A Case of Syrah, Syrah

by Nancy J. Parra

  Laura’s absence was a puzzle. It seemed to me she couldn’t have been that far ahead of the rest of the group. If she had been, surely she would have waited at one of the sculptures for everyone to catch up. What would cause her to disappear?

  Millie and I hurried up the trail, which wound back into the woods with steep cliffs along the right side as you went. The trail was wide enough for two to walk side by side. There was no way she would have fallen. At least that was my assumption. I had kept a keen eye on some of the older women who seemed more fragile—yoga teachers or not, some were so skinny a stiff wind could have knocked them down. That was why I’d let Laura lead us down, but maybe that hadn’t been such a good idea after all.

  I was at a curve with a little bridge that went over a waterfall creek when Millie spotted her. Millie barked, and I let my gaze follow the dog’s nose, which pointed over the edge of a cliff. Under the cliff was a small stream. I saw Laura lying near the bank, very still. Her arms and legs were in odd positions. “Laura?” I called her name to see if she was responsive. “Laura?” My first reaction was to rush down to her, but I tempered that impulse, checking to see if I had any bars on my cell phone. I had four bars, so I called 9-1-1.

  “Nine-one-one. What is your emergency?”

  “Hi, I’m on a trail at Quarryhill, and I’ve got an unresponsive, injured woman halfway down the cliff face. Can you send help?”

  “I’m sending out a rescue crew now.”

  “I think I can reach her,” I said. “Can I go down and check for injuries?”

  “You said she was on a cliff face. I’d advise you not to go down. You could get hurt as well.”

  “It’s pretty steep, but there are lots of trees to hold onto and make my way down.”

  “I’m sorry, but we prefer you stay on the trail and wait for help.”

  “Okay,” I said. While I answered standard emergency responder questions about my location, I texted Dan: “Found Laura. She’s by the pond and is hurt. I’ve called nine-one-one.”

  Dan texted back. “Where are you?”

  “Near the waterfall where the pond goes down sharply.”

  “I’m coming.”

  I then texted Sally and the rest of the group.

  “We’re coming.” Sally texted back.

  “No!” I responded. “Safer to stay together near the van.”

  There was no answer, and I sighed. Sally was on her way whether I wanted her to be or not. I looked at Laura. Her curly blonde hair had twigs and bits of loam in it. “Laura,” I called. “Hang on. I’m on the phone with nine-one-one. Someone will be here soon.”

  Millie moved back down the trail and barked. Then Dan burst out of the trail, running toward me. “Where is she? Laura!”

  I grabbed him before he tumbled down the cliff. “Easy. They said not to go down there.”

  He jerked out of my hands. “That’s my wife.” Then he scrambled his way down to her, rocks and loam flying everywhere. “Laura, my goodness. Laura!”

  “What’s happening?” the emergency response operator called through my phone.

  “Her husband, Dan, is here. He just went down the cliff to her.”

  “Take a deep breath,” the voice on my phone advised. “I need you to stay calm.”

  “I’m calm,” I said. “When are they getting here?” I heard Sally and the group coming up the trail.

  “We’re here to help,” Amy said. They all peered over the edge to see Dan kneeling over Laura, calling her name.

  “A rescue crew is on the way,” I said. “Ladies, please, like I said, it would be best if you all went back to the van. One of you can direct the crew up the trail.”

  “Okay,” Sally said. “Let’s go, ladies.”

  “Amy,” I said, stopping her before she left, “can you stay on the phone with the nine-one-one operator? I really want to get down there and see what I can do to help.”

  “Sure,” Amy said and took my phone and started talking to the operator.

  I climbed down the edge of the hill. It was steeper than I had first thought, and I found myself sliding more than climbing. I grabbed trees to slow myself down. Finally, I made it to Dan and Laura. My heart was racing, and my breathing was fast. Laura was on her stomach with her head to one side. There appeared to be a gash on the back of her head that had bled profusely. Her arms were at odd angles, and one ankle was clearly broken, as her foot was facing the wrong direction. “Laura,” I said as I scrambled over to her. “It’s Taylor. Can you hear me?”

