Andrew Gross - One Mile Under

And they also kept track of the car traffic. All day.

“No run this morning?” Cammie said as Dani drove up, leaning out of her hut. The river had just been reopened and Dani waited at the gate until a few vans and buses from both Whitewater Adventures and a few competitors went on through. There was no kayak strapped to the top of Dani’s Subaru.

“I’m doing the bus pickup later this afternoon. Cammie, listen, you mind if I talk to you about something?”

“Not at all.” The ranger leaned out and looked down the road, seeing no one behind them. “Lots of doings out here these past two days. What’s on your mind?”

Dani pointed to the camera at the gate that recorded the license plates of all vehicles going inside the park. “You keep that thing on, don’t you?”

“Twenty-four/seven. Even after the gates are closed. State law.”

“And you keep the film here? From the past few days.”

They’d known each other for years, even though Cammie was about ten years older. But she’d been part of the park detail for a long time and Dani had been coming here since she was a teenager. Her booth had a picture taped up with her and her female partner. “Just what date are you looking for, Dani?”

Dani looked at her. “Last Tuesday. The twenty-second.”

Cammie looked back at her. “Tuesday was the day Trey Watkins was killed, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, it was.”

“That must have been rough.” The park ranger stepped out of her hut. “I know the two of you were friends. He still came out here a couple of times a week. He always seemed like a nice young man. Always called me ‘Judy Blue Eyes.’ Like from Crosby, Stills and Nash.” Cammie kind of blushed.

“Everyone liked Trey. And, yes, it was rough.” Dani nodded. “Thanks.”

“Seems kind of hard to believe. Happening where it did. That far downstream. Some people are saying it must have happened up around the Falls, and the current took him down. It sure seemed he knew what he was doing.”

“He did know what he was doing, Cammie,” Dani said. “That’s why I’d like to take a look at that film.”

The ranger’s eyes widened a bit, as she got the sense of what Dani was asking. “Everything I heard said it was just a crazy accident. Even the state parks team was here.”

Dani shrugged. “Look, I know this may not be one hundred percent by the book …”

“I’m not so concerned about by the book …” Cammie said. “It’s just that, it’s not here. It’s been handed over.”

“Handed over? Handed over to whom?” Dani said in surprise. “The Parks Service?” If everyone was so sure this whole thing was nothing but an accident, why would it dawn on them to take the film?

“Not the Parks Service. It was Chief Dunn who came and took it. Day after it took place.”

“Chief Dunn?” Wade? Wade had it all along. All the while he was saying this was just an accident. Cut and dried …

He was either hiding something from her, or he believed it, too.

“But we take ’em when people leave here, too.” Cammie pointed to another camera, this one facing the exit gate. “And he didn’t ask for that one. It’s all digital these days. Fine with me if you want to come in and take a look.”

He had it . The realization twisted inside Dani. Wade had it when she went into his office yesterday. When he made that big scene about her overreaching and butting out. It meant either that he suspected she was right—that Trey’s death was suspicious, and then Ron’s, too. Or worse, that he was protecting something.

He’d had it all along. Before she even found the helmet.

Which, after what Dani and Cammie saw was on it, also meant he knew …

There was a meeting under way at the police station. Another officer Dani didn’t recognize was manning the front, and Dani went right past him, the officer going, “Wait! Hold on. You can’t—” And she pushed open the door and barged straight into the chief’s office.

Wade was at the head of the small conference table with his one and only detective and another officer around it.

“You took it.” Dani glared at him.

“What?”

The two others at the table looked up in surprise.

“The camera roll from the ranger station at the river. On the morning Trey died.”

Wade’s face grew heated. “Dani, I’m gonna ask you to step out now, if you please …”

“Cammie said you came and got it two days ago. So you knew. You knew all along it wasn’t an accident. You knew there was someone out there even before I brought in the helmet yesterday.”

The air hung like lead. Wade put down his pen and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry for my stepdaughter’s outburst here. You all mind giving us five minutes and we’ll reconvene.”

The two of them left with a series of eye rolls and awkward glances that Dani knew would be around the station in two minutes. She realized this time she’d gone too far. She couldn’t help it. Wade had led her on. When the door finally shut behind them, he turned back and glared at her. “That’s my staff you just embarrassed me in front of. You do that again, and I don’t care if you’re my stepdaughter or not, so help me I’ll …”

“I’m sorry. I was out of line. But, Wade, you’ve had it all along. You let me go through that whole thing about Trey and Rooster and the helmet and the path I found … You know who it was, too. Who was out there that morning? Whose tire tracks I saw.”

“First of all,” Wade said, coming around the table, “it’s my job to look at anything that might—”

“That’s a load of bull, Wade. You told me Rooster was crazy. There’d be no reason to even request that film if it was all just an accident like you said. Unless you suspected there was something suspicious that went on out there. At least I’m damn well hoping that’s the reason for it.”

Wade leaned his hands against the table. “And what other reason might there be?”

“I don’t know. That you’re hiding something.” Dani didn’t back down. “That there was something on it you didn’t want anyone to see.”

Wade’s eyes took on a hardened expression, a space between hurt and outright anger. “That’s a mighty strong accusation, Dani, coming from someone who I’ve only been a friend to in life.”

“So convince me it isn’t, Wade. Who else has seen it? Who else did you show it to, if this was some kind of big investigation? I’m sorry if I don’t exactly believe you, but there’s a lot of recent history between us that doesn’t exactly rule that out.”

He swept his arm in anger, the papers on his table flying onto the floor. “I don’t have to convince you, Danielle. I’m the goddamn chief of police here! And whether there’s something there or not, that’s my role to determine, not yours. Just let me do my job!”

“Well, then do it!” Dani’s eyes lit up with accusation. “But next time you might want to requisition the exit tape as well. They keep it, Wade—just so there’s a record in case people get lost or stranded in the park. So they know exactly who’s still in there.”

Wade’s mouth opened a bit, and he stood there, as if he’d had a gun drawn on him.

Dani opened the manila envelope she had with her and removed the black-and-white photo. The one she made after she and Cammie looked at the film. She put it on his desk.

It was of a white Jeep Cherokee. Colorado plates. D69-416. “He came in at seven-oh-nine that morning. Just after Trey. And he left forty minutes later. Forty minutes, Wade! Just enough time for him to set up and do whatever he came to do and for Trey to take his first run.”