changed with this revelation, yet I had never in all my life felt more alone.
I turned for another look at the spot where we’d found Dad. How odd. I blinked, then squinted to be sure. Yes, surrounding his remains was a large mound of rocks. Nothing boulder-sized, but rather a whole bunch of medium to slightly large stones piled on top of one another about two-thirds of the way down the hill. Like someone had purposely stacked them that way.
“Excuse me, Sheriff.”
The man turned with a scowl. He was still fuming that Bessey had disturbed the scene.
“See those rocks around the body? Don’t you think it’s a little weird that they would cluster that way? It’s almost like someone arranged them like that on purpose.”
“Maybe. Or they could have just rolled there in a rockslide,” he said with a shrug.
“A rockslide that paused partway down the mountain?” I gave him an incredulous look.
“Look, Miss, I’m just here to give an initial impression. It’s not my job to sort out details. Seeing as how we’ve found a human skull, a Search and Rescue team probably won’t be needed. I’ll see about getting a group of anthropologists from the college to come recover the body, maybe as soon as tomorrow, if they’re available. It’ll be up to the coroner to use all the evidence to determine if this was a murder.”
“You mean you’re going to leave his body just sitting there? What if an animal gets to it?” My tone was frantic. “I’m not about to walk away from him just to let something else happen. I need answers, and I can’t get them if his corpse is tampered with.”
“Miss, let’s not make this ugly. I can’t leave a family member with the body. If I did, I’d lose my job. I need to get down to where I can make arrangements to get this mess taken care of and keep the press from wandering up here, and I can’t do that while I’m babysitting you two. Now, you can come with me the easy way, or I can cuff you. What’ll it be?”
“Come on, Elise,” Dylan said, offering me a sad smile. “If you want, we can stay at the campground one more night and come back with the anthro-whoever’s tomorrow.”
“That isn’t an option. I am going to block off this trail the second we get down, and the only people who are going to be allowed on it are those who are cleared by law to work with a dead body. Neither of you better come anywhere near here until after the body has been recovered and the trail is officially re-opened. I don’t want to have to slap an obstruction of justice charge on you two, understand?” The sheriff gave us a hard look, fingering the handcuffs strapped to his belt.
“Alright.” My body folded in on itself. How could I just walk away from this? “But did you say press? Why would they be here?”
The sheriff pulled off his sunglasses and wiped the lenses with his shirt. “Someone must’ve tipped them off. I got a phone call on the way up here warning me that a bunch of news reporters wouldn’t be far behind us. Happens a lot when a dead body is found. Those badgers’ll do anything for a juicy story.”
“Terrific,” I muttered. The last thing I wanted was to be on camera for this. We should have thought to ask everyone to keep the discovery of Dad’s fanny pack confidential until the police had sorted this out before we sent them home yesterday.
“Hey, hold up a second,” Dylan called as he knelt beside Bessey who had started falling behind. “Hey, Girl. You doing okay?” He lifted her extremely red paw.
How had I not noticed her bleeding? I rushed over to lift the other leg. This paw was dripping blood as well. The poor thing must have scraped herself raw digging to get to Dad. And I’d forced her to limp out, too wrapped up in my own problems to see that she was struggling.
Like a fuming thundercloud, my tears threatened to break loose.
No. I most definitely was not going to cry in front of Dylan and this grumpy stranger. Looking to the pale blue sky, I cleared my throat. If I didn’t look down, gravity couldn’t force the tears now brimming in my eyes to fall.
Warm fingers slipped around my free hand.
“Hey, it’s okay. I can carry her back,” Dylan said. “Look, you don’t have to go at this alone, Elise.”
I glanced at our joined hands. It was a nice thing to say, and he probably meant it, but what he didn’t know was that I didn’t let anyone see this side of me. The side that wanted to sit in Daddy’s lap and sob while he stroked my hair and told me everything would be alright.
I’d first learned to push people away in elementary school when I was teased mercilessly for my snarled hair and mismatched clothes. Dad had been doing his best, but without a woman to guide his efforts, I looked like a little vagabond.
Things had only gotten worse in Junior High when raging hormones had turned my persecutors into downright villains. The few times I had broken down and cried because of their torment, they had laughed all the harder. Now, my emotions were safe behind an impenetrable wall that no-one, not even a kind and thoroughly annoying guy like Dylan could get past.
While I debated how to tactfully deflect his offer, Dylan crouched, then cautiously lifted Bessey onto his shoulders.
“No, that’s okay. I can carry her.” I reached for the dog, careful not to watch his bronzed ab and pec muscles dance as he shifted to better hold her weight. Alright, so I caught a glance of them, but only by accident, and only because I was taking another look at Bessey’s poor paws.
“Dylan Harper, you give me my dog this instant.” I shifted to block his path.
“Seriously? Elise, I’m just trying to help. Besides, how are you going to carry her with your injury?”
Crap. He had me there. I only had two options—accept help from Dylan or admit that I was fully healed and face the interrogation that would follow from not only him, but if word got out, my former teammates, as well as the kids we now coached. And Pete, Dad’s former best friend. He’d do just about anything to have me come run for him at Cal State Del Ray, which I wasn’t about to do. If I couldn’t run for Dad, then I wouldn’t run for anyone.
“Fine, let’s go,” I growled.
Okay, I knew I should probably thank the guy, but he was constantly backing me into impossible corners. And if I was honest, I wanted to lash out after what I had witnessed. No-one should ever have to see their parent like that.
How on earth had Dad gotten there?