Page 13 of Canyon Killer
The crowd pressed in around him, but Ian remained focused on Walt. He didn’t like the man, but considering his position in the county, Ian needed to tread lightly.
“I’m leaving the mystery of what happened to those two people to the sheriff,” he said. “I’m focused on building an attraction the whole town can be proud of.”
“We were proud of this canyon before you came along,” someone shouted.
“No via ferrata!” someone else shouted. The crowd took up the chant. “No via ferrata. No via ferrata!”
Ian turned and stared at them, struggling to keep his face expressionless. He couldn’t remember when he had felt so helpless—and so alone.
Two men ran toward him, and he braced himself for an attack. “Mike is hurt!” the first to reach him yelled, not at Ian but at Walt Spies. “Mike Addison is hurt. He fell and is hanging by one rope. We need help—quick!”
CHAPTER FIVE
Bethany was at work Friday afternoon when her phone alerted with a message asking for search and rescue volunteers. “Mom, I need to go,” she said. “Someone is hurt.”
“Oh no.” Her mother frowned. “Carter and Dalton are both leading tours.”
“They’re probably out of cell range right now anyway. But I can go.” She hurried out the door.
She kept her gear bag in the back of the Subaru and had only to change into sturdy boots—also tucked in the car—to be ready to roll.
The scene at search and rescue headquarters was organized but tense. “We’ve got an injured climber in Humboldt Canyon,” Sheri said. “Danny is at work, so I’m stepping up to command.”
Bethany helped load gear, then got a ride with Grace Wilcox and two others in Grace’s car. Chris wasn’t here today, she noticed. Probably busy with family.
They were getting ready to leave when Carter and Dalton raced in. “Just in time,” Dalton said as he crowded in beside Bethany. Up ahead, Carter found a place in Ryan’s truck.
“I thought Humboldt Canyon was closed to climbing,” Bethany said as they headed out.
“I heard there was a group organizing a protest there today,” Dalton said. “Carter and I were going to go, but we couldn’t figure out how to get out of work.”
“Why aren’t you at work now?” she asked. “I thought you were leading a tour.”
“We were almost finished when we got the alert,” he said. “So we raced back to the office.” He chuckled. “We gave those tourists the ride of their life.”
“You’d better hope no one complains.”
“They won’t. They loved us. When we told them we had to get back to save someone’s life, they cheered us on.”
She believed that. Carter had yet to meet a person he couldn’t charm. “You’renot saving a life,” she said. “It’s the whole team.”
“Right. But we didn’t want to miss out.”
She was surprised to be greeted by a crowd at the entrance to the canyon. Tony Meisner, at the wheel of the specially outfitted Jeep that served as the search and rescue vehicle, had to blip the siren to get people to let them through.
They parked at the base of the cliff and piled out of the vehicles. Bethany stopped to gaze up at the figure caught like a fly in a tangle of ropes near the top of the cliff. A short distance away, a white banner had been plastered to the rock. No Via Ferrata it declared, in slightly crooked lettering.
“We tried to haul him up, but then we were afraid we were hurting him more.” A lean, narrow-faced man in climbing gear was talking to Sheri when Bethany moved in to help unload gear.
“Tell me what happened.” Sheri stared toward the suspended climber.
“Mike had just finished hanging the banner and repositioned to start down,” the other climber said. “I think an anchor must have pulled out? All I know is that one minute he was fine, and the next he was falling. The belay did its job and held, but somehow his arm became entangled in the line. I don’t know if his arm is broken or what, but when we tried to haul him up, he screamed and passed out. Now he’s just hanging there.”
Sheri turned to the others. “Ryan and Tony, I want you to climb up to Mike from the canyon floor, one on either side. I’m going to descend from the top, along with a litter. Once we’ve assessed Mike’s condition, we’ll cut him free, maneuver him into the litter and bring him up.”
“You’ll need a couple different riggings up top,” Ryan said.
“Eldon, you and Caleb work on those,” Sheri said.
