by Blake Pierce
He got the door unlocked and then opened it. Mackenzie handed the bag over to him as he gave her a scrutinizing look.
“You live here?” he asked.
“No. I’m actually here to see you.”
“Me?”
“Yes.” There was a moment where she panicked a bit, worried that she had left her badge and ID in her bag. She’d nearly not even carried it with her when she had packed for Nebraska, but she had eventually included it—out of habit more than anything else. She then felt the familiar shape of it in her back pants pocket. She took it out, showing it to Morgan. “I’m Agent Mackenzie White, with the FBI. I was hoping to ask you some questions about a young lady named Mandy Yorke.”
The response was immediate. Morgan’s face went slack and for a moment, he looked as if someone had literally punched him in the stomach.
“Well, that saves me the trouble of asking if you knew her,” she said.
“I, um…well, I haven’t really spoken to anyone about her since she died,” he said. “And…why is the FBI on this? Didn’t she just fall?”
“We don’t know. There are lots of questions we have. That’s why I’m here. See…as far as we knew, Mandy was by herself when she had her accident. But the photo history on her phone suggests that not only did you see her that day, but that you were likely with her during that last climb.”
The look of shock had never left his face, but it thickened as she said this. Morgan had not invited her in, but the few sentences they had spoken to one another had led them both through the door. For the time being, Morgan seemed fine with that.
“Photos?” he asked.
“Yes. There’s one of you dressed like you might be headed out for a climb or a run or something. And then, a few hours later, there’s a photo on her phone. It appears to be a selfie at first, but then it becomes apparent that someone else is holding the camera. So my questions to you is: What did the two of you do on the day she died? And if you indeed partnered with her on her climb, why did you not come forward?”
Morgan let out a sigh and dropped his grocery bags to the floor. When something broke inside one of them—a glass jar of some kind, by the sound of it—he seemed to not care. He then leaned against his kitchen counter as if wrestling with something.
“Malcolm, do you know what happened?”
What she was really looking for was any sort of guilt response. If it turned out that this guy was responsible for cutting Mandy’s line, she’d be back home much sooner than she had thought.
“Yeah, I climbed with her. For a while. I didn’t go all the way up. That’s why I never stepped forward when I heard she’d had an accident. I know how convenient that sounds on my part. But I swear…I only went halfway up with her. I think she planned to climb the rest of the way.”
“And this was on Exum Ridge?”
“No. Well, not my part of the climb. We um…well, we’ve sort of been seeing each other. And we had this spot we liked to stop at. It’s sort of this weird little cove-like area tucked into a crevice in the side of a wall some of the local climbers know as Exum Gate. That’s as far as I went with her that day.”
“Mandy’s roommate said Mandy wasn’t seeing anyone.”
“Well, yeah, I don’t guess she would have told her roommate. We were keeping it quiet. I—damn, this is bad. Look…I have a girlfriend. A fiancée, actually. She’s going to UCLA. I’ve been seeing Mandy on the side for a few months now. It wasn’t really anything serious…but serious enough for me not to want my fiancée to find out.”
There’s the guilt, Mackenzie thought, though it was not the sort of guilt she had been hoping for.
“Had you climbed with her before?”
“Yeah, eight or nine times. We found our little spot on Exum Gate on the fourth one.”
“And why did you stop there on the day she died?”
“The same reason we stopped the other times,” he said, starting to blush a bit. “It’s long enough to lay down, secure enough so you know you won’t fall. We’d sleep together up there. That day would have been the fourth time. I know it sounds perverted, but sex at that height…knowing those big open spaces are just a few feet behind you…”
Not wanting to hear any of the specifics, Mackenzie pressed on. “So why did you not go the rest of the way with her that day?”
“We sort of had a fight. Not a fight…just an argument. She said she didn’t want to do it anymore…me and her, messing around. She didn’t want to be second choice. I understood it but…well, I wasn’t ready to give her up. So I argued with her a bit, saying maybe I could call off the engagement. She said that only proved what type of man I am. And then she asked me to leave her alone. After that, I rappelled back down and she stayed there, in our little spot. I looked up a few times on my way down, but never saw her come out.”
“This place on Exum Gate…how hard is it to get over to the Exum Ridge climb?”
“Not hard at all if you know what you’re doing. You just have to climb up a bit more and then scale over to the left a few hundred feet. There’s a little ledge there along the face that’s wide enough to make an easy transition most of the way. Not really ideal for novice climbers, but easy enough if you’ve got some experience.”
“When did you hear she had died?”
“I still haven’t officially been told. Keep in mind, we weren’t telling anyone. Not even her roommate knew. I saw it on Facebook.”
“How did the two of you meet?”
“At a climbers’ meet-up a few months ago. Nothing official, just this get-together by a small climbers’ group on Facebook.”
“How often do these meet-ups take place?”
“About once every few months for this one group. But there are several of them around here. I don’t know how many of them meet, though.”
Mackenzie made a mental note of this, wondering if these groups might be worth exploring a little deeper.
“Why did you not come forward when you heard she had died? You were very likely the last person who ever saw Mandy alive.”
