01 Storm Peak (8 page)
Jesse grunted again as he crawled out from under the cabin. “Could be.” He held out his hand and shone the flashlight beam on his finger and thumb. There were a few fibers held between them. Lee leaned closer to examine them.
“What do you think they are?” she asked.
“Dunno. Could be nothing. Got a plastic envelope there?”
She nodded and fished a plastic evidence envelope out of her shirt pocket. Jesse carefully deposited the fibers in it and closed the press seal top. He handed the small bag back to her.
“We’ll see what your friends from Denver have to say about it,” he said.
Dusting himself off, he straightened and walked around the cabin, shaking his head. He turned back to face her.
“So tell me, Lee, how does a body get itself into the gondola without anyone noticing at the top?” He raised his hands helplessly, then let them fall back again to his sides. “I mean, the trash container I can understand. The killer had all day to plant the body in there. I’m not saying it was simple, but it was possible. But this?” he laughed humorlessly.
Lee had taken her Maglite back from him. She shone it around the interior of the cabin, leaning past the body to do so, being careful not to disturb it any further. Doc Jorgensen got touchy about things like that when he had to give a coroner’s report.
“Maybe he was alive when he got in the cabin?” she suggested. “Leastways, that’s the theory I’m working on.”
Jesse shook his head dismissively. “And the killer got in with him, stuck him with the jigger and then flew away, right? Doesn’t make sense, Lee.”
She shrugged. “Makes more sense than having the killer lug a dead body into the gondola past two attendants and God knows how many other passengers waiting there and have nobody notice.”
“No stoppages on the gondola just before John found the body, were there?” he asked.
Lee shook her head. “I checked the log. The last stoppage was forty minutes before. The run down from the top takes twelve and a half minutes, give or take maybe a minute, depending on wind conditions, so that couldn’t have had anything to do with it.”
Jesse was pacing again. “The doors shut automatically. The gondola doesn’t stop. Yet somehow, someone gets in here, kills our friend from Flagstaff, opens the closed doors, steps out into thin air—remembering to close the doors behind him …” He paused suddenly, turned to her quickly. “The doors were closed when the cabin came in, weren’t they?”
She nodded confirmation. “Yeah. John said he heard them open, then saw the body in there, only he didn’t know it was a body at the time,” she added.
“Right … so somehow, he leaves a dead body behind in a locked cabin.”
“You could force these doors, of course,” she suggested. As she said it, a thought struck him and he moved quickly to the cabin again.
“Have you got that flashlight again?” he asked, peering at the doorjamb and holding a hand out for the Maglite. When she handed it to him, he twisted the switch on and focused it on the edge of one of the automatic doors.
“Maybe you’re right, Lee,” he said carefully. “Look here. I noticed these before but I didn’t think too much of them.”
She looked at the beam playing on the doorjamb. There were small scratches in the painted metal. She ran a finger down the edge of the door, feeling the roughness where something had cut into it.
“And here,” Jesse said, switching the beam to the other door. Again, she saw the same small patches of bare metal gouged into the paint, at roughly the same height as on the other door.
“Some kind of ram maybe. Or a jack of some kind to force the doors open,” said Jesse slowly.
Lee glanced at him. His face was alive with concentration. The dark eyes were burning with an eagerness she hadn’t seen there for a long time.
“So that’s how he got the doors open,” she agreed. “How did he get out?”
Jesse shrugged, his mind still working. “Could have abseiled down from the cabin. It’s possible,” he said to himself. “Those fibers … could be from a rope.”
They were interrupted by the arrival of the two lift attendants from the top station. The men looked around curiously, saw Lee and headed toward her.
“What’s happening, Sheriff?” asked one of them.
“I need you guys to look at a body,” Lee told them. That got their attention, Jesse thought. Nothing like the mention of a dead body to focus a man’s mind.
“Body?” said the lift attendant, his voice cracking as he hit a higher register of surprise. “You mean it’s happened again?” He turned to his companion. “What did I tell you, Frank? I said, ‘It’s happened again,’ didn’t I?”
“I said it, Norm,” Frank replied, a little aggrieved, and the first man waved his hands as if dismissing such unimportant details.
“So you said it. I agreed with you, so that’s as good as saying it, just about.” He turned to Lee again. “Who’s the stiff, Sheriff?”
“The victim,” said Lee, laying stress on the word, “is from Arizona. Like you to take a look at him. See if you can remember him boarding the gondola earlier tonight.”
She motioned them toward the cabin. A little gingerly, the two men approached it, stopping in their tracks as they caught sight of the dead man, sprawled half in, half out of the doorway.
“Jesus,” Norm said softly, taking in the staring eyes and the look of shock and pain. He swallowed heavily. “He doesn’t look so good, does he?” he asked of no one in particular.
“Often happens that way when you’re dead,” Jesse agreed. Norm looked quickly at him to see if he was joking. Jesse’s poker face was perfect. He urged the lift attendant back to the problem at hand.
“You remember seeing him board at all?”
Norm screwed up his face in concentration. He twisted around to look at the face from a more natural angle. Barret’s body was, after all, lying head down out of the gondola. He began to shake his head, drew in breath to speak. They could see the word “no” forming on his lips when his buddy, Frank, got in first.
“Yep,” he said simply. He was standing back from the gondola, hands in his pockets, staring fixedly at the dead man. Lee turned to him quickly.
“You sure of that?” she asked him and he nodded slowly. He took one hand out of his jacket pocket to point as he continued.
“Remember that leather jacket. Remember thinking as how I’d like one just like it,” he said. He looked at his companion now.
“You remember him, Norm?” he asked. Norm, obviously not wanting to be left out of all this, screwed up his face in concentration again. They could see he was about to switch from his earlier position. Jesse glanced at Lee and turned one corner of his mouth down. Don’t take too much notice of his evidence, the look said. Lee gave a barely perceptible nod.
