"Your party."
Because that was true enough she made no comment. She took a few moments to finish drinking, and then found a private place nearby to relieve herself. When she returned Sharper was exactly where she"d left him, and there was no surprise in that either. He"d exchanged his shirt for a long-sleeve one and had replaced his ball cap with a collapsible hard hat. She reached into her bag and withdrew a similar one, the kind recommended for spelunkers with a battery-operated light on the front. She"d rammed her head on stones jutting down from the roofs of caves often enough to not need a reminder to use one. The binoculars went into the pack. She didn"t need them swinging and hitting the rocks as she climbed, or worse, catching on something and strangling her.
Then she packed her bag up and shrugged into it again. Without a word, she strode toward the face of Castle Rock. She heard Sharper"s voice behind her.
"Best way up is to start over here to the right of the opening. Then when you"re about two hundred feet away start making your way over."
Cait forged ahead. Minutes later, a hundred feet in the air, she was ready to admit that Sharper and Andrews had been right. Oh, it was hardly an effort worthy of hard-core climbing enthusiasts. But it was more of a workout than the rock-climbing wall at the gym she frequented. She found herself glad she had as much experience as she did in the wilderness.
She was even happier to see no snakes on the way up.
The sun was warm after the relative coolness of the forest, and the pack made for an extra layer of insulation. She was sweating before she was half way. If not for Sharper"s infrequent commands behind her, it would feel like woman against nature. An exhilarating, isolating process.
She began moving toward the left to the cave opening, and the way got a bit trickier. One toehold gave beneath her foot, and her fingers scrabbled, gripping fiercely while her feet swung for a moment, unsupported. In the next moment she found another jutting rock to push off from and regained her stability. And continued climbing despite the fanged hollowness in her stomach.
"You want me to follow you in."
Sharper"s words were more statement than question as she hauled herself up on the narrow ledge before the yawning darkness of the cave. Cait reached up to flip on the light of her hard hat. She took a moment to slip out of her pack and withdraw a flashlight before shrugging it back into place. "Be easier," she called over her shoulder belatedly. "Just make sure I don"t miss the turn off."
With that she plunged inside. Although she started off crawling she quickly had to drop to her stomach as the ceiling of the cave pinched in. Cait wasn"t claustrophobic, but there was nothing as absolute, as impenetrable as the darkness in a cave. The slight sunlight from the opening behind her was lost once she rounded the first bend. And she was fervently glad for both lights she had. The one on her hard hat offered glimpses of where the ceiling dipped and curved. The flashlight in her hand shone on the surface she was currently flattened against. Lit up fingers of rock jutting out from the side that could catch and snag at her clothing or pack. Spotlighted the spiders and cave crickets skittering along on the walls beside her.
It felt more like a tunnel than a cave, but there was plenty of room for her to move as long as she remained on her belly. She had a feeling Sharper wasn"t faring as well. An occasional muttered curse drifted forward to her ears. The width of his shoulders would make this a tight fit. She could see why he"d shed his pack at the entrance.
The stone beneath her, to the sides of her were cool but dry. Not smooth by any means, but not so ragged that she"d have to worry about bruises and lacerations when she finished. But she was still thankful when, twenty or so feet inside, she saw the yawning opening to her right.
"Is this the branch to the chamber up ahead?"
Her voice rang in the cave rather than echoed. As did Sharper"s answer.
"To your right. You"ll be able to crouch the rest of the way to the opening. For G.o.dsakes, don"t fall in when you reach it."
Cait made the jog and rose to her haunches thankfully when the branch of the cave widened significantly. It was about three feet across now, and four and a half feet high. Even with the lights she carried, she moved carefully, unsure where the drop off would occur. And imagined, as she made her way in the near darkness, the offender following this same path.
He"d have carried the bag on his back for the climb, maybe rigged in a harness of some type. But once in the tunnel he would have had to drag it, she thought, as she crept forward. There was no other way a normal-sized male would fit hauling a bag that big.
Although she couldn"t discount the possibility that the perp was a female.
The beam of her flashlight caught the yawning blackness ahead, and she slowed, inching forward now. She could hear Sharper behind her. "The chamber is coming up. Be careful. I"m going to be mighty p.i.s.sed off if you fall in and break a leg."
The thought of having to depend on Sharper to rescue her elicited a burst of renewed caution. Cait stretched out on her belly again, sweeping the darkness ahead with the beam of her flashlight as she crawled.
There was little to herald the fact that the floor of the cave was about to give way. Just a few rocks jutting up from the floor, then nothing. There was a quiver in her stomach when her free hand met that emptiness ahead of her. She moved back a few cautionary inches before turning the beams of both lights downward. Wonder filled her.
