Fatal Descent (6 page)

“But please,” Mandy said, “know that we care—about Alex, about
you and your feelings. So if you need or want anything, anything at all, please ask.”

Diana reached out to stroke Alex’s cold face. Hal bent down to wrap his arms around her.

“I want my son back,” Diana sobbed.

_____

A half hour later, Rob, Mandy, Hal, and Les each picked up a corner
of the black PVC body bag with Alex’s rinsed body inside. They
carried it through the campsite, with the three Anderson women forming an impromptu funeral procession behind them, and laid it gently on the ground by the rafts.

Before cleaning Alex’s body, Mandy had taken photographs of the scene, in case any questions arose later. She and Rob also had a short discussion away from the Andersons about what to do next. Their options were very limited.

While they had been preparing Alex’s body, the others had packed the tents and sleeping bags and were washing dishes. Half-eaten omelets and toast went sliding into the trash bag. Obviously, after the shock, no one felt like finishing breakfast. Gonzo had made another pot of coffee, though. He refilled cups and handed them around.

The sun was up over the canyon rim now, warming the air, so many of the campers were shedding their fleece jackets. People
hugged the coffee cups, though, as if hoping the warmth could make
the horror go away.

Mandy took a grateful sip, then said, “Everyone gather ’round, please. First of all, we want to warn all of you to stick together in
camp. We think that bear is long gone, but just in case, no one should
go off by themselves. Now, I need to ask, did anyone wake up during the night, maybe because they heard something?”

Elsa raised a tentative hand. “I woke up, but it was from a hot flash, I’m sure. I didn’t hear anything.”

“Anyone else wake up or leave their tent for any reason? Maybe you scared off the bear without realizing it.” Mandy looked around and was met with head shakes.

Rob glanced at her to see if she had any more questions, then addressed the group next. “Mandy and I need to tell you what we plan to do next.”

“Can’t we just go back to the put-in and call the whole trip off ?” Hal asked.

Rob shook his head. “We don’t have a motor, only oars and paddles.
A powerful motor is the only way to make your way upstream on the Colorado River. The current’s too strong.”

Paul stepped forward. “Can you call for an emergency helicopter pickup?”

Again, Rob shook his head. “Cell phones don’t work in the
Canyonlands. And the bear destroyed our radio. Besides, there’s no repeater here, so we wouldn’t have been able to call from here anyway.”

Hal tried another tack. “Can we hike out?”

“There’s no trail out of this side canyon,” Mandy said, stepping up next to Rob. “The cliffs are too steep. There is a trail out of Lathrop Canyon, about six and a half miles downriver. It used to be an ATV trail, but a flash flood washed out a section last spring and only hikers can use it now. Our best hope of finding someone who can get word to emergency services is meeting another group on the river. But there’s a chance someone might be on that trail, too.”

Rob took a sip of coffee. “Mandy and I have put together a plan. We propose that I take Alex’s body in my oar raft, along with two strong paddlers. We’ll head to Lathrop Canyon as fast as we can. We may find some hikers at the campsite there. If not, I’ll hike up the trail for at least a half hour, looking for someone before turning back. The rest of you can follow at our regular pace and meet us there. If we don’t find anyone there, we have no choice other than to continue down the river.”

Mo looked concerned. “Why can’t you hike all the way out of Lathrop Canyon?”

“It’s a four-mile steep uphill trek to the White Rim Road from the beach,” Mandy said. “And there’s no guarantee Rob will see any four-wheel drive vehicles on the road when he reaches it. Hardly anyone’s on it at any time of the year, and it’s even more unlikely now. And from there, it’s another long seven-mile hike to the park road. Our chances of seeing someone on the river are much better—and quicker, we think, especially at the confluence. But we’re going to try scouting the Lathrop Canyon trail, just in case.”

Diana covered one of Hal’s hands with hers, then looked at Mandy
and Rob. “I know you’re trying your best. I just hope we can take care
of Alex soon.”

“It seems likely that we’ll have to keep on going,” Alice said to her mother, “maybe even all the way through Cataract Canyon.”

