Striking Range Page 9

  “I was worried that we might miss buried human remains,” Mattie said. “And with John Cobb, that scenario could be possible.”

  “Agreed. Finish up what you can today. Snow is forecasted for above eight thousand feet this evening, so I want you all down from there before it hits. I wanted you to know you had the cavalry coming in to help tomorrow with the lower elevations, in case you run out of time today.”

  “Couldn’t be better, sir. Thanks for letting me know.” As she signed off, Mattie reached out to stroke Robo’s fur. She buried her cold fingers in his ruff. “We’re getting some help, buddy. How about that?”

  Robo bumped his nose on her belt pocket that held his tennis ball.

  “All right.” She replaced the sat phone in the bag. “Playtime now, and then we’ll check on the others.”

  She climbed uphill beyond the cave to find a spot that had been spared from fire. A cold front had blown in from the northwest the night of the fire, driving sparks and the blaze in a southeasterly direction. The fire had spread downhill from where it first ignited, but the forest uphill and to the north remained relatively untouched.

  Robo gamboled at her side as they climbed the steep slope. She removed the tennis ball from its pocket and threw it. Robo scrambled after it, tucked into the challenging footing of the slope. The ball landed in some bushes and lodged there while Robo homed in on it, thrusting his nose into the golden brush. The ball glowed neon yellow against his black lips as he carried it jauntily back to her.

  Though Robo could play like this forever, she limited him to five minutes before going back to the cave. Dark heavy clouds had filled the sky in layers, and the wind showed no sign of letting up.

  Garrett waited outside in the shelter of the leeward side of a boulder, and she downed Robo beside him. Once inside, she saw that Hauck was using the shovel to excavate the remainder of the right wall and the entire back edge of the cave’s floor.

  She paused at the mouth of the cave. “Have you found anything else?”

  Hauck quit digging and stepped back from the end of the cave so he could straighten and stretch his back. “Nothing. I think we can safely say we’ve found everything buried here.”

  Mattie went farther inside to examine the tightly wrapped bag lying on the cave floor. “This looks like about a kilo. Depending on what we have here, it represents a lot of dirty cash. Our lab can have an answer for us by tomorrow.” She went on to tell him about Sergeant Madsen and his dogs.

  Hauck frowned. “Now … who is this guy?”

  Mattie explained the sergeant’s role as a K-9 trainer.

  “I don’t want this turning into a circus with a bunch of dogs running around,” Hauck said.

  “It won’t.” Mattie let her abrupt reply show what she thought of his concern. She turned to Garrett. “Sheriff McCoy says this front is bringing in snow at eight thousand feet. We need to finish up and get down lower before it hits.”

  Garrett nodded. The light inside the cave had grown dimmer and dimmer.

  “I’m going to send Robo out to search this area around the cave.”

  “I’ll follow up with a visual search,” Garrett said.

  Mattie nodded. “Thanks.”

  Hauck turned to the back of the cave to pick up the bag they’d found. “I’ll put this in my saddlebag.”

  “The chain of custody starts and stays with me,” Mattie said. “We’ll pack it out in my saddlebag.”

  Hauck’s brow lifted. “All right, Deputy. I guess it was your dog’s find.”

  Mattie signaled Robo to come with her as Hauck carried the bag to the horses. She packed it into the saddlebag that had been lashed behind the cantle of her saddle, enjoying a few moments of respite from the harsh wind behind Mountaineer’s warm body.

  Although Mattie figured that after five months there would be nothing in the area with human scent on it, she banked on the hope that Robo might still be able to find something outside the environmental norm. She freshened his sniffing equipment by offering him more water, and after a few laps he looked at her as if he knew he had more work to do. One thing about Robo—he was always ready to go.

  He watched her face as she chattered to him about finding something. When she felt he was set, she paused, raised her arm, and lowered it in a sweeping gesture to encompass the entire landscape. “Seek!” she told him, and sent him on his way.

