Страница 30 из 72
A
Rory flashed her a look of alarm that A
"How'd she get on with your dad?" Rory's face hardened slightly. "You'd have to ask him."
A
A blank look from Rory did more to convince her he'd not snatched it from the dying hands of his stepmother than a mountain of protestations would have done. The look cleared as memory returned. The transition was too natural and held too many shades of awakening to be feigned. "The one I had when you guys found me after the bear tore up our camp?"
"That very one. Where'd you get it?"
"I don't know," Rory said.
As improbable as that was, A
"I can't tell you." He was begi
"Try."
"I didn't have it I don't think-no, I know I didn't because I got thirsty-real thirsty-by the time the rain started."
A
"So you were thirsty," she prompted.
"I was hot. I'd been ru
A
"Let me get this straight," A
"That's it," Rory said, the stiff neck returning. "My sweatshirt wasn't all that dirty."
"A kind of good fairy or guardian angel?" A
Rory stared at the table, his lips pressed shut, undoubtedly to keep language unsuited for adults in authority shut behind his teeth. Danger past, he unlocked his jaws. "Maybe it was exactly that. A guardian angel. I needed water pretty bad, and all that day and the next I never came across any. Maybe I'd've died without that happening."
A
"I must have had two water bottles with me," Rory said suddenly, clearly pleased with the idea. "And I brought one out of the tent with me. I just don't remember doing it."
A
"Yeah. Well. That's stupid. I must've had it with me before." Rory's voice turned sullen and mulish. "I took it with me when I left camp. I'd just forgot. There was the bear and all and I didn't feel so hot."
A
She turned off the tape recorder, dragged out a map and for the next twenty minutes nudged, badgered and cajoled Rory into approximating as closely as he could his journey during his thirty-six-hour hiatus. Every attempt ended the same. Rory knew where he'd started and he knew where he'd ended up. The hours and miles in between were a kaleidoscope turning timelessly through forest and scrub and burn. When it became evident he could not or would not be more specific, A
Convinced she'd gotten all she was going to at this juncture, she declared the interview at an end. Back in Harry's office she and Rory rejoined the chief ranger and Lester Van Slyke. A brief consultation convinced A
Civilization diminished him. In the backcountry with a life and death situation to put his back into, he'd appeared younger and stronger than he did behind his desk, awards and diplomas arrayed around him.
A
"For the family of the dearly departed these boys are behaving in a decidedly strange ma
"Rory talked to him?"
"Called him last night at the hotel."
Not having spent much time with Rory, Harry wouldn't know how peculiar that was. Maybe the death of Mrs. Van Slyke was bringing father and son together.
"No sense letting a little thing like murder spoil your vacation plans," Ruick said cynically.
The Van Slykes' decision to remain in Glacier had its upside from a law enforcement point of view. Though they might have their suspicions, there was no evidence on which to hold Les or his son. In park crimes, there was always the added difficulty of perpetrators and witnesses dispersing to faraway places before the investigation could be completed.
"What do they mean us to do with the body?" A
"Sort of. Les has that all worked out. Soon as the autopsy's done he wants it cremated locally. He'll pick up the ashes after his camping trip."
"No funeral, memorial service, nothing?"
"Apparently not. He seemed to be genuinely grieving for his wife. He teared up a few times, if that means anything. More than that, though, he seemed angry at her."
"That's natural enough," A
"Nah. Not like that," Harry said dismissively. "I'm no shrink but this felt different. There was an element of spite in it. Like old Lester might kick his wife's corpse a good one if he thought nobody was looking."
"Rory intimated his folks were not experiencing unremitting wedded bliss, but he declined to elaborate," A
"Les didn't say anything outright against the missus and, like I said, he managed a few tears. What set me off was the way he was ordering up the cremation of the corpse. Sort of slam-bang and take that."
"Do you think he killed he?"
"He's got no alibi, of course. Things happen in the wee hours, and unless you sleep with somebody, you're not going to have anybody to vouch for your whereabouts. He's got some real mixed feelings about her being dead, that's for sure. But no, I don't think he killed her. If he did he'd be playing the grief card a little harder. And he'd probably want to get the hell out of here, post haste."