Mandy saw a look of relief pass over Paul’s features before he masked it with a respectfully somber frown. Yes, the Andersons were half of their party, and they had experienced an awful tragedy. But the other half of the clientele had paid good money for the trip, too, and shouldn’t be expected to give it up. She and Rob had discussed splitting the group, with everyone but the Andersons and one of them continuing on, if they could get word out and arrange for a motor launch to retrieve them and Alex’s body. First, however, they would have to find some way of contacting the outside world.

Les stepped toward Rob. “I’m strong. I’ll volunteer to paddle with you.”

Rob clamped a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks.”

“I’ll take the other paddle,” Cool said. “I’m not as experienced at river guiding as Gonzo, Kendra, and Mandy, so they should stay with the others.”

With that decided, they quickly loaded the body bag into Rob’s oar raft. The three men tied the bag down, then Rob stepped onto the bank to give Mandy a quick hug. “Keep an eye out for that bear.”

“I will. You be careful, too, on that trail by yourself. We can’t have you turning an ankle up there or anything.” Mandy took strength
from his hug, then stepped back. A strong sense of foreboding
crawled up her back.

Rob pulled out the sand anchor and got into the raft with it. Mandy gave them a push off from the river bank and waved goodbye. With Rob oaring in the middle and the other two paddling in the front, the raft was soon out of sight.

The others turned to washing and packing up the rest of the gear.
When Mandy went to dump dishwater in the river, Betsy Saunders approached her. “Can I talk to you privately?”

“Sure,” Mandy said, curious to hear what was obviously bothering the woman. “I need someone to get the toilet and carry it back with me. I shouldn’t do it alone, just in case that bear is still around. Do you mind?”

“I don’t mind. I’m not worried about the bear.”

That comment made Mandy give Betsy a sharp look, but the
woman obviously wasn’t ready to talk yet. She kept her lips clamped
tight until they were out of earshot of the others. Then she put a hand on Mandy’s arm.

“Something’s not right about this bear attack.”

Mandy turned to her, but kept on walking. “What’s not right?”

“I’ve done a lot of research on bears and bear attacks, as well as their prints,” Betsy said. “And no bear will stop after killing an animal. They kill to eat, especially in the fall, to fatten up for winter hibernation.”

“Maybe it was scared away before it could start … eating … Alex.”

Betsy shook her head. “By what? You asked if anyone left their tent and no one did. None of us scared it away. And another thing. There were no defensive wounds on Alex. That one swipe on his neck was fatal, but he didn’t die instantly from it. Why didn’t he try to defend himself ?”

“I don’t know.” Mandy pictured Alex’s body again in her mind. “You’re right that there weren’t any scratches on his arms.”
Strange.

They had reached the portable chemical toilet. Mandy looked around but saw no signs of wildlife, bear included, so she indicated Betsy should stand a few feet away. Holding her breath against the smell, Mandy removed the seat so she could screw on the watertight cap that kept the odorous contents secure while the large metal box was roped into a raft. While working, she thought about what Betsy had said.

“Maybe Alex was sound asleep when the bear attacked,” she said to Betsy. “Then after it happened, even if he woke up, he could have fainted from the pain or the blood loss.”

Mandy picked up the toilet seat and grabbed one of the handholds on the side of the box. She waved Betsy over to take the handhold on the other side. They both grunted when they lifted the box.

“Maybe.” But Betsy’s skeptical expression showed she seemed to think otherwise. She teetered a bit as they started back toward camp with the box between them. Before she could say anything else, a rustling in the nearby willow grove made both of them drop the box and stare into the shadows under the willows. “What’s that?”

Is the bear back?
Mandy stepped toward the willows, looking for a dark bulk while tensed to run. A rock squirrel skittered out, chattering at them as they ran. Relieved, she said, “Just a squirrel.”

They both picked up the box and started walking again.

“Something else was strange about the scene,” Betsy said. “I only
saw a few paw prints on the ground near Alex. There should have
been more. And they were all from the front left paw. No front right
paw and no back paw prints.”

Mandy stopped and stared at Betsy. “That’s odd.”

