Page 43 of Canyon Killer
“Better than I was when they brought me in here,” Ian said.
“Are you up to talking about what happened and answering a few questions?” Gage asked.
“I’ll try,” he said. “Everything between the fall and arriving here at the hospital is a blur.”
“Can you tell us what happened?”
“I climbed up to take a look at the supports the construction crew had just set for the catwalk. I was walking on the supports when one of them gave way and I fell. I’m sure someone cut through the supports deliberately. The first couple were fine, but the ones at the end wouldn’t hold me. Has anyone taken a look at them?”
“One of the search and rescue people said he looked at them, and he agreed with you they’d been cut,” Aaron said.
“Did you see anyone else in or around the canyon that morning?” Gage asked. “Anyone who might have tampered with the supports?”
Something niggled at the back of Ian’s mind. He tried to bring it into focus. “There was someone…a kid.” He sat up straighter, the memory clearer. “I had just stepped onto the supports when I looked down by my trailer and saw this kid. I told him he needed to leave, and he did.”
“When you say a kid, how old do you think?” Gage asked.
“It was hard to tell from that distance. Maybe a young teen. Fourteen? Fifteen?”
“Had you seen him before?” Aaron asked.
“No.”
“Someone—the dispatcher said it sounded like a young person, maybe a teenager—called 911 to report a climber had fallen in Humboldt Canyon,” Gage said. “Do you think it could have been the same person?”
“Maybe.” Another memory surfaced, dim and mixed up. “I thought I heard someone shouting at me after I fell. But everything was pretty fuzzy by then. I was in and out of consciousness, I think.”
“We’ll try to find this kid and see what he has to say,” Gage said.
“Why would a kid cut through those supports?” Aaron asked.
“It wouldn’t have been easy,” Ian said. “He’d have to climb to the scaffolding and bring something to cut them with—a torch, maybe.”
“Did you hear anything unusual last night or early this morning?” Gage asked.
“No. But I’m a pretty sound sleeper.”
“Have you had any more threats?” he asked.
“No,” Ian said. “It’s been quiet.”
“We weren’t able to learn any more about the note threatening to harm Bethany Ames,” Gage said.
“We’re keeping Bethany safe,” Aaron said.
“That’s what I want, too,” Ian said. He met Aaron’s gaze, and the deputy was the first to look away.
“Is there anything else you can tell us?” Gage asked.
“Hello?”
Ian turned toward the door, and there was Bethany, still in her search and rescue uniform, her hair in two braids, framing her face. She glanced at Aaron and Gage. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“We were just leaving,” Gage said.
“What are you doing here?” Aaron demanded.
“I came to see Ian.” She sent her brother a defiant look, then strode over to Ian’s bed, bent and kissed him on the lips.