“I thought about it, actually. But what the hell was I going to say? If I had gone to the authorities, all it would accomplish is having to come clean about my affair while also making it public knowledge that Mandy was screwing around with an engaged guy right before she died. That doesn’t look good for either of us. Besides…like I said. We were just fooling around; it wasn’t anything serious.”
“Where did you go when your rappelled back down?”
“Back home. Here. I had a lot of work to get done.”
“Did you stop anywhere between Exum Gate and here?”
Morgan took a moment to think about it and Mackenzie did not think he was simply stalling. He was starting to show some genuine concern at this point, doing what he could to not only help but also ensure that he stayed out of trouble.
“Yes,” he finally answered. “I stopped by Starbucks. That was all, though. I came back here and worked the rest of the day.”
“And what do you do?”
“I do advertising for small businesses.”
“So you would have an e-mail trail of your work for that day?”
“Yes. Although I don’t know when I would have sent the first one. If you’re looking for some sort of alibi, I mean.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Please just stay in town for the next few days. We may need to question you again or potentially look at your phone and computer.”
“Of course. Whatever I can do.”
Mackenzie thanked him for his time and then made her exit, fairly certain that Malcolm Morgan was not the killer. And even though he hadn’t had any solid information, his story did give a better picture of what Mandy Yorke’s life had been like leading up to her death.
She thought back to standing on the edge of Logan’s View and looking down earlier. It had brought something to mind, something she had pushed down and tried her very best to forget. But she felt it trying to rise to th
e surface, trying to take center stage to remind her that—new mother and rising FBI agent or not—she still had some demons to face. And it looked like she’d have to face them by herself, more than half a country away from her family and any sort of support system.
CHAPTER TEN
When she returned to the station with Waverly, she found Sergeant Timbrook in the conference room again. She was sitting hunched over in a chair, changing into a different set of shoes. Having not been expecting such a sight, it was slightly funny to Mackenzie.
“Is this a bad time?” Mackenzie asked.
“Not at all,” Timbrook said with a chuckle. “Some of us are headed out to Exum Ridge in a few minutes. A park guide called in and said they’d discovered a little side winding trail that looked recently disturbed. I was going to call you before we headed out. I’m changing shoes because there’s a bit of a hike involved.”
“That’s perfect,” Mackenzie said. “That was going to be my next stop. Mind if I catch a ride?”
“Not a problem at all,” Timbrook said, lacing up her pair of sneakers.
Mackenzie was wearing sneakers as well, yet another reminder of how unorthodox this situation was. It was hard to stay in the agent mindset without the usual attire. Yes, she had her badge and ID, but without the clothes and her sidearm, it felt quite weird indeed.
The ride out to Exum Ridge was a short one, Timbrook driving them back into the park and then sketching along the boundaries of it. They parked in a lot that was similar to the one situated behind Logan’s View. This time, the hike ahead of them looked to include a drastic slope that was heavily populated with trees. Mackenzie looked at it with skepticism, wondering if she was physically fit enough to do it. She felt like she was in shape but she had to remind herself that the C-section had heavily affected her core strength.
There were five of them in all as they started climbing the trail that would lead them to Exum Ridge. Timbrook led the way, followed by Mackenzie and Officer Waverly. Behind them were two other policemen—a younger officer named Petry and a tall gaunt man Timbrook had introduced as Deputy Miller. Miller kept mostly quiet but his posture and staunch face made it clear that he did not appreciate having to make such a climb. Mackenzie wondered if he was among the many in Timbrook’s office who believed both recent deaths had been nothing more than accidents.
Mackenzie did her best to focus on staying alert and aware of her own limitations. She assumed McGrath had figured there was no way she’d be doing anything as grueling as this when she came out to check on this case. It was frustrating because the hike would not have affected her at all a year or so ago. But she could feel the weakness in her abs and the hesitancy in her once-strong legs. She knew they were still strong, but they had been out of commission for a while—and a few trips to the gym over the last few weeks simply wasn’t cutting it.
“The fact that people do this for fun,” Waverly said, “blows my mind.”
Behind him, Deputy Miller grunted. Mackenzie looked over at him and noticed that he was sweating. She then looked back to the ground, ignoring the protests of her legs and the uneasiness in her abdomen.
It took them fifteen minutes to get to a stretch of land that was mostly flat. It led to yet another incline, this one not as steep and much easier to traverse.
“Over here,” Waverly said. “I think this is the trail they were suspicious of.”
Everyone walked over to look at where he was pointing. Mackenzie saw a very thin trail that led down into the forest, starting with a downhill pitch that leveled out about twenty feet down and wound ahead of them toward Exum Ridge.
“You mind checking it?” Mackenzie asked Waverly. “Look for any signs of someone rushing through—maybe even of an altercation. I imagine this is going to dump out pretty close to Exum Ridge, so we should be seeing you soon.”
Waverly looked to Timbrook for guidance, and she nodded. Waverly gave a little nod and started down the trail, taking the downward slope carefully.
“How much further to Exum Ridge?” Mackenzie asked.
