Anna Pigeon 07 Liberty Falling by Nevada Barr

Author:Nevada Barr [Barr, Nevada]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Mystery Fiction, Women Sleuths, Pigeon; Anna (Fictitious character), Women park rangers, Statue of Liberty National Monument (N.Y. and N.J.), Ellis Island (N.J. and N.Y.)
ISBN: 9780425237359
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2010-10-05T07:00:00+00:00

"Nope. People used to. One day a leaper was bound to land on a ranger or a visitor, so in the seventies we built a fence on the bridge above. This one walked to the end of the fence and jumped. She landed between the fort and the bay."

"A kid?"

"A middle-aged lady. Just divorced. Walked out around eleven o'clock one morning in September. Put her wedding band and her shoes on the rail and over she went."

"Hatch found her?"

"No. That's why it stuck in my mind. He came on duty later. The body was gone. Maintenance was mopping up. Yet he got, not hysterical--Park Policemen don't--but withdrawn. He talked about it a lot, like somebody who'd seen it would. After his shift there were wildflowers tossed on the place she hit. Didn't have to be Hatch. The lady's friends or a relative could have come and done it. But it was on Hatch's shift."

The Park Service, without being stiff-necked or hard-hearted about it, quietly discouraged private memorials on public lands. Not always easy in the southern and southwestern parks, where it was common practice for the locals to put a great Styrofoam cross bedecked with plastic roses at the site where the dearly had departed. Roads in New Mexico were strewn with these makeshift shrines.

"Interesting." Anna filed the information away with other fragments. "I'm off to the wilds," she said. "Thanks for talking."

"As long as it's just curiosity," Trey said, his feet going back up on the desk. "We've got people here to look into these things, just like you do in the 'real' parks out west."

From the derision in his voice, Anna guessed his heart was set on a western assignment but his hopes weren't high. The western parks were a little on the snobby side, as Anna thought only right and fitting.

"See you," she said by way of farewell.

"Be careful."

Anna wondered if he meant in her poking around on Islands II and III or poking around in James Hatchett's business.

As she stepped out of the registry building into the breezeway between it and the old powerhouse, the small company of actors was chattering back to the hall for the last performance of the day. Mandy was still with them, squished sausagelike into Corinne's costume, a sour look on her moon face. The ethereal blonde was evidently still AWOL.

"Macho Bozo was here again asking for Corinne," the black actress said.

"I wish he'd ask me for her. I'd give him a piece of more than my mind," Knickers and Cap replied.

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