The Same River Twice
Page 20
“I know; this place is—”
“It was you, Silas. Everything else came second. I just got caught up in things.”
“Penny, I miss you.”
“When you come here, think of me, but don’t dwell. Life’s too short, too beautiful, too precious.”
“I’m trying.”
“There’s still one more, Silas. You’ve found Darcy and Kiel, but Tabby is still missing.”
“I wouldn’t know where to start.” He looked at the river curling before him, the sound of it, a gentle hiss where it pulled at the sand bank. He heard a raven overhead and when he looked up she was gone.
The words seemed to emanate from downstream, beyond Cataract Canyon, from the ghost of Glen Canyon. “For myself, I choose to listen to the river for awhile, thinking river thoughts, before joining the night and the stars.”
“I HOPE IT’S not too early to call.”
“I’m going to have to change my cell number, Dr. Pearson. But no, it’s not too early. We haven’t talked in what, six months?”
“Something like that. Listen, I wonder if you can tell me if you’re making any progress on the Tabby Dingwall case.”
“It’s funny you should ask. I was just reviewing that file yesterday. We’ve reached a dead end. Why?” Dwight Taylor’s voice dropped an octave. Silas thought he heard the skepticism there.
“I think I might be able to help you.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There are, as always, many people to be grateful to for their help in writing this book. None more important than my wife Jenn, who puts up with me crawling out of bed at five every morning so I can find time to write, and who has joined me on my explorations of the canyon country as I first conceived, and then completed, this series.
Taryn Boyd at Touchwood Editions has taken a chance on Silas Pearson and for that I’m grateful. Pete Kohut continues to create covers and designs that exceed the content between the pages, and Cailey Cavallin helps make sense of that content with her editorial prowess. Frances Thorsen, my story editor, keeps me on the straight and narrow, not letting me get away with too much creative license.
Supervisory Special Agent Jonathan B. Zeitlan of the FBI’s public affairs division was a tremendous resource throughout the development of this story. Stephanie Halmhofer, an osteoarchaeologist, has been critical to my research. Sheriff James D. Perkins Jr. of Garfield County, Utah, provided important insight into policing that vast, sparsely populated region.
I am particularly grateful to my hometown bookstore, Cafe Books of Canmore, Alberta. The support of a local bookseller is invaluable, not only for sales, but for moral support. The very real Back of Beyond Books in Moab, Utah, has been very kind in their support.
Darren and Devon from Moab’s Tex’s Riverways were part of the hive-mind that helped create this series, and have answered questions over the five years it took to pen these three novels. Thanks boys. Greer Chesher and Kim Crumbo have pitched in with great advice and research.
Finally, I am profoundly glad for the all the people who work to protect the landscapes and cultures of the American Southwest. In particular, my hat is off to the folks at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and the Glen Canyon Institute for their tireless work in defense of this profoundly beautiful landscape. I am grateful for your diligence and determination.
And finally, my thanks to Edward Abbey. I never met him, and maybe that’s for the best, but every one of his books inspired me; it was for him, and the landscape that he loved, that this series was written.
STEPHEN LEGAULT is an author, photographer, consultant, and conservation activist who lives in Canmore, Alberta. He is the author of ten other books, including The Slickrock Paradox and Black Sun Descending, the first two books in the Red Rock Canyon mystery series. Stephen has also penned four installments in the Cole Blackwater mystery series: The Glacier Gallows, The Vanishing Track, The Cardinal Divide, and The Darkening Archipelago, as well as The End of the Line and The Third Riel Conspiracy, the first two books in the Durrant Wallace mystery series. Please visit Stephen online at stephenlegault.com, connect with him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter at @stephenlegault.
OTHER BOOKS BY STEPHEN LEGAULT
Carry Tiger to Mountain: The Tao of Activism and Leadership
Running Toward Stillness
THE DURRANT WALLACE SERIES
The End of the Line
The Third Riel Conspiracy
THE RED ROCK CANYON SERIES
The Slickrock Paradox
Black Sun Descending
The Same River Twice
THE COLE BLACKWATER SERIES
The Cardinal Divide
The Darkening Archipelago
The Vanishing Track
The Glacier Gallows
The Glacier Gallows
A Cole Blackwater Mystery
Tragedy strikes during an expedition through Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. At the base of a windswept ridge that forms the border between Canada and the United States, Cole Blackwater finds the body of his business partner and former rival Brian Marriott, a bullet hole in his head. Cole’s long history of violence and his antagonistic past with the deceased put him in the spotlight of the murder investigation.
The fourth Cole Blackwater Mystery, The Glacier Gallows is a gritty, fast-paced mystery that will catapult the reader across North America, from Canada’s Parliament Hill to Alberta’s Porcupine Hills to Montana’s Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Cole, his brother, Walter, and reporter Nancy Webber must race against time to learn who really wanted Brian Marriott dead and why, before Cole himself ends up in the gallows.
The Third Riel Conspiracy
A Durrant Wallace Mystery
It is the spring of 1885 and the Northwest Rebellion has broken out. Amid the chaos of the Battle of Batoche, a grisly act leaves Reuben Wake dead. A Metis man is arrested for the crime, but he claims innocence. When Durrant Wallace, sergeant in the North West Mounted Police, begins his own investigation into the man’s possible motives, he learns there were many who wanted Wake dead. What Durrant uncovers is a series of covert conspiracies surrounding Metis leader and prophet Louis Riel. And, during the week-long intermission in Riel’s trial, he sets a trap to find Wake’s true killer.
The Third Riel Conspiracy is the second book in the Durrant Wallace Mysteries, a series of historical murder mysteries set during pivotal events in western Canada’s history.
A Quiet Kill
by Janet Brons
Selected as a finalist for the 2015 Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Crime Novel and for the 2015 Kobo Emerging Writers Award for Genre Fiction—Mystery.
The head of the Canadian High Commission’s trade section is found brutally clubbed and stabbed to death in the Official Residence in London, England. Scotland Yard’s Detective Chief Inspector Stephen Hay is called in to investigate, while Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Liz Forsyth is dispatched from Ottawa. There are a number of suspects from the diplomatic community: the High Commissioner and his beautiful wife, the smarmy head of the political section, the charming military attaché, the high-strung Deputy High Commissioner, and a deeply troubled engagements secretary. After a second murder, the case takes a turn and radical environmentalist Dr. Julian Cox becomes a suspect.
A Quiet Kill is the first in a new mystery series featuring Forsyth and Hay. Paired up for the first time, the two investigators must overcome insecurities and suspicions as they find themselves wading into the murky waters of the diplomatic community and navigating through a melee of international conspiracy, nationalism, and murder.
Copyright © 2015 Stephen Legault
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (ACCESS Copyright). For a copyright licence, visit accesscopyri
ght.ca.
TouchWood Editions
touchwoodeditions.com
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
Legault, Stephen, 1971–, author
The same river twice / Stephen Legault.
(The Red Rock Canyon mysteries ; 3)
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-77151-118-6 (html).—ISBN 978-1-77151-119-3 (pdf)
Editor: Frances Thorsen
Cover image: Stephen Legault
Author photo: Dan Anthon
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support for our publishing activities from the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and from the Province of British Columbia through the British Columbia Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.