Dragging the hood of her jacket over her woolen cap, Jenna followed. The wind came in gusts, swirling dead leaves and debris into multiple dust devils. At a glance, they resembled people walking out of the forest and across the parking lot, but when she looked again, they weren’t there. “Dust devils are a strange phenomenon, don’t you think?”
“Yeah.” Jo chuckled. “For a moment there, I thought it was a group of drunken men heading out of the forest. Things happen around ravines because of the wind turbulence. Carter explained the problems of negotiating it with a chopper.” She gripped Jenna’s arm. “Heavens, I shouldn’t have said that, should I? I’m sorry. It must be nerve-wracking for you to watch Dave jump out of a chopper.”
Pasting a smile on her face, Jenna turned to her friend. “The thing is, he loves it. It seems to me the more his life is in danger, the bigger thrill he gets out of it. He couldn’t wait to get up there. Yeah, I admit it scares me, but having Carter to fly the chopper makes it easier.”
“The problem with Carter”—Jo gave her a side-eye—“is that he believes he’s immortal when he’s in that chopper. He takes some terrible risks when we’re flying to crime scenes. Sometimes he scares the hell out of me.”
Everything that Jo said increased Jenna’s fear and she quickened her pace at the sound of a chopper overhead. She took a position on the fence around the man-made lookout and gripped the handrail as the chopper circled in the distance. Her heart pounded as Carter maneuvered the helicopter into position. Before Kane and Wolfe had the chance to rappel down to the body, a gust of wind ripped through the ravine, causing the aircraft to lurch. It swayed before it turned slowly and regained its hovering position. She turned away as dust and debris swirled violently around her, reducing the visibility. The wind dropped as fast as it had arrived. Jenna glanced at the sky. Gray clouds rolled across the top of the mountain, swirling and building into a threatening dark mass. She turned her attention back to the chopper when Carter’s voice crackled through her earpiece.
“I have limited clearance. I’ll hold the hover for as long as possible as you rappel down, but once you are on the ground, I may need to circle around again to keep out of the wind gusts.”
“Copy that.” Kane’s voice came through the static. “We’re good to go.”
Gripping tight to the handrail and holding her breath, Jenna stared at the chopper. It held a precise hover with its nose tilted and the tail rotor dangerously close to jagged rock. If Carter made one miscalculation, the chopper would crash into the mountainside. The next moment, Kane and Wolfe appeared at the open door, their legs dangling as if they hadn’t a care in the world. They tossed out long ropes and in tandem slid down the ropes at high speed. It was as if they couldn’t stop they were going so fast, but at the last second before they hit the ground, they both stopped and eased themselves down. Jenna blew out her breath as the men vanished into the rocks. She glanced back up and caught sight of Raven leaning out of the chopper and then an orange-colored rescue litter descended toward the ground.
The chopper swayed and Carter moved it away from the rocks, hovering a short distance away. Frightened by the way the wind gusts affected the chopper, Jenna clamped her jaw shut. They were down on the ground and safe at the moment, but being winched up with a body would be extremely dangerous. Small blotches of rain hit her face, and in the distance came the rumble of thunder. She glanced at Jo. “I hope the storm holds off for another twenty minutes or so. I figure that’s all they’ll need to get the body up to the chopper.”
“The wind gusts are increasing.” Jo stared at the sky. “When the storm arrives, it’s going to be bad. Are the townsfolk prepared for potential flooding?”
Jenna nodded. “Yeah, we’ve just been through a melt. They’re prepared for anything at this point in time. The weather has been unpredictable for the last few years. Community messages about being prepared for storm seasons, flooding, and long periods of isolation have been on the media all week.”
“That’s good to know.” Jo pushed a com into her ear. “I hope the storm won’t interfere with the coms. They look like they’re ready to head back up.”
Over the com, Kane and Wolfe relayed information back to Carter. They planned to secure the body in the stretcher and then carry it fifty yards or so away from the edge of the mountainside. All around them wind gusts blew up great clouds of dust, and the noise from the chopper made it difficult for communication on the ground.
“We’ll need to record the scene before the storm washes any evidence away.” Kane’s voice came through her earpiece. “Err… Don’t move. What’s that by your foot?”
