Read Online Death Canyon by David Riley Bertsch - Free Book Online Page A

desk.
    â€œAvalanche on Maelstrom—massive wet slide, like a cement factory overflowed. Killed one, the local guy. Before that, a European couple got friendly with a bear near the Gosling Lake overlook. One dead. Fucking insanity.” The chief shook his head. They were beyond earshot of the secretary and Terrell was talking like a city cop.
    Curious, Jake ignored the matter of the body in his trunk for the time being. “They get the bear yet?”
    â€œNo, but a team from Yellowstone is up there as we speak. Haven’t heard anything. Tell me your story, Trent, you’re not the type to drop in for a chat.” The chief was frantically searching for something on his desk among hundreds of sheets of yellow notebook paper.
    â€œWhat were his injuries—the victim, I mean? Has the coroner figured anything out?”
    The chief sighed loudly. “Cause of death has not technically been determined, but the man had serious head trauma and several deep bite wounds to his chest. What does that say to you, Einstein?”
    â€œScalp probably bitten or punctured . . .” Jake knew this was common with bear attacks. One annoying remnant of Jake’s past was that he was hopelessly curious about deaths and disappearances.
    â€œNo, scalp intact.” He looked up at Jake and sighed. “It seemed more like a blunt force injury resulting from a paw swat rather than a bite. A park ranger, Noelle Klimpton, said it looked like he had been pummeled by a boxer.”
    â€œWas the bear still around the scene, or are you working by process of elimination?” Jake didn’t intend to sound rude, but the chief stopped perusing and looked up.
    â€œJake, we are all happy you’re here and contributing to our community,” Terrell said facetiously, “but you can leave your big-city, Mr. District Attorney suspicions at home. We can handle the investigation.”
    Jake tilted his head back. He’d overstepped. It was time to move on. “You’d better follow me outside, Rog.”
    â€œYou’ve got to be shitting me,” he said, standing up, and the two walked out to the parking lot.
    â€œDammit!” the chief shouted as he peered into the back of Jake’s SUV. Despite, or perhaps because of, the grave circumstances, the chief seemed to abruptly change moods, looking as if he was going to start laughing.
    â€œUnbelievable!” Sure enough, he smiled in disbelief. “Well, looks like I’ve gotta take your statement. Then you can take him over to St. John’s. The coroner will relieve you of your . . . err . . . cargo. No place to put him here, and I don’t think people would react well if I sat him down in the waiting area.” The chief laughed. He sounded like a man on his way to having a nervous breakdown.
    *  *  *
    After taking Jake’s statement, the chief walked him back to the parking lot.
    â€œBe discreet,” he whispered as Jake got into his truck.
    â€œOf course,” Jake said.
    As if I’m going to take him to Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
    Jake checked his mirror before he backed up and then angled it down to make sure that no part of the man’s body was visible through the rear windshield of the car. He backed out of the police station’s parking lot and headed toward St. John’s .
    Only in Wyoming would an officer of the law ask a civilian to transport a corpse.
    Jake arrived at the hospital to find a man in a long, white coat waving him down. Obviously, Chief Terrell hadn’t forgotten to call. When Jake approached the garage door that the coroner pointed to, the man slid a key card through an electronic box in the cement wall. The garage door rose. Jake entered and parked in a spot near a set of double doors.
    â€œMr. Trent, I presume?” The coroner had a hollow and high-pitched voice, almost flutelike.
    â€œCall me Jake. And you