“And that’s not the oddest thing about it,” Betsy said. “I would bet my life that those weren’t black bear paw prints. They were too big. And the claws were wrong.”

“What are you saying?”

“Those tracks were from a grizzly.”

six

The wind whips through the canyons of the American
Southwest, and there is no one to hear it but us—a reminder
of the 40,000 generations of thinking men and women
who preceded us, about whom we know almost nothing,
upon whom our civilization is based.

—
carl sagan

An hour later, Mandy
plied her oars through the silty waters of the Colorado River and tried
to figure out what Betsy’s observations meant. After checking with the remaining Andersons, who had agreed, Mandy had decided to take the rest of the group to their originally planned next stop, the native American ruins across the river from Lathrop Canyon. That would give Rob time to look for hikers on the Lathrop Canyon trail before they rejoined him, Cool, and Les around lunchti
me. The group could eat lunch at the picnic tables there while the guides decided what their next move would be.

When they pushed the rafts off the river bank, Mandy had wound up solo in hers, because her raft was overloaded with extra gear that normally would have been stowed on Rob’s. Though the rafts stayed close together, that left Mandy time alone to think. After they had gotten back to camp, Betsy had opened her wildlife tracking guidebook to show Mandy grizzly and back bear prints and claw marks. While very similar, there were marked differences. Mandy had told Betsy that she needed to talk to Rob, and in the meantime, she asked Betsy to keep the information to herself.

No grizzlies had ever been spotted in the whole state of Utah, so there was no way Alex could have been attacked by a real grizzly bear. But Betsy had been so sure the prints were grizzly, even when Mandy
pointed that out to her. Mandy had to agree—the tracks looked more
like grizzly than black bear. And then there was the strange fact that they had all come from the same foot. Could the other odd details Betsy had observed about the death scene mean that someone had staged the death to look like a bear attack, using a preserved bear claw to cover the real cause of death?

If so, how was Alex really killed—and by whom? If he had been murdered, that meant the killer was still among them. A chill ran down Mandy’s spine. Could the killer be plotting more deaths? The convenient destruction of the radio pointed to that strong possibility. And if so, like the aquatic life hidden under the murky surface of the Colorado River, secrets must be lurking under the surface of Alex’s supposedly accidental demise.

Deadly secrets.

Mandy’s mind returned full-circle. Maybe she was overreacting.
Maybe Betsy really wasn’t as knowledgeable about bear prints
as she
seemed to be. Unfortunately, in the process of moving
Alex’s
body,
all of the prints had been obliterated. So Betsy’s observations couldn’t
be confirmed—unless the photos Mandy took included some of the
prints. Maybe they could be blown up to show the prints were all from the same paw, and maybe a bear expert could determine that they were grizzly.

But first they had to get off the river.

While Mandy’s mind—and gut—were in turmoil, the float to the Lathrop ruins was quiet. Kendra had the four remaining Ander
sons in her paddle raft, and she politely gave her passengers space to grieve and talk quietly among themselves. Gonzo tried to impart some river knowledge to the six clients in his raft to keep them distracted. He got Viv talking about the many species of swallows inhabiting the cliffsides, and she was able to spot mud, barn, and cliff swallows darting in and out of shadowed crevices with her binoculars. When Mo asked about the dying tamarisk trees she had seen along the river banks, Gonzo got Mandy’s attention. He passed the question along to her, since it was her area of expertise.

Mandy put aside her mental quandary to explain the park’s strategy to control this destructive invasive species. Imported from Europe and Asia for use as landscape ornamentals, the tamarisks quickly spread throughout the Western United States. They displaced native trees and thirstily drank much more water than native plants. Being a variety of salt cedar, their leaf residue increased the soil salinity, killing even more native vegetation. The US Agricultural Service imported tamarisk leaf beetles from China to feed on the trees, releasing them in 2001. Since then, long patches of tamarisks along the Colorado and Green rivers had been defoliated and native willows were returning.

