- Hard Fall Page 5
Close as I was, a good twenty feet, I could smell the blood, although there was a lot less than most people might suspect.
Without a puncture into the body cavity, from something like a limb or rock, people who fell didn't bleed much. Her clothing seemed reasonable for someone who'd been out in the mountain morning: fleece pullover, knee-length 51
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mountaineering pants and hiking boots with heavy socks. The strap for a light, day-type pack was tangled about one arm.
In climber time, it didn't take Kabe long at all to reach me.
We hung side-by-side for a bit as he clipped in to my anchors.
For a guy who normally liked to cheat death in the you-fall-you-die game of free solo, he was meticulous during a trad climb.
"So." Kabe looked over as he locked in a crab and smiled.
Lord, there it went again, that soul-shattering grin. There weren't nowhere to run to this time. I hung there and basked in the glow of it. Without acknowledging my slack-jawed state, he continued his thought, and eased into my side. "I'll hang here, rig the rescue pulley. You rap down, do what you need to."
Somehow I managed to dredge up a coherent response.
"Sounds good." It took me a bit to realize how near Kabe was. Actually, I knew without even knowing how close Kabe was ... it took a good chunk longer to realize that it wasn't an accident. "What in tarnation are you doing?"
Sharing someone's protection on a face didn't usually mean sharing their up close and personal space. Although my definition of personal space took a long walk around the mountain when I climbed and didn't relate to nothing I might think when my feet were planted on the ground. Still, he was nearer than he really needed to be. So near I could taste the salt on his skin as he reached across and clipped into the pro right above my shoulder.
Growling out, "I think you're secure enough to set your own protection," I moved over the only inch I could get.
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"What, bother you?" Likely, Kabe decided it was a good time to razz me, since there weren't a darn thing I could do about it. He teased, his leg sliding against mine. If he didn't watch it our ropes would get all good and tangled. "I'm good, can hang out here all day."
The scent of sweat mixed with chalk and flowed down my spine. "I can't." I'da moved off even more if'n there was any place to move off to. Strung like a pig out for slaughter, I had nowhere to run.
"Your arms going to get tired?" Somehow he managed to reach between me and the rock, so that his shoulder was under my pit. It pitched his crotch against the back of my thigh. Boy had a hard-on to rival Kilimanjaro. He swayed a bit on the rope, like he was having trouble finding a place for a
'biner. It rubbed him in all the right places. "Can't hold it up?"
The bucketfuls of load he put on it let me know it weren't my arms he was joshing 'bout.
What I wanted to do was push back, feel that thick piece of meat against my skin. "I think you need to stop screwing around."
"Hey, you know," that lean brown arm, roped with muscle, brushed against my chest, "where else can you hang out half-naked and in bondage gear with another guy and nobody says anything?" He bumped my hip, messing around here
'cause he thought I couldn't say nothing. "Slide your hand up a greasy crack and hang out for a while."
Dangerous play for him. He likely figured he could get away with it up here, maybe he'd gotten away with it before.
Mess with some guy's head, one you figured you'd never 53
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partner with again, and then when you hit the ground nobody says nothing. 'Cause if the guy he'd been diggin' on said word one, then everybody knew he noticed. Most guys didn't have the stones to admit they noticed.
I ain't most guys. "You need to just stop."
"Stop what?" Closer, I don't know how the heck he managed closer, Kabe darn near stretched spread eagle on the face. It put his knee up under my butt. A suicidal game of Twister hundreds of feet up in the air. "I'm not doing anything, but hanging 'round and setting pro."
"I don't cotton to taking a free solo rappel down this cliff."
"Oh, the big, bad sheriff is scared."
