One Mile Under (14 page)

“
Allie!
” She and Dani came together in a warm hug. “I’m so sorry, Allie. How’re you doing? What a stupid question … I can’t believe this has happened. I’m just so sad.”

“I know. I know.” Allie Watkins put her face on Dani’s shoulder and squeezed her. “Thank you for coming. I didn’t know you would be here. I know it was such a long drive.”

“Allie, I want to introduce you to my godfather, Ty. He’s from back east. Connecticut. He’s out here visiting.”

“Nice to meet you.” Allie looked up, a brave face, but her eyes a little swollen and red. “I’m sorry this is how you have to spend your trip. It was awfully nice of you to come.”

“Allie.” Hauck squeezed her hand. “Dani’s told me a lot about your husband. I’m truly sorry for your loss.”

She nodded bravely and sniffed. It was easy to see why people liked her. “Thanks. This is quite a place here, huh?” She shook her head at Dani. “The land time forgot. C’mon, let me introduce you to Trey’s dad.”

“Where’s Petey?”

“With his grandma. Trust me, he doesn’t exactly lack for attention here. I don’t even know what to tell him yet. He’s only two. He keeps asking for his dad.”

Dani interlocked her fingers with Allie’s. “I can only imagine how hard this must be.”

They met Trey’s dad, a tall, soft-spoken man with an easy smile but rough, callused hands, wearing a western pocketed shirt and pressed khakis, who introduced himself as Chuck. He was probably in his mid-fifties, but looked older, as such a hardscrabble life might do. They also met Trey’s brother and sister: Nick, maybe eighteen, muscular and fit, short hair brushed forward; and Kelli, in her twenties, pretty, dressed a little more sophisticated than the rest of the family. She explained she worked back in Greeley, at the college.

Her father said she was going to be married in the fall to a professor there.

“Nice of you both to come.” She greeted Hauck and gave Dani a hug.

“Dad, Dani’s a whitewater guide back in Aspen,” Allie explained. “She rode with Trey. In fact …” She stopped before saying what she was clearly about to, that Dani had been the one to find his son.

“He always liked to go fast,” Chuck Watkins said with a shake of his head. “Years back, I caught him diving off that barn out there into a mound of hay as if it was a pond. That’s a twenty-four-foot roof he went off of.”

“How old was he?” Dani asked.

“I don’t know.” Trey’s father looked at his daughter for confirmation. “Eight, maybe?”

“Something like that, Dad.”

“Sounds like Trey,” Dani said. “Bombs away.” Both she and Allie smiled.

“Broke an ankle and his wrist to say he’d done it, though. And when it mended he went right back up and tried it again. Don’t blame him much for wanting out of this place. He always lived on the edge. We always said, his first steps were down a flight of stairs. What was it he was into …” He looked at Allie this time. “Jumping off a cliff with a kite.”

“Paragliding, Dad,” Allie told him. “But it’s safe.”

“Sure, safe … Paragliding. Heli-skiing, the rapids … I always knew one day one of those things would catch up to him.”

It was clear no one here was thinking in any way that Trey’s death was anything other than a tragic accident befalling someone who had always pushed the envelope one step too far.

“Allie, I want to talk with you for a second if we can?” Dani took her arm. “Before more people come.”

“Sure,” Allie replied. “Excuse me, Dad, Mr. Hauck.” She pointed to an open bedroom. “Why don’t we go in there? Trey’s old room. Where I’m staying.”

The daughter and Dani excused themselves and Hauck was left standing with Chuck Watkins. “Any chance I can have a few words with you as well?” Hauck asked him. “Just for a second or two.”

Watkins looked at him as if the two requests to talk were a little strange, but shrugged. “Why not.” He led Hauck around near where some soft drinks and liquor were laid out on the dining room table. “Anything I can get you, Mr. …”

“Hauck.”

“Sorry. I’m bad with names. Dani said you were visiting out here …”

“That’s right. I’m from back east. Connecticut. I’m no farmer, but I can see things look tough as hell out here.”

“These last three years …” The farmer shook his head grimly. “It would take an act of God to get something to grow here. Water tables are down eighty percent from what they were. We try to grow sugar beets, onions, potatoes. Maybe some baby carrots and feed corn. You see the result. That river used to be pretty good to us. For decades. Now …” He was about to add something, then stopped. “Now everything’s working against us these days.”

