Chapter Twelve
“We’ve taped your ribs, which should help you be a little more comfortable. Ice and anti-inflammatories and rest until they heal.”
Ian looked up from the emergency room bed at the young doctor standing beside him. “How long will that be?”
“At least a month. Maybe longer. If your symptoms don’t resolve within six weeks or they worsen, contact your doctor.”
A month was a long time to be limited in what he could do, but Ian knew from previous injuries that if he wanted to climb again, he had to obey doctor’s orders. “I’m a fast healer,” he said.
The doctor’s look said he wasn’t impressed.
“You’ve got a lot of bruising that will be pretty sore for a few days, and you’ve got six stitches in your right thigh from a jagged tear,” he said.
“You should see your primary care physician to have those removed in a week to ten days.” He patted Ian’s shoulder.
“You’re a very lucky man. We wouldn’t be having this conversation if you hadn’t landed on that ledge. ”
“I guess not.” He didn’t call it luck that he had fallen in the first place. Someone had tampered with those catwalk supports, he was sure.
“I’m going to discharge you. You’re free to get dressed, though you’ll need someone to drive you home.”
The doctor was on his way out of the room when two men in uniform entered. Sergeant Gage Walker and Deputy Aaron Ames approached Ian’s hospital bed.
“How are you feeling?” Gage asked.
“Better than I was when they brought me in here,” Ian said.
“Are you up to talking about what happened and answering a few questions?” Gage asked.
“I’ll try,” he said. “Everything between the fall and arriving here at the hospital is a blur.”
“Can you tell us what happened?”
“I climbed up to take a look at the supports the construction crew had just set for the catwalk. I was walking on the supports when one of them gave way and I fell. I’m sure someone cut through the supports deliberately.
The first couple were fine, but the ones at the end wouldn’t hold me. Has anyone taken a look at them?”
“One of the search and rescue people said he looked at them, and he agreed with you they’d been cut,” Aaron said.
“Did you see anyone else in or around the canyon that morning?” Gage asked. “Anyone who might have tampered with the supports?”
Something niggled at the back of Ian’s mind. He tried to bring it into focus. “There was someone…a kid.” He sat up straighter, the memory clearer. “I had just stepped onto the supports when I looked down by my trailer and saw this kid. I told him he needed to leave, and he did.”
“When you say a kid, how old do you think?” Gage asked.
“It was hard to tell from that distance. Maybe a young teen. Fourteen? Fifteen?”
“Had you seen him before?” Aaron asked.
“No.”
“Someone—the dispatcher said it sounded like a young person, maybe a teenager—called 911 to report a climber had fallen in Humboldt Canyon,” Gage said. “Do you think it could have been the same person?”
“Maybe.” Another memory surfaced, dim and mixed up. “I thought I heard someone shouting at me after I fell. But everything was pretty fuzzy by then. I was in and out of consciousness, I think.”
“We’ll try to find this kid and see what he has to say,” Gage said.
“Why would a kid cut through those supports?” Aaron asked.
“It wouldn’t have been easy,” Ian said. “He’d have to climb to the scaffolding and bring something to cut them with—a torch, maybe.”
“Did you hear anything unusual last night or early this morning?” Gage asked.
“No. But I’m a pretty sound sleeper.”
“Have you had any more threats?” he asked.
“No,” Ian said. “It’s been quiet.”
“We weren’t able to learn any more about the note threatening to harm Bethany Ames,” Gage said.
“We’re keeping Bethany safe,” Aaron said.
“That’s what I want, too,” Ian said. He met Aaron’s gaze, and the deputy was the first to look away.
“Is there anything else you can tell us?” Gage asked.
“Hello?”
Ian turned toward the door, and there was Bethany, still in her search and rescue uniform, her hair in two braids, framing her face. She glanced at Aaron and Gage. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“We were just leaving,” Gage said.
“What are you doing here?” Aaron demanded.
“I came to see Ian.” She sent her brother a defiant look, then strode over to Ian’s bed, bent and kissed him on the lips.
* * *
Steam wasn’t exactly coming out of Aaron’s ears, but he definitely looked uncomfortable, Bethany thought, as she perched on the side of Ian’s bed.
“We have to go,” Gage said, and Aaron reluctantly followed.
“That was the best medicine I’ve had all day,” Ian said. “Even if you kissed me to get a rise out of your brother.”
“That wasn’t the only reason—I promise.” She patted his hand. “How are you feeling?”
