Authors: Paul Doiron
The Precipice (36 page)
I took this as a hint to change the subject. Sooner or later, we would need to discuss what had happened to us in Monson, but I trusted that she would let me know when she was ready.
“I ran into Caleb Maxwell,” I said. “He asked about you.”
“I’ll bet he did. He called me at home last night. I’m not sure how he tracked me down.”
My foot kicked the gas pedal and we rocketed forward, nearly bumping the car ahead. “What?”
“He didn’t come right out and say it, but I’m pretty sure he wanted to know if we were a couple, so he could ask me out.”
“I’m going to turn around now,” I said. “I need to go punch him in the face.”
“You have nothing to worry about,” she said. “He’s kind of a sorry figure, if you ask me.”
“Sorry how?”
“DeFord told me about him. I was curious why he’d left Moosehead Search and Rescue, since he seemed to miss it so much. His fianc
é
e committed suicide at Gulf Hagas a few years ago. No one knows why. She didn’t even leave a note, just threw herself off a cliff one morning. They recovered her body trapped in one of those grinders. And now Caleb goes there all the time and visits the place where she died. I thought you knew the story.”
“No,” I said. “Are they sure it was a suicide?”
She patted my knee. “Every death is suspicious to you, isn’t it?”
“It’s a bad habit of mine, thinking that way.”
“You just can’t help yourself.”
I remembered the brown-haired woman in the photograph on Caleb Maxwell’s desk, how even her brilliant smile had seemed tinged with sadness, as if even in that seemingly happy moment she was aware of what was ahead, and I knew that my suspicions were misplaced. “That explains why Caleb was crying when the newlyweds saw him on that ledge.” A shiver ran through me at the thought. “I can’t imagine what it’s like, having someone you love kill herself with no explanation. No wonder he roams the Rim Trail like a grieving specter.”
“I wonder if he’s ever tempted to jump himself.”
“What?”
She unfastened her seat belt and drew her knees up against the dash. “If all you had to do was let yourself fall into the abyss, and you could be with the person you loved again, wouldn’t you consider it?”
“I’m not that confident in the hereafter.”
“So if Benton Avery had killed me, you would have kept on living, huh?”
“Am I supposed to say yes or am I supposed to say no?” I asked. “What’s the right answer?”
“The right answer is always to keep on living.”
She leaned across the console and tucked her head into my shoulder. Her body felt sun-warmed against mine. She smelled of the same suntan lotion she had worn at Popham Beach. I felt myself being transported there again, back to the cottage. She pressed her ear to my chest, closed her eyes, and listened to the steady beating of my heart.
This book is a work of the imagination, and it should go without saying that every character and event in it is fictitious. I drew inspiration from real places, not least of which was the town of Monson, Maine, a beautiful and big-hearted community rightly loved by AT thru-hikers. I have taken liberties in its depiction and in my rendering of other locales in and around the Hundred Mile Wilderness.
Thank you to the Appalachian Mountain Club, specifically the helpful staff at Gorman Chairback Lodge & Cabins and Little Lyford Lodge & Cabins: the best base camps for anyone wishing to explore Gulf Hagas. And thanks also to Simon Rucker of the Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust for answering my last-minute questions about the area.
Certain books informed the composition of this one: Bill Bryson’s
A Walk in the Woods
(of course); Michelle Ray’s
How to Hike the AT: the Nitty Gritty Details of a Long Distance Trek
; the
Appalachian Trail Thru-Hiker’s Companion,
published by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy;
The Maine Woods: A Fully Annotated Version
by Henry David Thoreau, edited by Jeffrey S. Cramer; and finally, my trusted companion throughout this series, Robert E. Pike’s
Spiked Boots.
The National Geographic Channel documentary
Killed by Coyotes,
which tells the tragic, true-life story of Taylor Mitchell, was an important resource in my revisions.
As always, I am indebted to the Maine Warden Service, in particular to Corporal John MacDonald, who provided me with crucial information about the service’s search-and-rescue operations.
My agent extraordinaire, Ann Rittenberg, offered support and advice along the way—thank you, Ann.
I am grateful to my editor, Charlie Spicer, publisher Andrew Martin, and everyone at St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio. Thanks also to Beth Andersen for her proofreading help.
Lastly, I would like to thank my wife, Kristen Lindquist, for her encouragement, insight, patience, and love—all of which I needed during the writing of
The Precipice.
A native of Maine, bestselling author
Paul Doiron
attended Yale University, where he graduated with a degree in English, and he holds an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College.
The Poacher’s Son
won the Barry award and the Strand award for best first novel, and has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity awards in the same category. He lives on a trout stream in coastal Maine with his wife, Kristen Lindquist. Visit his Web site at
www.pauldoiron.com
and follow him on Twitter @pauldoiron. You can sign up for email updates
here
.
ALSO BY
PAUL DOIRON
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CONTENTS
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE PRECIPICE.
Copyright © 2015 by Paul Doiron. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
Cover design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein
Cover photographs: landscape © Gomezdavid / Istophoto; clouds © Zorankrstic / Shutterstock
eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Doiron, Paul.
The precipice: a novel / Paul Doiron. — First edition.
pages; cm. — (Mike Bowditch mysteries; 6)
ISBN 978-1-250-06369-4 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-6868-7 (e-book)
1. Game wardens—Fiction. 2. Young women—Crimes against—Fiction. 3. Murder—Investigation—Fiction. 4. Missing persons—Investigation—Fiction. 5. Wilderness areas—Maine—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3604.O37P74 2015
813'.6—dc23
2015013520
e-ISBN 9781466868687
First Edition: June 2015