  Dan had tears running down his face. “We have to turn her over,” he said. “Help me.”

  I put my hand on his shoulder to stop him. “Don’t move her. You could injure her.”

  “She’s not talking,” he said, grief written on his face. “I can’t get her to talk to me.”

  “It looks like she hit her head. It could be a concussion. We can’t move her until we have a board to stabilize her neck.”

  He clutched her T-shirt in his hands, then rubbed her back over and over, rocking silent tears.

  I ran through what I knew. First aid taught to first figure out if the person was conscious. I touched her shoulder and gently jiggled it. “Laura?” She didn’t answer. Dan was right. She was unconscious. I found her wrist and checked for a pulse, but I didn’t find one. My heart was pounding pretty fast, though, so if her pulse was weak, my own pulse might be overriding it. I reached over to her neck. “Laura? Can you hear me?” I carefully stuck two fingers into the space at the side of her windpipe just below the jaw. I didn’t want to move her neck in case she had broken her spine as well as her ankle.

  I still couldn’t find a pulse, and a sense of panic went through me. I withdrew my fingers to find them covered in blood. She was bleeding from someplace other than the gash on her head. Dan’s face went white as a sheet at the sight of blood on my hand. My first instinct was to wipe it on my pants. I didn’t know what to do. She was facedown on the hill. Her hair and jacket hid any source of the blood. How could I help? Maybe stop the flow of blood by putting pressure on it? But if I turned her over, I could injure her further. I put my hand on her back, but she didn’t appear to be breathing. If she was breathing, it was too shallow to detect. I tried to clear the earth away from her mouth and see if her breath moved the dust. Time slowed. Did she need CPR? Should I roll her over and start it? What if it made her injuries worse? I hesitated only a moment to make the call to turn her over anyway. Not breathing trumped a possible spinal injury. I would have to turn her.

  “Is she all right?” Amy called from the trail, distracting me.

  “I can’t find a pulse,” I said to Dan, who sobbed. I looked up at Amy. “I’m afraid to move her in case her neck is broken. But she needs CPR.”

  “I got a text from Sally. The paramedics are heading up the trail. They said don’t touch anything.”

  “Okay,” I replied. It was best to do what the EMTs said. I kept my hand on Laura’s back and talked to her, trying to drown out Dan’s sobs. “Did you hear that, Laura? The paramedics are almost here. They’ll take good care of you and see that you’re brought back up the hill safely.” I patted her back and hummed a tune.

  Finally, a pair of deputies peered over the trail edge. “Hello? Is everyone okay down there?”

  I waved my hands. “Dan and I are okay, but Laura needs help desperately. I’m not sure she’s breathing. Should I start CPR?”

  “Stay put,” the taller deputy with a square jaw and straight nose told me. “The paramedics are coming down now.”

  “Hurry!”

  A man and a woman in paramedic gear looked over the cliff edge. The man had a rope hooked to his gear belt around his waist and half climbed, half slid down like I did.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes, I’m fine,” I said and stepped away from Laura. “Dan,” I said and gently pulled him back. “I was unable to assess the rest of the damage because I didn’t want to turn her over and chance breaking her neck.”

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sp; “I understand,” he said and motioned to the woman and deputies above. They sent a stretcher down on the rope. He unhooked it, left the stretcher on the bank, and hurried to us.

  He did the same thing I had—he first checked her wrist for a pulse and then her neck. “I’m having trouble finding a pulse.”

  Dan turned his head and lost his breakfast. The paramedic grabbed a blanket and covered his shoulders, forcing Dan to sit. “He’s in shock. How long has she been down here?”

  “We don’t know exactly. She was leading our tour group down the trail, but when we reached the bottom, she wasn’t there. So Millie—that’s my dog—and I went back up the trail to find her.”

  By the time I finished speaking, he had a brace around her neck. The female paramedic was down with us.

  “Help us turn her,” he said. “Gently.”

  I carefully put my hands under her knees. The female paramedic expertly handled Laura’s head. Laura rolled like a dead weight. Her eyes were open, but she was very pale. Her jaw hung loose. I could see that, even though I had tried to brush the dirt away, she had a mouth full of forest loam.

