Murder at Sunrise Lake - Christine Feehan Page 0,92
about this?”
“I still have to bring Shabina and Vienna in. I’m trying to go slow and tell only those who need to know so there’s no chance of tipping off the killer. I have no idea who he is, but even if he doesn’t live and work here, if he’s a temporary, he’s still here. It’s hard to keep one’s facial expressions from showing anything if you know ahead of time it’s murder and not an accident.”
Her greatest fear was that the killer was a local, someone they all knew.
“You have to bring Vienna into the loop. She’s head of Search and Rescue, Stella. She has to know, if she’s called, what she’s facing.”
Stella rubbed her suddenly pounding temples. “And then what? She treats it as a crime scene instead of an accident? What if the killer is watching? What if he’s close enough and that makes her a target? I don’t want him suddenly putting his sights on her.”
“Vienna always treats every accident as a crime scene, you know that. She’s careful. Everyone knows that about her. She’s going to be first on scene if we can’t save these people. She’ll know what to look for. She’ll be able to preserve evidence. We have to trust her.”
“I trust Vienna implicitly,” Stella assured. “She’s always putting herself at risk, Raine. Of anyone, her life is on the line on these rescues. She’s the one hanging off a cliff when some idiot climbs way beyond their level. She goes out in a snowstorm, risking her life, to find a family who should never have gone for a drive in the snow. I know what Vienna is willing to do to keep others safe. She doesn’t keep herself that safe. The minute I tell her what’s going on, she’ll find a way to be on Whitney.”
“I think we’re all going to find a way to be on Whitney,” Raine agreed. “Tell her tomorrow after your dream. That way you’ll know whether the couple dropped their backpacks at Trail Crest and have their day packs on. I’ll try to find permits and go through them for couples that might be planning to summit Whitney in the two days after tomorrow to see if we can get ahead of him. That’s all we can do, Stella.” She glanced out the window. “The dogs have been patient with us. We can take them for a walk and get all this out of our heads for a little while.”
Stella was more than happy to do just that.
MOMMY, DADDY’S DOING the bad thing again.
There was no mistake about it, the two backpackers were making their way up to the top of Whitney, day packs on their backs. Stella could make them out in the early morning light. Gray streaks glimmered through what had appeared as unrelenting darkness and both turned off their headlamps as they continued at a steady pace.
Occasionally the woman seemed to call out to him to stop and both would look at the wide, sweeping views. Stella had been there more than once and she knew what they were experiencing. The climb was worth every strenuous moment. There was nothing like the beauty of the Sierras, and from atop Whitney, aside from the achievement, the breathtaking views felt like sitting on top of the world. The trail was only two or so miles from Trail Crest to the summit. There was only the one switchback left that could give the two climbers any trouble, and so far, Stella didn’t feel the killer’s presence. He hadn’t followed them from Trail Crest. Perhaps he was waiting for their descent?
Her heart started to accelerate and she immediately calmed herself. This might be the last night for her clues, but she wouldn’t panic. That was the point of all this, gathering every piece of information she could get in order to save these two individuals. She forced herself to be that onlooker, taking in every single detail, looking for the tiniest shape of a rock or an outcropping she might be able to make out in the dim lighting so she could sketch it and hopefully find the exact location if they missed them at Trail Crest.
The female hadn’t shown any signs of altitude sickness. She might be a relatively new backpacker, but she had trained for this hike. Her partner must have stressed the importance of it, or she was a natural at this kind of altitude.
Altitude sickness was nothing to mess around with, and many seasoned