“Maybe another five minutes,” Timbrook said.
Mackenzie did her best to hide her discomfort as they soldiered on further down the hiking trail. On occasion, she’d catch sight of Waverly further off to the right, partially hidden by trees and deadfall as he made his way down the sketchier trail. Using him to distract her from the pain in her legs and abdomen, she was relieved when they came to the end of the trail much sooner than she expected.
They all stopped and looked up at Exum Ridge. It loomed upward like some giant sentinel. Although Mackenzie knew that it was just a little over seventeen hundred feet high, she could easily envision it puncturing a hole in the sky from where she stood.
“So this is Exum Ridge,” Timbrook said. “Exum Gate is about two hundred feet over that way,” she said pointing to the right.
“But this is where Mandy Yorke’s body was found?”
“That’s right,” Miller said, stepping up closer to the first drastic incline that quickly became a mountain in front of them. “Right here. She landed face down, with her right leg caught under her, cleanly broken in half. I’ve seen a few accidents out here on these peaks, but this one was the worst.”
“Any idea how experienced Yorke was?”
“Well, I’m not exactly a rock climber, so I wouldn’t know a novice from an expert,” Timbrook said. “That’s why Petry came along today. He’s the go-to on that sort of thing.”
“You climb?” Mackenzie asked.
“Yeah, but just for fun,” Petry said. “I’m not obsessed like some of the people that come out here. That climb over from Exum Gate to right here would be a little too scary for me.”
Mackenzie looked up to the rock face in front of her and looked to the right. Exum Gate was about two hundred feet over, angled upward. Looking up in that direction made Mackenzie’s head feel a little swimmy. She felt those memories from the past come rushing forward, now blaring like the horn of some big truck that was about to run her over.
Behind that horn, there were other murky things…coming in waves, crashing on the shore and then being pulled back out.
“…you have to get it done. Just be careful and you can do it. It’s easy. You can…”
Swirling earth below her and the only thing she could see clearly was the blood.
And she had to get down, had to get down quickly and…
Mackenzie shook the memories away, feeling confident that they were so close that she could rope them down at any time if she chose to do so. For now, though, there was the rock wall right in front of her, the junction between Exum Gate and Exum Ridge.
“Officer Petry, the police report said that there were several pieces of gear recovered at this very spot. Do you recall what they were?”
“A length of rope, several carabiners, and her helmet. It was all easy to identify because there were initials in magic marker on the underside of the helmet: M.Y.”
“Mandy Yorke,” Timbrook said.
Mackenzie again looked up to the rock wall in front of them. She wasn’t quite sure what she was looking for. If Mandy Yorke had fallen to her death, there would be nothing this low to tell what had happened. Still, as she scanned upward, she saw several small outcroppings along the edge of the wall. A few of them would make getting started quite easy—after, of course, making it the first twenty feet or so without any assistance.
She thought she saw something on one of those outcroppings—a small ledge that jutted out from the wall about two feet from the looks of it.
“Timbrook, I need to double-check my eyes,” she said. She pointed up at the little outcropping, squinting her eyes. “You see something right there?”
Timbrook followed Mackenzie’s finger and nodded slowly. “Yeah. There’s something up there. Looks…orange, maybe? It’s too hard to see from here.”
Mackenzie looked around to see if anyone had brought any climbing gear, already knowing the answer. She then looked back up
at the outcropping and her heart started to thrum in her chest. Slowly, she took a step forward toward the wall.
What the hell are you doing?
It was a fair question. She knew what she was doing and with each step, those memories grew stronger and stronger.
The world, swirling below, her feet dangling. The shape of her instructor on the ground down below, doing his best to remain strong so she wouldn’t freak out.
“You can do it, Mackenzie. Don’t let the fear get to you. You know what to do. You can get down. You can—”
“Agent White?”
She looked back to a concerned Timbrook. She then shrugged and crouched down, rubbing her hands in the dirt along the ground. When she had a nice grimy coating of dirt and dust, Mackenzie approached the rock wall and glanced up to the object on that little outcropping.
Now that she was standing directly beneath it, she estimated it to be about twenty or twenty-five feet overhead. The rock wall that led to it was not smooth at all, providing plenty of textured areas, crags, and crannies for convenient footholds. She reached up for the first one, her hand trembling slightly and her heart basically in her throat.
“Agent White,” Timbrook said again. “What the hell are you doing?”
Mackenzie thought about chasing a murderer around the perch of a tall water tower somewhere in her recent past. But her mind delved even further back than that, seeing her own dangling feet and an injured instructor beneath her, bleeding on the ground.
“It’s okay,” Mackenzie said, looking back at the lower rock wall of Exum Ridge. “I used to do this. And I was pretty damned good at it.”
With that, Mackenzie sank her fingers against the first available handhold and started to climb.
Right away, she found that it was easier than she expected. The first few handholds and footholds were well worn, likely the result of countless kids trying to see how far up they could get before their parents scolded them. But after about ten feet or so, it became trickier. Mackenzie had to search for grips and scramble with the soles of her well-worn Nikes—not the best footwear for scaling the side of a mountain.