Scene of the Climb (24 page)

My entire body trembled as I hoisted my left leg and placed it on the six-inch grating on the far side of the guardrail. The bike was gaining speed. It climbed the hill. How could I get the rider's attention without alerting Krissy to its presence?

Blood saturated the bandage on my right hand and hemorrhaged down my wrist.

“Other leg,” Krissy hollered.

“Please,” I begged. “You don't want to do this. You'll never get away with it either.”

“If there's one thing I know, it's that I'll most definitely get away with it. Accidents like this happen all the time. You were eager to test the lines, you forgot to clip the harness in correctly. I'll turn on the waterworks and be on a plane to L.A. first thing tomorrow.”

The bike was within ten feet. Its rider's helmet was flashing white. Now was my chance. I prayed the rider wasn't wearing headphones.

“NO!” I screamed. “You're not going to get away with this. Put the gun down!”

Krissy shot me a look of disdain. She threw her head from side to side. “Why are you yelling?”

Clinging to the jagged side of the bridge with one leg straddling the guardrail, I watched the cyclist put a finger to his lips and steer his bike directly at Krissy's back.

It all happened so fast. The bicycle rammed into Krissy, knocking the gun out of her hand and her off her feet. In the distance I could hear a police siren and make out flashing red and blue lights.

I remained frozen, saddled between the bridge and rail, my knees shaking so hard I thought they might give way. The cyclist hopped off his bike, letting it crash onto the steel grating.

“Matt?!”

Matt ran over to where Krissy's body lay flat in a Superman position. He bent over and checked her pulse. “She's fine. Knocked out, but fine.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked, my fingers numb from digging into the cold steel. My entire right arm dripped with blood, like melting ice cream on the side of a waffle cone.

“We've got to get you out of this contraption,” Matt said, leaping over Krissy and grabbing my waist. He hoisted me over to safety and unbuckled the harness.

“How did you know it was Krissy?” I wondered where the gun had landed. It didn't appear to be anywhere next to her body. What if she came to and went after it?

The wail of sirens came closer. Strobe lights danced off the bridge like a disco ball.

Matt pointed to the approaching police car. He shouted something unintelligible over the sound of the siren.

“Huh?”

A police car lurched to a stop in front of us. Sheriff Daniels exited the driver's side and strode to the passenger door. He opened it to reveal Gam sitting in the front seat.

“Gam?!”

“Oh, honey, I wasn't sure Matt would get here in time,” she said as Sheriff Daniels took her hand and helped her out of the police car.

While the sheriff attended to Krissy and radioed in for an ambulance, Gam wrapped Matt and me in a hug.

“Good on you,” she said, patting Matt's arm. “You must have pedaled your heart out.”

For the first time I took notice of Matt. His green and yellow bike jersey, soaked with sweat, clung to his chest. He removed his Nutcase helmet. His hair was plastered and damp, his face red and streaked with sweat.

“I don't understand? How did you both know to come?” My hand throbbed. Gam noticed as I cradled it next to my waist.

“Here, honey, let me give you a zap.” She took both her hands and placed one on the top of my palm and the other on my wrist. Closing her eyes, she slowly rocked back and forth.

Heat spread from the tips of my fingers to my shoulder. Blood continue to trickle from my freshly opened wound, but it slowed and the pain subsided.

“Better?” Gam asked, her face serene.

“Much. Thanks. Now, will one of you fill me in? What's going on?”

“Matt, let's get her in the car and sitting, shall we?” Gam directed Matt to Sheriff Daniels' car.

He led me to the backseat of the police car. Gam sat in the front seat and spun around to face us. Matt's arm rested on my shoulder and I leaned in to his salty, warm chest.

“Okay, okay, I'm sitting. I'm fine. Will you please fill me in? It's driving me crazy.”

Gam raised her well-outlined eyebrows and nodded to Matt.

“I couldn't sleep after I left you last night,” Matt started. His breathing was fast. “Something didn't add up. Anyway, I tossed and turned. Finally I gave up. Don't ask why, but I decided I needed to burn off energy. I went for a ride.”

Gam gave me a knowing look.