  Dan sat with his head in his hands, rocking and moaning her name over and over.

  The female paramedic carefully used a hooked finger to take the dirt out of Laura’s mouth and clear her airway. The male held out his hand.

  “Stop!” Everyone froze. “She’s bleeding profusely.” He pointed to a deep pool of blood on the ground where Laura had been. That’s when I noticed Laura’s face was ghost white, and a creepy feeling came over me. He carefully unzipped her jacket and pulled it away from her neck. A large corkscrew stuck out from underneath the neck brace. The handle dug into her collarbone, and it looked like the corkscrew was deep inside her.

  “Triage,” he said to his partner. He glanced up at us. “You need to let us do our job.”

  “Is she dead?” I asked. “That’s too much blood.”

  “What! No!” Dan scrambled toward us. The paramedic was strong enough to hold him back. “Laura? Laura!”

  The other paramedic hit the radio on her shoulder. “Deputy Pike.”

  “Roger that, Smith.”

  “Call detectives and the County Crime Scene Department out here. We’re going to treat the victim, but she was definitely attacked. We don’t want to further contaminate the scene.” She looked at me. “Smith” was older than me by twenty years. Her dark-brown gaze showed the same look the principal would give me whenever I was called to the office for pulling a prank. “Don’t move, lady. You’re in the middle of a crime scene.”

  I held my hands up and planted my feet. The two paramedics bundled Laura onto a stretcher and pulled her body up to the trail.

  Great, I thought and slowly put my hands down. My first wine country tour, and one of my guests may have been killed by a corkscrew. All that needed to be determined now was if it was an accident—she might have fallen on the corkscrew on her way down the cliff—or murder.

  “Are you okay?” Sally called from the trail.

  I looked up to see my entire tour group crowding the trail and looking down at me with curiosity.

  “Are they with you?” Deputy Pike asked as we looked at the group of women.

  “Yes,” I said and sighed. “I’m their tour guide.”

  More police showed up and pushed the women back. Crime scene techs came, and I was photographed where I stood. My first tour was a disaster. I swallowed hard at the thought. Laura was badly hurt and, from the amount of blood on the ground, was most probably dead. I barely knew her, but I had been responsible for her well-being. Guilt flooded me. I looked at Dan, who had crumpled to the ground in grief when they asked him to stay put. My heart went out to him, but I couldn’t move. Couldn’t hold him and let him rest on my shoulder. I couldn’t imagine having to wait while paramedics carted off someone I loved. No wonder he had lost it. I noticed my own hands shook, and I sat down, putting my head between my knees. The last thing they needed was for me to pass out.

  Poor Laura. Poor Dan. I’d always wanted to run my own start-up. I never dreamed something terrible like this could happen. I wrapped my arms around my knees so that the police officers wouldn’t see me tremble. I did my best to silently console myself. I’d never been in a situation this bad. That meant that things couldn’t possible get worse, right?

  Chapter 4

  The climb back up the hill was harder than the tumble down. They took Dan up on a stretcher since he had no strength left in him to make the climb. They tied a rope around my waist, and I walked up the hill clinging to the rope. I sat down next to a tree, unable to walk any farther. Around me, the women in the group were all in states of shock. Some cried quietly. Others rocked back and forth. One sat in lotus pose with her eyes closed as if meditating.

  “Miss O’Brian?”

  I looked up to see a handsome man looking at me flatly. It took a moment for me to realize it was the county sheriff. He had neatly cut brown hair and gorgeous blue eyes that had seen too much. He wore a well-pressed khaki uniform over his broad shoulders. “Yes?”

  “I’m Sheriff Hennessey. Can I ask you a few questions?”

  “Sure,” I said and stood. Someone had covered my shoulders with a green army blanket. Millie spilled out of my lap. I handed her leash to Amy and walked woodenly to the farthest corner of the clearing where the sheriff had stopped for privacy.

  “I’m sorry to report that Laura Scott was pronounced dead on arrival.”

