Blind Descent

Painted and perfumed, she let herself into the administration building at half past nine. Not one to be caught out twice, Jewel blacked out her computer screen before A

"You still here?" she said by way of greeting.

"Still here," A

Jewel fidgeted, glanced pointedly at her computer, then drummed lacquered nails on the blotter. "I got things I gotta do," she said when A

"I was hoping you could help me," A

Jewel's face twisted from the mouth out as if smart-ass retorts were trying to escape the carmine lips. "Whaddya want?"

"I haven't had any luck getting in touch with Sondra McCarty," A

"I don't have her phone number or nothing."

"I've got all that. She's not answering. You said she flew out of here the day after she came out of Lechuguilla."

"Yeah?" Jewel was getting antsy. She sensed the net closing around her but hadn't a clue as to what kind or why.

"Did you see her?"

"Whaddya think, I run a taxi service to the airport?"

"You didn't see her after the accident, didn't talk to her on the phone, didn't hand her a ticket, anything?"

A

"Why are you so sure she left?"

Another glance at the blind screen, another at her nemesis, and Jewel apparently decided the only way to get rid of A

"But you didn't see her?"

"Would ya quit?" Jewel snapped in exasperation.

"Who put her name on the list?"

"I did."

"All by yourself?" The words were out before A

"I typed it," Jewel said tersely.

"Who wrote it?"

"Oscar gave it to me. Why don't you go badger him?"

A

"We don't make 'em for cavers."

A

"Like I been telling you. Can I get back to work now?"

"Can I see the list?"

Petty triumph glowed in Jewel's midnight stare. "Sorry. That's perso

A

"How is class going?" A

Jewel's demeanor transformed. Sulle

"Yesterday I noticed you were working on-what? Your master's thesis? Too many footnotes for anything else. Looks like you've put in a lot of hours on it."

Jewel's right hand skittered furtively toward the keyboard. A spider in crimson shoes, it seemed to move without her permission. "There's nothing says I can't educate myself." Jewel was on the defensive. That was where A

"Maybe I still got that list somewhere," Jewel said coldly.

A

Jewel pointed toward the copier.

A

"You're welcome." Jewel snatched the paper and crammed it in the out part of her in-out basket.

"There's one other little thing."

"Oh, Jeez…"

"Brent Roxbury's SF-171."

"We don't use 'em no more."

"Brent would have. He's worked here off and on for four years. He'd have had to fill one out to get his first position." The SF-171 was an agonizingly detailed application form the Park Service had required for most of A

"You can't look at that," Jewel said. "It really is a perso

"What are you getting your master's in?" A

"Oh, give it a rest," Jewel growled. Then, because she couldn't hide her pride, she said, "Abnormal psychology."

"Cool," A

"I've got two kids. I got no time at home," Jewel said. Then, "George doesn't know."

"I won't tell him," A

"So I noticed. We studied people like you second semester."

A

Jewel thought about it. A

Armed with Brent's SF-171, the list of cavers with whom Sondra had presumably flown out, and her AT amp;T credit card number, A

Lisa, the lady with the looping braids, was A

Of the five others on the list, A

Brent's SF-171 was next. From it she verified everything Amy Roxbury had told her and filled in some of the blanks. Brent was born in Black Gap, Pe

Tracking down a fact a quarter of a century old, even one that was a matter of public record, proved harder than anticipated. During the military downsizing of the early nineties, the army base in Missouri was decimated. Perso