“I ride this route a bunch. You know, down the old highway, over the bridge and on the Washington side. It's a great loop—” He paused to catch his breath.

Gam interrupted him in midsentence. “You're very intuitive.”

Matt grinned and waved her off. “Anyway, I knew you'd be out this way later in the morning and figured I could check in on you. About an hour into my ride your grandmother texted me. She said Sheriff Daniels called looking for you and you were in danger. I rode until I thought my quads were on fire.”

Nothing Gam did should surprise me, but I gave her an incredulous look. She reached and patted my knee.

“It was Krissy,” I said, still partially in disbelief. “She said Lenny ruined her life once and if he took over control of the show he'd fire her and she'd be completely ruined. I can't wrap my head around it. She was on the trail the whole time. It was her I saw on the deer trail.”

Matt nodded vigorously. He pulled his arm off my shoulder and grabbed his phone out of the pocket of his shorts. “I know. Look what I found when I couldn't sleep last night. I didn't think much of it, but the girl can run. She easily could have caught up with everyone.”

An article from three years ago highlighted the racing talents of Krissy Ray, a competitive adventure racer, who placed in the top five women in the Racing the World, set in New Zealand.

“Krissy Ray?” I said aloud. “Her last name is Miles . . . oh my God! Krissy Ray, as in Lenny Ray's wife?!”

Matt and Gam both bounced in their seats like kids waiting for a roller-coaster ride to start.

“Exactly!” Matt yelled.

“She was married to Lenny?” My mind made frantic connections. She and Lenny must have participated in the adventure race together. That's where she met Dave. But why the secrecy about her athletic skills? Unless she'd planned Lenny's murder. I let out an involuntary shudder. Gam held my knee.

“Sheriff Daniels found her prints all over your desk and phone,” she said as heat pulsed from her hand. “When I couldn't reach you, I called Matt. He told me you planned to meet Krissy here. We raced here as fast as we could.”

“Krissy must have been the one following me up Angel's Rest. I could have sworn someone was behind me. She snuck off the deer trail and found a way to the summit off the main path. She killed Lenny and took the same route back. We were there for at least an hour with Crag Rats. That would have given her plenty of time to get to the van and change.”

“Yep. Sheriff Daniels found footage of her on the trail. Andrew rigged the entire path with cameras. She must have not realized she was in view of one of them. That broken camera you found had her prints all over it. She must have ripped it down on the summit. Stupid mistake.”

An ambulance siren sounded. The back of the car lit up. Sheriff Daniels showed the paramedics to Krissy. We watched as they placed her on a stretcher. She'd regained consciousness. As they loaded her into the ambulance, she gave me a death stare.

“Thank you,” I whispered to Matt.

He returned his arm to my shoulder.

Sheriff Daniels sent the ambulance on its way. He strolled to the cruiser's passenger door, which Gam had left open. Closing it, he made sure her legs were tucked safely inside. Why was he treating her like they were on a date?

“Okay, folks, here's the plan,” he said as he sat in the driver's seat and pointed to me in the rearview mirror. “We're going to get you to a doctor to stitch up that hand. I'll take your statement and bring you to your car.” He paused and caught Gam's eye. Did I notice a look pass between them or was I delirious from my latest brush with death?

Matt raised a finger as Sheriff Daniels turned the key in the ignition. “Uh, one problem. My bike. I can't leave it on the bridge.”

“Already took care of it.” Sheriff Daniels eased the car into a sharp U-turn. “I'm sending out my deputy in the truck. He'll bring it to town for you.”

“What about Krissy?” I asked, buckling my seat belt.

“She'll be fine. Looks to be a slight concussion. Nice work on that one.” He nodded in the mirror to Matt. “She'll have plenty of time to heal where she's going. I'm booking her on murder and attempted. Not bad work yourself.” He turned his head slightly in my direction and snapped it forward as he sped past the tollbooth.

I sat in
Northwest Extreme
'
s
conference room a few hours later with a new set of stitches and a creamy latte.

Sheriff Daniels briefed the Race the States team and Greg on the morning's events and the fact that Krissy had offered a full confession.

