Endangered Species (15 page)

grabbed at her.

"Maybe," Anna conceded ." Or maybe somebody was after Norman.

"Moot point anyway.  These bags just don't hold water as murder weapons.

We'll learn more tomorrow." Alice wiped the evidence off the dashboard

into a leather briefcase, effectively closing the investigation for the

day.

"Watch it!" she yelled suddenly, and Anna slammed on the brakes.  On the

dirt, stopping the tires had little effect on forward movement and they

skidded ahead.  Two vehicles, both lightweight trucks, one the chief

ranger's, the other borrowed from maintenance to carry Wayne and Shorty,

were stopped in the middle of the road .

Neither had taillights or flashers showing.  Even as Anna cursed them

she knew she'd never mention it; she too was driving blind .

Evening had crept upon them so imperceptibly, she'd not realized how

dark it had grown.

Several feet short of Norman Hull's rear bumper the truck shuddered to a

stop.  Half a moment later a choking cloud of fine white dust engulfed

them.

Feeling righteous, if belatedly so, Anna switched on the truck's lights

to avoid waylaying another unwary motorist.  The headlights raked the

side of the blue pickup truck and, as the dust cleared, picked out a

group of men huddled beyond it to the side of the road.

"Hit a deer," Anna said as she opened the door.

It wasn't a deer, it was a beautiful young man from Austria.  And he

hadn't been hit by a car, he'd been shot.

As Anna and Alice approached, the knot of men untied itself .

Rick spoke first ." Anna, get your butt over here and take a look at

this guy's leg.".

Anna did as she was told.  The young Austrian sat on a berm of white

dirt and shell that Mitch Hanson had dredged from the south end of the

island to resurface the inland roads.  In the uncertain light he looked

terribly pale.  His hair, pulled back in a ponytail, was a harsh

contrast in dark brown.  He was probably not more than twenty-five, but

pain and exhaustion pulled taut the skin of his face and he looked

considerably older.

Beside him was a young Indian woman-American, not East Indian-as

strikingly beautiful as her companion.  She was slight and dark, her

face made up of clear planes and sculpted curves .

Eyes and hair were close to true black.  From her small, perfect ears

hung stylized bear fetishes in turquoise saddled with silver.

She had both hands pressed over her mouth as if to keep from screaming

or vomiting.  The instant Alice and Anna entered the circle the hands

fluttered apart and she began trying to talk.

What she had been holding in was gasps.  Even as her hands flew through

the air trying to tell her story, words were gusted out incoherently.

She was panting, as if she'd just run the hundred-yard dash.

"Sorry," she finally managed ." I can't breathe.  The thing-the

bullet-got Guenther in the leg.  I've been carrying him for miles."

"Dragging," the Austrian said in perfect English, accented just enough

to make even a middle-aged ranger's heart skip a beat.

Dragging was probably closer to the mark from the look of them .

Guenther was a good-sized man, six feet, maybe 175 pounds.  The woman

was slight of frame and slender ." What's your name?" Anna asked her.

" Shawna."

"Breathe, Shawna." To Guenther, Anna said: "I'm Anna Pigeon .

I'm an emergency medical technician.  Can I look at your leg?"

Wayne or Shorty had gone back to the truck and turned on the headlamps.

The hard, unilateral light obscured utterly what was in shadow and

ruthlessly illuminated all else.

Feeling a need to explain why nothing had been done prior to her

arrival, Rick said: "We got here maybe a minute before you."

Anna grunted her acceptance of that as she shined Alice Utterback's

Maglite behind the Austrian's knee.

Both hikers were dressed in shorts, heavy boots, and knee-high socks.

Guenther's left leg below the knee was swathed in layers of fabric

obviously cannibalized from out of their packs.  T-shirts of various

colors made up the bulk of it.

"It hasn't bled through," Anna said ." How long ago did it happen?"

Guenther and Shawna looked at one another.  Time had clearly ceased to

be a measurable linear entity.

"Four hours?" Shawna guessed.

"An hour?" Guenther offered.

"A while," Anna compromised.  They were satisfied with that .

"I doubt there's much I can do you haven't already done," she went on ."

You're still up and talking.  I'd say the two of you did a dynamite job.

I'm not going to mess with the dressing-all it would do is start the

bleeding again.  When we get you to a doctor, he can take it off."

"I was planning to take the boat to the mainland later," Hull said.  He

and his wife and their thirteen-year-old daughter lived in St.  Marys, a

small town just across the estuary from Cumberland .

"We'll go ahead and leave now.  I'll drive you to the hospital there."

" Sooner is better," Anna agreed.

"Anna, if you will get the young lady's statement enroute, I would

appreciate it," Hull said, and began issuing instructions for the

loading and transport of the injured man.

Guenther was settled in the back of the chief ranger's pickup on a pad

of blankets.  Wayne rode beside him to keep him company and to keep an

eye on him.

