Stalking Ground (9 page)

Brody removed his hand from Adrienne’s hair and stood.

“You have to go down and organize a retrieval mission,” Mattie said.

“I’ll stay with her.”

“Sorry, Brody. You can’t. You’re too close.” Besides, the boyfriend was always a suspect. She didn’t know what to do with that.

He glared at her. “This is all I have left.”

“That’s not true. You’ve got memories, and staying here with her corpse shouldn’t be one of them.”

He looked down on Adrienne’s face, uncovered, reddened, and lifeless.

“I brought a plastic tarp in my backpack. Let’s cover her and secure the gravesite. Then you need to head down that trail. I’ll give you some flagging tape to mark it on your way down.”

He looked at Mattie. “I can find my way back up here.”

“Of course. But there may be more than one party needing to get up here later this afternoon. You might not be able to guide them all. We don’t want anyone getting lost.” She glanced up at the sky, covered with gray snow clouds. He followed her glance and apparently knew what she was thinking.

“And it might snow before I get back,” he said.

“Yeah.”

“Shit. I’ll make sure we can find the trail.”

Mattie nodded, trusting him to keep his word. “We need to hurry.”

She removed the black plastic sheeting she’d carried up in her backpack and started spreading it out. Brody went to the far side of the grave, keeping his eyes averted from the carnage wrought by some scavenger, and helped her spread it over the site. They secured the sheeting by anchoring the edges with stones. The wind tugged at it, trying to tear it away, but soon the black plastic turned into a taut shield from the elements. It would be up to Mattie and Robo to defend the grave from further desecration by wildlife.

“Robo and I will go back to the trail with you, and I’ll mark it with orange tape from there to here on my way back. I think it’s probably shorter to head due east instead of coming up the draw like we did to follow the scent trail. I’ll build a cairn in the middle of the trail to mark where you should turn off and head back here.”

“I’ve been thinking,” Brody said. “What if her killer returns while you’re up here alone? What if that anonymous tip was a setup?”

“I suppose anything’s possible, but I don’t think it’s likely.”

“You have your service weapon.”

“Right. And Robo won’t let anyone sneak up on us.” She pulled out her GPS and used the compass function to chart a course due east. “It’s time to go.”

“Wait a minute.” Brody looked back at the black plastic sheet that covered Adrienne’s grave, his face filled with a mixture of emotion. Hesitation, grief, and concern were all registered there, easy for Mattie to read. She gave him a minute
to sort through his thoughts, and then said, “You need to get started, Brody.”

She set out, dodging around towering pine and boulders, staying on an easterly course.

After following for several yards, Brody broke his silence. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay up here?”

She didn’t want to tell him that she’d feared all along that they would find a corpse, and she’d planned for it. “I’ll be all right. I brought some food and plenty of warm clothing.”

“I’ll come back this afternoon. I’ll think of things we need as I go down.”

Mattie glanced at his haggard face, noting his slumped posture when he typically stood ramrod straight. “Brody,” she said, pausing for emphasis, “unless someone can put you on a horse, think twice before you try to make this climb again. You’ve spent days without food and sleep, and you’ve covered a lot of territory on little fuel. Mark that trail on your way down so anyone can find it.”

“I’ll be back.”

Stubborn
.

It took about ten minutes to connect with the trail. Brody surprised her when he offered a handshake. He gripped hers hard when she took it. “Thank you for all you’ve done . . . and everything you’re going to do,” he said.

“Sure, Brody. You’d do the same for me.” That wouldn’t have been true a few months ago, but things had changed between them.

He turned and started down the trail. Mattie watched him until he trudged out of sight on the far side of the first rise. Brody looked done in, and she worried that it would take him a long time to make it back to the trailhead. Well, there was nothing she could do about that.

She began to build the cairn, stacking rocks smack in the middle of the trail, large ones on the bottom and progressively smaller ones layered up to the top. She built it about two feet high and knew it couldn’t be missed. Taking out her GPS again, she and Robo headed due west to return to the gravesite, marking trees with orange flagging tape about every twenty yards as they went.

Once there, Mattie decided to walk a grid with Robo, just in case they could turn up something the killer dropped. She gave him a drink of water and put on his working collar. Snapping a short lead onto his collar, she led him to the start of the grid that she’d already planned mentally, located between the trail and the gravesite.