That's when the bear in me came out—and not like those internet picture types of furry chests needing to shed the winter pounds.... more the grizzly that eats crazy climbers for lunch species. I really, really didn't like being hung up on a face with a guy who decided to get all friendly right then and there. "Look, boy," I used my finger grip in a crack to draw me hard against the wall, sandwiching Kabe's arm, shoulder and part of his chest between my muscle and the mountain,
"wrap your darn fool head around this." I can move fast when I want to. I dropped the hold with my toes, swung a bit and managed around and behind him. Now it was my knee in his ass. And all of me pressed him into the unyielding rock. Kabe barely managed out a grunt. "I'm bigger, I'm stronger and I know as much about being on the mountain as you do. If'n nothing else penetrates that skull of yours, get this one thing straight. I'm in charge and we do this my way." Thank the Lord we were both clipped in ... it might just keep us from 54
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being killed while we established who was boss. I intended to come out on top of this pissing match.
He tried to push back. Boy could tease, but seemed to find it hard to take what he dished out. "I can handle myself fine out here." A little edge of panic crept under his voice. Damn good, everyone needed to keep a little fear of God in their heart on a wall. "I don't need you telling me what to do."
My mouth right up against his ear, my body pressing him up against the wall, oh Lord, I was hard. I shouldn't have been. But my prick seemed to think different. As much as I couldn't ignore it, sure that Kabe couldn't either ... seeing as I'd settled right into the crack of his ass. "Don't be stupid," I hissed, my breath moving the hair at the nape of his neck,
"one person's died today. Don't want another on my hands.
This isn't just about you and the mountain. It's about you and the mountain and me and doing a job ... big picture."
"Fuck off!" He writhed. Oh, man, that felt good, his grinding that taut ass against my prick.
I savored it. "My way." Then I humped a little. Not like there was anyone around to see what we were up to. "We're going to finish this pull and you're not gonna mess no more. I don't cotton to horsing around on a climb. Don't care how hot you think you are, you play it my way, or I'll pull all the pro you've set and drop your butt."
Kabe drew in a ragged breath and stilled. It must have penetrated I was serious ... and into guys just as much as he was. As that was settled, I growled out, since the growls seemed to get his attention and keep it focused on me, "And another rule. You don't mess with me 'round nobody else." If 55
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my mouth were any closer I'd be eating his ear ... sounded darn good right then. "You do that and you'll wish you hadn't lived through the consequences." What the hey? Taking the moment, I licked up his neck. Kabe shuddered. "So what do you have to say?"
He swallowed and turned his head a bit. I could feel his Adam's apple bobbing against my cheek. "Okay."
"Okay, what?" I whispered it this time. Just enough to be heard over the wind.
"Okay, Joe." A little fear smelled so good on his skin. "We do it your way."
"Good boy." I eased off so he could scuttle out from under me. "You learn up quick."
Eyes wide, he stared at me. Kabe had a whole 'nother war of emotions going on in those hazel eyes. I grinned back. I wondered if he looked that good when he got balled. I almost wished I could find out right then and there. He had to see that predatory, hungry look in my eyes. Kabe reached out and just touched my arm, almost like he was asking for permission. I didn't shrug it off or nothing, just smiled wider and got a bit of
wonder in return.
Then we hit that uneasy moment where a lot of water's gone under the bridge and you don't know exactly how to respond. It only takes a second of letting your mind drift before reality hits and a climber realizes he's still on an exposed face. For me it was the gust of wind that snapped a bit of webbing against my cheek. Everything hit me hard, and I could feel the shame rising in the back of my neck. The little 56
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bit of suspended reality was gone and I had to chew on how I'd just hit on him.
Not willing to look like a complete doofus, I set the rope for the next pitch. "I'll be back." I gave the phrase the over-inflected tone of a camp movie line.
Kabe snorted, seeming far more at ease with what went down than I ever could be. "Okay, honey," he drawled out with a tease of his own, "get milk while you're out."
