Chapter Fourteen #2
Kara rushed to shove a trash can under her mouth as Roxanne vomited.
When she was done, she collapsed back onto the bed.
Kara left the room and returned with another damp cloth and a glass of water.
“Drink this,” she coaxed and held the glass for Roxanne.
“Billy will be back soon and you’ll feel so much better then. ”
George Ames arrived at the same time as the first search and rescue volunteers.
Ryan, Eldon, Sheri and Carrie sped up in Ryan’s Jeep, followed by Tony Meisner on a motorbike and Grace, Harper, Caleb and Dr. Rand Martin in the search and rescue vehicle.
Rand was the search and rescue group’s medical director.
The three couples on Dalton’s tour gaped at them all until Mr. Ames herded them back to the Jeep. “These folks know what they’re doing,” he said. “They’ll find the two women. Meanwhile, let’s continue your tour. There’s still lots to see up here.”
The volunteers gathered around Dalton. He looked for Carter, then remembered he was on another tour. Bethany hadn’t shown up yet. Maybe she was busy elsewhere. Danny was working a shift at the hospital, so his partner Carrie was in charge. “Tell us what happened,” she said.
Dalton described the two women, then explained that they had gone to use the bathroom across the road and not returned.
He detailed his own search for them and his encounter with the hikers who had heard a single scream.
He spoke as if the events had happened to someone else, his voice without emotion until he got to the part about not being able to find them.
“I knew she could be in danger,” he said.
“I never should have let her out of my sight.” His voice broke, and he had to turn away.
Carrie directed the volunteers to spread out and conduct a hasty search. Dalton pulled himself together and faced her again. “I can help,” he said. “Where do you want me to search?”
She put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “You can’t be part of the search,” she said.
He started to protest, but the arrival of a black-and-white quadrunner with two uniformed deputies distracted him. Gage Walker shut off the vehicle and he and Deputy Ryker Vernon stepped out. “Stay here and tell them what happened,” Carrie said to Dalton. “That’s the best way you can help.”
Dalton repeated his story for Gage and Ryker as the searchers headed out. He described the two hikers he had talked to as a middle-aged man and woman, both with short graying hair and dark green jackets. “Did you see anyone suspicious while you were conducting your tour?” Gage asked.
“There are always a lot of other people around,” Dalton said. “But no one was acting strangely.”
“Anyone who might have been following you?” Gage asked. “Anyone you saw at more than one stop?”
Dalton tried to think. Had there been anyone? “I don’t think so, no,” he said after a moment. “But I wasn’t really looking for that.” He had thought here, in the mountains crawling with tourists, they would be safe.
Gage stared out across the area, which was still busy not only with searchers, but with half a dozen tourists. “They could have fallen, or wandered off the trail and gotten lost,” he said.
“I don’t think both of them would have fallen,” Dalton said. “And we would have heard them calling for help. Or someone would have heard them. And they weren’t gone that long.”
Gage met his gaze again. “Do you think Ledger took them?” he asked. “Both of them?”
“I don’t know what to think.” Dalton tried to bring moisture into his dry mouth. “How much do you know about Debra Percy?”
“Aaron shared your concerns about her,” Gage said. “So we ran a background check. Her story checks out. Why?”
“She’s just always bothered me,” Dalton said. “And she kept showing up out of the blue to question Roxanne, even after Roxanne told her she didn’t know anything about her missing sister.”
“Do you think Roxanne is missing because Debra took her somewhere?” Ryder asked.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Where would she have taken her?”
“Someone posing as a tourist could have stuffed her into a Jeep and driven away,” Gage said.
The thought made Dalton sick to his stomach. “Do you think Debra Percy could be Betty Josephs?” he asked. “The woman who was visiting William Ledger when he was in jail?”
“Didn’t you tell Aaron that Debra was the one who told you about Josephs?” Gage asked.
“Yes, but maybe she did that deliberately, to deflect suspicion.”
“Do you have any other proof of a connection between Ms. Percy and William Ledger?” Gage asked.
“No,” Dalton said. “Just a suspicion.”
Gage clapped a hand on Dalton’s shoulder. “We’ll keep that in mind. But first, we have to find both these women.” He turned to Ryker. “Get the drone. Let’s see if we can spot anything with it.”
While an interested crowd of tourists and locals looked on, Ryker launched the drone. Carrie joined them. “If you spot anything worth checking, I’ll direct the nearest searchers to take a closer look,” she said.
Dalton leaned in closer, watching over Ryker’s shoulder as the drone flew over the ridge where the women had disappeared. It hovered over the mass of fireweed before descending the ridge. The ground fell away as it sailed over a drop-off. “Wait!” Dalton shouted. “Back it up. Back it up.”
Ryker maneuvered the drone back over the edge of the drop-off. Dalton pointed at the screen. “That red. What is that?”
The drone dipped lower. Something red—Dalton couldn’t determine if it was fabric or plastic—lay crumpled among the rocks. The drone flew lower still. “Is that long hair?” Ryker asked. “And that white—is that a hand?”
“I think it is,” Carrie said from Ryker’s other side.
“Sarge!” Ryker called. “We think we found something.”
Gage moved in to take a look. “You said Debra had on a red jacket?” he asked Dalton.
“Yes. And her hair is that kind of maroon color.”
“Carrie, get some searchers down there,” Gage directed. “Ryker, get up higher for a wider view. See if you can spot Roxanne.”