The chamber was approximately seven feet down, eleven feet by nine feet in diameter. Cait played her lights over the area. The walls were mostly smooth, with occasional rougher patches jutting out that would serve as toe and finger holds. But once down it would be chancy climbing out without someone waiting above with a rope.
She drew back on her haunches and shrugged out of her backpack. Another light speared the darkness. Sharper had made the turn into the branch.
"What are you doing?"
Turning off her flashlight, she slipped it back into the pack. "I"m going in. Position yourself so you can shine your lights down into the chamber to give me more illumination."
"What"s the point?" His voice might be pitched low, but it was easy enough to hear the impatience lacing it. "You wanted to see where I found the bones, you can see it from up here. The police were all over the area. You aren"t likely to find anything they missed."
"I need to go down myself." She didn"t expect him to understand. But this cave was the closest link they had to the UNSUB other than the bones themselves. Given the nature of Cait"s job, she was almost never called first to the preliminary crime scene, even a secondary scene such as this one. She always insisted on visiting the scene in person. It was the best way to get a feel for a case.
She turned, preparing to scale down the wall into the chamber.
"Jesus. Wait a minute." A couple seconds pa.s.sed, then Sharper loomed before her. "You"ll want to keep your hands on those stones sticking up right here. See?"
She nodded. She"d already noted the handholds.
"Once you"re over the edge, you can reach to the right and find another hand hold. Move your left hand to this stone here." He leaned forward, his figure shadowy in the near darkness as he pointed. "If you angle your body that way, you"ll find a couple footholds on the way down."
"You went down there?" She knew he had. It was in the report. But she wanted to hear his explanation for herself.
"Why else would I have called the cops in?" His tone might have sounded reasonable without that note of insolence in it. "Couldn"t see what the h.e.l.l was down there for sure, other than some trash bags. If it"d been garbage, I"d have figured a way to haul it out. It would have made for a pretty impressive cave to show the client I was planning for. But I doubted it was garbage."
She nodded her understanding. No one would make this climb to dump some illicit litter.
"Figured it was a burglary stash or drugs." The dim light offered from their hard hats left his face shadowed, turning it to all lean angles and hard edges. "We"ve got our share of both problems in the area. But once I got down there, I saw a few bones scattered around the area. Knew I"d stumbled onto something far different."
For the first time she really considered what it"d been like for him to be standing down there in that deep dark hole. Surrounded by bags filled with bones. "Had to be pretty creepy."
There was a note of finality in his voice. "I"ve seen worse."
Because it was obvious he wasn"t going to say more, Cait turned her attention to the climb down. "I"m going in." She positioned her hands as he"d told her and began to lower her body over the edge.
Her feet scrabbled for purchase on the rippled stone wall. It was another moment before she thought to reposition her hands the way he"d suggested and search for the other handhold. Once she did, she managed a descent that was something short of dignified. When her hold loosened she ended up letting go and jumping the last two feet to the bottom of the chamber.
"Okay?"
The word was more grudging than concerned. "I"m fine." The light Sharper was shining downward spotlighted her, shoved at the darkness in the s.p.a.ce. She took the time to get her flashlight out of her bag again and shone it around the s.p.a.ce slowly.
The scientist in her was enthralled by the thought of the physical forces that had carved out this area. She didn"t know enough about the locale yet to guess whether glaciers, water, or lava had had a hand in its formation.
The cop in her was struck by the perfection of the hiding place. It was as if nature had hollowed out a tomb, waiting for the occupants that had been hauled out of it days earlier.
The air was cool, although not uncomfortably so. She slipped out of her pack, dug around in it for the thermometer. Sixty-one point two degrees. The coolness would have slowed decomposition if the bodies had been dumped here in their entirety. But after making that climb up the side of Castle Rock, it was easy to see why only the skeletal remains had been left.
The walls were smooth in spots, rippled in others. The floor of the area was slightly sandy over the stone. Although Cait played her light carefully around, she saw no other exits from the chamber. Nothing more than a long crack in the stone on one side, about an inch across, which may have been the source of the slight dampness edging that wall.
She also, despite a careful examination of the area, didn"t find anything the recovery team had left behind. The knowledge had her feeling slightly more comfortable with Andrews"s department. It was always good knowing the evidence she"d be drawing her conclusions from had been gathered through competent police work.
Replacing the thermometer in her pack, she dug inside for some plastic evidence bags and a small pocketknife. She used both to get sc.r.a.pings from the wall and the floor. After carefully labeling the bags, she stowed everything back in her pack. If there were residue of some sort found on the bones, it would help to have the sc.r.a.pings for elimination samples.
