Grave Echoes: A Kate Waters Mystery (22 page)

Kate couldn’t go to Sarah’s house either, and risk putting her son, Jonathan, in danger. Then, she remembered Wells telling her to change her routine, and Kate immediately thought of her work. Iron bars secured the windows and the video camera outside would be a good deterrent to anyone who might want to break in. Kate took the next turn and drove to her work. No cars had followed her to the PNGS building and the graveled parking lot was empty when she pulled in. Kate unlocked the door and stepped inside. The computers hummed and beeped, seemingly with a life of their own. She locked the front door, went into the back room, and sat down on the couch. She felt confused and alone. She needed someone—wanted someone. Kate suddenly thought of her dad and how much she missed him, how much she wished he were with her now. Without further hesitation, she dialed a number on her cell phone. The phone rang a couple of times before picking up.

“Kate?”

“Dad. Hi.”

“Are you all right?”

The words she needed to say from her heart rose like a giant balloon in her throat. “Dad…” she swallowed hard. “I’m sorry. I miss you.” It felt good. It felt right.

The sound of someone’s voice escalated in Kate’s dream and then she realized it was real. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, glancing around the room, not remembering where she was until she noticed the maps on the wall…work, on the loveseat in the back room of the PNGS, and still wearing her coat and shoes. Last night she needed something stable, and so she’d come to work, which usually provided her with a source of solid foundation, even if it was full of rising magma.

Bits of last night filtered back to her: the talk with her dad over the phone, her argument with David, visiting Thea at Walter Biddy’s, and the news from Wells and Ted. She lay back down, wishing she hadn’t woken up—the nightmare had come true: Jev was murdered.

She remembered telling her dad about the new evidence Wells and Ted found. They’d talked for almost an hour. Kate had divulged everything to him and he’d listened, with an open heart like he used to do. She hadn’t expected their reconciliation to happen so fast, so complete and naturally. They’d even made plans to get together soon and for the first time in a long time, Kate couldn’t wait to see him.

She heard the voice down the hall again. It was Stewart, at work bright and early. Kate sat back up on the couch, rubbing the heavy grogginess from her face. She reached into her purse for her phone, but grabbed David’s note about wanting to talk. At the time, she had thought it was to make up, not to discuss another ghost, or a death that had occurred in the house. That was the sort of information most people didn’t want to know about, but David was unlike most people. She checked her cell phone. It read 6:10 am and there were two messages on it, both from him. The guilt she’d expected to surface didn’t, and she worried that her feelings for him were changing.

Taking off her jacket, Kate combed her hands through her hair and headed toward the restroom. Shouts from Stewart stopped her in the hallway. She crept up to his office and leaned her ear flush against the thin, hollow door. His voice reverberated through the walls, unusually heated and angry, and she wondered if it had anything to do with the mountain’s activity.

“Yes, late again,” she heard him say. “Well, frankly that’s none of your business. You should have thought of that seven months ago!” His pacing shadow glided underneath the door.

Kate tried to think of who he was on the phone with.

“Don’t project your paranoia on me! You’re the one who had the affair! I don’t even know if that’s my baby and I bet you don’t either!”

Bang! The phone crashed down onto the receiver. Kate stood up, shocked at what she’d just learned. Up to this time, she’d pinned Stewart as the player, the flirt. Joanna always seemed so virtuous and polite whenever she’d come by. The idea of her cheating seemed almost impossible.

His footsteps neared. Kate jumped back just as Stewart flung open the door. He shrunk back when he saw her. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I came in late last night to study some of the reports and must have fallen asleep on the couch.”

“Did you have another sleep attack?”

“No. More like a life attack.”

“You too, huh,” Stewart said. “Well, my cats out of the bag. Joanna and I are getting a divorce.”

“I’m sorry, Stewart.”

He rubbed his chin. “So what’s up with you and David? Why did you sleep here last night?”

“Officers came to the house last night to tell me they found tread marks at the scene of Jev’s accident. They believe she was run off the road.”

Stewart’s hand dropped and he stared at her with astonishment. “Are you serious?”

She nodded, still feeling the shock of it too.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“There’s not much to say. It’s unthinkable.”

“Do you need some time off?” His tone was soft, and Kate knew his offer was genuine.