Shawna tucked herself in the cab of the pumper truck between Anna and

Alice ." I love him," she said wearily as she buckled herself in, "but

he can sure be a pain in the ass.  I hope the doctors give him drugs. He

needs mellowing out big-time."

She'd regained breath and equilibrium.  As Anna fell in line, the last

in their little convoy, she asked again what happened.

"Turnabout's fair play," Alice said, and assuming the role of secretary,

pulled a legal pad out of her briefcase to take notes.

"I don't really know what happened," Shawna told them after a moment's

deliberation ." We'd been camping at Lake Whitney for a couple of days."

Whitney was one of the lovely freshwater lakes being threatened by the

encroaching dunes.  Because of the delicacy of the island's ecosystem,

camping there was highly illegal, but Anna let it pass.  She wanted the

story told without interruptions.

"We broke camp and were cutting cross-country.  I don't know how long

we'd been walking-we were more or less lost but that was the idea.  We

knew we couldn't get too lost on a little island.  Eventually you're

bound to stumble across something that will set you straight.  We were

pushing through a thick bushy place.  Guenther was ahead of me a little

ways.  There was this huge explosion, then Guenther was down on the

ground grabbing his leg and yelling."

" Whereabouts were you?" Anna asked.

Shawna shook her head ." I can't even guess.  We'd been wandering, you

know, looking at things.  Then I was pretty freaked.  And carrying

Guenther was no picnic.  Somewhere between the lake and where you found

us.  I'm sorry." Shawna was panting again, as if the telling were as

strenuous as the doing.

"That's okay.  Did you see anyone?" Anna asked.

"Nobody."

"Did you hear anything, like somebody running or talking?"

"Nothing.  just the bang, then nothing." Shawna leaned forward, elbows

on knees, and rubbed her face hard with both hands.

"You must be pretty pooped," Alice said kindly.

"That's not the half of it," Shawna replied.

For several minutes they rode in silence.  Anna struggled with the urge

to press the girl for more information and the desire to leave her in

peace.  Information won.

"Describe the wound to me," she said.  A slight sniff emanated from

Alice Utterback's direction and Anna assumed it was disapproval ." In

detail," she added, just to be contrary.

Shawna thought for a few moments and Anna realized she gave the girl's

answers more credence than she might have because they were so well

considered.  In one so young, this methodical habit of the mind was

unexpected.

"It bled a lot so I can't tell you exactly.  It was a mess and we just

wanted to wrap it up before he lost too much blood.  Both of us have

first aid.  We teach skiing in the winter and you have to.  It looked

like a gouge, a furrow, like the bullet came through the back of his leg

sideways and just plowed this trough in his calf."

Guns in national parks were strictly forbidden but that didn't mean they

weren't there.  As they were in much of America, guns were abundant in

the parks.  Poachers carried them, criminals, researchers dealing with

potentially dangerous animals, citizens feeling the need for

self-protection, law enforcement officers.  Short of strip-searching

every visitor and, on Cumberland Island, every resident, there was no

way of keeping them outside park boundaries.

" How big was the furrow?" Anna asked.

"Huge.  The Grand Canyon.  Maybe three inches wide and an inch or two

deep.  Seriously.  A big chunk of his calf was gone, like a big old bite

had been taken out of it."

Alice reached behind Shawna, still bent nearly double over her knees,

her face in her hands, and tapped Anna on the shoulder .

When she had Anna's attention she pointed to the girl.  Tears were

pouring through her fingers, falling in great dollops, making mud in the

dust on her thighs.  Anna had never seen anyone cry like that; buckets.

"If you keep on you'll dehydrate yourself," she said.  Alice must have

given her a dirty look.  Anna felt a slight tingling on the right side

of her neck ." It'll be okay," she added lamely.

" What if he's crippled?" Shawna whispered.

Anna had no answer to that.  For two beautiful young people living by

the strength and grace of their bodies, it was hard to think of a more

bitter blow.  Anna hoped Alice would jump in with something wise and

motherly, but she didn't.

As they emerged from the woods into the clearing that heralded the

offices and dock, an ATV roared out of the darkness, its headlight

bouncing with each rut.  The lane was too narrow for cars to pass safely

and Anna eased the truck over to let the smaller vehicle by.

The ATV pulled up alongside and stopped.  Marty Schlessinger, her white

braids frayed by the wind, glared at them through the truck's open

window.  Anna was unoffended.  Schlessinger glared at everyone, not so

much a message of malice, Anna thought, as a habit of looking deeply at

phenomena, studying the creatures of the planet.

"What's all the ruckus?" the biologist demanded ." Hull's rampaging

around like a scarecrow in a windstorm.  You find something at the

crash?"

Anna shook her head, wishing Marty would turn off the ATV's engine

rather than shouting over the considerable din ." A kid got shot in the

leg.  We found him up the road.  Norman's taking him and his girlfriend

over to St.  Marys.  The kid's going to be okay," she added, more for

Shawna's benefit than the biologist's.

The darkness had deepened, but because Marty was so close, Anna could

read her face.  The information registered with a look of mild surprise