She found herself anxious to get back to the morgue, where Kristy would have set up the equipment in their temporary lab. Cait wanted to do a more thorough examination of the bags the bones were kept in. She already knew there had been no teeth discovered inside any of them. That would suggest the skulls had been removed prior to dumping the bones. As the remains aged, the mandible jawbone would have separated from the rest of the skull. The teeth would have loosened.
She was growing more certain that some daring explorer hadn"t happened on the remains and stolen the skulls. They"d never been here to begin with. But if the sawing had occurred down here, she should find minuscule bone fragments in the samples she"d taken from the floor of the cave.
Cait flipped off her flashlight and stowed in into her pack. Shrugged into it. "Toss me a line. I"m coming up."
There were a few moments of silence. Then a rustle as some rappel line snaked over the edge from above. "Give me a minute." The lights Sharper was holding faded, and she was left in the dark bowels of the chamber with only the light on her hard hat slicing through it.
Cait wasn"t easily spooked, but she also wasn"t in the mood to linger in the darkness. When the line snaked down the side of the wall, she grasped the line in both hands and waited for Sharper"s faint shout to begin her ascent. It was a relatively swift climb up and over the lip, which landed her back in the branch off from the original cave.
Releasing the rope, she dug in her pack again for her flashlight and switched it on. Then she crawled to the mouth of branch where Sharper was crouched, waiting. "I want to see how much deeper the original vein goes before heading out."
"I can already tell you that. It dead-ends about twelve feet from here. At least it narrows enough that even you can"t squeeze inside it."
"Then it won"t take me long to see for myself." He seemed to be settling in for a wait, so she crawled by him and got down on her belly again for the trip ahead. It took only a few minutes to discover Sharper was right. The cave nipped in beyond the point that any human could squeeze through. And although there were a couple shadowy outcroppings along the way, there were no other sections to explore.
She had to wiggle backward to return to where the man was waiting, around the bend of the branch off, a task that took a bit of dexterity. As it was, she misjudged her distance and hit something less solid than the wall of the cave.
"s.h.i.t!"
She felt her foot caught, firmly moved.
"I haven"t given up all thought of fathering children, so take it easy, will you, Slim?"
"Sorry." But Cait smirked a bit in the darkness as she cautiously backed into the wider branch of the cave. He deserved at least that after the cracks he"d made prior to their climb. "When we get out I"d like to continue up to the top of Castle Rock. Is that doable from here?"
She could hear his shrug in the low rumble of his voice. "Depends on you. Castle Rock is a popular hiking area for tourists, so there are trails. We can make our way to a ledge that comes down from the top of it. Like I said before, the other side is a switchback through the forest. Not a difficult hike once we get to the top."
"Let"s do it, then."
"That"ll put us about fifteen miles from my vehicle. Maybe you should wait for tomorrow to do the rest of it."
"I can call Barnes and have him pick us up."
"Hope you brought something to eat." He started out into the cave ahead of her, belly crawling toward the entrance. "I only brought one sandwich and I"m not in the mood to share."
"Given your sunny disposition, that"s a real newsflash." She struck out on her stomach behind him. "Don"t worry about me, Sharper. I"ve been taking care of myself for a while now."
But somehow her response lost its intended sting directed as it was to the soles of his boots. There was nothing to do but crawl toward the entrance where sunlight waited.
Chapter 3.
"Breathtaking."
Zach shot a look at the woman by his side. The descriptor could have just as easily been applied to her, but her gaze was on the scenery below them. He took another bite of his sandwich, chewed and swallowed. It was hard to take in the view from the peak of Castle Rock without comment. "That"s the McKenzie River Valley. Those peaks there"-he pointed across the valley-"are the Three Sisters."
"And on the other side of Castle Rock, toward the east, is McKenzie Bridge?"
He nodded, recalling the time she"d spent in the vehicle studying maps. There was more to Caitlin Fleming than the one-dimensional image that had decorated many a soldier"s trunk lid in boot camp. She"d still been modeling then, but that had been over fifteen years ago. He hadn"t given her a thought since, but if he had, he sure wouldn"t have considered her pursuing police work. Or whatever she"d gone into to be working in the capacity of consultant for the Lane County Sheriff"s Department.
But he didn"t ask questions because he didn"t dig into people"s pasts. When he"d come back to the area, he"d just wanted to be left the h.e.l.l alone. That meant offering others the same privacy he expected for himself. Although it didn"t always work that way.
That didn"t mean Zach wasn"t tempted to break his own rule. He finished off the sandwich, chewed reflectively. He found himself unwillingly fascinated. Not in the way he"d been when he"d been a randy teenager and she"d been the hottest teen model to grace a catwalk. He was willing to admit that her earlier comment about him having her poster had a particle of truth in it. But his interest in it had waned about the time he"d discovered pinning a three-dimensional female against the wall was a lot more satisfying than pinning a one-dimensional female to it.