  “Oh, my goodness.” I felt as if I’d been hit in the stomach.

  “I understand you’re the tour guide for the group.”

  “Yes,” I said and hugged the blanket to me, suddenly colder.

  He studied me for a moment. “Are you okay?”

  “No,” I said. “Nothing about this is okay.”

  He nodded and looked at a notepad in his hands. “Tell me what happened.”

  “When we finished the hike and sat down at the picnic tables to eat, Dan asked where Laura was. She wasn’t with the group, so I checked the gift shop and the toilets but couldn’t find her. While the rest of the group remained at the picnic area, Dan went up the trailhead, and I took the back way looking for her.”

  “I see.” He made a note. “Who’s Dan?”

  “Laura’s husband, Dan Scott. I’m not sure if you saw him. He was in terrible shock, and they took him up the cliff before me. I think the EMTs took him to the hospital to keep an eye on him. I know he wanted to go with Laura. I’m sure he’s at the hospital. Oh, my gosh, does he know Laura is dead?” Now I was babbling. I closed my mouth.

  “So the husband went one way, and you went the other.”

  “Yes. We were coming up the trail when Millie, my dog, stopped and barked. That’s when I saw Laura. It looked like she had fallen down the cliff face. It’s pretty steep. At first I thought maybe she’d stopped to take a picture and leaned too far over.”

  “But you didn’t see a camera.”

  “Well, most people take pictures with their cell phones,” I said. “I called nine-one-one and the operator told me to stay put, but Dan got here, and I couldn’t stop him from climbing down to help Laura. When the other ladies arrived, I gave the phone to Amy and went down to see if I could help him.”

  “But you couldn’t.”

  “There was so much blood, and I couldn’t find a pulse.” I shivered. “The ambulance crew came and turned her over. That’s when we saw the corkscrew driven into her neck near her collarbone.”

  “Any idea where the corkscrew came from?”

  “It looks like the one out of my van,” I said, “but I don’t know why Laura would have had it.”

  “You believe it was a homicide?” He raised his right eyebrow.

  “I don’t know. I think you know more about that than I would,” I said truthfully. I didn’t want to put ideas out there if they weren’t true.

  He narrowed his eyes at my response but didn’t press the issue, switching his line of questioning. “Miss O�
��Brian, when was the last time you saw Laura unhurt?”

  “We headed down the trail after hitting the prayer tree at the top, where Laura and I talked for a while. Afterward, I made my way to the back of the group to pick up the stragglers and ensure everyone’s safety.”

  “And where was Laura while you were ensuring the others’ safety?”

  “I’m sorry?” I said, confused.

  “You said you ensured everyone made it back safe, but Laura wasn’t in the group.”

  “She had a tendency to lead, so I thought she was at the front of the group.”

  “Did anyone go with her?”

  “Dan,” I said. “He was with her for a while, but then he came to speak to me about taking one of their marketing classes. I told him I didn’t need to, and we had a few words before he left. I assumed he was going back to the front of the group with Laura. But I don’t know for sure. I don’t remember. Why can’t I remember?”

  “You’ve had a shock,” he said. “Details will come back to you. So, you set up this tour?”

  “Yes, this is my first tour for Taylor O’Brian Presents ‘Off the Beaten Path’ Wine Country Tours.”

  “And how did you arrange this group?” the sheriff asked.

  “Well, I take a yoga class from Laura. She overheard me talking about my new tour business. She mentioned that she wanted to do a morale-boosting program for her team, so I suggested they try out my tour.”

  “So it was your idea to come hiking at Quarryhill?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I love this hike and thought it would be a great destination for my first wine country tour. When I told Laura, she agreed.”

  “And then she died here.”

  “It’s so tragic and very strange.”

  “I agree that having a corkscrew pushed through your artery is unusual, Miss O’Brian,” Sheriff Hennessey stated blandly. “Someone had to be pretty angry to come at her with the corkscrew. Looks like they used it like an ice pick. Whoever did it was either lucky or knew right where to put it to do the most damage.”

  I shuddered. “What a horrible way to die.”