Chapter Ten
“Bethany?” her mother asked. “Where are you? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Mom. Why are you calling me?”
“I came in to open the office and went upstairs to your apartment to say hello, and it was obvious you hadn’t been home all night.”
She sat up, suddenly a lot more awake. “You went into my apartment?”
“I had to make sure you were okay. You could have fallen in the shower and hit your head. Your bed was still made and yesterday’s breakfast dishes were still in the sink.”
“How do you know they were yesterday’s breakfast dishes?”
“Because they were there when I went up yesterday to borrow a cup of rice. You really should transfer your rice from the plastic bag to a glass jar, you know. Mice or bugs can get into the plastic.”
“Mom! You can’t take things from my cabinets without asking first.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m your mother. And don’t try to change the subject. Where are you?”
“I’m at Ian’s.”
Long silence. “You’re sleeping with him now?”
“Mom!”
“I’m just trying to determine how serious you are about this man.”
“When I’m ready to share that information, I promise I’ll tell you.”
“I don’t think it’s safe for you to be there with him.”
Because of Ian, or because of other people? But she didn’t ask. She didn’t really want to know the answer. “I’m fine, Mom.”
“When are you coming home?”
“My work shift starts at ten. I’ll be there then.”
“Your father isn’t going to like this.”
“Then don’t tell him. I have to go, Mom.”
“Why? Is something wrong?”
“Ian is waiting.” She ended the call. Let Mom imagine what he was waiting for.
Ian was coming out of the bathroom when she exited the bedroom. He was freshly shaved and smelled of mint and soap. “Good morning,” he said. “I didn’t wake you, did I?”
“My mom woke me.”
“Is everything okay?”
“She went up to my apartment this morning—just to make sure I was okay, she says. And she noticed I hadn’t come home last night. Because she was in there yesterday, too, and saw the dirty dishes in the sink. I have no privacy!”
“I’m sorry. That is aggravating.” He wrapped his arm around her, and she leaned into him briefly.
Then she straightened. “I’ll survive. But it’s just as well she woke me. I have to be at work at ten, and I want to revisit the cave first.”
“I’ll go with you,” he said. “Let’s have breakfast first.”
She hurried to get cleaned up and dressed, and met him in the kitchen, where he handed her a mug of coffee. She drank deeply. Nothing like that first cup to improve her mood.
They ate toast and peanut butter, finished their coffees, then stepped outside.
Bethany breathed deeply of the cool morning air, the scent of evergreens detectible beneath the construction dust. She followed Ian across the canyon.
Colored stakes and paint marked the location of various structures, mazes of scaffolding rose up in several places and bridges and platforms were beginning to take shape.
“Will the via ferrata extend this far?” she asked as they approached the trail up to the caves.
“I originally thought it would, but the engineer determined the soil is too unstable in this area. That’s probably why the mudslide did so much damage. We’ll stick to the areas with more stable rock formations.”
They climbed toward the cave. The trek seemed easier this time, the trail better defined than before, she supposed, because of all the trips various law enforcement personnel had made back and forth to the Bostons’ unfortunate gravesite.
At the entrance to the cave, Ian switched on a flashlight and played its beam across the floor. The opening itself was smaller than she’d remembered, dark and musty and swept clean.
“You say this wasn’t here when you purchased the property?”
“No. The sheriff’s department has pictures taken fifty years ago that show a lot of trees and underbrush here.
The cave openings might have been in there somewhere, but they weren’t obvious in the photos.
We think the mudslide last month took out a good chunk of hillside and revealed these openings. ”
“Then how did Gerald and Abby get in here?”
“They may have crawled in to hide from someone. Or been forced in here at gunpoint, then shot.”
She shuddered. “I’d really like to know who Katherine’s boyfriend was,” she said. “If he was ruthless enough to run over her and leave her lying in the road, he might not balk at murder.”
“If Gerald’s nephew doesn’t know his name, I don’t see how we’ll figure it out,” Ian said.
“I want to try again at the historical society,” she said.
“I’ll bet those old newspapers have more about Katherine.
They probably would have reported the accident that injured her leg.
Maybe we can find out more about her. And we can look for information on Abby’s family as well. Maybe they were locals, too.”
“It would be interesting to know more about them,” Ian said.
“Let me see.” She took the light from him and directed the beam along the walls, then shifted it to the floor.
The impressions of many shoes showed in the dust, along with drag marks and flat areas where the deputies had set equipment.
Something glinted in the light on the floor of the cave.
She moved to examine it more closely. “Ian, look at this.”
He came to stand beside her. Spotlighted in the beam of the flashlight was a thin gold band.
She bent and picked it up. “It looks like a wedding ring.”
Bethany studied the ring. “Maybe it was Abby’s?” Ian sounded doubtful.
She shook her head. “Look at this place. The sheriff’s department swept it clean. How could they have missed this?”
“We’d better take it to them.”
She looked around the cave once more. “Do you think someone was here after the police left?” she asked. “Someone who left this?”
“I haven’t seen anyone unfamiliar around here,” Ian said.
“They could have come here while you were busy supervising the construction or running an errand in town. If they parked somewhere else and slipped in on foot, it would be possible.”
“But why even come here?” he asked. “And why leave this ring?”
“I don’t know.” She pocketed the gold band. “But I’m interested in hearing what the sheriff’s department has to say.”
* * *
Aaron examined the thin gold band Bethany had handed over when he’d first met up with her and Ian at the sheriff’s department. “There’s no inscription or anything,” he said. “It could belong to anyone.”
“But does it belong to Abby Boston?” Bethany asked. “Did the investigators somehow overlook it when they were collecting evidence from the cave?”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so. They were very thorough.”
“Was Abby wearing a ring?” Ian asked.
