A Single Eye
Copyright © 2008 by Susan Dunlap. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dunlap, Susan.
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A single eye : a Darcy Lott mystery / Susan Dunlap.
p. cm.
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ISBN-13: 978-1-61902-270-6
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1.
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Women stunt performersâFiction. 2.
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CaliforniaâFiction.
3.
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Monasteries, BuddhistâFiction.
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I. Title.
PS3554.U46972S56 2008
813'.54âdc22
2007046998
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Cover design by Kimberly Glider
Interior design by Susan Canavan
Counterpoint
2117 Fourth Street
Suite D
Berkeley, CA 94710
Distributed by Publishers Group West
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1
F
OR
M
ARY
L
OU
D
IETRICH
Contents
A S
INGLE
E
YE
I
t was the perfect day for the gag. Ten minutes from now was going to be the perfect moment; the sun would gush over the east wall to create a golden backlight for Kelly Rustin and me as we did leaps from high mesa to high mesa, across the canyon. This was her first stunt; the one she'd always remember.
The far side was a broad ledge of rock, a no-brainer landing. Our take-off point, a wind-baked peninsula, stuck out over the wooded canyon like a pointed foot. “Just for you, Kel,” I'd said, “in case you need a little kick.” She was nervous, of course, but no way would she admit it, and I was working triple-time to keep her from letting worry eat into her concentration. In the stunt business double-checking the wire and the carabiner is your life; distraction will kill you. But this was an easy gag; no one was going to die here. It was a stylish stunt that would show Kelly's great lines in the air and my “yikes” landings. We only had time for one practice run, then one shot. That one shot had to be perfect, for the movie, for me, but most of all for Kelly.
Almost covering the take-off mesa was a giant yellow crane with a hundred-foot arm holding our wires. Hoisting the crane up here had taken twenty guys and hadn't done the forest trails any good. Its feet were so close to the edge that the cameramen were hanging off the side in a basket to give Kelly and me room for the run-up to the leap.
“Eight minutes,” the second unit director called. “Last run-through.”
We moved to the start marks. Kelly attached her wire and checked it just as I had taught her. I hooked mine. We double-checked each other. “Break a tooth,” I said. Her father was a dentist. She shot me a smile, but never took her eyes off the leap point. I couldn't help but be proud of her.
“Go!”
Kelly ran, kicking up scree with each step. A fan blew her long blond hair out straight behind her. When she hit the leap point I started after her. I hit the edge and pushed off into a glide out over the abyss. I didn't look down, not because of the two-hundred-foot dropâheights aren't my fearâbut to focus on camouflaging the “hold” moment when the wire took my weight. I sailed feet up, arms out,
flying
onto the wire with no telltale jerk, holding the pose till I could make out individual pebbles on the far mesa. I pulled up knees to chest, swung my feet hard forward onto the dump spot, windmilled my arms, did a lurch-and-sit, and pushed off into a lope across the mesa.
“Cut.”
I skidded. The wire jerked me back.
“Great job, everyone. Get back to the start marks. Two minutes till sunrise.”
I walked back to the edge of the shelf. I'd hit the dump spot perfectly; my lurch-and-sit was the best I'd ever done, I could feel it. I looked at Kelly; she was rerunning the gag in her mind just as she should be, but the corners of her mouth twitched. She knew she'd been on mark. She was holding off her smile till the final take was in the can, but I couldn't resist grinning for her. She'd been a wad of terror coated with a crust of bravado two weeks ago when she auditioned; only I had been sure she had it in her to be a great stunt double. In a quarter of an hour everyone on the set would be patting her back and insisting they knew all along.
The cable jerked me up like a crate on a container ship and swung me back to the start side. Kelly landed next to me, rechecked her wire, then stuck her hand in the goo pot and fingered the stuff through her hair.
“On marks,” the director called.
I checked my wire again, then Kelly's. On my next job
I'd
be the second unit director.
“Break another tooth?” She almost managed to hide the quaver in her voice.
“A bicuspid.”
“Camera.”
A thread of sun broke over the eastern wall.
“Action.”
Kelly ran, scree shooting from her feet, hair straight out behind her.
The front crane foot slipped over the edge.
She hit the edge and leapt into the air.
I poised to go.
The crane swayed. The arm jerked Kelly off trajectory. Behind me the director gasped. Kelly had momentum. She could still pull it out. We had to get the shoot
now
.
The sun flooded over the mountaintop; its searing light threw the world into slo-mo. Sparks shot out from the top of the crane arm; the wire snapped.
Kelly's
wire. Slowly, as if sailing, Kelly hit the side of the canyon wall and bounced. And bounced. And bounced. Like a wad of paper, opening more with each hit. Stunt doubles know how to curl and roll. Kelly wasn't curled, wasn't rolling; she was flayed out.
Noise shot up, people screaming, metal grinding.
I skidded to a stop at the mesa edge, still on my wire. “Lower me down.”
“The crane won't hold.”
“I only need a minute. Send me down fast.
Now!
”
I didn't wait for an answer. I leapt into the canyon. The wire spun out. I eyed the wall for holds.
Below, branches snapped. Kelly screamed.
The wire jerked hard, smacking me headfirst into the rocky wall. Blood dripped in my eyes. I kicked off. “Faster!”
For an instant I hung in air, then fell free seventy, eighty feet before the wire caught hold. There was no sound from Kelly below, no scream, no moan, no “I'm okay.” Shrubs and trees poked out toward me from the walls.
“Trees,” a guy yelled from above. “Kelly's in the trees below!”
The wire jerked, spinning me around. For the first time, I chanced a glance downâI'm not afraid of heightsâinto the top of the thick woods on the canyon floor.
The wire ran loose again. Before I could react, I shot down through a canopy of leaves and branches into a forest. The leaves blocked out the light. I couldn't get my breath.
“Help me!” Kelly moaned. “Oh, God, I can't move my legs!”
Panic cut through me.
I grabbed the wire and yanked hard three times. “Pull me up.” I tried to yell, but no sound came out.
The wire snapped to a stop and then slowly lifted me up through the branches. The fronds grabbed for my head and arms. Sweat covered my face, poured down my back. Bile filled my mouth. I was going to wretch.
“Darcy?” Kelly moaned. “Darcy, I can't move. Help me!”
The muted light hit my face again. I was out of the canopy. I stared straight up, to avoid catching sight of the tree-covered walls. I swallowed hard to push down the bile. “Kelly's at the bottom,” I yelled. “Send the medics.” I swung myself into the wall, grabbed onto an outcropping, unhooked, and gave three yanks.