As I began my decent, I growled out, "Brat." The next twenty feet passed pretty quick. After setting my anchors, I locked myself in, this time leaving enough play I could move around the tiny scene, but in case I slipped, I'd only suffer a wounding of my pride. I fished my little digital camera out of a pocket on my pack. Rickland snapped some full scene picks on his fly by. Now I needed up close and personal. Trying for a few more close ups, I had to hang off the lip of the ledge and edge around. Hopefully, enough would come out clear and not have my ropes, hands or feet in them obstructing the body so that it would be a pretty accurate photo reconstruction.
Something wasn't right about the scene at all and I couldn't place what. It gnawed at me as I moved and snapped pictures. Finally, I got to the point where I couldn't do much more while keeping myself from becoming a secondary casualty. I needed another set of hands. "Kabe!" I looked up to where he was putting the finishing touches on the pulley set up: a Z arrangement of four pulleys that would allow me to haul Anya's body up without killing my back.
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"Wanna come down and give me a hand?" I pocketed my camera as I yelled.
He glanced over his shoulder and grunted, "No, not really, but I will."
I pulled a set of surgical gloves out of another of the many pockets on my pack, removed my climbing gloves, and snapped the vinyl onto my hands. I wouldn't be adjusting my ropes until I took 'em off. Modern health precautions and climbing didn't partner up too well. I took that bit of time to look close at the body. I'd done the big scene picture, now I need to know the small details her death could tell me.
Rigor hardened Anya's face and the small muscles of her hands. I reached out and took a hold of one arm. Not easy by a long shot, but I could move the arm out. Six or so hours maybe since death, I estimated by the stiffness in her joints.
'Course I wasn't a doctor, much less a coroner; I'd just been on enough body pulls to have an idea.
Her position bugged me. Anya looked like a rag doll, not uncommon in a fall. I guess where she landed messed with my mind. Wasn't a straight drop. Looking up over what must have been her path, scree fell, some, what I guess might be blood here and there, but no rakes down the side of the hill.
Then I turned back to the arm I still held. I studied the hand: pretty pristine ... at least for someone who'd been out camping. Others I'd recovered, they'd ripped their fingers to the bone to stay latched on to the rock trying not to fall. 'Less she'd gone off backwards, which could have happened walking backwards and stepping off, there weren't any signs I could see of someone trying not to fall.
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And that just didn't seem natural at all.
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Chapter Four
Somehow Kabe and I managed to slide Anya into the white cocoon of a disposable body bag and not become casualties ourselves. Then the orange and black bundle of the Reeves Sleeve wrapped her corpse onto the frame of the backboard.
Likely, we'd lost some trace evidence, but that couldn't be helped much. Once we tied her off and slid her over the edge where she dangled like a modern day cliff mummy, I collected the odd bits off the shelf. Anything that might possibly be useful or lead to something useful or just seemed darn strange, I gathered into little baggies. Those I stuffed in the pocket of the Reeves where the hoist cables normally went.
Hauling Anya's body up the wall was a grueling round of climb, set anchors, clip in and pull Anya with the pulleys. And while the system kept the force of her weight from being as heavy as it really was, shoving my fingers in a crack to hold two on the face while I crammed a cam didn't make for easy.
My rest came in short breaks while I waited for Kabe to come up so we could do it again. The sun pounded my back, even at this elevation. Sweat poured down my skin and pooled in the areas where my harness held my clothes to my body.
Sticky, sweaty and dirty made up my life for a few hours.
Once we brought Anya out, Nadia went off to corral another set of hands while I switched boots and shouldered back into my uniform shirt. Every second I moved I felt Kabe's eyes on me. Well, I reasoned, it was either look at me or Anya ... and she weren't exactly lively. He chose a fallen 60
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log, just at the edge of my sight line, to rest his back against.
If I paid attention—how could I not pay attention to Kabe—I could catch him out of the corner of my eye, sitting there, staring at me. I drew out the dressing, knowing I'm s'posed to be all Mormon modest, knowing I'm not s'posed to like guys and not really caring about either right then.
