Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 126823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
She helped pack supplies in the SUV Avita and Pablo were driving up to the base camp. Rainier stood with one arm around her, making it easier as she hugged them both goodbye. Shabina had a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach that their brother was gone. She could see the despair on their faces. They both felt the same way. The fact that Rainier shook hands and assured them that the café’s staff would do whatever they could to help, rather than offer platitudes of hope, convinced her that he had that same bad feeling in his gut as well. Even Vaughn looked grim.
“This is a bad situation,” Tyrone said. “They have to catch this guy.”
“They will,” Rainier said. He did sound confident about that. “Let’s get back to work. All of you have been amazing. I can see why Shabina has nothing but good things to say about you.”
“After we close, I still have to interview a couple of potential waiters and waitresses,” Shabina reminded. “And the cleaning crew is coming in late tonight.”
“Whatever you do, Shabina,” Patsy said, “don’t do your bleeding-heart thing.”
“I’m not like that.”
“Yes, you are,” Vaughn, Tyrone and Patsy said simultaneously.
Rainier nuzzled the top of her head with his chin. “She is,” he agreed.
Chapter Thirteen
Lucca Delgotto’s body was discovered two days later. Vienna had found tracks that appeared as if he’d gone off trail to check on something he might have seen or heard, and he was struck and went down. There was dried blood in the grass and leaves and a jagged rock with dark stains on it. She surmised that he’d been killed or knocked unconscious in that spot and then dragged away from the location.
The terrain was steep and wild, very difficult to negotiate. Sean and Vienna unraveled the tracks over the next day, following the very faint trail. Whoever was committing the murders had attempted to cover their tracks, leaving only a few bruised and twisted leaves despite carrying or dragging the deadweight of a fully grown man.
Lucca’s body had been laid out in his bloodstained clothes, a makeshift altar built on a flat rock just to the right of his head. Feathers, candles, sticks, flowers and gourds of water were on the altar in a precise pattern. A few inches of vegetation around his body had been cleared away, leaving the ground bare. The body was covered in insects, but no predator had gotten to it.
Forensics took over the crime scene, leaving Search and Rescue to continue looking for Charlie Gainer, the missing member of the trail rehabilitation crew. Vienna insisted that her search crews stay close together, that no member was to go off on their own, even for a brief moment.
A pall hung over the café when the news came in. Lucca had been well-liked in Knightly. His family had lived there for years. Even when they brought the body down the mountain to the medical examiner, it wasn’t released to the family. And Charlie Gainer was still missing.
Shabina and others brought food to the family. There was little else they could do. There is no comfort when experiencing a loss as grave as the Delgotto family had, especially in such a violent and senseless way. Many of Lucca’s friends gathered at the Grill in the evening just to try to support each other.
The café and the Grill sent food to the base camp for the Search and Rescue volunteers. Three days after Lucca’s body was discovered, Charlie’s body was found by Sean and Vienna. Along with their five-man search team, they had laid out a grid that included the overgrown, closed trail that was no longer visible leading to the burnt section of trees where the California condors were nesting.
The park had shut down the trail several years after the fire had occurred. As soon as Shabina had discovered the nest, the park had completely closed off the section to all hikers and tourists with posted signs and gates blocking off anything that appeared to be a semblance of a trail. There were warning signs up everywhere to stay away.
Vienna and Sean had searched the section staying in constant touch with the other three members of their team, who were searching another trail. Sean pointed out Shabina’s tracks multiple times. She left very little evidence of her passing, but they could see it occasionally. Once they found a paw print from one of her dogs that had dried in mud.
Sean was the one who discovered the dried blood several yards to the left of the trail. Vienna surmised that Charlie had somehow learned of the condor nest and decided to try to find it. He must have run right into the murderer, or the murderer had stalked him. They found the rock that had been used to kill him. He’d been hit several times with it, crushing his skull. Whoever hit him had stood in wait for him and used a good deal of strength when they swung the rock. Charlie had been facing away from his assailant when he’d been struck.