Fresh Grave in Grand Canyon by Lee Patton

Author:Lee Patton [Patton, Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781636790480
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2021-12-01T23:11:55+00:00

Chapter 8

Mile 73

Ray and Jenny chaperoned from the rear as Faith led most of the crew on an evening tour of the ancient Puebloan settlement at Unkar Delta.

“Not that I’m superstitious,” Jenny told Ray, “but I think I’ve become the target of some powerful curse. Was there a canyon god I forgot to pay homage to? A prayer I forgot?”

A thick, brooding sky roiled over the remnants of the vanished settlement. Just ahead, the volunteers followed Faith from ruin to ruin like obedient schoolchildren.

“I will thank the gods for Dr. Faith Brattle,” Jenny said, scanning the clouds and gray whiskers of rain high on the Kaibab Plateau. “She’s willing to focus our energies and play tour guide. Thank the gods everyone is together, engrossed, and behaving themselves. This gives me breathing time before nightfall and the prospect of another sleepless night.”

Ray fully understood how desperate Jenny had been to make it over Hance and Sockdologer, the steep, complex rapids ahead, before nightfall, then to make camp in Granite Gorge before pulling into Phantom Ranch first thing in the morning. But the gods under whose curse she labored had other plans. After a smooth float through the reddish shales of the Unkar Formation, they reached new trouble at usually innocuous Tanner Rapid. Its unexpected new channel had misled Glen into craggy shallows where Last Chance scraped its chine on sharp rocks. Luckily, the worthy craft did not begin to take in water in any quantity until they reached Unkar. Running its longer and steeper rapid would require some patching.

At this moment, Glen and Duke were setting the marine caulking in place. This broad, hundred-acre delta was where they had to make camp before nightfall, eight river miles shy of where Jenny wanted to be. “It’s strange how Glen’s story came true,” Ray asked Jenny, “isn’t it?”

“You mean the lie you said he told the Canadians? That we’d stop at Unkar? A meaningless coincidence, I’m sure. I hope. Unless Glen has decided to become a conspirator as well.”

“Conspirator?”

“Ray, how do you think I felt when I came down that steep trail above the Little Colorado, after having seen nothing but yucca and one terrified jackrabbit? Then to watch the Canadians as they launched off, waving goodbye, around Cape Solitude? You even said everyone seemed to band against you.”

“I didn’t mean they were against me, exactly. They all just formed this insurmountable wall of resistance. They were determined to shut the Canadians out and not let me get a word in edgewise.”

“You mentioned the lost phone, didn’t you? Why couldn’t you just have blurted out that one of us was killed at Little Bert’s?”

“Jenny, come on. It was as if our group formed this force field to shut me out. If I went against that, I would’ve lost everyone’s trust.”

“Trust!” She lowered her voice to an exasperated hiss. “Who needs the trust of accessories to murder?”

“You’re upset, Jen. You haven’t had any sleep, and you’re exhausted from that crazy noon hike. That’s why you’re sounding so paranoid now.

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