“Seek,” she told him, his command for evidence detection, and she gestured toward the ground.

Robo put his nose down and went to work, quartering the area in short sweeps. Soon he touched the ground with his mouth and sat. At first Mattie couldn’t see what he was indicating, but when she brushed aside some pine needles she discovered a flattened cigarette butt. “Good find, Robo.”

She bagged it and started searching for footprints. She found several partial cowboy boot prints in the soft ground next to a tree.
He must’ve leaned here to have a smoke
. She marked them with orange tape on a thin metal spike.

She also found horseshoe prints. She photographed them, but she could barely see them in the photo. Looking up at the heavy sky, she knew she needed to preserve all the prints from the snow, so the CSI technicians could process them with their equipment.

After finishing the grid, she decided to use plastic evidence bags to cover the prints. Splitting them open, she chose the prints that were the most clearly defined, covered them, and
then anchored the plastic with sharp bits of tree branch and rocks around the edges, being careful to avoid pressing on the middle. She left the orange flags so that anyone entering the area would know not to disturb them.

Mattie and Robo spent the next hour searching around the gravesite and back toward the trail. She snapped pictures of disturbed greenery, areas where rocks had been removed, and places where the terrain had been altered during the digging of the grave. None of these things would be very useful.

What she didn’t find brought images and theories to her mind: Robo didn’t indicate finding Adrienne’s scent trail on the ground, and Mattie didn’t spot smaller hiking-boot prints that Adrienne might have left. She theorized that Adrienne had been killed elsewhere and left face down or head down for several hours, accounting for the lividity observed in her face. She guessed she’d been carried here on horseback and then buried, probably by the anonymous tipster. Maybe he felt guilt or remorse, and that’s why he called. The autopsy could confirm the first part of her theory; the rest was guesswork.

Cold air nipped her face, and she realized the temperature had dropped. She’d better pay attention to her own needs before it was too late. She took off Robo’s collar and tracking harness to let him know he was now off duty. She headed out into the timber to find firewood, taking along his tennis ball, causing him to frolic beside her. His reward was long overdue. She was relieved to see that he acted like his happy self again, his depression left behind.

But she couldn’t erase the image of Adrienne’s marred face and gaping mouth from her mind, or the one of Brody kneeling beside the dead woman. It would take longer for her own mood to lighten.

*

Cole was playing a game of Monopoly with his kids when his cell phone rang. One glance told him it was the sheriff’s department, and he answered it immediately. The caller was Sheriff McCoy.

“Hello, Sheriff.”

“I’ve got some bad news, Dr. Walker,” McCoy said. “Adrienne Howard’s body has been found.”

“I was afraid that’s what you were going to say.” Cole checked his kids and saw they were listening to his side of the call. “Excuse me a moment, Sheriff.”

He got up from the kitchen table. “Give me a minute, you guys,” he said to the girls. “I’ve got to take this call, but I’ll be right back.”

“But Dad . . .”

“I’ll be right back, Angela, and I’ll tell you what’s happening. But now, I need some privacy.” He walked out of the room and headed upstairs, resuming his conversation with the sheriff as he went. “All right, I’m back.”

“She was found about a half mile down from Tucker Peak. Do you know that area?”

“I’m familiar with it. I used to hunt that area with my dad. That’s rugged country. How on earth did you find her?”

“Robo. Look, the reason I’m calling is that I need your help organizing a retrieval mission. And we’re going to need several extra horses to carry our detective and technicians up to the site.”

By now Cole had reached his bedroom and shut the door. The red digits on his alarm clock said 4:51. It was getting late. “How soon do you want us to load up?”

“Can we start at sunrise tomorrow morning?”

“I’m sure that between Garrett and my dad we can organize enough horses by then. You don’t think we should go up sooner?”

“That’s the other part of my problem,” McCoy said. “I’ve got Deputy Cobb up there securing the site.”

“By herself?”

“Yes. I need at least one rider to take supplies up to her for the night. A tent, food, water, dog food for Robo, insulated sleeping bags. We’ve got the trail marked, but we’ve also got this snowstorm rolling in. I need someone who can handle himself out in the wilderness during winter weather.”

There was no way he would let Mattie spend the night up there alone. “I’m your guy.”

“It won’t be easy.”

