“I don’t know. I heard him scramble up the hill.”
Chee noticed how she winced as she moved closer to Palmer. “You might have cracked something in that fall.”
“I’m OK, lucky I didn’t split my head on one of those rocks.”
Chee said, “I’m hiking up to call for a copter and let the feds know about Lee.”
“Oh, no, you don’t. Guarding Palmer was your job, remember? You’re stronger than I am, and getting him out of here is going to be tough.” Bernie hobbled toward him, and he saw her grimace. “You stay here. I’ll go for help.”
He shook his head. “Protecting Palmer is my job, just like you said. I don’t like his condition. I’m not injured. I can get help for him faster. You know that, don’t you?”
She looked at him for several long seconds and he knew from the jut of her chin that she wanted to argue. Finally, she said, “If you see Lee on the trail, be careful.”
He unzipped his jacket and draped it over her shoulders. “I promise.”
She shrugged off the coat. “You keep it.”
“No. What if you or Palmer go into shock?”
She nodded. “Don’t hike up this way. Climb down between those two rocks and you’ll hit the main trail. It’s longer but quicker.”
She watched him make his way down the hill until he vanished in the fog.
Palmer’s skin was gray and his breathing shallow. She put Chee’s jacket over him and then hobbled to retrieve the beautiful turquoise Pendleton.
The voice startled her.
“You’re too smart for your own good.” Lee sounded tired. Tired and desperate. “If you and Chee had been slower, I could have finished Palmer off with his insulin pen. Not a terrible way to die, and it would have made life simpler for all of us. But now, well, we have a problem.”
Bernie couldn’t see where the voice came from. She drew her gun.
“No, you have a problem. Chee knows you tried to kill us, and he’s on his way to the feds. I’ve got a weapon pointed at you. It’s over. Come out and make things easier on yourself.”
“I didn’t want to kill you, just slow you down so I could take care of that stinkin’ weasel.” Lee’s voice seemed to come from a large rise of rocks. “Palmer has some kinda hold on Lona. She can’t see that he’s all talk. And nobody should ignore his own kid like that.”
Bernie said, “You helped me with that injured man. Let me help you.”
“Honey, you’re in the way of the mission now, so your death has to look like an accident.”
She heard a rock collide with something and turned toward the sound.
“Up here.” Lee towered above her, in the opposite direction from where he’d tossed the first rock. The huge stone he hurled now brushed her shoulder as she dodged away. Bernie almost lost her balance with the impact.
The exertion cost Lee his footing. She saw him stagger on a narrow sandstone outcrop. Then he tumbled off the ledge and rolled down the slope, propelled by momentum, making no effort to break his descent. She watched him fall into the deep gray gloom.
She listened for a moan, a stirring against the rocks. The man was tough, fired by jealousy and revenge. If he was still alive, he’d muster every ounce of energy to kill her and Palmer. He had nothing to lose.
She limped to where she’d seen him disappear and looked down into the gray haze, but she saw only stillness. At first she heard nothing. Then a rumbling growl rose from below her. Even though the fog tried to mute it, she recognized the song of the lion. She made her way to the Pendleton jacket and back to Palmer. She shook off the dirt, and as she prepared to cover him, she found something in the pocket. She pulled it out—a bag of M&M’s, Chee’s favorite. She gave one to Palmer, then popped some into her own mouth—a sorry substitute for lunch. She fed him another and, when she was sure he could handle it, a sip of water from her backpack.
The increased warmth and the sugar gradually made Palmer more alert.
“Chee?” His voice was a hoarse whisper.
“It’s me, Bernie. Chee went for help.”
Palmer reached for her hand. His squeeze hurt her damaged fingers, but she didn’t pull away.
“What happened?”
“Byrum Lee tried to kill you.”
He wrinkled his brow. “Why?”
“Jealousy. Don’t worry about that now. Rest.”
She had trail mix in her backpack and shared it all with him as they watched the light begin to fade and waited for rescue. She felt cold, sore, hungry, and glad to be alive. After forever, the noisy, distinctive, and welcome sound of a helicopter filled the sky.
She tugged the turquoise jacket off Palmer and waved it, hoping the pilot could see the flash of color through the trees. The helicopter moved closer, finally hovering overhead. Tricky work, she thought. Their rescuing angel looked like a bottom-heavy dragonfly. She saw something red leave its belly, swaying in the breeze. No, two somethings—a person and a big pack.
The EMT, a man in his forties, introduced himself as Scott. He looked at her battered hands, but she directed his attention to Palmer.
“He’s diabetic and he had a bad fall,” she said. “His shoulder could be a problem.”
“What about you?”
She shrugged off the question. “There’s another man down the slope. From the way he fell, I think he’s unconscious or worse. I called out to him, but he didn’t answer.”
“Show me.”
She moved gingerly to the spot where Lee had disappeared. Scott yelled his name loudly, with no answer.
“I’ll have search and rescue deal with him. We’ve got to get Palmer some help, and you don’t look too good either, Officer.”
She helped Scott place the rescue harness around Palmer and watched the mediator swing on the cable as he ascended to the belly of the helicopter and the waiting arms of another medic.
“Come on,” Scott said. “You’re next. You get a lift outta here.”
“No thanks. I can hike out.”
“No arguing.”
Bernie looked at the harness and the swaying line that spanned the breathtaking distance between the ground and the hovering dragonfly with more trepidation than she’d felt at the sight of the lion.
Scott extended the harness toward her. “We’ve got an injured man up there, remember? Get going.”
She slipped it on and squeezed the fetish in her pocket as Scott secured her harness to the cable.
30
Chee found Bernie in the ER waiting room at the hospital in Flagstaff.
She gave him the update on Palmer. “Besides the fractured shoulder, he has broken ribs. He’s in surgery.”
“How about you?”
“They said I have a bruised back, cuts, scrapes, the usual. They gave me something for my headache and muscle pain and predicted a few days of soreness. Worst of all, I’m starving. The cafeteria is one floor below us!”
“I brought you some clean clothes and those earrings that you like.”