By the time the discussion moved on to identifying some of the
fifteen native varieties of willows, Mandy saw that Kendra had maneu
vered her raft close enough so the Anderson family could hear,
too. Realizing the distraction might be good for them, Mandy pointed
to a large stand of green willows on the river bank.

“Those tall willows that grow in groves like bamboo are coyote willows. The beavers that live along the river love to feed on them.”

“But we haven’t seen any beaver dams,” Paul said.

“There’s no way they could dam the Colorado,” Mandy said with a smile. “It’s too big. And the canyon streams are seasonal. They’re dry most of the year. So, the beavers that live here don’t build dams.”

At that moment, a great blue heron swooped past the rafts. With a reverent “Aah,” Viv tracked its flight with her binoculars.

“See where it landed,” Kendra said while pointing. “If you look in that hackberry tree, you’ll see at least three heron nests. Usually herons are loners and nest on the ground. But here in the canyons, coyotes are a big threat to them. So, like the beavers, the herons have adapted to this unique environment. They live in communities in the treetops so they can protect each other from the hungry coyotes.”

Diana leaned her head against Hal’s shoulder. “Alex told me that
this was one thing he wanted us to see, how the river canyons have forced wildlife to adapt.” She looked at her daughter Alice. “Maybe you’re right about finishing the trip. Then we’d be honoring his wishes.”

“But what do we do about his body?” Hal asked Mandy.

Mandy knew what he meant. After a few days on the river in that black PVC bag, Alex’s body would start to decompose. “If we can’t find a powerboat on the river to take Alex and you all back to Moab,” Mandy said, “we’ll dunk his body bag in the river each night to keep it cool. It’s watertight, so no water will get in.” She didn’t know what else they could do.

Hal bit his lip and nodded. He looked away, and Mandy realized he was fighting tears.

They rounded a bend, and Gonzo pointed out a wide beach on river left. “There’s where we pull in to look at the ruins.”

They beached and anchored the rafts. Then Mandy gently asked
the Andersons if they wanted space and time to themselves or if they wanted to join the group in hiking to the ruins.

“Seeing everything is what Alex would want us to do,” Alice said,
and Amy agreed.

Hal stepped out of the raft. “I’d rather hike than sit here.”

Diana sniffed and swiped a tear off her cheek, then with a determined set to her chin, she gave a nod, too.

Gonzo led the clients onto a well-worn trail that slanted up the cliffside to a ledge overlooking the river. Mandy realized that while she couldn’t do much to alleviate the Andersons’ grief, she could at least address another nagging issue of the trip. She signaled Kendra to hang back in the rear with her.

Once the others were out of earshot, Mandy asked, “I haven’t had a chance to bring this up with everything else that’s been going on, but what did Betsy, Mo, and Viv say about Cool’s flirting when you asked them last night?”

Kendra’s brow furrowed. “They tried to say it was no big deal, that they viewed it as a compliment. But …”

“But what?”

“Their body language said something else. I think they’re a little uncomfortable with it.”

“Damn.” Mandy kicked a stone off the trail. “I’m definitely going to have to tell him to back off.”

“That wasn’t the only problem, though,” Kendra said.

“What else is Cool doing?” Mandy asked angrily.

“He’s not the other problem. Les Williams is. Seems he made a sleazy remark to Viv. She said she was embarrassed to tell me about it since I’m black, but it also made her mad. Les made some comment about what a fox she was and asked what she was doing sleeping with a black man when there were handsome white guys like him around who are available.”

Shocked, Mandy stared at Kendra. “The nerve!”

“And available?” Kendra snorted.
“
The flaming bigot is married, and his wife is on the trip!”

“What did Viv do?”

“She brushed him off by saying pretty much the same thing. She said she stomped off before she could say anything really foul to him—or slap him like she really wanted to.”

What a low-life.
“Given how much Les controls Amy, I guess I’m not surprised. Trying to pick up other women is another way to prove no woman controls him, that he can do whatever he pleases.”

“It’s assholes like him who make me glad I’ve got Gonzo.” Kendra gazed at her boyfriend, marching in front of the group and gesturing toward the river, his Rastafarian braids bouncing with his boisterous movements.

