Sour Grapes

over.”
    Dirk looked around the dry, dusty ground. “Don’t see no drag marks. No scuffle marks.”
    “But the girls and I were running and walking all over this area,” Tammy said, “before one of them spotted the body. I’m afraid we would have messed up any tracks that were here.”
    “Did you run any farther down the road?” Savannah asked,
    “No, this is as far as we came. And I told them not to touch anything or do anything except run straight back to the center. Then I took off running. I couldn’t wait for them to catch up.”
    “You did good, Tam.”
    Savannah listened as Dirk called Dr. Liu and informed her of their discovery. Her team would be arriving soon, along with the Search and Rescue crew.
    Walking along the edge of the precipice, Savannah looked for something... anything... and found nothing. Then she saw it: a large, round impression in the dirt, nearly two feet across.
    The indentation was almost directly over the place where Barbara Matthews was hanging on the cliff face below.
    She tossed her key ring to Tammy. “Get my binoculars,” she said. They’re in that black case in my trunk.” While Tammy did as she was told, Dirk and Ryan joined Savannah at the cliff and peered along with her over the edge.
    “What you see?” Dirk asked, squinting down at the body.
    “What is it, Savannah?” Ryan strained to see as well.
    “I’m not sure. Just a second.”
    Tammy returned with the binoculars, and Savannah used them to study a large object at the base of the cliff. “ That’s what I thought,” she said, handing the binoculars to Dirk. “Check out that big rock down there at the bottom. See it? The one right by the water’s edge.”
    Dirk adjusted the focus on the binoculars, then nodded. “Yeah, okay, I see it. So what? There’s a bunch of rocks down there. A million of ‘em.”
    He passed the binoculars to Ryan, who also took a look.
    “Can you see that circle of dirt stuck on one side?” Savannah asked Ryan.
    “Yes, I see it there on the left.”
    Savannah pointed to the impression in the ground. “It’s about the same size as that,” she said. There was a big rain a couple of nights ago. That’s why the river is so swollen right now. The rain should have washed the dirt off that stone, like it has all the other rocks down there. That stone has fallen since the rains.”
    “Or somebody pushed it over the edge,” Tammy added.
    “Exactly.”
    “Why do you suppose they would shove a big heavy rock like that one over the edge?” Dirk said.
    They thought for a moment; it came to them all at once.
    “Somebody threw her over,” Savannah said, echoing what the others were thinking. “And they intended for her body to go all the way to the bottom, maybe even be swept away by the river.”
    “But she got caught on that bush,” Dirk said. “Bummer.”
    “Yes,” Ryan said, “and they pushed the rock over the edge hoping it would dislodge her body.”
    They all stood there quietly, thinking, the only sound that of the river flowing below.
    “Gross,” Tammy said softly. “ Yeah,” Savannah replied. “Really gross.”

Chapter

13

    T he county fire department’s Search and Rescue team wasted no time rappelling down the face of the cliff to reach their patient. But once there, it took only a moment for them to confirm everyone’s worst suspicions: Barbara Matthews was now within reach, but far beyond help.
    The Moonlight Magnolia gang stood by and watched as the litter, with her body strapped to it, was lifted from below.
    “I just feel so sick,” Savannah said.
    “Man, I know what you mean,” Dirk replied. He pulled his hand out his jeans pocket and rubbed his stomach. “That donut thing that Fluff Head brought us didn’t sit too well without some real breakfast to go with it.”
    “That Tammy brought ms? Those donuts were mine, and if the one you ate gave you an upset stomach, you deserve it. I’m talking about this situation here, Mr. Sensitivity. I mean, the kid was a booger, but I hate it that this happened to her.”
    “Yeah, especially while you were on duty, so to speak.”
    Savannah shot him poisoned look. ‘That’s strike two. Another comment like that, and I’m outta here.”
    “No you’re not. You’re hanging out, just like I am, to see if she got shot, perforated, or mutilated. And there’s the lady who’s gonna tell us.”
    He nodded toward a long white station wagon that was coming up the road, raising clouds of dust behind