Grave Echoes: A Kate Waters Mystery (13 page)

Her voice came out too soft, a waver of hot emotions, and Kate suddenly felt her throat constrict. The memory of that threatened her composure with hot tears. She slipped her backpack off and bent down to adjust a strap, tie a lace…anything to hide her face from Eric. He seemed to sense something and backed away from the subject, telling her about a recent climb he’d done in Alaska. Not only was he good looking and bright, Kate thought, but he was sensitive too.

When Mark and Sean reached them, they went over the locations of the receivers.

“Systems analysis detected the earthquake coming from about 100 meters south of the rock at 8 kilometers underground,” Kate said. “One receiver should be located just above the dome near Devil’s Kitchen.” She pointed above Crater Rock, “and then another one below it… over there,” she said, indicating to a dip just below the rock.

Sean stepped closer. “The EDM below the rock is the one we are no longer receiving signals from. Either it or the mirror used to reflect the measurements from was damaged by the quake.”

“Could be that one of the receivers was hit by a loosened rock,” Eric said.

“Well we won’t need it after we replace it with the GPS monitor,” Mark added, lifting his goggles to wipe off his face.

Sean turned toward the Columbia River. “Looks like we might be getting some weather. It might not be a bad idea to split up once we get to the rock. Kate and I can set up one of the receivers below the rock and retrieve the old EDM while you and Mark scale above to install the second one and collect emissions.”

But Kate thought it was a bad idea. “We should stay together in case there’s another earthquake or one of us slips up.”

Eric looked out over the ridge. “I think Sean’s right. We want to have plenty of time to descend if the weather shifts direction. If we rope together, we’ll be safe; plus, it will only take Mark and I an hour to set up the receiver and collect emission samples.”

If it’s not too late, Kate thought. An hour was plenty of time for Sean to execute a plan that might ‘accidentally’ kill her.

“And, we wouldn’t want to be up here in the dark on Halloween,” Mark added, smiling. “I imagine there are plenty of ghosts roaming this mountain.”

Eric and Sean laughed, but Kate didn’t find it funny. She was afraid of becoming one of them. She passed Sean a quick look of disapproval, but he just grinned.

“All right, let’s do it,” Eric said.

Kate stowed her water back in her bag, strapped the pack on, and continued leading the way, picking up the pace—she suddenly wanted off the mountain. Channeling a path with the steel claws of her crampons, she dug deep into the packed snow and ice to keep her footing. The wind blew a fierce, chill wall at them, whipping the hood of Kate’s coat and creating little whirlwind devils of snow that could confuse the hiker if one was not careful, especially if one suffered from narcolepsy. Kate noticed her vision tunneling every now and then, and paused to steady her speed and confirm their position.

At the top of Palmer Glacier, around 8,000 feet, they trekked along the steep cliff in a single file, like ants on a boulder. Above, the blue sky deepened as they ascended higher, strips of indigo highlighted the mountain range and faded into soft blues and periwinkles. After another half-hour climb, Kate steered the group to the rocky ridge at the bottom of Devil’s Kitchen where the first EDM had fallen below.

“How far above is the other EDM located?” Mark asked Kate.

“Should be 82 meters,” she replied.

Eric and Mark roped up and proceeded to ascend to the top of the ridge to set up the new satellite GPS. Kate and Sean would retrieve the old unit.

“I’ll scale down and get it. Only take a couple of minutes,” Sean said to Kate. “If you want, you can start setting up the GPS at top?”

“Sure,” Kate said, surprised. With distance between them, she felt better about the arrangement. If Sean meant to harm her, he wouldn’t position himself below her, especially now that Eric and Mark were gone. Maybe she had blown the whole thing out of proportion.

Easing the pack off her shoulders, Kate clipped a rope to her belt and drove her anchor into the ice, just above where they were going to install the GPS monitor. Her back loosened from the absence of her heavy pack. She reached up toward the sky, stretching and taking in a few deep breaths. The land below, carved out by rivers, ancient lahars, and basalt ridges formed from previous lava flows, never stopped marveling her in all its beauty.