Dalton stared at the screen as the drone rose once more and panned to take in the surrounding expanse of tumbled rock. No trees grew on this steep slope and very little other vegetation. But there was no sign of a silver-and-purple jacket, a black ball cap or anything else belonging to Roxanne.
Carrie’s radio crackled. “We’re at the drop-off,” Eldon said. “We can see someone below. We think we saw movement, but they’re not responding to our shouts. We’re going to need to rappel down.”
“I’ll send more people to help you right away,” Carrie said.
Dalton wanted to be there with them—if not climbing down himself, then waiting at the top. But he knew that wouldn’t be a good idea. All he could do was stay here, helpless, and wait.
Ryker continued to fly the drone, searching, but Dalton turned away from the screen.
Roxanne and Debra had left together. Why weren’t they together now?
Had Ledger decided to dispense with Debra, now that she was no longer useful to him?
Had he taken Roxanne elsewhere, to make her his prisoner again?
Or did he have something else in mind for her?
He shuddered, and hugged his arms across his chest, staring down at the ground and not seeing anything but Roxanne’s smiling face as she had waved goodbye to him before crossing the road.
Ryan was faster on rappel than Eldon, so Eldon set the anchors and took charge of the ropes while Ryan made the descent, a pack of medical supplies on his back.
He covered approximately forty feet in minutes.
He had scarcely unhooked before he was on the radio.
“It’s a woman and she’s alive,” he said.
He continued to talk as he moved in to assess her.
“She’s unconscious but breathing. Bleeding from a head wound.
Looks like someone hit her with a rock, or she hit her head on the way down.
Her arm’s at an odd angle, probably broken. ”
“I’m going to get Rand on the radio,” Carrie said. “Hold on.”
Moments later she was back. “We’re calling Life Flight, and a rescue copter,” she said. “I’m going to send Harper and Caleb down to help stabilize and package her for a short-haul extraction.”
Harper and Caleb were stepping into climbing harnesses when Gage and Ryker arrived. “Is she conscious?” Gage asked Eldon. “Has she said anything?”
“Not yet,” Eldon said.
The next few moments were a flurry of activity as more volunteers gathered on the ridge.
The scene was calm and relatively quiet, but everyone was busy, gathering supplies, setting anchors, laying out ropes or helping the climbers get ready.
After only a few minutes, Harper and Caleb moved out of sight over the edge of the ridge.
Dalton walked down the path to join the other volunteers. He didn’t say anything, but stood with his arms folded across his chest, waiting. Carrie moved over to him. “How are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m holding it together,” he said. “How is Debra?”
“It sounds like she’s pretty banged up,” Carrie said.
Gage strode over to them. “What are you doing here?” he asked Dalton.
Dalton ignored him, focused on Carrie. “Has she said anything?” he asked. “Does she know what happened to Roxanne?”
“She’s still unconscious,” Gage said.
The radio crackled. “She’s awake,” Ryan said. “She says her name is Debra and she was attacked by a man and a woman.”
“What about Roxanne?” Dalton asked.
“Does she know where Roxanne is?” Gage asked.
Silence, then the radio crackled again. “When I asked her about Roxanne, she started crying,” Ryan said. “I don’t want to upset her any more.”
The distant throb of a helicopter drew their attention to the sky. Moments later, a yellow-and-white helicopter soared into view. Carrie’s radio crackled to life. “We’ve completed our site assessment.” Someone spoke above the rush of air and throb of rotor blades. “Is the patient ready to go?”
“She’s ready,” Carrie said. “We’ve got Life Flight on their way to transport her to the hospital.”
“We’ll be back in about ten minutes,” the pilot said, and the helicopter turned away.
“Why ten minutes?” Ryker asked.
“They have to attach the short-haul hook and cable and double-check all their safety gear,” Carrie said. She switched to a different radio channel. “Caleb, is everything ready down there? The short-haul crew should be down in a few minutes.”
“She’s ready to go,” Caleb replied.
Moments later, the helicopter was back. It soared over the ridge and hovered just above them, the wash from the rotor bending the fireweed to the ground and kicking up dust. Those watching shielded their eyes and craned their necks as a man clinging to a cable descended from the belly of the chopper.
Seconds later, he touched down a few feet from the waiting search and rescue volunteers.
Like a well-trained pit crew, they swarmed around the litter containing Debra Percy.
In less than a minute, the litter was secured to the cable, with the short-haul rescuer situated to one side.
The helicopter rose into the sky, the litter and the rescuer swinging from the cable beneath it.
They would be carried this way to a second landing zone, near where the Life Flight had landed, and Debra would be transferred to the Life Flight aircraft for her trip to the hospital in Junction.
When the throb of the helicopter rotors had faded, Gage turned to Dalton. “We’re still searching for Roxanne,” he said. “We’ll talk to Debra as soon as possible and find out everything she knows.”
“Hey.”
They turned to see Carter picking his way across the rocks toward them. “What are you doing here?” Dalton asked.
“Dad called and told me what was going on,” he said. “I’ve come to take you home.”
Dalton looked around. The other volunteers were gathering up equipment scattered along the ridge. “I should stay here, in case they find Roxanne,” he said.
Carter took his arm. “You can wait at home,” he said. “Come on.”
“Go home,” Gage told him. “Please.”
Dalton let his brother lead him away. The other volunteers watched him go. “Let’s get cleaned up here,” Carrie said. “Then we’ve got more searching to do.”