It turns out she and Lenny were married for less than a year. They'd met at a race. She fell for his macho personality, which soon turned into a wandering eye. He cheated on her numerous times before she finally called it off.

Then it got ugly. She'd filed for a restraining order, dropped out of adventure racing and started a new life in Hollywood. For all her talk of hobnobbing with movie stars and producers, she'd really been shagging coffee. This was her first big break.

Lenny followed her onto the show and planned to buy Dave out. As soon as he had control of the show, he planned to kick Krissy to the curb. Something snapped. She decided the only chance she had was to kill him. I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her.

When Sheriff Daniels finished, Dave let out a low whistle. “Crikey. Didn't see that one comin'.”

Greg explained in light of the morning's detour, the authorities had agreed to postpone filming of the zip-line finale until tomorrow. He suggested we all take the day off.

Dave walked out of the bright conference room with his arm wrapped around Sheriff Daniels, asking about whether or not he could shoot footage of Krissy in jail. Imagine the ratings.

A call came in for Greg. He excused himself, hurrying to take it in his office. On his way out the door, he stopped and whispered in my ear, “Be sure to come see me before you leave. I need to talk to you about something.”

Great. What did he want to see me for? Probably he hated my piece. And he'd figured out that I'm terrified of heights and pretty much everything else in nature. I could hear him now. “Sorry, Meg, but you're not cut out for this job.”

Leaf ambled his way out of the conference room behind Greg. “No hard feelings, you know?” He paused and twisted his long unruly dreds around a finger. “I thought you were trying to stir things up. Didn't want me to buy into the show or something.”

“So you were going to invest in the show?”

“Yeah. I've got some cash to spend. Still might. Andrew and me have been talking about how to make it more green. We'll see.

“I wouldn't have pegged Krissy as a killer. That's deep. Really deep.” He flashed two fingers in the air. “Peace.”

That left Alicia, Andrew and me alone. They sat with their backs to the wall of windows, their chairs touching. The camera!

I reached into my purse and retrieved the GoPro camera I'd found at Table Mountain. “Hey, I think this is yours.” I slid the camera across the table to Andrew.

He held it toward the lights and examined it. “Where'd you find this? I've been looking for it everywhere.”

“Table Mountain.”

I waited to see how they would respond. Andrew flipped the camera in his hand. Alicia darted her eyes from the camera to Andrew. They shared a look I couldn't decipher. She shrugged at Andrew and said to me, “Did you watch what was on there?”

“Yeah, but I don't get it. What was the big secret? I thought for sure you killed Lenny.”

Andrew cleared his throat and looked at his feet. Alicia slugged him. “So did he.”

“What do you mean?”

“Lenny and I had a brief—very brief—fling. Believe me, I'm not condoning what Krissy did, but that guy was such an ass. When I broke it off with him, he totally flipped. That's when I met Andy.” She batted her eyes and reached for his hand. “He's been my rock. Wouldn't back down when Lenny tried to threaten me.”

“Threaten you with what?”

Alicia inspected her nails as she continued. “Lenny and I met in Vegas on the same day I learned I didn't make the Olympic team. I wanted to blow off some steam and ended up drinking way too much. We got married. I had it annulled the next week. That's when he got nasty.”

“That's the secret you were talking about.”

“Yep. With the media swarming, I didn't want them to get wind of the fact Lenny was my ex. I knew it would blow up and I don't want that kind of attention. Of course, Andy here”—she slugged him again—“thought I had something to do with knocking him off. Got all worked up for nothing.”

“So you
did
follow me out to Multnomah Falls?” I asked, trying to make eye contact with Andrew.

He refused to meet my eyes. Alicia slugged him a third time. He sat up and mumbled, “Yeah, sorry about that. I made a mistake. I didn't think she could really kill him, but I thought maybe they got in a fight and it was an accident . . .” He trailed off. “I really didn't mean to hurt you or anything. I wanted to scare you off so you'd drop it. I'd do anything for this woman.” Leaning in, he kissed Alicia on the lips.

It was a sweet sentiment, if it weren't for the fact he'd run me off the road.

“What about my files?” I asked Alicia. “Did you steal my notes and delete everything from my machine?”

