Slickrock Paradox (20 page)

“What was happening with this plan?”

“It wasn't going well. Pen was looking for a senator to introduce it. She met with that asshole Thorn Smith—well, with his dick-head assistant Nephi—and she was getting nowhere. She was going to look elsewhere for a friendly senator; you know, maybe back east where they have no wilderness. That's when she disappeared.”

“And what about Canyon Rims? Was that part of the plan?”

“Yeah, it was part of the plan. Canyon Rims and Basins, they call it. The whole thing, right from 191 all the way to the park, and including Back of the Rocks. We were going to kick all the
OHV
crowd out on their ass.”

“What about the plans for the golf course, for the hotels.”

“Jacob Isaiah's fucking wet dream? We knew about it. Pen was all over it. She gave Jacob Isaiah a serious ear full.”

“Did she talk about the ruins?”

“No. We didn't even know about them then. It wasn't until we started to prowl around down there that we learned about them.”

“How? Did you find them?”

“No, there was a leak. Someone in Isaiah's camp let it slip.”

“Do you think it could have been the young woman I found in Courthouse? She worked with Peter Anton at Dead Horse Consulting.”

“I never knew the source of the leak. When it finally happened, I was away. I've got projects going on all over the Southwest, you know what I mean? Pen was handling that one on her own.”

“Do you think it's possible that Jacob Isaiah found out that Penelope knew about the ruins and that they would be the nail in his coffin, so to speak, and, you know—”

“What, had her bumped off?” said Josh. “Man, it's always possible. That guy is a bad fucking dude. It's possible.”

“And then, after the fact, learns that it was the Wisechild girl who was leaking, and so takes her out as well?”

“Like I said, I wouldn't put it past him.”

“Who else do you think would have wanted my wife out of the way, Josh?”

“Why you asking me that, man? I don't know.” He suddenly sounded defensive.

“Look, Josh, you're the only person I've met who actually worked closely with my wife. The other enviros in town, they all knew her and respected her, but nobody really worked closely with her. Now I find this,” he said, holding up the book, “and it leads me straight to you. Do you think that's a coincidence?”

The young man shook his head. Something fell out of his hair; a twig or a leaf. “No, I don't. I don't know what happened to her. I'm as busted up about it as anybody.”

Silas regarded him. “Josh, I need your help. I think that my wife wanted me to find Kayah Wisechild because the girl would lead me to this,” he said, again holding up the book, “and that would lead me to
you
. I think you're my best shot at finding my wife.”

“You still think Pen is alive, don't you?”

“I don't know.”

“Where do you think she might be hiding?”

“I don't know.”

“What
do
you know?”

Silas contemplated the scraggly stranger sitting next to him. “I know that my wife loved this place and that this is where she went missing. I know that against all the odds, I found the body of a young woman who had helped discover a set of ruins my wife was exploring. If I know anything about how Penelope thinks, she was hoping to use them to shut down a development that would have destroyed a place she loved. Somehow they are connected and I have been led to find
you
. Believe me, I'd do this on my own if I could, Josh. I would. No offense, but I really prefer my own company to just about anybody else. But I
can't
do this by myself. I need you. You knew her. You helped her. I need you to help
me
.”

Josh turned away and looked up the mountains. A sly, wolfish grin came over his face.

“What is it?” asked Silas.

“If I'm going to help you, you're going to have to start calling me Hayduke.”

Silas shook his head. “I don't know if Penny told you, but I don't really like Edward Abbey.”

“Oh, yeah, she told me, alright.”

JOSH CHARLESTON—HAYDUKE—HAD AGREED
to sleep on Silas's request for assistance and call him in the next couple of days. He said he needed to get his shit together before he could jump back in with both feet.

Driving down into the Castle Valley, Silas turned his attention to his next task: finding out exactly what his wife wanted him to discover at Grand View Point. Maybe, he thought, a knot forming in his stomach, he wouldn't need Hayduke's help to find Penelope after all.

IT WAS 4:00 PM BY
the time he approached the narrow peninsula of land known as Grand View Point. The night before he had re-read “Dead Man,” and had used a fifteen-minute topo to carefully pinpoint the possible locations where Abbey, or more appropriately his brother Johnny, had found the cadaver at Grand View Point. He couldn't imagine a body remaining undiscovered for more than a few days, or even a week, on the point itself. Less than a mile across, it was the most heavily visited part of Canyonlands. Even though 90 per cent of the visitors to the Point only walked from their tour buses and
RV
s to the overlook and back, there were still a few who prowled around, aroused by the extraordinary view, seeking a moment of blissful solitude.

Instead of driving to the end of the road, Silas parked at Mesa Arch, where the plateau begins to narrow, and began walking north and east toward Gray's Pasture.

He carried his backpack, complete with light camping gear. He figured if he didn't find what he was looking for, he could camp illegally in one of the washes and be up at first light to continue his search.

After four hours of constant walking, crawling, and slithering through brush and narrow defiles, he had found nothing. His
GPS
said that he had walked almost ten miles, but he was only two miles from his car. He was caught by surprise when the sun sank below the western rim of Island in the Sky. He wondered if he should walk back to his car and drive to the Willow Flat Campground or simply sleep where he was. He chose the former, and finding the road just a few hundred yards away, tramped down the blacktop to his Outback and then drove to the parking lot at Green River Overlook. Ignoring the No Camping sign, he lay down in the back of the car, the tailgate open, listening to coyotes yap and yammer in the distance.

