Trey hadn’t been alone yesterday morning. Someone had definitely been here.
“Who the hell would want to kill Trey?” Wade screwed up his eyes, staring at the helmet Dani dropped on his desk.
“I don’t know who’d want to kill him. But I told you he was wearing a helmet and he was. You see any significant dents on it anywhere? Don’t you think if he received a head injury severe enough to kill him, there’d be some evidence on it somewhere?”
Wade’s response was laced with impatience and rising frustration. “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to think.” He took off his glasses and looked it over. “And you’re saying this proves what …?”
“It proves he wasn’t wearing it when he sustained his head injury. And the next question would be, Wade, how do you explain it coming off?”
“Don’t teach me my job, Danielle. And I don’t know how the hell it came off. Maybe he hit his head aside a rock. Maybe he took it off himself for some reason. To breathe. To take a leak for all I know. But this is all starting to cross the line. You’re coming to me with this helmet, claiming it was Trey’s, and that someone made their way down the rocks and then did what, lay in wait for him, to kill him …? Not even knowing for certain if he’d even be there.”
“I know how it sounds. But Trey did a seven A.M. run a couple of times a week, so it wasn’t a long shot that he’d be there. And I was looking around on the ridge above where I think it all might have happened and I found something else.”
“You did …?” Wade’s look of impatience was now amped up into the range of exasperation. “Surprise me, Danielle.”
“I found a path. In the brush above the river. Leading back to the road. From exactly the spot where Trey had to have been killed.”
“You mean where you think he had his accident, Dani. And if I need to remind you, there are paths all over the heights above that river. You and I have been through dozens of them. I don’t see what one more proves.”
“This one leads directly from the road to the spot just above the Baby’s Rattle.”
“The Baby’s Rattle …?”
“It’s a rapid on the upper Cradle where I think Trey was killed. Look, I know how it sounds, Wade. But I also found fresh tire marks near the road where that particular path came out.”
“Dani.”
“Which means someone else was there, and—”
“Dani!” She stopped. Wade sat back down. “We’re dealing with a lot here. And this is starting to strain my nerves. Someone kills Trey in the river and then sabotages your pal Ron’s balloon to keep it covered up?”
“He’s not my pal, Wade. He wasn’t even a friend. But that’s not even the point. The point is … I don’t know what it is …” She sat down, trying to lay out her argument with everything swimming around crazily in her head. “The point is we all know Trey could have done that run with his eyes closed. So how does he just upend, lose his helmet, crack his head. And then couple that with what Rooster saw …?”
“What he claimed to see …”
“What he saw, Wade. He knew exactly what Trey was wearing. And with Trey’s helmet not being on him … and those fresh tire marks on this path. I just think it’s something worth looking into. If you’re not so interested, maybe someone at the Aspen Times might be. Or Sheriff Warrick.”
Wade stared back at her, and this time with a lot more than merely frustration. “You must be kidding, young lady.”
“I’m not kidding, Wade.”
“You know what you’re saying?”
“I’m just saying someone else might find this all adds up to something. Enough to look into. Did you check the balloon?”
“This is really starting to cross the line for me. Did we check the balloon for what?”
“I don’t know. For anything that looked … suspicious.”
Wade glared. “Course we checked it, Dani. Teams of people who know what the hell they’re doing have been over it all day. The outer fabric is pretty much a burnt-out mess. And what are we looking for anyway? A rip? A tear? If what you’re suggesting is true, some person sure went to an awful lot of trouble and risk to cover up the death of a basically broke, adrenaline-junkie, joy rider.”
“What about a bullet? That could have caused it, right? It could have torn right through.”
“You’re starting to sound crazy now.”
“All I’m asking is if anyone heard what may have been a shot going off nearby?”
Wade stood up again, came over to her, and sat himself on the edge of his desk. “What the hell is it about this, Danielle? This has gone too far. I know he was a friend. I know there are parts of all this that don’t somehow add up to you. But no one else is seeing it that way. What they’re seeing is a guy who may have gotten a bit too reckless and maybe misgauged how much water there was out there, which is exactly what the investigator the Parks Service sent agreed it was today.”
“I know that river, Wade. No one knows it better than me—”
“But you’re not a cop, Dani. You’re a river guide. A smart one, maybe, but you’re way overreaching here. And when you say silly things like you just did, about bringing in the press, more than they already are, it’s starting to strain my patience to even listen to you. There are families coming here to retrieve their loved ones and there’s zero tangible evidence to get everyone riled up that says it’s anything other than two tragic, but unrelated events.”
Dani stood up. Frustration ran heatedly through her blood, too. It all made sense to her, at least to a point. But Wade had one thing right. One thing she couldn’t answer. Trey wasn’t exactly the type to have enemies, so why, why would anyone want to do this to him?
Wade’s shoulders sagged and he let out a resigned breath. “I tell you what …”
“What?”
“I’ll talk to Allie.” Trey’s wife. “I’ll see if there was any reason anyone would want to do him harm. Not that I believe there was, you hear me saying. But that’s a start, right?”
Dani looked at him. The blood eased out of her face. She nodded. “You could check out those tire marks, too,” she added. Then finally she gave him an accepting and contrite shrug, even a smile. “Yes. It’s a start. Thanks.”
“All right then. But the only reason I’m even agreeing to this is for you to stay out of it from this point on. No more detective, okay? It’s getting people riled up. Especially me. We’re opening the river back up tomorrow. Please, get your ass back on it.”
Dani nodded again, against her better instincts. “Just ask her, okay?”
“And I don’t want to hear any more threats about taking this to someone. Or I’m gonna have to figure out something else, Dani. To keep you out of it. We agree?”
“What do you mean by something else, Wade?”
“I don’t know. Just don’t. Understand? I need you to promise me.”
She looked at him. “Rooster wasn’t drunk, Wade. He knew what Trey was wearing. He saw something. He just didn’t feel he could bring it to you.”
“I said I need you to promise me, Dani …”
Her face was still flushed and red. She kept looking at him and he didn’t