“Hey, it doesn’t need to be. I’ll contact Garrett and ask him to organize things for tomorrow morning. I’ve got a horse named Mountaineer that can stick to any trail in the dark. I’ll be ready to leave within the hour.”

“Deputy Brody wants to go with you, but I need him to guide up tomorrow’s party.”

“I can make it on my own.”

“I’ll turn the phone over to him so he can give you detailed directions. And thanks, Cole.”

Cole took notes from Brody’s description, deciding he needed to take a strong flashlight to see the orange tape in the dark. He ended the call and went downstairs to his daughters, his mind making a list of supplies while he went. They both waited at the kitchen table. There was no need to soften the blow with these two. Like it or not, they were experienced in receiving bad news.

“That was the sheriff. They’ve found Adrienne. I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but she’s no longer alive.”

Neither spoke. Angie looked down at the table while Sophie’s worried brown eyes sought out his. “Did somebody kill her, Dad? Like Grace?” Sophie asked.

“I don’t know any details. But I do know that Mattie’s up there in the mountains, guarding the site by herself.”

Angie looked up at him, a furrow of concern on her brow. “Alone?”

“Yeah, I’ve volunteered to take supplies up to her so she’s not caught out in this storm without food and shelter.” Cole realized his action would take him away from the kids for the night, something he’d promised Angie he would try to avoid. He watched her closely for her response.

“Can we help you pack so you can get started?” Angie asked. “We can’t leave Mattie up there in the cold.”

Her reply would make any parent proud. “Thanks, Angel. I hoped you’d feel that way.”

“What about our appointment tomorrow morning with Miss Carmen Sandiego?” Sophie asked, referring to a cartoon character she watched on the Internet.

“Sophie-bug, you’re a genius. How did you remember that?”

She looked smug. “I just did.”

“I’ll call her when I’m on my way and reschedule for tomorrow afternoon. You girls plan to go with me then, okay?”

After getting their agreement, he set off to explain the situation to Mrs. Gibbs and round up his supplies.

Mattie stacked another stone on the rock wall she was building on the opposite side of her fire pit, its purpose to reflect heat back toward her and Robo. She’d decided to set up shelter in the leeward side of a boulder about forty feet from the grave, close enough to guard without feeling like she was on top of it.

A few hours earlier, the gray skies had opened up to dump snow in the high country, and now several inches covered the ground. White shrouds draped the evergreens, and Mattie’s breath fogged the air. She stamped her feet and held her cold hands above the fire for a moment.

After sundown she’d given up hope of someone coming, and she’d resigned herself to a miserable night. Robo had dogged her tracks while she searched for deadfall to build a makeshift lean-to. It wasn’t much, but without a hatchet, it was the best she could do. He lay next to the fire watching her work, one of his favorite pastimes.

She raised her face to the sky, feeling icy snowflakes spatter her cheeks. “Looks like it’s just you and me tonight, Robo.”

She could swear he quirked his eyebrows in agreement.

Protect and serve
, she thought.
Even the dead
.

She fed Robo a cup of food, saving the last for morning. Her own stomach rumbled with hunger. Settling into her sparse shelter, she peeled the wrapper off an energy bar, the only food she had left.

Her thoughts went back to Adrienne. Who could have buried her way up here? And how did she die?

Then a terrible scream echoed down the draw. It sounded like a woman. Mattie dropped her food and rose to her feet, drawing her Glock. Robo leapt up barking, the hair rising on his back. She stood beside him, her service weapon in hand.

Gradually, it dawned on her what she’d heard. In all the years she’d lived in Timber Creek, she’d never heard it before. Hunters spoke of the eerie sound: the scream of a mountain lion. And it was close.

“Holy shit,” she muttered, shuddering from the adrenaline that shot through her system.

She peered into the darkness outside the ring of her campfire light. Mountain lion attacks weren’t frequent in this wilderness, the huge cats preferring to shy away from human contact. But they weren’t unheard of. She kept hold of her handgun while she turned a slow circle, completing a visual probe of the surrounding area. Nothing.

Robo stood motionless, staring off to her left. His hackles stood at attention, and he huffed an angry sound from deep in his chest.

“Where is it, Robo?”