She pulled her ponytail loose. Her hair fell to her shoulders. She shook it free. It softened her face. “Sorry about that. I thought maybe you found out about the marriage, so I grabbed the notes you'd gathered on me before Sheriff Daniels took my statement. I didn't touch your computer though; that must have been Krissy.

“Are we cool?” Alicia said, standing and grabbing Andrew's hand.

“We're cool. Good luck tomorrow.”

“Thanks.” She smiled. “Doesn't matter anyway. I've already won.” Looping her arm through Andrew's, they left.

Time to face the music. I wondered if I should save myself the embarrassment and clean out my desk before I talked to Greg.

Unfortunately, en route to my desk, Greg spotted me and waved me into his office.

“Meg, listen, I'm sorry to do this to you—” He tapped a pencil on his desk, looking like he was searching for the perfect word before he continued.

I put my head in my left hand and leaned forward on his desk. “Oh, no.”

Greg looked at me in surprise. “Oh, no—what?”

“You're firing me, aren't you?” I tried to hold back tears.

He flicked my forehead with the pencil. “What?”

“I'm sorry. I know I haven't done a great job. I'm really trying. I swear I am.”

“Meg. Stop. I'm not firing you. Come on, I'm not an idiot.” He pulled a box of tissues from his desk and handed me one.

I wiped my nose. “Huh?”

“Look, I knew you were an outdoor novice when I hired you, but I trusted my instincts.”

Pulling a stack of paper from a pile on his desk, he held up a copy of my rough draft. “My instincts weren't wrong. This is great, Meg. Really great stuff.”

“You knew? The whole time?” I twisted the tissue around my finger.

“Please, no extreme sportsperson wears that much pink.”

I threw my head on my hand. “Okay, I know. I'm sorry. I might have fudged my experience a little, but I swear I love this job and I'm going to sign up for some outdoor training. One of the Crag Rats invited me to come to one of their sessions.”

“That's a good idea because you're going to be taking on even more responsibility.”

My eyes must have been the size of baseballs. “What do you mean?”

“Mitch isn't coming back. During his recovery he finally finished a novel he's been working on for years. He pitched and sold it, all in a week.”

“Wow. That's amazing.”

“Yeah, well, that means you'll be covering more of his stuff. I'm going to divide projects throughout the team. I don't really have much more to offer you in terms of salary right now. Ad sales continue to be slow.”

“That's okay,” I blurted out. “I'd love to cover more features.” Actually, I could really use a little more cash too, but the fact that he wasn't throwing me out the door was enough for the moment.

“I have some”—he struggled over his words—“some business to take care of out of the country.” He tapped the desk with his pencil again, this time so hard it snapped in half. I watched the top half roll on the desk and fall to the ground. Greg made no move to pick it up.

“I don't want to go, but I don't have a choice. In any event, I had originally planned on writing a second piece for the next issue about what happened with Lenny. It's not our normal gig, but what an opportunity. Not to sound like Dave, but I think we could see our biggest single issue sales ever with this one.”

“Better ad sales maybe?”

He laughed. “Keep your fingers crossed. We're closing in on deadline, and I'm not going to make it. I was hoping you'd be willing to finish my piece. I know it'll be extra work, but you've been right in the thick of it. Plus it'll give you two bylines. What do you think?”

Before I could stop myself, I leaped to my feet and ran around the desk. I threw my arms around him and screamed, “Thank you! Yes! Of course I'll write the piece. This is all so much better than getting fired.”

Realizing I'd hugged my boss, I clapped my hand over my mouth and stood back. “Oh my God, I'm soooo sorry. I didn't mean to hug you.”

Greg threw his head back and laughed. “Oh, Meg, you're really something. Not to worry. Glad I can count on you. The piece is due tomorrow—2,000 words.”

“I'm on it.”

“Great, I'll look forward to reading it. See you in a couple weeks.”

“Weeks? What about the zip-line tomorrow?”

A slight frown turned at Greg's lips. He shook his head. “Don't think I'm going to make it.” He didn't offer any more information. I waved good-bye and returned to my desk.

What a week. I'd solved a murder and secured my first two bylines in an international magazine. Now I'd better get writing.