“No. It would just give me more time to ruminate about things. Maybe after things settle down.”

“With our lives,” he paused, turning his gaze to a picture of Mt. Hood on the wall, “or with her?”

***

It wasn’t long before the rest of the crew arrived. Kate watched the CO² monitor where real-time data emitted from a station at the base of Mt. Hood near Pinnacle Creek. The numbers fluctuated significantly, and when they reached a critical level, she printed the report to show Stewart, who’d kept to his office most of the morning.

“What’s up?”

“CO². Up high.” Kate handed him the report.

He looked it over. “That’s it then,” he said, flicking it with his hand. “We’re going to Status B alert. Get on the line with USGS, call the stations, and get everyone in here for a meeting.”

Status B alert was one level below an official evacuation emergency warning. It still involved the recommended evacuation, but lacked a full scale, “government-assisted,” mandatory emergency response.

Aaron came down the hall. “I just got off the phone with Mt. Hood Rangers—two hikers have reported a toxic smell and dead wildlife in the area near the Pinnacle.”

Muscles in Stewart’s jaw pulsed as he contemplated the news. “Aaron, I need you and Sean to contact emergency broadcast and get a red alert out within a 200-mile radius of the area,” he said. “I’m going to send Kate, Bruce, and Nicole to investigate and collect samples.”

Kate smiled, thankful he hadn’t chosen Sean. Though neither one of them had mentioned the full details of what had happened on the mountain to Stewart, he knew something had taken place between her and Sean. Typically, he would have confronted them, but apparently, he had his own troubles.

“Already on it,” Aaron said, dialing a number on his cell.

Stewart turned to Kate. “I want you to take Nicole with you. It’s about time she got her feet wet.”

“Yes, it is,” Kate agreed.

“Play nice,” Stewart chided with a grin. They both walked into the front room, catching Nicole in a rant. Golden wisps of hair tousled around her flushed face as she struggled with the oxygen tanks on her pack. Bruce attempted to instruct her.

“Better help, cupcake,” Stewart said to Kate, his voice lowered.

She shook her head. “One of these days, your words are going to come back to haunt you.”

He smirked. “Already did this morning.”

When Kate turned back to her office to pack her own bags, she overheard Nicole, “I bet you can’t do it either.”

Stewart replied, “If I had bet a buck every time I heard that, I’d be rich.”

***

Stewart wasn’t rich, but he was right about his predictions of the media scrambling all over the event. Journalists had already started interviewing locals at the market, having positioned their satellite vans by the Cloud Cap Trail routes along highway 35 near the back entrance to The Pinnacle. This time, Kate didn’t so much mind their presence—it was breaking news. The Pinnacle Vent wasn’t even thought to be related to Mt. Hood activity, but through ongoing crustal deformation and changes in pressure gradients, new gas seeps must have formed along old faults and fissures in the mountain.

Though the lethal seeps were alarming, mostly due to the close proximity of thousands of people, they did distract Kate from her personal troubles. She was happy to be back on the mountain again, breathing in the clean, forest air. Before leaving the office, she’d left David a message on his cell, telling him that she had an unexpected assignment on Mt. Hood for most of the day. She asked if they could talk later that evening or in the morning—hopefully about their relationship and not ghosts.

Bruce gave a brief interview, and then he maneuvered his Pathfinder through high clearance roads that would deposit them at the belly of the Pinnacle. With a gathering in her own belly, Kate eyed the group of rangers and geologists, looking for Eric as they pulled alongside Pinnacle Creek, a six-foot wide current of gurgling, frosty, pure melt water. She found him standing at the back of a van next to Mark, adjusting the straps on a pile of gas masks. She still loved David, but the fluttering sensations she felt working around Eric were difficult to ignore, as was his smile at her when they drove up.

Two Mt. Hood Forest Rangers, Dan and Steve, joined them, leading the team up Trail Head 630 toward the Pinnacle, the exhalation of the mountain. Forest plant life thinned as they ascended higher, into crisp, soggy mountain air. Snow heaped in patches, clumping around granite boulders and rotted stumps, but most of it had melted along the trail from the traffic of Gortex boots and midday temperatures. Eric and Kate followed Bruce and Nicole, discussing the earthquakes and gas seeps on the mountain and in other parts of the world. Before long, they arrived in the area where hikers had first noticed the dead wildlife.

