job of being a mountain goat even though his heart was slamming hard against his rib cage. He was about halfway to the bottom when, without any warning, his feet slipped across the smooth surface of a rock and shot out from under him.
Del Rio twisted his body, grabbed at the branches of a manzanita with both hands. His flashlight jumped away from him, bounced, and rolled downhill-and then Del Rio lost his tenuous hold and began skidding downward, his whole body sliding over rocks and dirt and grasses until, forty or fifty feet later, the ground came up and dumped him hard on his ass.
CHAPTER 77
Del Rio was scraped and shaken, but he hadn’t slammed into anything on the way down. He rested for a moment, then got to his feet and made for his flashlight, which was, miraculously, still throwing light. Huffing, he picked his way across the rough terrain and closed in on young Piper Winnick.
She was on her back, her arms flung out like broken wings. Her white cotton nightgown was ripped and dirty, hiked up to her breasts, exposing her panties. She was wearing one shoe, a match to the slipper Danny had been holding in his hand.
Del Rio knew Piper was gone, but he hunched down beside the girl and put his hand to her neck.
He couldn’t find a pulse. He listened to her chest. No heartbeat. Her body was still warm to his touch. He didn’t want to accept it, but Piper was dead and that was a sin. No other word for it.
Del Rio wanted to straighten her limbs, cover her body, close her eyes-acts that would destroy the crime scene, which this almost certainly was.
He flashed his light over Piper’s face, tracked the dried blood to a wound at her temple-and saw that her skull was crushed there, caved in.
He used his light and his camera phone to catalogue the skull wound, the bruise on her arm, scrapes on her thighs, the blood trailing down her pale skin, indications that Piper had been alive when she’d gone over the cliff.
Playing his light up the canyon wall, Del Rio saw dozens of big rocks, any one of which could have cracked Piper’s skull.
Danny. That fucking kid.
Screwing young girls wasn’t enough. He’d moved up a few levels to physical aggression. Had Piper tried to get away from him, made a misstep, and fallen? Or had Danny shoved her over the edge on purpose?
Del Rio remembered the way Piper had looked yesterday morning, giddy with life. He could still see her in that yellow dress, holding on to her hat, saying her lines in a girlish voice with an Italian accent. He remembered the look of joy on her face when she got into that fast car with Danny.
He tried to remember what Danny had looked like when he’d floored the accelerator, but he couldn’t picture him. Del Rio had been looking at the girl.
Del Rio imagined getting his hands on Danny, knocking his teeth out, breaking the bones in that too-pretty face. He was twenty years older than Danny, but he could still do some damage to a wimpy piece-of-crap kid like that.
Del Rio stood up. He had tears in his eyes as he looked at Piper’s body. Her last minutes had been filled with fear and pain. A nice young girl like that.
“You were having a good day, Piper. A good life. I’m sorry this happened to you.”
Del Rio opened his cell phone and dialed Justine.
CHAPTER 78
Bugs circled Justine’s dying beam. She whacked her flashlight with her palm, and the light flared briefly, then dimmed again.
Damn it.
Justine was pissed at herself for taking Danny’s Mayday call seriously. He’d gotten her and Rick out of bed at four a.m., and now where was Danny?
Run off again with Piper.
Justine was wearing espadrilles, the wrong shoes to be hiking up this obstacle course of a path that started at the back of the cabin and led to only God knew where.
Add that to Danny’s management team: Schuster, Barstow, and Koulos were following her single file, murmuring too softly for her to make out what they were saying to one another. Except that she’d heard her name a couple of times, so she knew they were talking about her.
Blaming her for Danny Whitman’s escapade.
The unbelievable nerve.
The Whitman job was not worth what Private was being paid, not even close, and she was going to do something about that when she got hold of Jack.
Her cell phone rang, an incongruous bar of upbeat music. It had to be Rick saying that he’d found Danny. She hoped that whatever the problem was, it was minor or solved or both.
She dug in her jacket pocket and got her phone in hand just as the path emptied into a clearing. The faint circle of her flashlight beam revealed a heap on the ground.
It was Danny.
He was half naked, barefoot, sitting with his arms locked around his knees, rocking and keening.
What was this now? Was Danny having a tantrum or was he actually in trouble?
Schuster broke past her and ran to Danny, calling his name.
Barstow barked, “Can I have that?”
He snatched her flashlight out of her hand and jogged over to where Schuster had pulled Danny into his arms and was crooning to him, “What’s wrong, buddy? Where does it hurt?”
Justine’s phone was ringing again. She turned her back on the group and put the phone to her ear.
Del Rio was panting and his voice was ragged.
“The girl is dead. I’m coming up the canyon right now. Don’t let Danny leave.”
“What girl? You mean, Piper? Rick? Are you there? ”
Del Rio had clicked off.
CHAPTER 79
Justine sensed movement behind her and she whipped around. Merv Koulos was right there, standing so close she could smell Tic Tac on his breath.
The producer’s homely face was crumpled like a paper bag and he was shouting at her, “Do you see this, Dr. Smith? Danny is having a breakdown. We hired you people to watch him, and now I’ve got a mental case on my hands. My crew is showing up on set tomorrow, and you think Danny’s going to be up for that? Every day that we don’t shoot is three hundred grand right down the-”
“We’ve got a bigger problem, Mr. Koulos. Much bigger.”
“You’re telling me? I’m going to sue you for criminal negligence. I’m going to sue you personally.”
Justine saw Rick’s light bobbing as he reached the top of the incline. She left Koulos in midrant and went to Rick.
He was winded, trying to catch his breath. He gasped, “Looks like Piper was killed by a blow to the head. Could have happened as she fell down the cliff. I can’t tell if she was pushed or what.”
Danny pulled away from his agent and lurched over to Del Rio.
