Page 41 of Canyon Killer
“Up…above.”
They all looked up, but all he could see was the broken catwalk, jagged pieces hanging over them.
“Where are you having the most pain?” Danny asked.
Everything hurt, but when Ian focused, he could identify the source of the worst of it. “Ribs,” he said.
“Does it hurt to breathe?”
“A little.”
“You may have cracked a few ribs, but your oxygen levels are good. No blood from your head. Do you think you hit it on the way down?”
“Maybe,” Ian said.
“He was smart enough to wear a helmet. That saved him a lot of grief,” Tony said.
“They’ll run tests at the hospital to make sure,” Danny said. “But there’s no obvious swelling or bleeding, and his pupils are normal.” He addressed Ian once more. “We’re going to put you in a cervical collar. Then I’ll give you something for the pain.”
Any attempt to move him hurt, but Ian gritted his teeth and endured it. He had been here before—in Yellowstone, where he’d fractured his arm in two places in a fall, and in Africa, where he’d broken both ankles. He had recovered and climbed again.
A needle in his arm, then warmth flooding through him. The pain was still there but distant. Separate from him somehow. “Your legs and arms look okay,” Danny said. “You’re a lucky man. We’re going to get you into a litter now. Lie still. Let us do all the work.”
A flash of panic as they lifted him into the air, but that quickly faded as the litter embraced him and they roped him in. “We’re ready to go,” someone said, and they began to float, this man he didn’t know—Danny—literally embracing him as they gently descended.
Then he was on the ground, the ropes released. Other people moved in to check his vital signs and examine his injuries.
“Ian? Ian, it’s Bethany.”
She leaned over him, the freckles standing out against her pale skin. He tried to smile at her, but he couldn’t control his face. “You’re going to be okay,” she said.
I am.He didn’t know if he said the words out loud or not.
“Let’s get him to the ambulance,” someone said. Then he was moving again, and the fog descended once more.
* * *
Deputy Jake Gwynnresponded to the call for assistance from the sheriff’s department. The search and rescue crew surrounded his SUV as soon as he parked it. Bethany stood at the edge of the crowd, curious, but most of her focus still on Ian. He had looked so pale and helpless, strapped into that litter, wrapped up like an infant in a cradleboard. Was he really going to be all right? How long before she could see him again?
“What happened here?” Jake asked.
“The 911 dispatcher got a call about a fallen climber in Humboldt Canyon,” Danny said. “Ian Seabrook was apparently up on some supports for a catwalk that was being built as part of his via ferrata project. The supports gave way, and he fell, hitting some scaffolding on the way down and landing on a narrow ledge. He may have some broken ribs. Maybe other injuries—we can’t be sure until he has a more thorough examination at the hospital.”
“I climbed up and took a look at those catwalk supports he was talking about,” Tony said. “It looks like someone cut through the last three. They left just enough metal connected to make them look intact, but any weight would cause them to give way.”
“How would anyone know he would go up there?” Jake asked. He looked to Bethany. “Was anyone else supposed to be here this morning?
“I don’t know,” she said. “Yesterday he mentioned the construction crew was finishing up the supports for the catwalk and then they were taking off for the weekend. They’d let the concrete set over the weekend, then finish the catwalk construction on Monday.”
“Did he have anyone else working with him?” Sheri asked. “An assistant or anything?”
“His assistant quit right after the trouble with those protesters,” Bethany said.I was supposed to be his assistant.
“What was he doing up there on the catwalk?” Danny asked.
“I don’t know,” she said again. “Maybe he just went for a climb?”
“He probably climbed up there to check out the construction,” Sheri said. “It’s something I would do.”