Aaron frowned. “I’ll have to check.”
“Then do it,” Bethany said. “This could be important.”
He left the room. Ian and Bethany sat side by side at the table, the only sound the ticking of a clock as each minute advanced. “I never spent so much time in a sheriff’s office before this,” she said. “Or any law enforcement office.”
“Where did Aaron work before he came to Eagle Mountain?” Ian asked.
“Waterbury, Vermont, police. But I never visited him at work.”
The door opened and Aaron returned, followed by Gage. “Abby Boston was wearing her wedding ring when we found her,” Gage said. “A gold band with an inset of diamonds.” He held up the plain band Abby had found. “Where exactly did you find this?”
“It was on the floor of the cave,” she said. “The beam of my flashlight caught it, very near where the skeletons were. I think it would be hard to miss, especially if you were trained to look for evidence.”
“We’ve got photographs taken at the scene,” Gage said. “None of them show a ring like this.”
“Do you think someone came to the cave after your investigators went away and left this?” Ian asked.
“Have you seen anyone hanging around?”
“No. But there are a lot of construction workers coming and going these days. It wouldn’t be too difficult for someone to slip in on foot.”
“Why leave a wedding ring?” Aaron asked. “Even one this small and plain would be worth something.”
“I could make up a hundred stories about why someone would leave a wedding ring at the site where two lovers died arm in arm,” Bethany said.
“You could?” Ian sounded surprised.
She was aware of all three men staring at her. Did they not have any imagination? Or see the romantic possibilities? “Maybe someone’s own marriage ended and they felt sympathy for Abby and Gerald,” she said. “They left the ring as a symbolic gesture.”
“Or maybe they just wanted to confuse all of us,” Aaron said.
“We’ll keep this and see if anyone comes looking for it,” Gage said. “I don’t think we can do more than that.”
“What about the man Katherine was seen with?” she asked. “The one who left her lying hurt after she fell out of the car?”
“When we interviewed him, Craig Boston said he didn’t know who he was,” Gage said.
“If he left her after his car ran over her, I can’t imagine they were ever close again,” Aaron said. “Why would someone like that kill Abby and Gerald? And don’t say you can think of a reason because whatever it is, it’s as illogical as your ring story.”
“I didn’t say the ring story was true,” she said. “And people do behave illogically. Every day. Especially when it comes to strong emotions like love.”
“If you find out anything else, let us know,” Gage said. “Thanks for bringing in the ring.” He turned to Ian. “Have you had any more trouble out at your place?”
“Things have been quiet,” Ian said. “I think everyone is waiting to see what happens at the county commissioners’ meeting to discuss the operating permit for the via ferrata.”
“There’s still a lot of opposition to the project,” Aaron said.
“As the project takes shape, I think more people will see how it will be good for the community and for climbing,” Ian said. He offered a hand. “Thanks for your help with all of this.”
Aaron hesitated, then shook Ian’s hand. Ian and Gage exchanged handshakes as well.
“I think you’re winning Aaron over,” Bethany said when they were outside again.
“Maybe he’s accepting that his sister can make her own decisions.”
She took his arm. “Wouldn’t that be something?” She wanted to tell him that she had made some decisions about him—that she might be falling in love. But an uncharacteristic caution held her back. As impulsive as she was with some things, she had learned the hard way to guard her heart.
* * *
By the following Friday, the via ferrata was beginning to take shape.
The contractors had set anchors and supports all along the canyon wall for walkways and platforms and begun drilling for setting iron rings and ladder rungs into other sections of the course.
The sound of drilling and hammering reverberated through the canyon all day, but as the sun set the clamor ceased.
Ian walked through the construction area, assessing that day’s progress and anticipating what was to come.
The construction crew didn’t work weekends.
Ian rose early Saturday, planning to inspect the previous day’s progress, then maybe find somewhere to climb.
Though he and Bethany had talked almost every day, he hadn’t seen her since the previous Saturday.
He had been working late every day, pulling the via ferrata project together.
A Friday dinner date had been canceled by a summons for search and rescue volunteers to help look for a lost child who had wandered away from a local campground.
The boy had been found safe after midnight.
Today, Bethany had a climbing clinic for search and rescue in Caspar Canyon. As much as he would have liked to see her and cheer her on, he thought it best to avoid that area, especially given the animosity of some of the hard-core climbers to him and his project.
Yesterday afternoon, the construction crew had installed the supports for a catwalk two-thirds of the way up the canyon wall, to be reached via a series of iron rings embedded in the rock face.
The support system consisted of short lengths of iron beams inserted in thirty-six-inch-deep holes drilled in the rock, set with concrete.
The contractor had suspended scaffolding from the top of the cliff to facilitate the work, and this was still in place.
The workers had used a boom truck to lift them up to the scaffolding, but Ian settled for free-climbing, finding easy hand- and footholds in the rough rock.
There were seven supports for the ten feet of walkway. Ian stepped onto the first one, testing its sturdiness before stepping fully onto it. He grinned. These things weren’t going anywhere.
Movement down below caught his eye. He looked down to see a figure moving around in front of the trailer. “Hey!” he shouted.
The figure started and looked up at him. From here, it looked like a kid. “What are you doing here?” Ian called.
“I just wanted to look around!”
“You need to leave.”
The kid didn’t answer but turned and ran back toward the gate.
Ian waited to make sure he had left, then moved forward to the next support.
He could extend one arm to touch the rock wall to steady himself, but he didn’t need to.
He moved to the next support and looked down.
It was a long way to the bottom, but he had never been afraid of heights, and he had certainly been in more precarious positions with much farther to fall.
He stepped onto the fourth support, and fear gripped him as it wobbled. As it gave way beneath him, he leaped to the fifth support, only to find himself falling, his screams echoing through the canyon.