There had been little doubt about what had happened. Her blouse had caught on a rock on the ledge, leaving a scrap of it fluttering in the wind. The conclusion that she’d either accidentally fallen or jumped was later changed to suicide after more information had come in about Naomi’s state of mind in the days before her death.
Add to that the coroner’s report. Cause of death: skull crushed when victim struck the rocks below the cliff after either falling or jumping headfirst.
But his son Hank had never accepted it and had never forgiven his father for not investigating her death longer, more thoroughly. Hank had believed that Naomi hadn’t fallen or jumped. He was determined that she’d been murdered.
Unfortunately, the evidence said otherwise, and Hud was a lawman who believed in facts—not conjecture or emotion. He still did and that was the problem, wasn’t it?
Hank felt dizzy and sick to his stomach as he watched Frankie make her way out to the edge of the cliff along the narrow ledge. She had her cell phone in her hand. He realized she was taking photos of the trail, the distance to the rocks and water below as well as the jagged rocky ledge’s edge.
As she stepped closer to the edge, he heard a chunk of rock break off. It plummeted to the boulders below, and his heart fell with it. The rock shattered into pieces before dropping into the water pooling around the boulders, making ripples that lapped at the shore.
He felt his stomach roil. “Get down from there,” he called up to her, his voice breaking. “Please.” He couldn’t watch. Sitting down again, he hung his head to keep from retching. It took a few minutes before his stomach settled and the need to vomit passed. When he looked up, Frankie was no longer balanced on the ledge.
His gaze shot to the rocks below, his pulse leaping with the horrible fear that filled him. There was no body on the rocks. No sign of Frankie. He put his head back down and took deep breaths. He didn’t know how long he stayed like that before he heard the crunch of pine needles behind him.
“I’m sorry,” Frankie said. “I should have known that would upset you.”
He swore and started to get to his feet unsteadily. She held out a hand and he took it, letting her help him up. “I’m usually not like this.”
She smiled. “You think I don’t know that?”
“You should have told me you were going up there,” he said.
“You would have tried to stop me,” she said and pulled out her phone. “I needed to see it.” She looked up from her screen. “Have you been up there?”
“Not since Naomi died, no.”
She frowned, cocking her head. “You’ve jumped from there.”
“When I was young and stupid.”
Nodding, Frankie said, “You have to push off the cliff wall, throw your body out to miss the rocks and to land in the pool. Daring thing to do.”
“Helps if you’re young, stupid and with other dumb kids who dare you,” he said. “And before you ask, yes, Naomi knew I’d jumped off the ledge. She was terrified of heights. She couldn’t get three feet off the ground without having vertigo. It’s why I know she didn’t climb up there on her own. Someone made her.”
“Sometimes people do things to try to overcome fears,” Frankie said and shrugged.
“Naomi didn’t. She was terrified of so many things. Like horses. I tried to teach her to ride.” He shook his head. “I’m telling you, she wouldn’t have climbed up there unless there was a gun to her head. Even if she’d wanted to kill herself, she wouldn’t have chosen that ledge as her swan song.”
With that, he turned and started toward the truck, wishing he’d never come back here. He’d known it would be hard, but he hadn’t expected it to nearly incapacitate him. Had he thought Naomi would be gone? Her soul released? Not as long as her death was still a mystery.
Frankie didn’t speak again until they were headed back toward Big Sky. “At some point you’re going to have to tell me why your father doesn’t believe it was murder.”
“I’ll do one better. I’ll get a copy of the case file. In the meantime, I’ll show you Big Sky. I’m not ready for my parents to know the truth yet.”
She nodded and leaned back as if to enjoy the trip. “I timed how long it took me to walk up the trail from the bridge to the ledge. Eleven minutes. How long do you think it would have taken Naomi?”
“Is this relevant?”
“It might be.” She turned to look at him then. “You said the coroner established a time of death because of Naomi’s broken wristwatch that was believed to have smashed on the rocks. We need to examine the time sequence. She left you at the ranch, right? The drive to the cliff took us ten minutes. She could have beat that because at that time of the evening in early fall and off season, there wouldn’t have been as much traffic, right?”
He nodded.
“So if she left the ranch and went straight to the bridge—”
“She didn’t. She met her killer at some point along the way. Maybe she stopped for gas or... I don’t know. Picked up a hitchhiker.”
Frankie shot him a surprised look. “From what you’ve told me about Naomi, she wouldn’t have stopped for a hitchhiker.”
“It would have had to be someone she knew. Can we stop talking about this for just a little while?” He hated the pleading in his voice. “Let me show you around Big Sky, maybe drive up to Mountain Village.”
She nodded and looked toward the town as he slowed for the turn. “So Big Sky was started by Montana native and NBC news co-anchorman Chet Huntley. I read it is the second-largest ski resort in the country by acreage.” She gazed at Lone Mountain. “That peak alone stands at over eleven thousand feet.”
He glanced over at her and chuckled. “You’re like a walking encyclopedia. Do you always learn all these facts when you’re...working?”
“Sure,” she said, smiling. “I find it interesting. Like this canyon. There is so much history here. I’ve been trying to imagine this road when it was dirt and Yellowstone Park only accessible from here by horses and wagons or stagecoaches.”
“I never took you for a history buff,” he said.
She shrugged. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
He didn’t doubt that, he thought as he studied her out of the corner of his eye. She continued to surprise him. She was so fearless. So different from Naomi. Just the thought of her up on that ledge—He shoved that thought away as he drove into the lower part of Big Sky known as Meadow Village. His mother was right. Big Sky had changed so much he hardly recognized the small resort town with all its restaurants and fancy shops along with miles of condos. He turned up the road to Mountain Village, where the ski resort was located, enjoying showing Frankie around. It kept his mind off Naomi.
* * *
“SO YOU MET the woman Hank brought home?”
Dana looked up at her sister, Stacy. They were in the ranch house kitchen, where Dana was taking cookies out of the oven. “I thought you might have run into them this morning before they took off for some sightseeing.”
Her sister shook her head. Older than Dana, Stacy had been the wild one, putting several marriages under her belt at a young age. But she’d settled down after she’d had her daughter, Ella,