“Oh great. Let’s make the run a little more difficult with some rain,” Missy said.
Marie laughed. “It’ll keep us cool. It’s a good thing.”
“Yes, it will keep me cool as I wipe out on some muddy hill.”
Marie waved her off. “I will not acknowledge your negativity right now.”
Ahead, the group was beginning to split up. Anastasia and a few others peeled off to the right. Everybody else veered left.
So nobody was taking the easy path. Missy shouldn’t have been surprised. The people that exercised at WiredFit were hard core.
With the exception of her, of course.
She and Marie fell into an easy jog and followed the mass of people steering down the left path. It was not like running on a treadmill. Missy had to pay attention on each step to make sure she didn’t turn an ankle.
Though they had set a comfortable pace, Missy was working hard because of the changes in slope and having to pay constant attention to footing.
“How you doing?” Marie asked, herself breathing heavily.
“Good so far.”
Missy glanced ahead. The group was pulling away from them, slowly but surely. How did they make it look so easy? She’d be lucky to run a ten minute mile on these trails and more than likely would need eleven minutes. The man ahead of them, Donald, was recovering from two knee surgeries and a herniated disc in his lower back, but he moved with the ease of a child. Missy checked his form and saw that he too ran with a heel-strike, like her.
It made her think about her form. It was important to push yourself, but at her age it was just as important not to get hurt. She’d been there when Walt had blown out a shoulder trying to press two hundred and fifty pounds over his head. That injury had put him out of commission for months. She couldn’t miss any time at work, and she didn’t want to go through a long period of not exercising either—the pounds would come back. And not slowly.
After the workout last night, Anastasia had explained that striking the ground with the balls of her feet first would lessen her risk of injury. Missy tried making the adjustment and felt weird immediately. She had to lean much more forward and not reach with her legs on each step. Like Anastasia had said last night, it seemed like she was about to fall the entire time and that running was the only way to prevent it.
“How you doing?” Marie asked again.
“Good.”
They must have been running for ten minutes, when Anastasia came out of nowhere and got in front of them.
“Hey, ladies!” She was breathing heavily, but also smiling like a mad woman. “Like I said, all these trails cross in a few places!”
Missy saw the rest of Anastasia’s group approaching via another trail, all of them lagging slightly behind Superwoman of course.
“Great job!” Anastasia said. “Keep it going! Keep it going!”
Then she pumped her legs and took off, like she had another gear.
“Now that’s impressive,” Marie said.
Missy grunted her agreement.
Anastasia’s group began to pass Missy and Marie where the trail permitted it. As they went by, each shouted their encouragement.
“Quick feet!” Jeremy shouted. “Quick feet!”
Soon they were all well ahead of Missy and Marie. A few minutes later, it started to drizzle.
“How—you—doing?” Marie asked.
Missy managed a smile. “Second wind finally kicked in.”
“It’s been—three years—since mine—did.”
Despite their heavy breathing, both women laughed. They must have gone a mile-and-a-half by now. Missy suddenly felt great, thankful for the endorphins her body was releasing.
The drizzle turned into a rain, and the ground was beginning to get really wet and muddy. The trail was winding back and split again up ahead.
“Left—or right?” Marie asked.
Missy couldn’t see anybody ahead of them anymore, so she didn’t know which way. She hoped they didn’t pick the wrong path and inadvertently add miles to their run. Left looked flatter and easier.
“Screw it,” Missy said. “Let’s go right.”
“I wanted you—to say—left.” Marie laughed.
They veered right, slowing down as the trail sloped up.
“I should have—said left.”
They both laughed again and crested the small hill. Thank God the ground flattened out ahead.
“Is this—the right way?” Marie asked.
Her guess was as good as Missy’s. Suddenly, an old memory came rushing back to Missy. She had almost gotten lost on these trails when she’d been here for camp. But she’d found somebody’s footprints and followed them.
It was getting dark now, but they had headlamps. Missy slowed to examine the trail ahead of them and spotted some footprints.
“This is the right way.” Missy pointed.
Marie nodded and stopped to jog in place. “Easy three-miler, by butt.”
Missy chuckled and stood back up. She didn’t want to stay still for too long, fearing she’d get stiff and it would be twice as hard to start running again.
“Ready?”
Marie groaned. “Where did all this energy come from?”
Missy shrugged and looked around. “Exercising with friends, change of scenery—”
Her eyes caught something ahead, just off the trail. Somebody had trampled a bush and …
“Whoa.” She pointed. “Better be careful.”
“What?”
Missy walked ahead and aimed her head lamp to the side of the trail. There was an almost sheer fifteen foot drop to the other trail below. It had been obscured by the darkness and the continual bend in their trail to the right. If they had just run straight ahead, they might have literally run right off the path and fallen.
“Wow,” Marie said. “Maybe running this at night isn’t such a good idea.”
Missy looked down. “Somebody nearly fell. Look at the ground here.”
The rain was turning the ground muddy now. The path was churned up right here, like someone had nearly run right off the edge but caught themselves at the very last moment.
