Nicole smiled. “When she and I read that, we knew right then who it was because he’d recently told her that she climbed like a man.”
“Did she confront him?”
Nicole nodded. “You could say that. Sasha ended his professional career.”
That sounded like motivation to Darius. “What do you mean?”
“She turned all the information over to her sponsors—who also happened to be his sponsors. They dropped him flat. He’s no longer getting paid to climb. Then the International Association of Sports Climbing banned him from competing for a year. He apologized. He said his ego had gotten the better of him. He’d been angry with her for on-sighting a route that he hadn’t been able to send.”
Darius had been writing all of this down, but that last sentence stopped him. “I’m sorry. On…what?”
Megs chuckled. “Speak English, Nicole. I think you’ve confused this nice man.”
Nicole explained. “To ‘on-sight’ something is to climb it on the first try without having seen it before or having any beta… that is…information… about it.”
Darius wrote that down. “Andsend?”
Megs answered this time. “Climbers are lazy. Send is short for ‘ascend.’”
Nicole nodded. “Yeah. When you climb something, you send it.”
“Got it.” Darius would have to run all of this by Ms. Dillon, but it at least gave him a start. “What’s the name of the guy who harassed her, and where can I find him?”
“His name is Bren Riggs. He’s from Utah, but he lives in Boulder.” Nicole held up her phone. “I’ve got his phone number.”
When Sasha opened her eyes,she found Nicole sitting beside her bed, reading something on her phone. “Hey. What time is it?”
“It’s almost five. You’ve been asleep for a while.” Nicole slipped her phone into her pack. “How do you feel?”
“My ribs hurt a lot.”
“More than your wrist?” Nicole looked surprised by this.
“I don’t have to use my arm, but my ribs move every time I breathe.”
“Oh. Right.” Then Nicole gave her a teasing smile. “I met that hot detective. He had lunch at Knockers and then came to The Cave. Damn! He’s so good-looking it made me nervous to talk to him. Thoseeyes.”
“He is good-looking, isn’t he?” Sasha remembered the way he’d talked her through her panic attack, those gray eyes fixed on hers, his voice soothing.
“Hell, yes, he is. I told Julia she was lucky to spend her workday in a car with him. She told me he’s a bit of a control freak. At lunch, he turned down a free meal because he didn’t want to open himself to accusations of favoritism. He made her promise not to share information about the case with anyone.”
“I’m sure he has good reasons for that. Why did he come to The Cave?”
“He wanted to ask us about stalkers, ex-boyfriends, hate mail, online harassment—all of that. Julia told him that if you’d had a stalker, Megs and I would know. We told him about Bren.”
“You did? Why? Bren apologized. He would never do something like this.”
“Wouldn’t he? You didn’t want to believe he was the one posting those disgusting images, either.” Nicoledidhave a point. “You might forgive him, but I can’t. I wouldn’t leave him alone in a room with Megs, either.”
“If the detective goes after him, Bren will thinkIsent him.” Sasha no longer counted Bren among her friends, but she didn’t want to antagonize him.
“I’m not sure upsetting Bren should be your biggest worry right now. Someone tried tokillyou, Sasha. Detective Silva has to follow whatever leads he can find.”
“I suppose so.” Then it hit her, made her stomach knot. “Does Detective Silva think I was a target, that this wasn’t random?”
“I’m not sure. He told Julia you needed to have security. They’re talking to Chief Randall about putting you under police protection.”
A jolt of adrenaline made Sasha’s pulse race. “He thinks I’m still in danger.”