“Any chance of bringing water in? I’ve heard some farmers doing that in drought-stricken areas.”

Watkins just looked at him and smiled. “Well, I
can
see you’re not from around here, son. Anyway, you said you’re not a farmer, Mr. Hauck. What field are you in?”

“Security,” Hauck said. “And before that, law enforcement.”

“Law enforcement?”

“I was the chief of detectives with the Greenwich, Connecticut, police force for six years. And before that with the NYPD.”

“Did you even know my son?”

Hauck shook his head. “No.”

The farmer regarded Hauck with an evaluating stare, then looked toward Trey’s bedroom. “I’m starting to get the sense you didn’t drive all this way just to come to Trey’s funeral. May I pour you a drink, Mr. Hauck?”

Hauck nodded. “Scotch would be nice.”

Hauck asked Watkins if he’d ever heard of Colin Adrian. If Trey had ever mentioned him? If he knew any reason why someone would want to harm his son?

To each question the farmer just stoically shook his head, no, finally looking at Hauck a bit suspiciously, “
Harm him
…?”

“A person named Colin Adrian drove into the Roaring Fork park directly after Trey the morning he was killed and left a short time later.”

“
So …?
” Watkins looked up at Hauck and furrowed his brow. “I’m not sure I understand.”

Hauck took him through what Dani suspected. Deliberately, as to not upset him. As Hauck’s intent became clear, the lines on the farmer’s face grew deeper and more worn. “You’re saying what, so as I’m clear.” Watkins put down his drink. “You think my son was murdered? And that this man, Adrian, might have done it?”

“I can’t say anything for sure. I don’t know if you heard, but a hot-air balloon went up in flames and crashed the next morning, killing all five who were on board. The operator of the balloon was someone who claimed he saw something the previous day when Trey was killed.”

“Saw what?”

“I don’t know. We never heard. Dani seems to feel strongly that it might have been connected.”

Trey’s father didn’t seem happy and glanced toward the bedroom. “I thought you said she was a whitewater guide.”

“I said I would follow up a lead for her. And the more we looked at it, the more it seemed credible.”

“Credible? And your lead led here? To Templeton?”

“This person we traced led here, Mr. Watkins, Colin Adrian … He’s from Greeley. Which is why I thought you might have known who he is.”

Watkins nodded, glancing toward the bedroom. “And that’s what she’s talking to my daughter-in-law about in there?” His tone closed up like a fist.

“We didn’t mean to intrude upon your family’s grief, sir. We just wanted to see if there was any connection.”

“I met with the police chief back in Carbondale …” Chuck Watkins said.

“Dunn. Yes.” Hauck filled in the name.

“He didn’t mention anything about any possible crime. In fact, he said even the Parks Department seemed to have come to a similar conclusion of what took place. That it was all an accident. And anyway …” He turned back to Hauck, a measure of distrust in his eyes. “Who the hell would want to murder Trey?”

“We didn’t mean to upset you, Mr. Watkins.” Hauck put his drink down. “If there’s nothing you can tell us, we’ll be on our way. If there
was
something, we just thought it would have been something you’d want to know.”

Watkins nodded, running his index finger across his thin dry lips. “You see that boy over there …?” He motioned toward his younger son, Nick. Big-shouldered, boyish face, short-cropped hair, pumped-out chest. “He’s got a scholarship to the Cowboys in the fall. CSU. He plays linebacker. Captain of his team. They won the league championships the past two years …”

“Good for him,” Hauck said, impressed. “I played in college myself. Running back. Though not quite Division One.”

“And where was that?”

“A small college in Maine called Bates. Division Three.”

“All the same, you know what kind of commitment it takes. Nice as a choirboy, that kid, when it comes to people and schooling. But put him on the field and he turns into something else. You mentioned the kind of life we lead here, and you’re right, it tests even the toughest of souls. I inherited this farm. Lord knows why anyone would want it now. But that boy’s got his whole life ahead of him. And my daughter, Kelli, I mentioned, she’s engaged. To a young professor at the college in Greeley. They’ve got their whole lives ahead of them, too. Life around here, it beats you down in more ways than you can count. More ways than some math professor could conjure …” His gaze grew distant, fixed on no one in particular.

