Page 33 of Protecting Vidalia
Chapter 9
Over the next severaldays, Jake and Vidalia hiked to Fairy Lake and Victoria Falls at least once a day. Vidalia was hoping to see the bears at the falls again, but Jake was hoping they wouldn’t. Not seeing them meant they’d left the area.
Except for one day when Vidalia had gone into town to do some shopping and he’d run a few errands and followed up on some phone calls he’d made, he’d stuck by her side and she’d finally accepted that he wasn’t going away. And of course, he’d spent the night at her cabin for the last three nights again in spite of her taunting him about inviting himself over.
The ranger had come by Vidalia’s cabin and she’d given him her signature, but hadn’t made a decision on what to name the baby bear yet.
Jake wanted to get closer to Vidalia but she kept him at arm’s length. Sitting at his desk and waiting for her, he opened his mail from Friday’s maildrop. At last, the police report his buddy had promised him regarding the investigation into Dani’s death was here.
It had taken some doing to get a copy of it, but he’d finally managed after calling Dani Owens’s parents and explaining who he was and that he was trying to help Vidalia Minton. They had authorized the release of the paperwork. He read, not knowing what he was looking for, but something, anything that might help Vidalia let go of the blame she was carrying on her slender shoulders.
The exact area Dani’s body was found was described and he knew it well. It was a treacherous ravine in good weather, let alone trying to race a flood of water out of it. What he found most interesting was the description of the items released back to the parents. One of them was a cell phone. It said the cell phone had been found on a ledge in the upper part of the canyon. Authorities had begun searching near the trail-head that was in the campground in which Dani and her family had camped. Which meant for some reason, Dani had somehow gotten lost and ended up in that ravine.
Jake frowned, wondering how in the world the parents had lost that little girl to begin with? According to the parents’ statement, the mother’s cell phone had been damaged and quit working when she’d bent over a hot pot of coffee on their campfire and the cell phone had slipped from her t-shirt pocket and into the hot boiling liquid. That had left them with only the father’s phone. He grunted, making a mental note not to ever let that happen.
It went on to say that Dani loved to take pictures and they had allowed her to use her father’s cell phone for a little while with the caution to stay close, but then when they had called her for dinner, she didn’t appear. Frantic they had begun looking and calling for her, but a storm was moving in. The father had raced to the nearest campsite and borrowed a phone to call for help while the rest of the family had stayed in camp in case Dani returned.
Jake frowned. When Dani had gotten lost, she knew her mother’s cell wasn’t working, and she knew to call 911 for emergencies, so that’s how she had ended up connected to Vidalia. How in the world, if Dani’s body had been washed to the bottom of the ravine, had the cell phone managed to stay on a ledge? It should have gone with her or been lost in the mud and rocks on the bottom after the flood washed through. An idea began in his mind. If he was right, he might be able to bring Vidalia some relief and help her forgive herself. When she pulled up front, he went to meet her.
Opening the door, he invited her in. “Do you need to use the bathroom before we take off?” he asked, pouring coffee into his thermos. Briskly he stuffed the whole thing in his backpack along with some snacks and some rocky road fudge. If he was right, this would be a day to celebrate.
“I’m ready, I just went at my cabin,” she protested with a laugh. “We’re just headed to Fairy Lake. Besides, you know I can pee behind a tree if I have to,” she teased.
“Don’t remind me,” he mocked, his eyes glinting with good humor. “Seeing your naked butt sticking out from behind a tree is far too tempting. It needed to be a nice shade of pink for not going before we left.”
She laughed then, and he was reminded of how good that sounded. “Come on, I have a surprise for you today.”
“We aren’t going to Fairy Lake?” she complained wistfully, her eyebrows lifting. “I was getting used to that. I really like it there.”
“We’ll go again, I promise,” he replied, leaning forward and planting a buss on her forehead. Then turning her around and landing a spank on her backside, he pushed her forward. “Let’s go.”
“Okay, 1870,” she drawled. “You really need to stop doing that.”
Since she wasn’t complaining too loud, Jake figured she didn’t really mind. Although the 1870 always amused him. “You need it, what else can I do?”
It was about 12 miles over the pass and down the other side of the canyon they were in when Jake finally pulled into a campground and wound towards the back area. They had both been silent for whatever reason. Maybe it was his tense aura that had her sneaking side eyes at him as they drove, he didn’t know. It wasn’t an awkward silence though, just one that two people who were comfortable with each other could enjoy and not feel like they had to talk all the time.
“What’s here? Another trail?” she asked when he drove towards a trailhead sign. When they got close enough, she gasped and looked over at him. “Rangers Pass?”
He put the truck in park and caught her hand. “Do you still want to go?” He asked quietly. It’s about like the Fairy Lake trip, an hour and a half down and then back up.”
“So, a three-hour round trip,” she said, her voice croaky. She cleared her throat and then nodded. “Yeah, I want to go.”
They gathered their gear and got out of the truck. At the trailhead sign, there was a warning beneath the white lettering of the name.
Warning! Do not attempt this hike in inclement weather. Canyon is prone to flash flooding.
Vidalia sucked in her breath. Had Dani read the warning? If so, how could she have ended up on this trail? She stared up at Jake.
Jake knew exactly what she was thinking, he was thinking the same thing. As they started down, Jake shared what he’d read in the police report. “So, what I’m wanting to do is find that ledge and try to figure out why Dani wasn’t on it.”
Vidalia didn’t say anything else until she paused for a breather at a spot that wasn’t loose shale. “What you’ve told me all makes sense,” she replied slowly. “I’ve been thinking about it and remembering our conversation. Dani told me there were some roots sticking out above her but she was so cold she could barely move. Right after that there was a lighting burst in the background and I couldn’t hear her reply. Then there was just the sound of rushing water and the phone went dead.”
Jake nodded. “Okay, so let’s add tree roots into the equation. He pointed to the sides of the ravine that were slowly coming closer together. From this point on, it would have been a lot harder to avoid the water. You can see the water marks from years of flash flooding on the rocks,” he said. “We know the phone had to be above those marks, on a ledge, or it would have been swept away. Plus, the report said it was found tangled in a small shrub.”