Kabe clambered to his feet, in that stiff-sore manner of somebody who's pushed their muscles a tad more than he should have. He grabbed my hat where I'd left it hooked on a branch and made a big show of dusting it off as he walked over. The way he played with my Stetson, blowing dust off the brim, there was no question in my mind he used it as a stand in for certain parts of my body. And I knew that slight sway ... not feminine by no count, but enough to say I got it and I know you want it. Without saying nothing, Kabe held out my hat and kept hold of it when I latched on. His forest-colored eyes, all browns and greens and golds, drifted slowly from my hand up my arm to lock on my own. He held the look a mite and then a slow grin, all full of promises, turned up the corners of his full lips. Oh Lord, I was being hunted and I wanted to be caught. Just the two of us alone on the mountain. It might have been almost ideal, a touch romantic if I were the sentimental sort, 'cept for the body lying a few feet away.
And I guess, 'cause I didn't let go or do nothing but stare back and chew my bottom lip, that then he really knew.
Maybe not all of it, but enough to figure I could be willing. Off in the tree line I heard the crashing and cursing of Ramon and then Nadia's voice answering him. I didn't look though. I 61
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was all wrapped up in Kabe. He had to know he had me then.
His grin spread wider and he slowly took his fingers off the brim. By the time the others broke into sight of us, we were just two guys standing, maybe just having finished a jaw.
Kabe pulling out his water bottle and me settling my hat on my head. 'Cept if you looked close. I'd sprouted enough wood to put a ponderosa pine to shame.
Nobody talked much beyond what we needed to get done what we had to. Even Ramon stopped his whining. Nadia left Fred to watch Gunter and help him break down his camp and told them to meet us at the vehicles. A little bit of arranging, Kabe and I with the heavy load at the head, the four of us packed Anya out to the truck. Body hauls were as somber as funerals. I felt like making conversation somehow disrespected the dead. Still, life goes on, and every other minute either I or Kabe stole a glance at each other. Don't know if anyone else noted, but I felt it on my skin each and every time.
Fred caught sight of us before I did him ... could tell by the, "Need a ha
nd?" He yelled out.
"That's mighty nice of you," I teased, finding him through a break in the trees, "since you only got the one to offer."
He bounded up the trail to meet us. "Payback, Joe, payback," was all he got out. Then the weight of what we carried settled onto him and he fell quiet.
Most all the gear and the bikes had already been loaded into the back of the NPS pickup. We shoved stuff to the side, making room to lay the body down. Gunter sat in the cab of the truck, staring straight ahead. He kept glancing at his 62
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watch and picking at the window frame of the passenger door. Never once offered to help or nothing. And all of that seemed a mite strange to me.
Nadia and Fred sandwiched Gunter between them for the ride out. I let Kabe take shotgun in Ramon's truck so I could more or less stretch out in the back seat. I remembered about the first mile and a half before exhaustion folded me into a restless blanket of sleep. The last thing I recollect seeing before my eyes drifted shut was Kabe's self-satisfied little smile.
A fist pounding my ankle brought me out of my comatose state. I blinked and Nadia, leaning through the open door of Ramon's four-wheel drive, came into focus. "Hey, Sugar," she drawled, "we're going to split up now. Fred and I will meet the ambulance at the ranger station in Bryce, they're going to take the body to the hospital in Panguitch. Noreen of your office called 'em up for us. We'll transfer the body into the care of the coroner's office there. Ramon's going to take Gunter back to their original campsite. We've told him to stick around for a while. He's camped in NPS territory so I'm going to have my guys keep an eye on him for y'all. Start passing my favors around early."
"Okay," I managed to mumble through a yawn. "I'll ring you tomorrow and we can compare notes of what we got."
Dirty and disheveled I clambered out of the back seat. Nadia moved so I could get by, then slammed the door. "Where's my gear?"
"I stashed it on the Harding's porch." A jerk of her chin indicated the ranch house.
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