California Schemin' - Kate George [3]
“I was up the tree because of the bear. Didn’t you see it?” I pointed to where the bear was still visible, standing in the water upriver.
He looked and noted the bear on his pad.
“You have blood on your hands. You touch the body?”
I looked down at my hands. I hadn’t realized they were bleeding.
“I grabbed her shirt and her arm, but it’s not her blood. I scraped my hands on the rocks running up the river.”
“And you were running up the river why?”
I nodded to where the two officers were now examining the body.
“I saw her fall from the bridge through my camera,” I said. In my head I was thinking, young lady? Who does he think he’s kidding? “I ran upstream to see if I could help her, but she’d been shot in the head.”
“Probably dead before she hit the water.” He scratched at the thinning hair on his head. “The question is, was she dead before she left the bridge.”
“She was still bleeding when I pulled her to shore.”
“Let’s back up here. Why don’t you tell me exactly what you saw? Start with …”
“I know, what I had for breakfast.” I hadn’t meant to cut him off, but it was out of my mouth before I could control it.
“Not quite that far back. How about your name and why you're up here today.”
“Bella Bree MacGowan. People call me Bree. I’m here, well, in California, because my boyfriend is doing some masonry work. He asked me to come, which is nice, except there isn’t much for me to do. I’ve been taking photos of the area to keep from going crazy. That’s what I was doing today.”
A cool breeze rippled down the canyon as afternoon turned to evening. Shadows crept up the sides of the canyon walls on the east side of the river. The air smelled clean, sweet even, but I was still damp from being in the river. I shivered.
“We came here a couple of weeks ago, and I thought I’d come back and take some pictures. I was shooting birds when a bright spot on the bridge caught my eye.”
“Wait,” Sheriff Fogel broke in. “You were taking pictures? Where’s your camera now?”
“Down the river. You must have passed it; my stuff is near the trail head.”
“Come with me. We’ll go retrieve it. Digital or film?” he asked as we walked.
“Digital.”
He led me down the trail and stopped at the flat spot where I’d left my stuff. I picked up my camera and clicked it on. I set the LCD display to review and handed him the camera. Fogel stepped into the shade so he could see the screen better, and I stood behind him so I could see what he was looking at. I’d taken the pictures, but I didn’t know just what I’d captured. He flipped through photos until he got to the bridge shots.
The images were too small and too far away for me to be able to see any detail, but I had snapped the crucial moment when she began her plummet from the bridge and several shots of the fall. I didn’t even remember my finger being on the button.
“Gather up your stuff. I want to get you out of here.”
Sheriff Fogel walked me down to the road before they brought the body down. He ejected my memory card and put it in his pocket and handed me my camera. I stowed my pack and camp chair in the rear seat and tried to keep the images of the dead woman out of my mind.
Sheriff Fogel put his hand on my arm as I went to get in the driver’s seat.
“Is there anyone at home?” His blue eyes scanned my face. Looking for a lie?
“My boyfriend should be home soon.” I pulled my phone out of my damp jeans pocket and flipped it open to see the time. “Probably before I get there anyway.”
“It’ll be better for you if you aren’t alone. Dead bodies have a way of preying on people’s minds.” He patted my shoulder and I wondered if he had a daughter of his own.
I didn’t tell him this wasn’t my first body and I knew the drill. If events followed the previous pattern, I figured I’d start shaking half way home and have to pull over for a while. Then I’d be fine.
Beau was sitting on the rustic porch swing when I drove up. We were living in a log cabin in the woods up Highway 49 north of Auburn.