Page 39 of Dead Mountain

He shuffled out photos from the autopsy. Corrie made an effort not to react or, God forbid, turn away.

“Here’s a study in muted tones of the cedar tree, and another showing pieces of skin on the rough bark. It appears one of the victims climbed the tree to break off some lower branches, scraping his skin. DNA established that person was Marchenko.

“Now to Henry Gardiner. Both his shins were badly burned. He had a long, very shallow knife wound down the outer side of his right thigh. Done post-mortem, by the way. And some of his clothes had been cut off.”

More close-up photos.

“Michael Mastrelano had third-degree charring on the soles of both feet.”

Sharp paused. “Any questions?”

Corrie had a million, but she decided to wait until the end of the briefing. The others remained silent.

“Moving on, then. The searchers then followed six sets of tracks in the snow, going due northward from the location of the fire more or less along the spine of the mountains. The trail was hard to follow, but a quarter mile on they came across another frozen body: that of Amanda Van Gelder.”

More photos showing a grotesquely distorted body.

“Van Gelder had hair badly burned on one side of the head.”

Still more photographs. One showed a woman with long black hair, stretched out facedown in the snow, and another showed her frozen body turned over. She was wearing valenkis and long-john bottoms, a sports bra, a tattered woolen shirt, but no gloves. “See how that woolen shirt is sliced on the side? It belonged to Gardiner and was apparently cut off his body in an attempt to add more warm clothing to herself.”

Sharp wasn’t done brandishing photos. “Now we come to the last two of the original victims. The initial search could not find more bodies, as they were hit with more snowstorms that obliterated the tracks and made further searching impossible. These two were not found until early May, six months later, when the heavy snows began to melt. Lynn Martinez and Luke Hightower. The bodies were found lying facedown, one across the other, in a rocky streambed at the bottom of a ravine.”

The photos showed the bodies in that position, then turned over. Martinez was missing her eyes and her mouth was open, showing that she was also missing her tongue. Hightower was missing an eye as well, and his cranium seemed oddly distorted. Both of them were wearing more clothes than the previous victims—valenkis, pants, and down jackets.

“Here are the highlights of the M.E.’s reports for these victims. Both experienced powerful crushing injuries. The M.E. noted, and I quote, ‘injuries sustained of the kind normally only seen by a person struck by a speeding truck.’ Martinez’s chest was crushed, the ribs driven into the lungs and heart. Hightower’s head was also crushed, pieces of the skull driven into the brain. Both injuries would have been disabling if not immediately fatal—yet the skin was not broken. These injuries must have occurred on the spot where the bodies were found, unless of course someone moved them—of which there was no evidence. The M.E. was unable to propose a proximate cause of the injuries.”

He moved to the end of the first table. “Which brings us to the new victims discovered by Agent Swanson. They have not yet been autopsied or formally identified, but there is little doubt they are Paul Tolland and Gordon Wright.”

Corrie was startled, then pleased, at getting the credit. She was careful to cover up any reaction.

He looked slowly at each agent in turn. “Any questions?”

“What about the radioactivity?” Corrie asked.

“For some reason that has never been made clear, samples of the first six victims’ clothing were sent out for radioactive testing. Plutonium-239, uranium-235, polonium-210, and tritium—in very low concentrations—were detected. Not dangerous . . . but also decidedly not natural.”

“Were any theories put forward to explain it?” O’Hara asked.

“You mean, legitimate theories? Only one: that it was contamination from Kirtland AFB, where nuclear weapons are stored. It just so happens those radionuclides are the classic components of a thermonuclear weapon. One of the theories held that the air force was testing some classified weapon, the tests went awry, and—somehow—contaminated some of the hikers’ clothing.”

“Did the FBI investigate if there was weapons testing?” Corrie asked.

Sharp looked at her for a moment. “Yes, we did. There was nothing: no tests, no evidence of tests, no secret weapons development.”

“But if it was highly classified?” Corrie pressed.

“In other words, the air force lied to us?” He shrugged. “That’s a possibility. Here’s what we do know: they don’t test weapons at Kirtland at all—never have, never will. All weapons testing is done at White Sands Missile Range, a short flight south from Kirtland.”

“Did the FBI really consider a Yeti theory?” asked Bellamy.

“We considered every theory. In fact, we made a catalog of them. It’s right here.” He tapped a fat binder. “All seventy-four of them.”

“Seventy-four?” asked Corrie in surprise.

“And counting. I’ll tick off some of the more salient. You can read up on them later—some are quite entertaining.

“One: UFOs. That would explain their terrified flight, the radiation, the strange burns on parts of their bodies.

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