Chapter 2 - THE COLONEL WHO DIDN’T BELIEVE THE HUSBAND
The helicopter belonged to the Colorado Army National Guard and had been assisting civilian authorities with a mountain search after the storm changed conditions across the park.
Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Mercer was aboard as mission commander.
His crew had not come searching for Emma.
At least that was what Michael would later believe.
A rescue technician reached her from the hovering aircraft.
Emma was conscious but hypothermic, bruised and experiencing regular abdominal contractions.
“Who’s with you?” the rescuer shouted.
“My husband.”
“Did you fall?”
Emma grabbed his sleeve.
“He pushed me.”
The technician’s eyes sharpened.
“Say that again.”
“My husband pushed me.”
By the time Emma was hoisted into the aircraft, Michael had already begun constructing another story.
He told a park ranger that Emma had become hysterical after discovering his affair with Ashley.
She rushed toward the edge.
He tried to catch her.
She slipped.
Ashley stood several feet away, arms crossed tightly over her chest.
“Is that what happened?” the ranger asked.
Ashley looked at Michael.
Then toward the helicopter disappearing through the snow.
“Yes.”
It was the first formal lie.
Emma reached a Front Range hospital alive.
Her obstetric team found signs of fetal distress after the fall and cold exposure.
Several hours later, after attempts to stabilize both mother and baby, Emma delivered a daughter by emergency cesarean section.
The child was small, angry and breathing.
Emma named her Grace.
Michael did not know.
Hospital security had been informed that Emma alleged her husband had deliberately tried to kill her.
Her chart was restricted.
The National Park Service opened an investigation.
Daniel gave his initial statement before leaving the hospital.
He had not seen the first shove.
But he had seen Michael crouched over Emma near the edge.
He had seen what looked like a struggle.
And when the searchlight reached them, Michael’s first movement had not been to wave for help.
He had pulled Emma downward.
Daniel made certain that detail went into the official mission report.
Then he visited Emma.
“You’re Colonel Mercer?”
“Lieutenant colonel. Most people ignore the lieutenant.”
Despite everything, Emma almost smiled.
“Why were you there?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Search-and-rescue support.”
Something in his answer felt incomplete.
Emma was too exhausted to pursue it.
“Michael thinks I’m dead, doesn’t he?”
Daniel looked toward the investigator standing outside the room.
“He may believe you couldn’t have survived the fall.”
Emma looked at Grace sleeping beneath a clear bassinet cover.
“Don’t correct him yet.”
The investigator—not Daniel—answered.
“We’ll handle information about your status carefully, but I can’t promise what he’ll learn or when.”
Emma nodded.
She did not want fantasy.
She wanted procedure.
Before Daniel left, she caught his sleeve.
“Colonel.”
He turned.
“You said you didn’t come looking for me.”
“That’s right.”
“Then why did your searchlight find that exact cliff?”
Daniel’s expression changed.
“Someone asked us to.”
Emma stared at him.
“Who?”
May you like
Daniel looked toward the door.
“That’s the part investigators are trying to understand.”
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