"I gather this area is quite a tourist destination."
Grateful to shift his attention to something else, he lifted a shoulder. "For people who enjoy the outdoors, Oregon has just about everything there is to offer."
Cait was scanning the area around them. "But summer"s the peak season?"
Wondering what she was getting at, he nodded. "We"ve got ski resorts. Lots of people snowmobile, cross-country ski, and snowshoe in the winter. But summer and fall are busiest, yeah."
"And Castle Rock is a local attraction, right?" She didn"t wait for an answer before going on. "Lots of people hike it, Andrews said. Anyone could have stumbled across that cave, at any time."
Dryly, Zach responded, "You may have noticed, it"s not exactly easy to get to. But, sure. It was only a matter of time before someone found what was dumped there. Fact is people were probably in that cave before me. Either they didn"t go far enough inside or didn"t have the equipment to get down in the chamber and check things out."
She seemed to consider that for a few minutes, lost in thought. And he had the distinct impression she"d managed to forget his existence. So he wadded up his sandwich wrapper and stuffed it into a pocket in his bag. Withdrawing his water bottle, he removed his gla.s.ses and squirted some water on the lenses, wiping them clean with the hem of his shirt. Then he took another drink, before glancing back at the woman beside him.
She had her phone out, was punching in a number. But after holding it to her ear for a few moments she flipped it shut and shoved it back inside the pack at her feet. "Barnes isn"t answering, but I"ll keep trying. Worst-case scenario, we"ll start back for the vehicle and he can pick us up on the way."
"You might find him a bit more difficult to manipulate than you"re used to." Zach knew he was being a p.r.i.c.k and couldn"t say why this woman seemed to bring out the worst in him. The reaction annoyed him. It meant she had an effect on him, even if it was a negative one. He didn"t like the thought of that at all.
She froze in the act of bringing her sandwich to her mouth. Her voice went dangerously cool. "Care to explain that remark?"
There was no reason in the world for him to pick up the verbal gauntlet. No reason, really, to be such a d.i.c.k. Yet he heard himself saying, "He"s gay. So he"s not likely to fall for any of the usual ways you probably use to bring guys into line. If he"s busy, we"re likely going to have to wait for hours before he can get to us." He shrugged, shoving the bottle back into his pack, and awaited her reaction. It wasn"t long in coming. It also wasn"t what he expected.
"Well, that"s a disappointment."
Her tone was husky enough to have his throat drying out again. He couldn"t have prevented himself from looking at her on a bet. And once there, his gaze stayed, transfixed.
She took off her sungla.s.ses, the movement slow. Leisurely. He had a moment to observe that her eyes were the same color as the moss covering one side of the rock they sat on before she reached up languidly and pulled the cap from her head. Loosened her hair and shook it back before allowing it to settle into place around that exquisite face.
He knew when he was being taken for a ride. Knew it, and was helpless to look away, even as he had to remind his lungs to go to work. The tip of her tongue slicked over her lips before she parted them, just a little. Her eyes went slumberous and her expression . . .
Her expression was pure s.e.x. The come-on as easy to read as neon against a starless sky. And brutally effective. Even knowing he was being had, Zach felt himself harden on cue. Which royally p.i.s.sed him off.
"Well, my kind is best at seduction, but if that isn"t going to work, I guess I won"t be able to convince Barnes"-she touched the base of her throat in a way guaranteed to draw a man"s gaze-"to do much of anything. Which will be a shame." When her hands dropped to the hem of her T-shirt, his pulse gave a leap like a stallion lurching from the starting gate. She dragged it up over an impossibly slender torso to expose a ribbed tank that clung to curves that had been fashioned by a very benevolent G.o.d. "I guess that means I"ll just have to"-she leaned forward, giving him a tongue-lolling view of cleavage-"ask him nicely and hope that"s enough."
With barely restrained violence, he grabbed for his water bottle again, chugged enough to wash down that boulder-sized knot in his throat. "You do that."
Her voice normal now, she shoved her shirt into her pack, her movements rife with temper. "You are a complete and utter tool, Sharper. It"s hard to believe you could build a business that depends on tourism, given your personality. I can only figure that your employees do an admirable job of covering for the fact that you"re devoid of any redeeming qualities."
He could have told her that he"d once had a few redeeming qualities. But that was before. He wasn"t sure that Zach Sharper existed anymore.
Instead he remained silent, which was what he should have done before eliciting that little scene. She didn"t seem to expect a response. With movements jerky with fury, she was pulling her hair back again, donning the cap and sungla.s.ses.