She fired one shot into the air, hoping to scare the lion away. Robo glanced at her when the gun fired but turned back to stare into the night. Creeping forward, she stepped outside the firelight and paused to allow her eyes to adjust. The brilliant whiteness of the newly fallen snow cast a ghostly light
on the clearing. Adrienne’s grave lay undisturbed, the black plastic sheet now blanketed in white.

Robo stayed at her side, quiet and steady, searching with her. He seemed less upset than he’d been before, so maybe her gunshot had done the trick. If the cat stayed near enough, she would probably be able to see firelight reflect in its eyes, and she could see nothing like that.

“Is it gone, Robo?”

Not taking his eyes off the forest, he waved his tail once before standing guard. They waited in place for several minutes; Mattie’s heartbeat slowly resumed its normal pace. Robo began to relax somewhat, shifting his eyes between the tree line and her, as if checking to see what to do next. She decided that meant the danger had passed.

Keeping her gun in hand, she went back to the fire and threw another log on the flames. “This fire should help,” she said aloud, thinking it might be the best protection she and Robo had from predators. At least the four-legged kind.

A branch snapped behind her. She whirled, taking a shooting stance and pointing out at the darkness. She stepped to the side, slipping away from the firelight, making sure it wouldn’t backlight her silhouette. A growl rumbled from Robo as he came with her.

She waited. When Robo settled and there was no further sound, she began to feel silly. The mountain lion’s scream had set her on edge. She needed to calm down. Drawing a breath, she turned back to the fire, deciding to build it up to an enormous height for both security and heat.

Robo faced the forest, keeping watch. A gust of wind swirled the falling snow, blurring the boundary between clearing and trees. As the logs in her fire caught and blazed hot, Mattie eyed her dwindling woodpile. She couldn’t afford
to let the fire die down, but she didn’t want to sacrifice the deadfall in her shelter. Soon, she’d be forced to leave the safety of the firelight to gather more wood.

She kept an eye on her dog, knowing he would alert her to danger. While she waited, she warmed her fingers and toes and a layer of white formed on Robo’s back. It took a long time, but eventually he let down his guard and returned to her side, looking up at her and waving his tail, apparently seeking warmth and reassurance. “You’re a good boy.” Mattie squatted beside him and held him close as the fire danced and snapped. They stayed together sharing body heat until it started to wane.

“We have to get some more wood.” She hated to go into the forest, but she’d already gathered the small amount of easy fuel she’d found nearby. “Let’s go.”

Taking her flashlight from her utility belt, she crossed the small clearing and entered a world caught between shadow and luminescence. Robo stayed in front, occasionally stopping to stare off between the snow-covered pines. Then he would dart back to her side before heading off again. Mattie pressed the light on and swept it in widening arcs as she searched for logs and branches that would fit into her fire pit but still provide a prolonged burn.

It was slow going, but she gathered and carried enough wood for two trips back to her campsite. After sizing up her stack, she decided one more trip might fill the quota she needed to keep her fire burning throughout the night. Returning to the forest, Robo alternated between staying close and turning away to scan the area. Mattie trained the flashlight for him but, always seeing nothing, she decided to hurry, gather the wood she needed, and get back to the safety of the fire.

She tugged at some deadfall, searching for logs, and uncovered a strange sight. Focusing her flashlight, she could see bits of fur, hide, and small bones. Probably rabbit. And here . . . hair from a fox?

Robo chuffed a series of short growls from deep in his chest, pressing against her legs. She flicked the light on him; his hackles were raised. Her own neck prickled. She could swear she was being watched.

She followed Robo’s stare and directed her flashlight in that direction. Two orbs glowed, reflecting the beam.

She dropped the wood she’d gathered and reached for her Glock. Robo exploded. With a ferocious bark, he rushed the mountain lion. Mattie’s light showed her what he was up against: a huge cougar, snarling and hissing, sharp teeth bared, backed up against a boulder.

Robo charged, his hair puffed up, making him look twice his size, vicious. Mattie raised her weapon and sighted in on the cat. Before she could squeeze off the shot, Robo feinted close, snapping his jaws and barking, blocking her shot. The lion swiped bared claws at him. Robo jumped back.

In a split second, Mattie decided to fire into the air. Even as she raised her weapon, the lion attacked. Robo whirled away but hit a tree. The lion went after him and closed in—too close. Robo dodged. The two animals tangled. Fur, snow, and pine needles flew around them.

