01 Storm Peak

by John Flanagan

  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.”

  ELEVEN

  Lee 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 t
wo 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.

  “Norm! One other thing: these cabin doors. Could one man force them open once they’re closed?”

  The two attendants looked at the automatic doors on the gondola cabin sliding past them. They both nodded.

  “Not with his bare hands, maybe,” said Norm. “But you can sure enough lever them apart. Have to be able to do that so we can evacuate the gondola if we have a power failure.”

  Jesse was walking toward them now. He continued, “And once they’re opened, do they stay open?”

  Frank shook his head. “Not while the cabin’s moving,” he said. “Once it enters the loading zone here, it hits a safety trip that keeps ’em open. But while it’s moving down the hill, you’d have to prop them open or the emergency switch would shut them again.”

  “Thanks, guys,” Jesse concluded. “Like the sheriff says, you’ve been more help than you know.”

  The two men looked a little more satisfied at that. They weren’t sure what they’d said that had been helpful but they were content to think that it must have been something.

  “You finished with us now, Jess?” asked Norm and Jesse pointed them toward the gondola again.

  “That’s all I need from you,” he said, and the two men waved, then bent and climbed aboard the cabin. The doors sighed shut and it moved out into the night, gathering speed as it hit the high-speed section of the cable.

  “So,” Lee said at length. “We’ve got us a bearded killer with a knapsack.”

  Jesse snorted derisively. “Don’t be too sure about the beard. My guess is it’s long gone, dumped in a trash can somewhere.”

  “Disguise?” Lee raised her eyebrows in a question.

  Jesse nodded emphatically. “Can’t think of a better way of obscuring a man’s face. Can you?”

  He took her arm and led her toward one of the cabins. “Come on,” he said. “We’re going for a gondola ride.”

  She held back a moment. “What for?” she asked. He took her arm again and moved her more forcibly toward the loading point.

  “We’re going to survey the ground. Our killer got on board. We know that. He killed our victim here, and somewhere on the way down, he forced the doors open and got out. Probably on a rope.”

  “I guess so,” said Lee. “You figure he had it in his knapsack?”

  “That would be my guess,” Jesse replied patiently. “So let’s take a look at the ground under the gondola and see if there’s a likely spot to get out at.”

  Lee nodded her understanding. There was one more detail to take care of, however. She stopped and called to the cop on duty. “Keep an eye on things here for half an hour, would you?”

  Her gesture included the gondola station, the detached cabin and the body of Andy Barret. The cop, a little thrown out of his stride, gestured to the body.

  “What do you want me to do with him?” he asked.

  Jesse cut in before Lee could answer. “If he moves, read him his rights,” he said, and shoved the sheriff into the cabin moving past them.

  TWELVE

  There was the customary lurch as the cabin accelerated out into the blackness above the brightly lit gondola station. Lee and Jesse sat side by side on the forward facing bench of the gondola. Jesse sprawled his long legs out, resting his feet on the opposite bench.

  Lee shivered. “Goddamn it’s cold!” she complained. “Couldn’t you have given me a few minutes to grab my sheepskin out of the car?”

  Jesse gave no sign that he’d heard her complaint. As the car rose swiftly above the first slope, he sat up and began to pay more attention to the landscape passing by below them. Lee sighed and patted her arms to keep warm.

  “We looking for anything in particular?” she asked.

  Jesse shrugged. “I’m not sure. Probably for a spot where the cabin isn’t too far from the ground, where there’s plenty of ground cover—like trees-and deep snow.”

  “Why deep snow?”

  “If it were me, I’d want deep snow, just in case something went wrong with my ropes,” he replied. “You still got that flashlight?”

  He held out one hand, his face glued now to the window, staring out into the blackness. Lee took the Maglite from its small pouch and handed it to him. He shone it out the window, was defeated by the reflection, and swore softly
to himself. He reached up and unlatched the ventilator, yanking it down and shining the torch through the gap onto the snow below. The bitter wind howled through the open window. Lee moved forward onto the opposite bench, peering through the front windows of the cabin, shielding her gaze with her hands to stop reflections spoiling her sight.

  “There’s a grove of aspens up ahead,” she said, “just after the gondola crosses Valley View. That could be the sort of thing you’re looking for.”

  Jesse angled the little flashlight to point ahead and down. The effect of the small beam was almost negligible. There was so much ambient light reflected from the snow, he hardly needed the torch. He studied the spot Lee had pointed out as they hummed over it.

  “How far would you say we’re off the ground right now?” he asked her.

  Lee looked down, considering. “Twenty, maybe twenty-five feet,” she ventured. “I don’t think it gets much lower than this.”

  “Uh-huh,” grunted Jesse. He peered down, trying to reach the most acute angle possible. But the bottom half of the gondola blocked his downward view. “Can’t see if there’s any disturbances in the snow.”

  “Like ski tracks?” Lee asked him and he nodded.

  “Ski tracks. Footprints. Signs that someone landed in the snow.”

  “Damn!” he said finally. “We’ll have to check it on the ground.” He sat back, thinking.

  “They keep any snowmobiles up at Thunderhead?” Lee asked.

  “Bound to,” Jesse replied. “We’ll get hold of one and come back down for a proper look around.”

  “Anywhere else?” Lee asked.

  “There are three or four places that are possibilities. That’s the best of the lot so far.”

  The gondola had started to rise higher and higher from the slope of the mountain now and it was passing over the open, groomed areas of the Heavenly Daze ski run.

  “I doubt he’d try to get out here,” said Jesse. “Too high for one thing. And it’s a bit out in the open.”

  Lee shook her head. “I’m surprised that nobody saw him doing it, anyway. I mean, surely someone in one of the other cabins must have noticed a man hanging by a rope underneath the gondola?”