Park rangers and local sheriff deputies filled the scenic trail within an hour. Yellow caution tape stretched across the entry to the rocky canyon ledge. Search helicopters hovered over the deep green forest canopy down in the valley.
Detective Frank Vance walked up the creaking wooden boardwalk with a notebook. He was a veteran investigator who knew these treacherous mountain trails very well. He looked closely at the loose gravel scattered near the edge of the rock.
Detective Vance: Miss Miller, I need to ask you a few routine questions.
Chloe: Of course, Detective. I still can't believe this terrible tragedy happened.
Detective Vance: Walk me through exactly what happened right before he lost footing.
Chloe: We were just taking a picture together near the beautiful view.
Detective Vance: Was he standing close to the edge when he slipped?
Chloe: Yes, he took a step back and the rock was so slippery.
Chloe dabbed her dry eyes with a paper tissue from her coat. She looked small, fragile, and utterly heartbroken in front of the officers. Vance nodded slowly, writing down short notes in his small spiral notebook.
Detective Vance: Search teams are down in the lower canyon grid right now.
Chloe: Have they found his body in the heavy pine forest yet?
Detective Vance: Not yet, the thick brush makes ground searching very slow down there.
Chloe: Please let me know the moment you find him, please.
Vance stared at her for a second longer than was comfortable. Something about her calm heart rate and dry eyes felt slightly off to him. But thousands of tourists made dangerous mistakes on these cliffs every single year.
Down in the dense forest valley, a search dog barked loudly near a stream. The search team rushed through the thick bushes toward a muddy embankment. Mark lay propped against a large mound of soft mud and pine needles.
A dense canopy of pine branches had broken his fall on the way down. His left leg was badly fractured, and his chest bruised heavily, but he was breathing. The heavy backpack he wore had absorbed the hardest impact against the ground.
Rescue Officer: We got a live survivor down here! Bring the stretcher now!
Mark: Water... I need water...
Rescue Officer: Hold still, son, you are going to be completely fine.
Mark coughed sharply, pain shooting through his broken ribs as he moved. He remembered the cold, calm look on Chloe’s face right before he fell. He remembered how she deliberately pulled her hand back instead of reaching for him.
The medical crew wrapped him in thermal blankets and secured his broken leg. They hoisted him up into the medical helicopter waiting in a small clearing. As the blades whirred overhead, Mark closed his eyes and made a firm promise.
He was not going to let her get away with what she did. He would pretend his memory was foggy until he could prove her crime. The helicopter flew fast toward the regional trauma hospital in the city below.
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