Mattie screamed and fired her gun into the air. She rushed toward her partner, shouting, hoping she could break up the fight and get a clean shot. The lion broke off and turned away. She could see its tawny color, its long black-tipped tail. The cat was huge . . . six to seven feet from head to tail. Robo charged after it.

“Robo,” she screamed. “Out!”

Robo hesitated, poised to launch himself at the lion. Mattie shot into the air, calling Robo back to her at the same time. With her dog out of the way, she could try to shoot the monstrous cat, but she knew that Robo might dart into the line of fire, so she held the shot. She’d almost emptied her gun’s magazine, and she needed to preserve the rounds she had left.

The cat slipped out of sight into the forest, its golden fur tarnished by dark patches. Bloody spots where Robo had gotten in his licks. Robo stood guard, growling, each hair on his body at attention. Mattie shone her light on him, searching for wounds. Blood glistened on his shoulder, forming a rivulet that splashed red drops onto the snow. He sank to lie down, still watching the spot where the cat disappeared.

Her gut tightened when she saw the blood. “Robo.”

He struggled to sit, staring after the lion. Mattie went to him, realizing he’d chosen his duty to protect her over his own safety.

She knelt at his side, snow chilling her knees through her jeans. “You’re hurt.”

In the glow of her flashlight, she could see a gaping slash on his shoulder. Bloody patches showed her other wounds on his face and neck. A brief look at these didn’t alarm her. They looked superficial. But his poor shoulder.

After sending one last gunshot into the air, Mattie stood and asked Robo to heel. He weighed almost as much as she did, and she feared she couldn’t carry him. He stayed by her side, limping, while she gathered the wood she’d dropped and headed back to the campsite, refusing to leave behind their hard-won bounty. She observed him as they went. She prayed the damage wasn’t too severe. He continuously stopped, chuffing his displeasure and looking behind. “Robo, come.”

Back in the relative security of the campsite, Mattie dumped the wood and threw a log on the fire. Taking an extra magazine from her utility belt, she reloaded and holstered her Glock. She took out her first aid kit, bent to retrieve her water supply from her backpack, and called Robo to her. Sitting on a large log she’d placed near the shelter, she gently cleaned his wounds. Inspecting the shoulder injury, she saw that it was about four inches long. She cleaned it the best she could by sloshing water on it. Blood flowed steadily and it looked horrible. She fought the bile that rose in her throat.

She pressed a gauze pad on the wound and bound it tight with an elasticized bandage. It was a tricky place to wrap, but she alternated between chest and ribcage and was satisfied with the job. The bandage appeared to apply pressure at the shoulder without infringing on his neck and airway. “There.”

She hugged him close while she gently applied more pressure on the wound. It was important to stop the bleeding. He could bleed to death from a tear this big. She buried her nose in the fur at his neck, continuing to apply pressure on the bandage with her hand. What should she do? Stay here and guard Adrienne’s grave or take Robo down for medical care?

He licked her face, a stolen kiss. She usually didn’t allow him to lick, but this time she made an exception. “Be still now. Let me hold you.”

Robo started to shiver. Was it from shock? Blood loss? Still holding him close, she leaned back so that she could see his face. He tipped his head to gaze up at her, looking into her eyes. “Are you okay?” He trembled, and she placed her cheek against his.

She realized she was shivering, too. She knew her trembling was from the letdown after the adrenaline had charged
her system. Maybe that’s what was going on with Robo. She hoped so.

They sat together for a long time, Mattie holding Robo while she pressed directly on the gauze bandage. Shivers that wracked his body gradually subsided as he relaxed against her.

The cat screamed again, this time from farther away. Robo struggled against her, facing the eerie sound and trying to stand. Mattie wouldn’t let him and continued to hold him close. “It’s okay, boy. I think it’s going away. At least for now.”

Shining her flashlight on the gauze pad, she saw that blood had saturated through but was no longer dripping. She noted the size of the stain. She would check it again in a half hour to see how much larger the bloodstain had grown.

She couldn’t go anywhere while Robo was still bleeding. It was imperative she stop the blood flow, or she could lose her partner. And she wasn’t going to let that happen. Covering the wound to hold it tightly, she settled onto the log and hugged her dog. It was going to be a long night.