  She jogged after him as he began to cover the burnt forest, fanning out toward the right to search and then moving left. She suspected that if John Cobb had hidden anything else up here, it would be underground, limiting the possibility that Robo would find it. If snow didn’t bury this country tonight, she would try to bring Sergeant Madsen and his dogs back up here tomorrow.

  Together Robo and Mattie searched the area. Blackened dust infiltrated her boots and darkened the ends of her pant legs. Gray puffs rose like ghosts from beneath Robo’s paws as he traversed the dead forest.

  He went back to one spot by some boulders near John Cobb’s old campsite and sniffed it thoroughly twice, giving it enough attention for Mattie to take note. Though he didn’t alert on it, she marked it with a short piece of orange flagging tape attached to a small spike that she set into the ground. The tape shuddered in the wind, blowing sideways like a flag at a ninety-degree angle.

  Mattie followed her dog as they crisscrossed the mountainside, first with the wind at their backs and then with it blasting into their faces. Her body warmed while her cheeks and nose suffered. She wished she’d brought a ski mask to cover them. After covering a radius of approximately one hundred yards from the cave, she decided to call a halt. Her intuition told her that they’d already found the reason for John Cobb’s mark in the cave—the drugs—with the possibility of something else having been buried at the spot she’d marked.

  Snowflakes pelted her face, alerting her that the predicted snowfall had arrived early. She feared blizzard conditions would set in fast. She called Robo, ending his search with praise and hugs instead of playing with the ball. Snow had already begun to coat the windward side of grassy tufts and rocks, and they didn’t have time to waste.

  “Come with me,” she told Robo as she jogged back toward the cave where the others were taking shelter.

  Mattie spoke to Garrett. “Do you think it’s safe to take a few minutes to dig in one spot?”

  His face showed his concern. “I don’t know, Mattie. This is a full-on blizzard. We need to get down to a lower elevation before we’re forced to hunker down in this cave for shelter.”

  They hadn’t brought camping gear, and that was the last thing she wanted. “Ten minutes, no more. I just want to see if there’s anything close to the surface. We can come back after the storm if it warrants further investigation.”

  Garrett hurried to get the shovel. After Mattie led the way to the spot, he bent his back into the work and within no time had dug a hole about two feet square and a foot deep.

  Mattie noticed a certain amount of looseness in the soil. “Does it feel like there’s been recent digging?”

  “I think so.” Garrett dug down another six inches. “How deep do you want me to go?”

  “That’s deep enough.” She pulled her orange stocking cap down over her ears as snowflakes spattered her face. “We need to move out.”

  “But something could be buried here,” Hauck said, evidently not wanting to quit.

  “I don’t know. Robo didn’t actually hit on it—he just seemed interested. We’ll come back after the storm passes when we have reinforcements. It’s not worth taking a risk by staying here longer.”

  Hauck frowned. “Won’t this area get buried in snow?”

  “Can’t really say. This is the first snowfall of the season, and the forecast is for sunshine by tomorrow.” Mattie looked at Garrett. “Thanks for digging.”

  “No problem.”

  The horses were eager to head downhill. Wind blasted the snowfall in sideways, so thick it reduced their field of vision to mere feet. The trail di
sappeared rapidly under a blanket of white, but Mattie knew from experience that Mountaineer would stick to the trail no matter what the conditions.

  “Do you want Mountaineer to take the lead?” she shouted forward to Garrett, the wind carrying her voice.

  He turned in his saddle to shout back at her. “We’ll be all right.”

  She shivered and hunched deeper into her coat. When they reached the living forest, it was like escaping the fury of hell. Pine and spruce grew thick enough to break the cruel wind and catch some of the snow. The trail wound downward through boulders that also provided brief respite from the storm as their short string of riders plodded past. Mattie kept her eyes on Garrett’s back, hoping the lower altitude would give them a break.

  But even when they reached the midway point where the trail divided, snow continued to fall. Garrett turned to her again. “I know you wanted to stop here to search, but I think we’d better keep moving.”

  “Agreed. Let’s go down and search the area by the trailhead.” Mattie turned to Hauck. “You doing okay back there?”

