“Okay, folks,” Earl called. I stood, but gestured to David to let Bingle — fidgety since the landing — lead the way. “Thanks,” he said, then followed the dog. That left me with Ben Sheridan, who was still frowning as he gazed out the window.
“Listen,” I began. “I don’t want to—”
“I’m not leaving you here to snoop around on the plane,” he interrupted. “Go on outside.”
I felt a flare of temper, checked it, and left the plane without saying another word to him.
I stretched at the bottom of the steps, taking in the view before me. We were in a long meadow, near the center of a narrow valley that was already shadowed and cooling. The scent of pine from nearby woods mixed with the fragrance of late spring blossoms in the meadow, of grass and earth. When I saw the slender mown strip where we had landed, I felt new respect for the pilot.
A base camp would be set up here.
Bingle, once he had relieved himself, began cavorting wildly through the meadow, not so much running as bouncing through it, stopping now and then to try to lure his handler into playing with him. But David, Sheridan, and everyone who wasn’t involved in guarding Parrish were busy unloading gear from the plane. I gathered my own, then moved to help the others. I had only taken a few steps when a voice from behind me asked, “Are you the reporter?”
I turned to see a lean, golden young man smiling at me. I guessed him to be in his mid-twenties. His hair was short and spiky. He was tanned and had the kind of calf muscles a person can only get by moving his feet over long distances, on a bike or running or hiking. He wore a closely trimmed beard and a single earring in his right ear.
“Yes,” I said, setting down my backpack and extending a hand. “Irene Kelly.”
“Andy Stewart,” he said, with a firm handshake. “I’m the botanist for the team. J.C. and I got here at noon. We’re all set up. Can I give you a hand with anything?”
“I can manage this, but it looks as if Dr. Sheridan still has some gear in there.”
He grabbed another canvas bag and continued to chat with me, telling me that a Forest Service helicopter had brought them in earlier.
“Forgive me for asking, but why is a botanist needed for this search?”
“Well, whenever anybody like Mr. Parrish comes along and digs a hole, drops what will ultimately amount to a big chunk of fertilizer in it, and then covers it up again, nature doesn’t let that pass unnoticed. The plants he dug up, the new ones that begin to grow, the surrounding soil — he’s created a disturbance in the existing system. With enough practice, a botanist can learn to see the signs of that disturbance.”
“So you’re paid to look for changes in plant life?”
His face broke into a grin. “Paid? No, none of us are paid. Ben, David, and I do this forensic work voluntarily. I’m a grad student in biology; Ben and David teach in the anthropology department. David also pays for all of Bingle’s training and equipment. Even J.C. doesn’t get any special pay for coming along, although he’s on the Forest Service payroll while he’s here.” He paused. “If you don’t mind my asking the question you asked me — what’s a reporter doing here?”
“Good question. There are any number of folks, here and at home, who’d tell you I have no business being here.” I paused, trying to shut out the memory of the fight Frank and I had before I left.
“I don’t want you up there with him, no matter how many guards he has on him.”
“I don’t want to be up there with him, either, but I can’t get out of this one, Frank.”
“Refuse the assignment. Goddamn it, Irene, those amputations were antemortem. You know what that means?”
“Stop it,” I said.
“It means,” he went on ruthlessly, “that those women were alive when he began mutilating them, Irene. Alive.”
“But you’re here anyway,” Andy was saying.
“Yes. I know Julia Sayre’s family—” I began.
“Sayre’s the victim he claims he’ll lead us to?”
“Yes.”
I’m here to put an end to the last remnants of their hope, I thought. That small, impossible burden of hope that would ride in back of their minds like a stone in a shoe.
Years as a reporter had taught me that families would hold fiercely to whatever little hope they could find, whatever possibility they could imagine. If their son was on a plane that crashed, they wondered if perhaps he had missed the flight, pictured him giving his ticket to a friend.
The Sayres would have such hopes, I knew, although Gillian would never betray their existence to me.
Parrish’s announcement would have nearly put an end to that sort of fantasy. What a blow it must have been to Gillian. Still, the Sayres would wonder if Parrish was bluffing, or mistaken about the identity of his victim.
And so now there was only this, this final identification. We would unbury Julia Sayre’s remains and leave the last of her family’s hope in their place.
“Good of you to go to this much trouble for them,” Andy said, bringing me out of my reverie.
“No, it’s not,” I said. “I’m here because my boss insisted on it, and I wasn’t exactly pleased with the assignment. I got caught in police politics. The Las Piernas Police got a black eye recently—”
“When they tried to hide mistakes made in an Internal Affairs investigation,” he said, nodding. “But one of the reporters on the Express learned about it and made them look twice as bad.”
“Yes. So to prove to the public that they’re doing a great job, and everything’s aboveboard, the brass decided to let a local reporter get in on a success story — the resolution of an old case that has been given big play in the paper. The Express was already leaning on them to let me come along. I never dreamed they’d say yes, or I would have tried to head those plans off before they got this far.”
“I’d think this would be a reporter’s dream.”
“I’m not too fond of the mountains.”
“Not fond of the mountains?” he said, aghast. This, clearly, he considered to be sacrilege.
I swallowed hard. “I used to love them. But — I had a bad experience in the mountains once.”
“Backpacking?”
“No. In a cabin.” My mouth was dry. I could feel my tongue slowing, clacking over the simple little word, cabin.
Andy seemed not to notice. “But you’ve been backpacking before,” he said, puzzled.
“Yes. The gear give me away?”
“Yep. Not novice style — not like that lawyer’s bullshit outfit. Most of yours is broken in — like your boots. The attorney’s boots are brand new, and I’ll bet you he’s going to have blisters in no time. You’ve got a few new items, but they aren’t just for show.”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve used my gear.” I didn’t want to think about why.
“Then separate this from whatever happened in that cabin,” he said, with the easy logic of youth.
Before I could answer, a deep voice called from the other side of the meadow. “Your botanist is upsetting Ms. Kelly.”
Parrish.
I felt my face color under the sudden attention that came from almost everyone else — from all but his guards, one of whom was telling him to shut up.
“Am I?” Andy asked me.
“No. No, you aren’t. You’re making me feel much more comfortable about being here.”
He grinned again.
To some extent, I had told him the truth. At least he was speaking to me, being friendlier than the others. Maybe he was right about backpacking; maybe my fears wouldn’t be triggered in the same way they might be if I were driving to the mountains, staying in a cabin.
“I used to know a little about wildflowers,” I said, trying to keep my thoughts away from cabins and glove compartments and Nicholas Parrish. “Perhaps you can help me remember the names of some of the varieties in this meadow?”