All six hikers stopped to put on their gas masks to prevent asphyxiation from toxic carbon and sulfur gases that had silenced the forest into a deadly coma. Like an elastic ski mask, it wrapped tightly around the head with an air filter protruding outward near the mouth like an elephant trunk. Two large circles for the eyes enhanced the monstrous appearance. In such a pristine and natural environment, the masks looked alien and brooding.

As they trekked farther into the hazard zone, trees and plants looked wilted, brittle, and gray, suffocated by the mountain’s lethal breath. Kate felt an unnatural presence, as if something sinister had visited the forest. Up ahead on the trail, past a trail marker post, birds, squirrels, and a red fox lay strewn across the rugged landscape, unfortunate witnesses and victims of the stirring earth. Nearby hunched pines and firs suggested a day of mourning, as an uneasy stillness blanketed the hazy blue, green mountains. Kate peered around, hoping a large grey wolf was among the unlucky chosen. But no such luck.

Bruce assisted Eric and Mark with the emission chambers, while Kate, Nicole, Dan, and Steve secured the area with hazardous signs and tape, and posted markings regarding the deadly gases in the area. They strung a makeshift fencing system of barbed wire around trees on the periphery to help keep wildlife from venturing into the toxic area, until the forest service and local authorities could erect a more secure barricade. After completing a carbon analysis of the surrounding soil, the USGS would release formal restrictions and evacuation procedures of the area.

The team spanned out, searching the grounds for evidence of gas seeps and contaminated wildlife. Kate headed toward an open meadow along a hillside. Cold wind swept the trickling sounds of the river through the canyon, brushing against the evergreens like the soft whispers of children. She strode into the clearing and paused to enjoy the tranquility of the moment, even the exhilarating chill in the air. Up here, there were no ghosts, no witches, or strangers stalking and haunting her, just the trees, the river, and a flock of birds in the blue sky.

She spun, looking up towards the birds’ outstretched wings. One of them swooped down and landed on the ground in front of her. Iridescent shine in the raven’s black feathers reflected subtle hints of emerald and cobalt rose. The bird cocked its head, shifting its beady eyes at her. Another raven plunged down next to the first one. Kate stood still, believing them to be mates with a nest close by. The birds rocked their heads back and forth and squawked loudly, their black beaks opened just enough to reveal the little miniature tongue-like flesh inside. Two more birds flew down, this time behind her. She twisted around, noticing the other two ravens mimicking the same behavior as the first, as if intent on relaying some sort of message to her or each other.

With the gas mask digging into the side of her cheek, Kate lifted it from her face to adjust the strap. She considered it safe to do so since she’d left the polluted area. The ravens’ caws quieted some, though they still stood their ground around her. Not wanting to disturb the neighborhood any more than she had already, Kate turned slowly toward the trail to leave, but above, a dark cloud of ravens swooped down at her. She ducked, cradling her head with her arms to protect herself from the swarm of birds. The uproar of their cries startled her, and she went to run back up the hill, but the sight of the birds immobilized her, stone cold still—a perfect circle of ravens encompassed her.

***

Smoke hung like winter clouds in the scorched apartment and even after hours of cold spray from water lines in the building and hydrant jet streams, heat still permeated from the charred walls of the room. Behind Wells, one entire wall had been burnt down to two by four construction. In contrast, the wall next to the kitchen brightened the space with terracotta paint, sponged with a pattern that resembled outdoor texture. Burnt furniture reeked of toxic fumes, and the skeletons of chairs, wilted to crispy sticks, still circled around the dining room table.

Wells squatted near the floor, listening as arsonist specialist, Jerry Fisher, explicated the incident that had evacuated the entire Cherrywood Park Condominiums last night. Normally, he wouldn’t be involved in a fire investigation, but the unit where the fire was suspected to have originated, belonged to a young woman who happened to be friends with Jevanna Waters.

Jerry inspected the living room meticulously, like a mother in her teenager’s bedroom. He kneeled in the ashes, smelled crispy objects, and even tasted a coaster with his finger. His shirt-stretched gut obtruded over the front of his fireproof pants and between his suspenders, and flesh from his cheeks shook down his jaw line when he spoke.