  He replied by waving her forward with a gloved hand, although she didn’t miss the way he’d set his jaw, as if preventing his teeth from chattering. A crust of ice clung to his eyebrows. She needed to bear in mind that the older man was used to a much warmer climate and might actually be done for the day, ready for a warm heater in the car and his motel room where a hot shower awaited.

  Another half hour in the saddle and the snowfall finally lightened; fifteen minutes later and the wind drove merely a smattering of flakes at their backs. The trail was wet but clear of accumulated snow. Mattie breathed easier, stealing another glance at Hauck as Mountaineer navigated a switchback in the trail. The detective looked better, not quite so grim. “We’re almost down,” she said to him, and he nodded.

  As they reached the lower altitude, they rode through groves of aspens, their golden leaves dancing in the wind, and then cottonwoods and willows, whose fallen leaves scattered across the trail. “Hold up a minute, Garrett,” Mattie called out. And when he stopped, “This is the area where the X is on the map, isn’t it?”

  “Maybe the top boundary,” Garrett said. “I’d say that X covered from about here on down.”

  Mattie dismounted and bent to pet Robo. “I’m going the rest of the way on foot so Robo can search.”

  Garrett turned his mount to use the slope to his advantage, stepping down from the saddle on the uphill side. He took Mountaineer’s reins so Mattie could get Robo’s equipment from her pack. Hauck dismounted as well, subtly stretching his legs.

  Stiff from the unfamiliar horseback riding, Mattie knew exactly how he felt. “Are you game for more searching, or do you want to ride on down and warm up in the Explorer?”

  Hauck stamped his feet. His boots looked warm and rugged, but his feet and legs were evidently as chilled as hers. “I’m game. Just need to move around a little.”

  Though the detective was out of his element, Mattie admired his ability to hang tough. She nodded before turning away.

  “We’ll stick to the trail but try to keep you in sight,” Garrett said.

  “I’ll search the hillside the best I can on the right side. There’ll be some places too rugged for me to follow Robo into, but we’ll keep coming back to the trail.” She unzipped the top part of her coat and pulled out her cell phone. “Let’s see if we have a cell phone signal here.”

  Garrett checked his phone. “I do.”

  “Me too. If I don’t see you when I come back to the trail, I’ll call.” She thought of something else. “Would you call the station and let dispatch know we’re safely out of the high country? Tell Rainbow we’ll search the base of the trail before we come back to the station.”

  “Will do.”

  After taking time to give Robo his water, she slipped on his evidence detection collar, patted him down, and chatted him up. When he was ready to go, she cast him out into the forest. It felt good to be back on the ground and moving again.

  Watching for loose stones, bushes, and roots, she ran behind Robo, keeping one eye on his body language. Though wet snowflakes continued to spatter her face, melting as soon as they hit, the rugged terrain had her heart pumping within minutes and her body warmed. Robo disappeared into ravines, behind huge boulders, and down into dry creek beds too filled with brush for Mattie to enter, but he always popped back into sight and kept moving. If he found something, he would sit and wait for her, so she let him search on his own.

  With Robo out in front, she followed him down a path obviously made by humans, which led to an empty campsite by a small stream. Robo took a moment to explore the stone fire ring filled with cold ash, passed it by, and trotted on down toward the water before disappearing within the tall grasses. When he didn’t come back, Mattie hurried to find him.

  He was sitting beside a bag of trash. For Pete’s sake, whatever happened to pack out what you bring in? But when she drew near, she could smell the stench of rotting meat. Or was it flesh?

  After replacing her gloves with a pair made of latex, she opened the bag cautiously, peering into it. As the odor intensified, she discovered a partial chicken carcass amid other discarded food and paper trash. Relieved, she closed the bag and placed it out on the trail, rewarded Robo with praise and a hug, and sent him on his way. She called Garrett to tell him where she’d left the bag and asked if he would ride by and pick it up for them to take down to the dumpster. She continued to search as the snowflakes thickened.