She looked down the mountainside where Sean recovered the broken receiver, tying it to his pack. He looked around, probably for any other loose equipment that might have fallen, before climbing back up. Kate looked back over her shoulder where Eric and Mark had scaled up the ridge of the mountain. They were no longer in sight, but she kept a vigilant eye out for their return.

“Got it,” Sean said, when he reached her. He set down the receiver, climbed over to a rock that jutted out, and sat down. “Now, let’s mark the distal measurements.”

Kate went to get a pen from her pack, but a rumbling above stopped her. She looked above, when a cloud of snow hurtled in her direction. There was no time to move. She reached for her backpack where another ice pick was located, but the impact of the snow knocked it from her hands. She fell back, swift and hard, breath jarred from her lungs. Within seconds, Kate found herself plummeting down the icy slope in a cold darkness that swallowed the daylight.

She clawed at the frozen ground with her hands, but couldn’t stop the incredible force pushing her down. The ice tore at her exposed hands and wrists, stinging them raw. She dug the teeth of her boots into the ground, struggling to get her cleats to grip the snow pack—the steepness of the mountain and her momentum were too great. Terror assailed her, as she remembered the 800-ft. drop near Crater Rock was just meters away.

Attached to the side of her boot hung a small hammer used to chip basalt rocks in half. If she could get to it, she might be able to slow herself down. She tried reaching for her leg, but couldn’t even coordinate her limbs to flex under the velocity of her plummet. Then, a powerful jolt broke her fall. Her anchor stuck and she stopped. Kate blocked her head with her arms, as the avalanche continued to cascade over her. The snow, suffocating and intense, pounded into and over her.

After what felt like several minutes, the river of snow stopped. She clutched the rope her life dangled precariously on. Unable to move her weak, stiff body, she tried to clear her mind. The disaster wasn’t over.

“Hold on Kate!” she heard Sean say. Movement came back to her limbs in tremors, and Kate shook snow from her face, gasping in air that burned her lungs. She looked up, realizing that the anchor she’d placed strategically in the ground earlier hung loose from the ice.

“Don’t move, Kate!” Sean yelled above her.

Dangerously vulnerable, Kate felt terror hammering in her chest as she thought about her situation. Either she was going to fall off the side of the mountain, or Sean was going to push her off.

***

Wells turned onto Walnut Street, a southeast neighborhood where his daughter Julie used to live before she went to college. Large maples, vintage bungalows, quaint restaurants, and specialty shops lined the streets. Though violence and crime in this part of town were low, there were still some sketchy blocks and strange people, like the guy staring at him as he drove by, wearing a chain that dangled from a piercing in his nose to the one in his ear. Wells waved, enjoying the young man’s look of confusion-mixed-paranoia.

He pulled up behind a blue Prius, belonging to Terry Bowman, and noticed her tags were expired. But he wasn’t here to ticket her. He hoped she’d seen someone coming and going from Jev’s house in the last few days, since his inspection of Kate’s yard had turned up nothing. Whoever had spied on her was careful enough to cover their tracks.

Wells stepped from the car, observing Jev’s house across the street. From his discussion with Kate, he suspected Terry and Jev were more neighbors than friends, which might be beneficial, as Terry’s statement could reveal a more balanced perspective on Jev’s social life. His boots clapped up the steps to her porch, where she kept a bike, two camping chairs, a small barbeque grill, and a witch decoration that hung from a hook next to the window. Before he could knock on the screen door, the curtain moved aside, revealing a woman’s face. Wells flashed Terry his badge and wondered if she might think he was trick-or-treating.

“My name is Detective Wells, with the Portland Police Department,” he called out. “I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

Terry opened the door. “Hello.”

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Bowman. I’d like to ask you a few questions about Jevanna Waters.”

“Sure…could you give me just a minute?” She scrunched her face up like a rabbit, though her outfit looked like anything else but cute, with ripped, net leggings and red, satin push-up dress.