“Better. They’re kicking me out of here. I need to get dressed.”
“Need any help?” The look she sent gave him something to think about beside his aches and pains.
“I think I can manage. But I could use a ride back to the canyon.”
“I can do that.”
“Thanks.” His expression sobered. “I’m sorry you had to see me like that, though. It must have been a shock.”
“It was.” She cleared her throat. “The paramedics told us they were pretty sure you were still breathing, but until someone could climb up there, we didn’t know how bad off you were. What did the doctor say?”
“I’ve got a couple of broken ribs and a few stitches in my thigh. Nothing that won’t heal in a few weeks.”
“What happened? Tony said someone cut through some supports where you were climbing.”
“I think so. No idea who, though.”
“Is that why Aaron and Gage were here?”
“Yes. They wanted to find out what I knew.”
“Why would someone cut the catwalk supports?” she asked. “They couldn’t have known you would climb up there.”
“No. But the construction crew would have been up there to finish the work. One of them might have been hurt or even killed. Even if they had noticed the damage right away, it’s going to set back the project—probably a few days.
They’ll have to remove the damaged support, cut new ones and install them. ”
“This isn’t peaceful protesting,” she said.
“No. Someone really wants this project to stop. If we learn why, maybe we can figure out who’s responsible.”
“I still think Walt Spies is suspicious,” she said.
“I can’t see him climbing up to cut those beams,” Ian said. “He must be at least seventy.”
“There are plenty of seventy-year-olds in this town who are in great shape. Craig Boston was on a challenging trail when he injured his ankle the other day.”
“I can’t see why Walt would go to so much trouble. He’s in a position to vote against the project—and probably to influence other commissioners to join him. He doesn’t have to risk his own safety to attack me and my project.”
They fell silent. Bethany weighed the wisdom of saying what was on her mind, then decided she had to go for it. “What about your dad? You said he was upset that you outbid him for the property.”
“He was. He is. He hasn’t spoken to me since it happened, but that’s not unusual.
Unlike your family, mine isn’t close. Dad pretty much disinherited me when I chose climbing over a job in the family business.
It’s one reason my grandmother bypassed him and left all her money to me.
But it was something else for him to resent. ”
“Would your father hire someone to sabotage the via ferrata—as a way to get back at you or to force you to give up? Then maybe he could buy the property and mine it?”
“I don’t know. I hate to think of it, but maybe he would.”
“I’m sorry.” Bethany rubbed his hand again. “I have a confession to make,” she said. She had to get this out before she lost her nerve. “Promise you won’t be angry with me.”
“Why would I be angry?”
“I told some people—well, search and rescue volunteers and Deputy Jake Gwynn—the reason you purchased the canyon. I mean, I told them you wanted to build the via ferrata so all kinds of people could enjoy climbing. But I also told them about your dad wanting to destroy the canyon by mining it and how you bought it to save it.”
Ian closed his eyes and said nothing. He was so pale, his features sharpened by suffering.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have told you like this, when you’re in pain. I know I promised not to tell anyone, but I couldn’t stand there and have them all thinking you were only building the via ferrata out of greed or selfishness. I wanted them to know you’re not like that.”
He opened his eyes again. “It’s okay,” he said. “I know you meant well.”
“Do you want me to leave now?”
Ian took her hand. “No. Stay.” He even managed a smile. “It’s okay. Really. I doubt anything you said will change very many people’s minds. I learned that when I got into competitive climbing. People believe what they want to believe about you, all evidence to the contrary.”
“I overheard some climbers talking one day. They said you had a bad reputation in the climbing community.”
His expression darkened. “I like to think I have a good reputation with most people in the climbing world, but I have my enemies, and they like to tell unflattering stories. What did you hear?”
“Something about you moving someone else’s anchors?”
“Tyler Grey. I didn’t move his anchors, but he’s convinced that I did. He set a route, and I climbed it a couple of days after he did. There were no anchors then, and I said something to him about it. Because I pointed out they were missing, he jumped to the conclusion that I had removed them.”
“So who did remove them?”
“There was a group of environmentalists in the area at the time who were lobbying hard for legislation to prevent the installation of permanent anchors in climbing areas. My guess is one of them removed the anchors, but I don’t know for sure.
But Tyler spread the story that I had taken them, and his friends believed him.
I didn’t waste a lot of breath defending myself, and some people took that as an admission of guilt. ”