Marie had stopped moving.
“What?”
She pointed. “Somebody did fall.”
Missy followed the angle of her arm and peered down. She was right.
Somebody had fallen.
Chapter Three
Missy didn’t risk climbing down a muddy slope with an almost sheer drop. They were forced to backtrack a bit to where the slope separating the two trails was gentle. It was really dark now, especially with the cloud cover, so the head lamps were the only source of light.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” Marie said. “She didn’t … answer us.”
Missy nodded grimly. They hadn’t been able to tell who it was that had fallen from that height and in the dark. All they could tell was that it was a she. They’d tried calling out to her, but got no response. Not even a twitch.
“It’s okay,” Missy said. “I’ll look.”
“Thanks.”
As they approached the body, Missy got a better look at it. There was no doubt now. The neck was twisted in an odd fashion and there was no movement at all. The rain grew stronger. Missy was soaked to the bone as she stopped next to the body and touched the still-warm skin.
Up close, Missy now recognized the woman.
“Eliana?” she said, hoping against hope the woman had just been knocked out or had been injured so badly she couldn’t move. Any injury was better than death.
“It’s Eliana?” Marie asked, from a good ten feet away.
“Yes.”
“Is she …?”
Missy checked for a pulse. Just to be sure.
“Yes.”
“Wh—what happened?”
“She must have fallen from up there.” Missy turned to look up. All the rain water was rushing over the sheer edge of the trail up top. It was washing everything out. “And her neck looks broke
n.”
“Oh God.” Marie groaned, stepping even farther away. She pulled her phone out of a tiny pocket on the side of her running capris. “No reception.”
Something was bothering Missy, though she couldn’t say what it was. It sure looked like Eliana had just taken a wrong turn which had led to a nasty fall. Bad luck turned into more bad luck, as she must have broken her neck on the landing.
Her stomach turned over, but Missy took a deep breath to stem the nausea.
“What do we do?” Marie said, then just as quickly blurted out the answer. “We have to get back and tell somebody. We have to call the police.”
Missy didn’t answer. Something was nagging her.
“Missy, you okay?” Marie approached and put her hand on Missy’s shoulder. The touch brought Missy back to the moment. She looked up at her friend and the hill above came into view. There was a lot of run-off from up there, the water showering down now. Everything was getting washed out.
“Missy.”
“We can’t leave yet. Come on.” She jumped to her feet. “Hurry.”
“What—why?”
“The rain is washing away the evidence.” Missy was about to run back the way they came, but Marie grabbed her arm.
“Evidence? What are you talking about? It looks like she fell.”
Missy wasn’t so sure. “Maybe.”
“Missy, we should let the police handle this. I know you’re ... you and all but really it’s their job.”
“If there’s any evidence up there, the rain might wash it away. We don’t have time to get them.”
Marie was shaking her head. “There were just footprints.”
“And maybe those are clues.”
Marie looked down the trail. “We should get somebody.”
“We are somebody.” Missy grabbed her arm. “Come on.”
Missy ran hard back the way they came and charged up the hill where it was safe. Marie stuck with her. They hurried back down the path.
“Easy, Missy!” Marie yelled. “I don’t want you falling too!”
Missy nearly did. The trail changed direction a little abruptly and you couldn’t see the drop easily from this direction in the darkness. The ground was churned up near the edge, presumably where Eliana had fallen.
“Quick!” Missy said. “Your phone.”
“What?”
“I didn’t bring mine. Just start taking pictures!”
“Okay!” Marie got it out and began clicking. The phone flashed with each shot.
Missy put her headlamp on the ground. The rain had turned this path slick and the dirt was running off the edge. Marie was right. All she could see were footprints here, and they were quickly disappearing.
“I’ve taken about fifty already. What should I do now?” Marie asked. Her eyes were wide with panic.
Missy stood and touched her shoulder. Her skin was wet and cold. The rain was pounding them now.
“Just stay away from the edge. I’m going to look around for a few minutes, then we’ll hurry back. Okay?”
Marie nodded, unable to speak.
Missy followed the trail further along. There were two sets of prints she could still see. One or both had to belong to the killer—if there was a killer. She couldn’t be sure. The prints were strange though. Missy was sure there were two sets. The set closer to the edge seemingly disappeared about fifteen paces away, while the set a little farther away seemingly appeared out of nowhere after that.
Probably, the rain had washed the first set away. Nobody just disappeared. And it had washed out the earlier part of the second set of prints.
The ground had turned into a stream. Rain water dashed along, clearing and reshaping the earth. In the distance, thunder rumbled.
“Time to go, Miss.” Marie came up behind her. “That’s our cue.”
Missy nodded. “Take pictures of these prints really fast, okay?”
Marie snapped off a bunch. “Okay, Miss. Really time to go now.”
They made their way carefully along the path. Eventually it flattened out so there was no drop, and from there they could jog. A few minutes later, they saw the floodlights from the cabins.