“Certainly.”

A minute turned into five, so Wells ducked around the floating witch doll and waited in one of the chairs on the porch. He surveyed Jev’s house across the street, planning to inspect it further after his questioning with Terry. A fence attached to both sides of Jev’s house offered a private and secure backyard. The landscaping looked cared for and a fresh coat of tan paint updated the cottage home, not really characteristics of someone practicing dark magic, he thought.

Terry came back to the door and stepped outside, three inches taller in shiny black pumps and a black velvet cloak to cover her tight, red dress.

“Halloween costume,” she said, apparently keen to his scrutiny of her clothing. “I’m going as an evil witch.”

Wells smiled. “Good thing I didn’t wear my uniform, or nobody would believe I was really an officer.”

Terry laughed. “Not today anyway.”

Wells shifted his stance, straightening his posture and changing the mood between them. “Unfortunately, I haven’t come for candy. I need to ask you a few questions about your neighbor, Jevanna Waters. Are you aware that she died in a car accident early Sunday morning?” He caught a glimpse of sadness break over her face before she tried to hide it.

“Yes, I am,” she said softly.

“Police have found questionable details surrounding her accident and an investigation is underway. Any information you could provide us would be helpful and appreciated,” Wells said, pulling his tablet and pen from his coat pocket.

“Of course,” Terry said. She folded her arms across her chest.

“How well did you know Jev?”

“We were mostly acquaintances,” Terry replied. “We chatted a few times, but we’ve always had different schedules, and Jev comes and goes a lot…” she paused, correcting herself. “Did come and go a lot. So we usually missed each other.”

“Jev’s sister, Kate, said you saw Jev the other night with some bags. Do you know where she was going?”

“No, I didn’t talk to her. I just happened to see her leaving late one night.” Terry looked across the street at Jev’s house, and her face, still bare of witch makeup, seemed to reflect a memory.

“Was she with anyone?”

Terry shook her head. “No, not that I saw.”

“Do you know her boyfriend, Sean?”

“I’ve spoke with him a couple of times.”

“Was he there the night you saw Jev?”

Terry’s eyes narrowed as she thought about it. “I can’t really remember; I’m sorry.”

“That’s all right. Just tell me what you do remember.”

She sighed, rubbing the bottom of her lip with her thumb. “I think he may have been there earlier, but when I saw Jev leave, I thought she was alone. I suppose he could have been in the car waiting for her; they often went places together.”

Wells speculated the same thing—was it possible that Sean had escaped the accident unharmed? Even though he couldn’t detect any injuries on him yesterday, he knew injuries could be covered easy enough if a person really wanted to hide them. Wells thought he saw a darker side to Sean and wondered if Terry might have seen it too. “Did you ever hear or see Jev and Sean fighting? Did she ever say anything to you about her relationship with him?”

“No. They always seemed to get along. One time, I saw Sean bring her flowers, so I assumed he was a pretty nice guy.” Wells made a note about the flowers, which often came into the picture after an argument. He knew from personal experience.

“And he always waved to me,” Terry added.

“Did he ever watch Jev’s house for her when she wasn’t home?”

Terry shook her head. “I don’t think so. She’s always been home when he’s been around, but…” she paused and brushed chestnut-colored bangs aside. “There was one of her friends who also came over a lot. I’ve seen her collecting Jev’s mail before.”

A promising detail, Wells thought. “Go on.”

“I think her name is Thea.”

Wells wasn’t surprised to hear that name again. “Did you ever talk with her?”

“No. I usually kept my distance when she was over.”

“Why is that?”

“She’s a little bit different, kind of rough, dark.”

He couldn’t help but glance back down at Terry’s outfit again. She noticed and smirked. “Like this outfit, which I would only wear on Halloween, but which Thea might wear just because.”

Wells smiled. His attention drifted to the witch hanging on Terry’s porch. It seemed obvious that Thea practiced witchcraft, and from Sean’s and Terry’s descriptions of her, probably black magic.