In the morning he rose before dawn and, foregoing coffee and breakfast, set out again with his pack. This time he wandered back and forth through a square mile of twisted earth that was closed in by the park access road on one side and the fifteen-hundred-foot drop into Soda Springs Basin on the other.

As the sun came up, he emerged from a broad pothole and crested a ridge to see chunks of Navajo sandstone formed into a bench shape. Drawn to the cluster of rock, he walked up the side of the depression and stopped where the earth vanished before him. Silas could see that the stones amassed before him, hedged up against the juniper, had not fallen there naturally; they had been piled.

Taking his pack off, Silas donned the pair of leather gloves he used for rope work and heaved a few of the stones aside. His ankle, healing well, held up for the heavy work, and in a moment he'd moved half a dozen of the giant rocks, each weighing a hundred pounds or more. After five minutes, he had shifted half the pile. Another five minutes hard labor provided him with his grisly reward.

THE CRIME SCENE
encompassed all of the Green River Overlook parking lot, which provided space for the command center involving the Park Service, Sheriff's Office, Medical Examiner, and
FBI
Critical Incident Response Unit. Silas had made his call around 9:30, and by 11:00
AM
Agent Taylor and his team had arrived and taken command of the vicinity. The media arrived, too, and were herded into a corner of the overlook where they milled about, spreading rumors. Just after 1:00
PM
a helicopter landed on the access road and Katie Rain and another agent from the Trace Evidence Unit walked down the recently paved road.

Silas was sitting on the tailgate of a Park Service pick-up truck, drinking a bottle of water.

“Dr. Pearson,” she said when she saw him.

“Dr. Rain.”

“What have we got?”

Taylor appeared from between two
FBI
vehicles, Special Agent Nielsen at his side.

“Dr. Rain, this way please,” said Taylor.

“Did Dr. Pearson find the body?”

“He did,” said Taylor.

“I need him along, then,” she said.

Taylor looked at Silas. “Let's go.”

Silas stood and the four of them walked across the parking lot. Flagging tape ran along a roughly marked trail that cut across the slickrock to the juniper where Silas had made his discovery. Nobody spoke. The afternoon sun was merciless and they were all soaked with sweat by the time they arrived at the tree.

A broad white tent had been set up around the site. Half a dozen
FBI
agents looked busy, and Chief Ranger Stan Baton, along with Sheriff Dexter Willis and Kiel Vaughn, the San Juan County sheriff, were there too. Derek Penshaw was on the scene once again to represent the Medical Examiner.

“What have we got?” asked Rain, stepping into the tent and taking off her bag.

It was Penshaw who spoke. “Intact skeletal remains; human.”

“Condition?” asked Rain.

“Looks pretty much complete. Some fragments of clothing, though not much. No skin, but some hair fibers. Not much else. No identification.”

“Dr. Pearson,” said Rain. “Did you move the body?”

“No. I moved about two dozen stones from on top of it, however. Some shifting may have occurred when I did that.”

“Okay,” said Rain. “Let's see what we've got here.” She looked at Huston, who pulled back the shroud that had been protecting the corpse. The skeleton was laid out carefully between rows of red sandstone boulders. Silas hadn't seen it since he found it that morning, and then he had only moved enough stones to discover a foot. The bones all lay flat against the earth, but they had held their shape.

“Okay,” said Rain again. “We've got some of the smaller bones in the hands and feet missing. Not surprising. Rodents could get between these stones pretty easily. And this area is very open to the elements: snow, rain, and sun. Surprising, actually, that there is so little missing.” She slipped on a pair of rubber gloves. “Has Janet done everything she needs to do with her camera?” she asked and received a nod. “Okay, let's see what we can determine. Silas, I guess you'll be interested to know that we are dealing with a male.”

Rain pointed to the pelvis. “No room for babies. And it looks like we're dealing with a young man,” she said, pointing to the skull. She gingerly moved it to point to the fusion points on the back of the cranium. “I'd say, twenty-five.” She put the skull back down and examined the length of the body. “A little residual hair on the skullcap, and some clothing fragments, but not much else. Bones still intact but no muscle tissue. I'd guess—and I'll confirm this when we get the body back to Salt Lake—that this body has been here around two years. Maybe a little more.”

“That's the same time as the Wisechild woman,” said Agent Taylor. “Cause of death?”

“I would suggest, at the moment, blunt force trauma, but I haven't done a proper examination.” She carefully picked up the skull again and pointed to a concave indentation on the right side of the head. “I don't see any other evidence of trauma. No bones broken. The hyoid is intact. No nicks or scrapes to suggest a bullet or a knife. I'll look more carefully once we get clear of the crime scene.”

“Different
MO
,” said Taylor.

“Opportunity knocks,” said Nielsen.

“Come again, Agent Nielsen?” said Taylor.

“The Wisechild girl was strangled. Our friend here was likely hit in the head. Both about the same time, and the
MO
of leaving the body in a natural place fits. We could still be dealing with related crimes and the same perp. This person—let's call it a man, because I don't know of too many strangulations and bludgeonings committed by women—this man could be simply taking advantage of whatever situation arises.”

“Somebody was paying attention on their last incarceration at Quantico,” said Rain, continuing her examination of the body.

“The Wisechild woman was found buried in the sand, and this body has been neatly laid out as if some kind of ceremony was performed,” said Willis.

“Remember,” said Taylor, looking at Silas. “Dr. Pearson found the girl after the site had been disturbed by the flood. Everything, including the body, had been moved around. Isn't that right, Doctor?”

“Wait a minute,” said Rain, and everybody fell silent. “What have we here?” she said, reaching down and moving the pelvis bone to pick something up from the ground. She held it up.