“Oh, come on, don’t y’all know that’s a harmless garter snake.” Wolfe chuckled. “Now if it were a rattler, I might be worried—but we’re not in Arizona.” He pointed ahead. “There she is. Dear Lord, at least she didn’t fall face-first. The backpack must have turned her over.”
“I’ll take a few shots and then we’d better get going.” Kane sounded serious. “The wind is picking up. We don’t have much time.”
The activity had gotten the interest of the people on the lookout. The man observing turned to her.
“Do you know what’s happening, Sheriff?” The man was in his mid-twenties and she believed the young woman with him was around the same age.
Jenna nodded but kept her eyes fixed on Kane’s shoulders as he moved about in the ravine. Rocks and vegetation thankfully obscured the body. “Yeah, someone fell into the ravine and Deputy Kane and Dr. Shane Wolfe are retrieving the body.”
“That’s so sad.” The young woman tugged on the man’s arm. “Can we go? I don’t want our memories spoiled by such a tragic event.”
Nodding, Jenna turned to her. “Yeah, you’re good to go.”
“Thanks.” They both headed back to their vehicle.
Jenna noticed the other woman hadn’t moved. Her gaze fixed on the chopper, and in one hand she held a dog’s leash. No doubt her dog had run off into the forest. When the woman turned to go, she turned her attention back to Kane and Wolfe and chewed on her bottom lip. Concern for the team gripped her in waves of nausea. Going down from the chopper was the easy bit; going back up with a body in the turbulence could be lethal. She gripped the handrail so hard her fingers ached. Watching them tied her in knots but she couldn’t look away. Please, God, keep them safe.
Six
The smell of death surrounded Kane as he removed his leather gloves and replaced them. Using his phone, he recorded the scene, including the rock face, and then approached the body. Gusts of wind blew dust into his eyes and lifted the edges of his jacket, making the fastenings of his harness jingle. Recent rockslides had littered this area of the ravine, making the ground difficult to walk on. Kane stepped carefully, his boots constantly slipping on small pebbles covering ragged broken pieces of granite. He put on a face mask as he approached the body. Wedged between boulders, Jan’s body had one arm twisted unnaturally. The other was thrown out to one side palm up. Her face was untouched, but dry blood and debris obscured most of her hair and splattered the rocks all around her. Blue lips stretched around an open mouth. Her expression was empty and her eyes stared sightless into the sky. One of her legs was bent under her, the other straight out. He walked around the body taking photographs from every angle. He had been around dead bodies for a long time, but it never reduced the shock of seeing a young person dead. He turned as Wolfe dropped a body bag on the ground and opened it. “The blood spatter and the width of the pool around her is larger than I would have expected.”
“Unfortunately, that indicates that she was alive for a few minutes before she died.” Wolfe bent and lifted one of her hands. “Her body hasn’t gone into rigor yet, which means she must have fallen on her way to Raven’s house. If we estimate the walk there would have taken approximately forty minutes, she would have died around seven. She has green stains on the palms of her hands. I’ve seen this many times. It indicates she grasped at tree branches on the way down to stop her fall.” He checked her pockets. “A set of keys, a small wallet, but no phone. I figure she had it in her hand. She liked to take photos of scenery.” He dropped the items into an evidence bag and pushed them into his pocket.
Standing back to allow Wolfe room to straighten her limbs, Kane took in the condition of her clothes. “She has no rips or tears in her jacket. It will be interesting to see if she has any defensive wounds. From the disturbance in the ground on the trail, I’m assuming someone pushed her over the edge. Although we hunted around for evidence of someone else being there, we found no footprints or anything else. When people fight among pine trees, we usually find a few hairs caught on branches, but in this case, there was nothing.” He bent to assist Wolfe with lifting the body into the bag. “When we get the body onto the litter, I figure we need to take the time to look for her phone. Maybe get Raven to haul her up? We can hike out of here if the weather gets ballistic.”
“Yeah.” Wolfe looked at the sky and relayed the plan to Raven. “Let’s go.” He grasped one end of the body bag and they made their way over the uneven ground to the litter swinging on the end of the rope.
With the body stowed safely under a net, along with Wolfe’s forensics kit, Kane waved his arm and Raven hoisted the litter into the chopper and then it moved some distance away.
“Don’t take too long. I’m fighting a wind tunnel up here.” Carter snorted. “I don’t figure Jenna or Norrell would be too happy with me if I centrifuged your brains.”