  She was jogging back toward the trail behind Robo when her cell phone jingled. She paused, fishing it out of her pocket as she called Robo back. It was Sheriff McCoy.

  “Got your message that you’re at a lower altitude,” McCoy said, an edge to his voice. “Where are you now?”

  “Almost down to the trailhead. So far we’ve found nothing but trash down here.”

  “I need you to head to the campground between the Redstone and Balderhouse trailheads. How long would it take for you to get there?” McCoy definitely sounded grim.

  “I can get there within fifteen minutes.”

  “Good. Detective LoSasso and Deputy Brody are already on their way. Some hunters there have found a body.”

  TEN

  No matter how many times Mattie had been called with news of a dead body this past year, the words still opened a pit in her stomach. Garrett and Hauck were equally alarmed, and Garrett led them down the hill in record time.

  Trotting her horse, Mattie followed Garrett toward his truck and trailer, where she could dismount. “Could you take Detective Hauck back to the station so he can get his car?” she asked.

  “Sure. But will you need me to bring the horses to the campground?”

  “I don’t think so, but check in with Sheriff McCoy.”

  Hauck reined up and dismounted. “Why don’t I go with you? Maybe I can help.”

  Mattie didn’t think that was a good idea. This was Stella’s crime scene, and she didn’t want to step on her toes by bringing another detective uninvited. “I’ll mention your offer to Detective LoSasso and let her make the call.”

  Hauck gave her that squinting stare of his that made her feel he was taking her measure. “All right.”

  Mattie realized she was now in the same position as that of Shanice Donahue and Detective Russo. She turned away and plucked at the knots in the leather ties that held her saddlebag and pack in place. She would secure Robo’s find inside her unit under double locks and either take it to the station herself later or send it with another officer.

  She shrugged on her pack and lifted off the saddlebag. “Go to your motel to warm up. If Detective LoSasso wants to bring you on board, she’ll call and you can drive to the campground. It’s just off the highway, so you won’t need four-wheel drive.”

  “Okay. In the meantime, I’ll check in with Russo and see what he’ll tell me about Cobb’s autopsy.” Hauck moved toward the back of the trailer to load his horse.

  “Sounds good,” she
said as he walked away.

  Robo trotted over to the Explorer and stood at the rear hatch. Looked like he was ready to go home—little did he know that more work awaited. She thanked Garrett for his help and carried the saddlebag to her unit, where she stored it in her evidence locker. Robo hopped up into his compartment and checked his empty water bowl, which she promptly filled for him.

  She fired up the engine and turned toward the highway. It would take only five minutes to reach the campground, not even long enough to warm up the car for Robo. But he had a thick coat and was already digging at a spot to lie down in on his cushion in the back. He would probably nap while she assessed the situation.

  As she drove, the windshield wipers swiped away snowflakes that had turned to sleet, their rhythmic thump mesmerizing. She hardened herself against the images she knew she was about to face. Though she knew nothing specific about this scene, death investigations were tough, no matter the circumstances.

  By dusk, the temperature would plummet and ice and snow would coat the asphalt. They needed to figure out what they could about this death and send the corpse to the medical examiner as quickly as possible.

  Up ahead, two sets of flashing lights marked the parking lot that was her destination. As she approached, she could tell the lights came from Brody’s and Johnson’s cruisers, Johnson being the other deputy on duty today.

  She tapped the brake before turning into the paved lot, and her unit’s heavy-duty tires responded with good traction. Beyond the flashing lights, she spotted Johnson, tall and lean with his orange stocking cap visible above the crowd. He was inside a covered picnic shelter surrounded by about twenty campers who’d evidently come out of their tents and RVs to watch the show.

  “Good grief,” she muttered under her breath. “At least Johnson’s here to deal with that.”

  Robo popped up in her rearview mirror as soon as she parked her vehicle.

  “You’re going to stay here,” she told him, to which he responded by yawning and plopping down to sit. She climbed out of her unit, locking the doors as she turned to leave.