Reichs, Kathy: Fatal Voyage

“Everything must be photographed and recorded before it can be touched.”

He bunched the blanket with both hands, his face pinched with pain. I knew exactly what he was feeling. The need to do something, the uncertainty as to what. The sense of helplessness in the midst of overwhelming tragedy.

“Please spread the word that everything has to stay put. Then search for survivors.”

“You've got to be kidding.” His eyes swept the scene around us. “No one could survive this.”

“If anyone is alive they've got more to fear from bears than these folks do.” I indicated the body at his feet.

“And wolves,” he added in a hollow voice.

“What's the sheriff 's name?”

“Crowe.”

“Which one?”

He glanced toward a group near the fuselage.

“Tall one in the green jacket.”

I left him and hurried toward Crowe.

The sheriff was examining a map with a half dozen volunteer fire-fighters whose gear suggested they'd come from several jurisdictions. Even with head bent, Crowe was the tallest in the group. Under the jacket his shoulders looked broad and hard, suggesting regular workouts. I hoped I would not find myself at cross purposes with Sheriff Mountain Macho.

When I drew close the firemen stopped listening and looked in my direction.

“Sheriff Crowe?”

Crowe turned, and I realized that macho would not be an issue.

Her cheeks were high and broad, her skin cinnamon. The hair escaping her flat-brimmed hat was frizzy and carrot red. But what held my attention were her eyes. The irises were the color of glass in old Coke bottles. Highlighted by orange lashes and brows, and set against the tawny skin, the pale green was extraordinary. I guessed her age at around forty.

“And you are?” The voice was deep and gravelly, and suggested its owner wanted no nonsense.

“Dr. Temperance Brennan.”

“And you have reason to be at this site?”

“I'm with DMORT.”

Again the ID. She studied the card and handed it back.

“I heard a crash bulletin while driving from Charlotte to Knoxville. When I phoned Earl Bliss, who's leader of the Region Four team, he asked me to divert over, see if you need anything.”

A bit more diplomatic than Earl's actual comments.

For a moment the woman did not reply. Then she turned back to the firefighters, spoke a few words, and the men dispersed. Closing the gap between us, she held out her hand. The grip could injure.

“Lucy Crowe.”

“Please call me Tempe.”

She spread her feet, crossed her arms, and regarded me with the Coke-bottle eyes.

“I don't believe any of these poor souls will be needing medical attention.”

“I'm a forensic anthropologist, not a medical doctor. You've searched for survivors?”

She nodded with a single upward jerk of her head, the type of gesture I'd seen in India. “I thought something like this would be the ME's baby.”

“It's everybody's baby. Is the NTSB here yet?” I knew the National Transportation Safety Board never took long to arrive.

“They're coming. I've heard from every agency on the planet. NTSB, FBI, ATF, Red Cross, FAA, Forest Service, TVA, Department of the Interior. I wouldn't be surprised if the pope himself came riding over Wolf Knob there.”

“Interior and TVA?”

“The feds own most of this county; about eighty-five percent as national forest, five percent as reservation.” She extended a hand at shoulder level, moved it in a clockwise circle. “We're on what's called Big Laurel. Bryson City's off to the northwest, Great Smoky Mountains National Park's beyond that. The Cherokee Indian Reservation lies to the north, the Nantahala Game Land and National Forest to the south.”

I swallowed to relieve the pressure inside my ears.

“What's the elevation here?”

“We're at forty-two hundred feet.”

“I don't want to tell you how to do your job, Sheriff, but there are a few folks you might want to keep ou—”

“The insurance man and the snake-bellied lawyer. Lucy Crowe may live on a mountain, but she's been off it once or twice.”

I didn't doubt that. I was also certain that no one gave lip to Lucy Crowe.

“Probably good to keep the press out, too.”

“Probably.”

“You're right about the ME, Sheriff. He'll be here. But the North Carolina emergency plan calls for DMORT involvement for a major.”

I heard a muffled boom, followed by shouted orders. Crowe removed her hat and ran the back of her sleeve across her forehead.

“How many fires are still burning?”

“Four. We're getting them out, but it's dicey. The mountain's mighty dry this time of year.” She tapped the hat against a thigh as muscular as her shoulders.

“I'm sure your crews are doing their best. They've secured the area and they're dealing with the fires. If there are no survivors, there's nothing else to be done.”

“They're not really trained for this kind of thing.”

Over Crowe's shoulder an old man in a Cherokee Volunteer PD jacket poked through a pile of debris. I decided on tact.

“I'm sure you've told your people that crash scenes must be treated like crime scenes. Nothing should be disturbed.”

She gave her peculiar down-up nod.

“They're probably feeling frustrated, wanting to be useful but unsure what to do. A reminder never hurts.”

I indicated the poker.

Crowe swore softly, then crossed to the volunteer, her strides powerful as an Olympic runner's. The man moved off, and in a moment the sheriff was back.

“This is never easy,” I said. “When the NTSB arrives they'll assume responsibility for the whole operation.”

“Yeah.”

At that moment Crowe's cell phone rang. I waited as she spoke.

“Another precinct heard from,” she said, hooking the handset to her belt. “Charles Hanover, CEO of Air TransSouth.”

Though I'd never flown it, I'd heard of the airline, a small, regional carrier connecting about a dozen cities in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Tennessee with Washington, D.C.

“This is one of theirs?”

“Flight 228 was late leaving Atlanta for Washington, D.C. Sat on the runway forty minutes, took off at twelve forty-five P.M. The plane was at about twenty-five thousand feet when it disappeared from radar at one oh seven. My office got the 911 call around two.”

“How many on board?”

“The plane was a Fokker-100 carrying eighty-two passengers and six crew. But that's not the worst of it.”

Her next words foretold the horror of the coming days.

“THE UGA SOCCER TEAMS?”

Crowe nodded. “Hanover said both the men and women were traveling to matches somewhere near Washington.”

“Jesus.” Images popped like flashbulbs. A severed leg. Teeth with braces. A young woman caught in a tree.

A sudden stab of fear.

My daughter, Katy, was a student in Virginia, but often visited her best friend in Athens, home of the University of Georgia. Lija was on athletic scholarship. Was it soccer?

Oh, God. My mind raced. Had Katy mentioned a trip? When was her semester break? I resisted the impulse to grab my cell phone.

“How many students?”

“Forty-two passengers booked through the university. Hanover thought most of those were students. Besides the athletes there would be coaches, trainers, girlfriends, boyfriends. Some fans.” She ran a hand across her mouth. “The usual.”

The usual. My heart ached at the loss of so many young lives. Then another thought.

“This will be a media nightmare.”

“Hanover opened with that concern.” Crowe's voice dripped with sarcasm.