Page 9 of Canyon Killer
“Now you’re saying this was a date?” he said. “With a guy you met, what, five minutes ago?”
“Listen to yourself! You’re being ridiculous.”
Aaron’s face was red. He didn’t look at her as he turned onto the county road. “You don’t know what it’s like, getting a call about two bodies, then finding your sister on scene. For all I knew when we showed up, there was a murderer nearby.”
She hugged her arms across her chest. “Obviously whoever killed those two is long gone. And you don’t need to worry about me. Or Ian. He’s a nice guy.”
“He’s good looking and he’s rich. That doesn’t mean he’s a nice guy. He sounds pretty ruthless to me, finding a way to make money off of something that was free to everyone for decades.”
“I’m not going to talk to you when you’re blathering nonsense like this.”
Bethany looked away. She understood why the climbers were angry with Ian, but hearing him talk about the via ferrata, how it would allow people who weren’t serious climbers to enjoy challenging themselves, she had felt his excitement. Just because you made money off of something didn’t mean it was a bad thing.
“I’m not going to tell Mom and Dad about this,” Aaron said.
Just when she was ready to stay angry with him, he did something like this. “Thanks,” she said.
“I’m not doing it for you. I don’t want to upset them.”
“Nobody needs to be upset. I’m a grown woman. I’m perfectly capable of looking out for myself.”
He shook his head but wisely said nothing. She sat back, fuming.
Even Aaron must’ve seen that she had never been in danger today. She was curious about the bones and a little sad about the people who’d died, but they had nothing to do with her.
* * *
The Rayford County coronerturned out to be a stout older man named Butch Collins, who scrambled up the path to the caves with more agility than Ian would have expected. Ian followed Butch and Gage up the trail, half expecting one of them to tell him to go away, but they didn’t. He stood outside the cave while they went inside to reexamine the bones, and tried to think how those two people had ever gotten up here. Maybe more of the cave opening had been exposed years ago.
Butch and Gage emerged from the cave. “The bones are quite old,” Butch said as he stripped off nitrile gloves. “I’ll know more once I’ve done some tests, but I’d guess they’ve been in that cave for several decades at least. There’s some evidence of gnawing by rodents, but apparently no large animals could get to them. If we can learn their identities maybe we’ll have a better idea how they ended up there.”
“Once we have a few details about age and gender, we’ll search missing persons,” Gage said. “If we get some names, we can look for dental records. Barring that, we’re lucky to have a top-notch forensic facial reconstructionist in the area. She could recreate the victims’ faces, using their skulls, and that might help us identify them. But that kind of work is expensive, and it takes time. We’ll start with the simplest approach first. Even with names, finding the murderer is going to take real luck.”
“I’m supposed to start construction soon,” Ian said. How long was this going to hold things up?
“We’ll get a team up here to examine the area for evidence,” Gage said. “Depending on what we find, you should be able to clear the area, though it may be a few weeks.”
“I could shift the work to the other end of the canyon for the time being,” he said.
“That would be good,” Gage said. “Just keep people away from here until we’ve finished our investigation.”
They followed Butch down the trail and met the investigative team at the trailer. “We’re going to be here a while,” Gage told Ian. “You’re free to go home.”
“This is my home, for now,” he said. “I live in the rest of the trailer.”
“The trailer isn’t part of the crime scene, so you can stay here, but you’ll have to keep out of our way.”
“Of course,” he said.
“Bethany mentioned some in the climbing community aren’t too happy with your plans for the canyon,” Gage said. “Have you had any trouble?”
“A few nasty notes. A few remarks from people.” The sign left on his gate today had been typical. “Nothing that felt like a real threat.”
“Not much of a welcome to town.”
“I can deal with it.” He studied the man in front of him. Gage Walker came across as a straight shooter. “Do you know Bethany well?”
“Not well. We’ve run into each other on a few search and rescue calls.”
