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Kayla picked up the necklace and was examining it.
Nate covered Alex with the other blanket. Kayla handed the necklace to Nate to inspect. She brought out some of their protein bars, and LJ pulled bottles of water out from their own backpacks.
“Are the bottles warm?” Kayla asked, and she was right, Nate was thinking. Warm drinks and energy-rich foods were fine for someone who had hypothermia, as long as they weren’t going into shock. But with mild to moderate hypothermia, it could help them passively rewarm their own bodies.
“Yeah,” LJ said. “They’ve been sitting in the sun.”
“Okay, they’ll be fine,” she said.
“You found the necklace in the river,” Nate said, looking up from his examination of the necklace, not asking a question.
“No, I got it for my girlfriend,” Alex said, stuttering from being so chilled.
Nate could smell his deception. “Why would you carry the expensive necklace in your jeans pocket on a hike?” They could have been faux diamonds, but even those could be expensive. “Okay, here’s what really happened and why Chris nearly lost his life. You found the necklace in the water, thought it was worth a fortune—we heard you yelling about it from where we were—and you lost it. You shouted at Chris to grab it. He did, tossed it to you, and you shoved the necklace into your jeans pocket. Then he lost his balance, being too close to the edge of the cliff, and went over it.”
LJ and Chris looked at Alex, waiting for him to tell the truth.
“Okay, yeah, but it’s for my girlfriend. I found it, so finders, keepers…”
Nate shook his head. “The way it works is this. You turn it over to the police, and they determine if it’s been reported stolen.”
“There have been several jewelry store heists in neighboring towns, so it could be from one of those,” Kayla said.
“Uh, okay.” Alex and his friends looked at the necklace as if it were cursed now.
“A park ranger we know is coming to get you guys, so he can take the necklace into custody and turn it over to the police. The heists were armed robberies, so you probably don’t want to have anything to do with the necklace if it was taken during one of the thefts,” Nate said.
“Uh, no,” Chris said.
“Thanks to you both for saving my friends,” LJ said, quickly changing the subject. “They’re both my best men at my wedding.”
“I think we’ll stick to a girl in the cake next time we have a bachelor party,” Chris said, still shivering badly. “But hell yeah, thanks so much for saving my ass back there. I would never have made it up that cliff if you hadn’t come back to aid Alex in helping me. All I could do was just cling to those slippery rocks. I kept thinking of what you’d said to me about those people dying and how it would never happen to me. Ever. But then, you know, I’m thinking LJ was going to be going to my funeral, delaying his wedding, and then dealing with me not being in attendance. And the whole thing would really have sucked. Especially since it was all because I was trying to save the damn necklace that probably was from a jewelry store robbery.” He cast Alex an annoyed look. “For your girlfriend?” He scoffed.
“Sorry, Chris. Yeah, thanks for helping me saveChris,” Alex said to Nate. “I would never have gotten Chris up that cliff on my own. And I might not have made it back on my own either. Thanks to both of you. And for calling for help. Chris lost his cell phone in the river; mine and Alex’s were out of juice.”
Kayla asked them about the wedding, getting their minds off Chris’s near-death experience. But Nate was thinking if they didn’t even have phones that worked, that was truly foolhardy.
Within the hour, Eric Silver and his rescue team arrived and took all three men off Nate and Kayla’s hands. Nate was glad to see Eric there. He couldn’t believe he’d be seeing so many of the Silver brothers and cousins today.
“We have a bit of a situation,” Nate said. “The men found this diamond necklace in the stream and were trying to grab it before Chris went over the falls. It could be from one of the recent jewelry store heists in the area.”
“I’ll turn it over to the local authorities, and we’ll do a search in the area for any other signs of more jewelry,” Eric said privately to Nate and Kayla.
“Good because Nate risked his neck to save that man and his friend,” Kayla said.
“So did Kayla,” Nate said.
“That’s why they’ll be charged and fined for not obeying the rules. People like that need to respect the rules for their own safety and others. On another subject, I heard you found a dead body.”Eric would have since his brother CJ and cousin Tom had been at the crime scene.
“We did,” Nate said.
“And he was wearing a ski mask,” Kayla quickly said.
“A ski mask in this heat?” Eric shook his head. “Sounds like he might have been one of the robbers.”
“That’s what I’m thinking,” Nate said.
“I’ll alert Peter about the necklace. I heard you two were on a honeymoon of sorts. Congrats are in order.”