“Sounds like it’s getting serious,” Mandy said with a grin.

“Not yet, but he treats me right. Really respects me, you know?”

Mandy nodded. “I know. And when you find a guy like that, you hang on to him.”

Though Rob had a frustrating tendency to want to take care of
her, he did respect her. And he had backed off and let her be her own
woman when she needed to. Yeah, she was glad she had Rob, too.

They caught up with Hal and Diana, who had lagged behind the
others. While talking with Kendra, Mandy had noticed that Hal seemed
to be having trouble with the uphill climb, stopping a few times to catch his breath. He was breathing heavily now, sucking in huge gasps
of air while Diana stood beside him looking worried.

Mandy was worried, too. This was a very short uphill hike compared to some of the others they had planned. Hal hadn’t listed
any health issues on the client medical form, other than mild hypertension. But Mandy knew clients often lied, afraid that their medical problems would mean they wouldn’t be accepted for trips. Or
maybe he was just particularly susceptible to altitude sickness, though Moab was only about 3,000 feet higher in altitude than his home in Om
aha.

When Mandy asked Hal if he was okay, he waved her off and started walking again. Watching his bowed shoulders, she thought maybe his grief was weighing on him. She hoped that was it. But she feared otherwise.

Once they all reached a large ancient granary built under an overhang
, they took turns peering into it. Gonzo explained it was constructed out of stones cemented together with a mud made of sand and clay mixed with urine, blood, feces, or other organic matter.

Tina wrinkled her nose and said, “Yuck.”

Turning from the nearby handprint and bighorn sheep pictographs that she was photographing, Elsa asked, “Why’d they store their food in such a remote place?”

“Actually, they didn’t store food in the granaries.” Gonzo swept
an arm toward the wide sandy flatland between them and the river.
“Down there is what we call ‘Big Bottom.’ These bottoms are where
the ancestral Puebloans, or what used to be called the Anasazi, grew
their squash, beans, and corn in the summers. After the harvest, they’d
hide their seed stocks and tools from other tribes in these grana
ries before heading to the highlands in the cool months to hunt for
deer and other meat.”

“Ah, so these are hiding places,” Elsa said with dawning understanding. “That’s why they’re so remote and high up.”

Gonzo pointed out a design on the rock wall that archaeologists thought was a solstice calendar and took them to another smaller granary and some more rock art. By then, it was approaching noon, so Mandy signaled for them all to head back to the rafts and paddle across the river to the Lathrop Canyon campsite. The whole time they had been on the cliffside, she and Kendra had scanned the river for other boats but neither of them had seen any.

They were totally alone.

_____

After they beached at Lathrop Canyon, tying off their rafts next to Rob’s containing Alex’s body, Mandy led the group to the campsite. She saw Cool and Les sitting at one of the picnic tables in the shade. “Where’s Rob?”

“Not back yet,” Cool said.

Worry started to nibble on Mandy’s psyche. “How long has he been gone?”

Cool checked his watch. “Over an hour.”

Mandy looked toward the back of the campsite, where the trail
took off, with hands on her hips. “Maybe I should send someone
after him.” She hoped he wasn’t injured. They had agreed he wouldn’t take more than an hour to look for hikers on the trail.

Just then Rob appeared around the bend, his steps plodding and dejected.

“Any luck?” Mandy yelled.

Rob shook his head. Once he was near, he said, “The trail was deserted, and there’s no evidence that anyone’s been at the campsite here in days. The latrine doesn’t even smell. This isn’t a very popular hiking trail even in season.”

“Kendra and I didn’t see anyone on the river from the ruins either.” Mandy chewed on her lip. “I guess our only choice is to keep moving.”

She scanned the campsite. The women clients had already spied
the latrine, the last they would find on the river before the Hite Marina, and they were making good use of it. Kendra was setting up the handwashing station for them to use afterward. Cool and Gonzo were carrying lunch supplies to the picnic tables.

The next thing she saw made her heart lurch. She grabbed Rob’s arm. “Look.” Diana and Hal had walked to the river bank. They stood there silently hugging each other in front of the body bag in Rob’s raft.