“We-ell … maybe I do at that …” Norm was saying uncertainly.
Frank snorted impatiently. “Course you do! Remember? That other feller came barging out just as this one was loading.”
ELEVENL
ee and Jesse exchanged a quick glance. Lee interrupted the argument before it could begin.
ee and Jesse exchanged a quick glance. Lee interrupted the argument before it could begin.
“What other feller?” she asked urgently. Frank turned away from his buddy and answered her.
“This guy here had loaded aboard. The cabin was moving out when this other feller came barging out, rushing to get in the cabin before the doors closed.” Again he glanced at Norm. “You must remember! You nearly missed loading his skis in the rack.”
The attendants took care of passengers’ skis when they boarded the gondola, loading them into racks on the outside of the automatic doors. Norm looked up now, memory flooding into his face.
“By God but you’re right, Frank!” he said abruptly. “That cross-country skier feller got in as well.”
This time, Jesse asked the question. “A cross-country skier, you say?”
Norm nodded several times now as he remembered more detail. “That’s right,” he said. “I remember because he gave me the skis. You know, those thin, free-heelers that the cross-country fellers wear.”
“You remember what he looked like?” Lee asked casually. Norm cocked his head to one side, trying to remember. Reluctantly, he had to admit that he couldn’t.
“He was kinda rugged up, Sheriff,” he said apologetically, looking to Frank for support. The other lift attendant nodded his agreement.
“You know how those cross-country fellers get themselves all rugged up. Had a beard too.”
“Tall? Short? Average height?” Jesse prompted them.
The two men exchanged doubtful looks again. “Can’t say for sure, Jesse.” Frank spoke for the two of them. “Hard to gauge a feller’s height when he’s doubled over climbing into the gondola.”
“You didn’t notice him waiting around at the top station?” Lee asked.
“Can’t say we did,” said Norm, and Frank nodded confirmation. “Funny, now you mention it. He was just there, all of a sudden.”
“Maybe came in from outside,” offered Frank, and Norm seemed to think this was possible.
“Could have done. Might have been out by the stairs having a smoke.”
Jesse looked up sharply. “You say he was a smoker?”
There was a long pause, then Norm replied, “Can’t say I actually saw him smoking. Just said maybe he was outside having a smoke.”
Jesse nodded his understanding, rubbing his jaw with his hand. The two attendants looked from Lee to Jesse apologetically.
“Sorry we can’t be more help, Sheriff,” said Norm finally.
Lee made a dismissing gesture with one hand. “Don’t worry about it, boys. Hard to remember details of a person you only see for a few seconds.”
“He had a knapsack,” Frank put in suddenly. “A green knapsack like those cross-country skiers carry.” He thought more on it. “A big one.”
“Not one of those little ones the day skiers use to keep their goggles and spare gloves and so on in?” Jess asked.
Frank was shaking his head definitely now. “No, sir. It was a big one. You remember it, Norm?” Norm, thinking, nodded in his turn and confirmed Frank’s statement.
“A big one right enough. Seemed to have plenty in it too.”
There was a pause as both men tried to remember further details. Lee and Jesse let them go for a few moments. They both knew that unprompted memory is usually a whole heap more reliable than statements made in answer to suggestions from the questioner. Once you got to that point, there was a possibility of the witness unconsciously coming up with the sort of answer that he thought the interrogator wanted.
The silence stretched on. Finally, Jesse realized this was all they were going to get. “What about his clothes, guys? Remember what he was wearing?”
Norm looked at him, a little annoyed that he hadn’t thought of this himself. “Why ski clothes, of course. He would have been wearing a parka, wouldn’t he?” Once again, Frank nodded and murmured assent.
“Long-line parka? Short-line? Any idea of color?” prompted Lee.
“Well, it would have been long-line, wouldn’t it? Those cross-country skiers always wear long-line parkas. Yeah. Long-line,” said Frank, finally convincing himself.
Jesse noticed the conditional nature of the answers now. The two men were trying to remember, and filling in gaps with details that they thought had to be correct. He caught Lee’s eye and made a small negative gesture. They’d be better to leave the two men now and question them further in the morning.
Lee caught the gesture and nodded. Then remembered one obvious question they’d left out.
“One other thing, guys. Was he white? Black? Asian?”
“Maybe Hispanic?” added Jesse.
Norm frowned a little at the last word. “Say what, Jess?” he asked.
Frank nudged him in the ribs with an elbow. “He means Mexican,” he explained. “Was he a Mexican?”
Norm shrugged. “Couldn’t say as to that one,” he admitted. “He wasn’t no black or no Asian though. I’d swear to that.”
“Don’t think he was no Mexican either,” Frank added. “Sure he wasn’t, in fact.”
“Is that all, Sheriff?” Norm asked. He glanced at his wristwatch. “We ought to be getting back up to relieve Grover. He’s got some work of his own to do closing up the restaurant.”
Lee patted him on the shoulder. “That’s all for now, boys,” she said. “Thanks for your help.”
The two men headed toward one of the gondola cabins. Frank was shaking his head sadly. “Don’t see as how we was too much help, Sheriff,” he said. “Seems a man ought to be able to remember a feller once he set eyes on him.”
“It’s not as easy as it sounds,” Lee told him.
Both men shook their heads. They felt that somehow they’d failed a test. Lee tried to make them feel a little better about it.
“You’ve been more help than you realize,” she said. “Just sleep on it. Maybe you’ll remember more details in the morning.”
“Well, we’ll sure enough call you if we do,” Norm promised.
He stepped toward one of the slow-moving cabins when a call from Jesse stopped him.
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