Then he turned back to Hauck. “My son was always one gust of wind or one loose snowdrift away from where we are today, Mr. Hauck. I knew it. Everyone in this room, if they were honest, knew it, too. He dropped out of school, lived his life the way he wanted, doing all those crazy things. It was selfish. Especially to that pretty young girl in there.” He looked at his grandson. “And that kid. So don’t come here and tell me my son died from anything other than his own recklessness or indifference unless you have something real solid to back it up with. He was gone ten years. I don’t know who he knew and who he didn’t. I knew he loved that river, though, and that mountain. I’m just not sure if they loved him back as much. And I think that’s how I’m prepared to remember him, if it’s all the same. You want to come here and bring stuff like that out, Adrian or whatever his name was, I don’t care what your background is, Mr. Hauck, you better back it up with fact.”

Hauck saw Dani and Allie come out of the bedroom. “Thank you for the drink, sir. I’m sorry for your loss. We’ll be on our way.”

“It’s been nice to talk with you, Mr. Hauck.” He held out his hand. “And in case I don’t see you tomorrow at Trey’s service …” Watkins’s grip was firm, and his meaning clear. “I appreciate the long drive up here and I’ll understand.”

Back in the car, Hauck asked Dani if Allie had anything to add, as they turned on the main road, heading back toward town.

She shook her head. “At least, not about Adrian. She’d never even heard of him. What about Trey’s dad?”

“The same. Nor was he exactly pleased to even be discussing the subject.”

“Allie said all this talk about if Trey was involved in something was starting to worry her a bit …”

“I can understand. And I’m afraid that’s still all it is right now, Dani. Talk.” He got back on the country road in the direction of Templeton. He knew he’d upset Watkins, a day before his son’s funeral. At some point soon they’d have to make a decision on what to do. It was 5:30
P.M
. If they just continued on home they could probably get there by ten or eleven with nothing to show for it.

“So where are we heading?” Dani asked.

“Into town. I could use a coffee,” Hauck said. “What about you?”

She grinned. “You think there’s a Starbucks there?”

“About the same chance we find a Williams-Sonoma.” He slowed behind a pickup with a horse trailer attached. “We’ll find something there and decide.”

“Decide what?” Dani looked at him.

“Whether to go back tonight or not.”

Chuck Watkins had shut things down pretty firmly. He also seemed to have written off his son …
Trey was gone ten years
.
I don’t know who he knew or what he did.
He seemed a hard man and not fully understanding. And he clearly saved whatever he had inside for his two remaining kids.

“Uncle Ty, I want to go to the funeral tomorrow.” Dani turned to him. “It’s at ten
A.M.
Even if we go back we can still leave by noon and be back by five. Okay …?”

“We’ll see.”

“Uncle Ty, c’mon … It’s only one night.”

“It’s not the night. It’s that we don’t really belong here, stirring things up. At least I don’t.”

“But I do,” Dani said. “I belong here.”

“
I said we’ll see
.” Her eyes looked a bit surprised at his tone. Maybe he had come off a shade sterner than he intended. “You knew the rules,” he said, trying to sound a bit more conciliatory. “Trey hadn’t been here in years and we still don’t have any connection between him and Adrian. We don’t even know anything about Adrian …”

“We have an address.”

Hauck looked at her.

“On the car registration, there’s an address. In Greeley. Tuttle Road, right …?”

“Yeah, we have an address,” he agreed begrudgingly. He continued on and they didn’t talk for a while.

Finally Dani turned toward him. “Aren’t you just the slightest bit interested?”

“I’m interested.” He was interested in how Adrian wasn’t Adrian, but someone who had taken his name. Which likely meant he knew him from somewhere. And it also meant he was someone who didn’t want to be found. Hauck thought he was also interested in the odds of both Adrian and Trey being connected to this same area. He was interested in how Watkins had completely shut him down. “Question?” he said.

“What?”

“Which one of us is the internationally known detective here, anyway?” He winked at her.

That made her smile.

They were on the outskirts of Templeton again, coming back in. Hauck noticed the high school. Like every thing else around here it looked dated and run-down. A one-level-brick-and-glass building. Vintage seventies.

“Look at that …” His eye was drawn to something as they went past.