Chapter Four
“I’m Lieutenant Simon.” The Planksville police officer offered his hand. It was slick with rain. “I’ll need you to show me where she is.”
“Melissa DeMeanor.” She looked at Marie. “I’ll show him, Marie.”
Marie nodded and wandered back into the cabin. Everybody had congregated on the porches to avoid the downpour.
Missy pointed inside. “I just need to get my rain gear.”
Simon nodded.
Anastasia followed Missy inside. “What happened out there, Miss?”
Missy went to her cot and riffled her gym bag to find her rain gear. She put a light jacket on over her drenched wicking outfit.
“I don’t know. We practically stumbled over her.”
Anastasia eyed her, then looked over at Marie. She was sitting on her cot, looking down at the floor.
“You okay, Marie?”
Marie just nodded.
Anastasia faced Missy again. “So you nearly tripped over her? That must have been awful.”
Missy shook her head no. “We were on the higher trail. We nearly ran straight off it. You can’t see that drop coming very well in the darkness.”
“But you saw it?”
“We were lucky. We slowed down because we weren’t sure if we were following the right trail or not, we were so far behind everybody else. Then I saw the footprints in the mud so I knew we were okay.”
“Footprints?” Anastasia asked.
Missy thought she was acting a little strangely. Then again, Eliana had just died. She and Anastasia had had some kind of relationship. A friendship before, at least. Maybe they had just reconciled, so this was a real tough blow for Anastasia?
“Everybody was leaving footprints in the mud.”
“You think she fell?” Anastasia asked.
Missy wanted to say, I hope so. Because otherwise, that meant somebody had pushed her and broken the poor woman’s neck.
“It looked that way to me.”
“Oh my God.”
“You two were close?”
Anastasia nodded sadly. “We hadn’t spoken in a long time. We had a real bad falling out. But we had just reconnected and …”
Anastasia began to cry.
Missy hugged her. The woman was solid muscle.
“I’m sorry.”
“Thank you.” She wiped at her tears. “This is my fault. I mean, anybody could have fallen.”
Something clicked in Missy’s mind. “She was running with the guys. How is it that me and Marie were the ones to find her? We were literally dead last. A bunch of other people must have run right by her.”
Anastasia nodded, almost like she’d been expecting the question. “Remember how I almost bowled you and Marie over? The trails cross each other at several points. The guys told me that Eliana took off running—she was planning to do nearly five miles and was pushing herself to beat you and Marie.”
Missy was dumbfounded. “She was trying to run five miles in the time it took me and Marie to do three?”
Anastasia nodded. “That’s who she was. Intense.”
“In the dark, in the rain, along trails she didn’t know that well?”
“That’s why I don’t understand how this could have happened,” Anastasia said. “She’s been here a lot. She’s done a lot of races here, some of them in the dark.”
Missy thought over what Anastasia had told her. “So she was running as hard as she could, trying to catch up to everybody else.”
“When you put it like that, Miss, I take your point. She could have easily slipped up there. God, this is all my fault.”
“Ms. DeMeanor?” Lieutenant Simon had stepped into the cabin. “I really need to get out there.”
Missy gave Anastasia another quick squeeze, then let go.
***
; As Missy walked the Lieutenant to the body, he asked her all the usual questions. She gave a full accounting of her time at Panther Mountain and walked him through their night run. He doubled back and threw some clarifying questions at her, then he asked some of the same questions differently.
“How well did you know her?” Simon asked.
“I just met her tonight.”
He nodded. Missy knew they were getting close. At least the rain had let up a little. Her headlamp and his high-powered flashlight illuminated the path ahead.
“Would anybody here want to hurt her?” Simon asked.
“I really don’t know.” Missy told her what little she knew about the woman, including the bits about her leaving the gym, returning, and reconciling with Anastasia.
“What did they have a falling out about?”
“No idea.”
Simon didn’t ask any other questions, as if sensing by her gait they were close to the body.
Missy pointed. “I think she’s right up here.”
“You think?”
She gave him a look. “It’s my first time on these trails, and it’s really dark.”
Saying that reminded her of what Anastasia had just shared. Apparently, Eliana had run these paths many times before. She should have known there was a big drop right there. It might have been dark out, but she had a headlamp and was more familiar with the terrain than anybody else here.
“What?” Simon asked.
“She’s run these trails a lot.”
“How do you know that?”
“Anastasia just told me.”
He nodded again. When Missy faced forward, she saw the dark figure sprawled on the ground ahead.
She pointed and mumbled, “Up there.”
Simon held out his palm. “After you. But don’t get too close.”
She wondered why he’d let her go first, then realized: he wanted to gauge her reaction at seeing the body again. Should have been obvious to her. As a very amateur detective, she knew that the first suspect—and usually the last—was the person that found the body.
Missy was glad she’d been with Marie when they’d discovered Eliana. They could provide alibis for each other, unless of course Lieutenant Simon suspected them both of killing the woman.
Missy DeMeanor Cozy Mysteries Boxset Page 70
