Fatalis by Jeff Rovin

wanted to personally brief reporters about the status of the investigation in the Santa Ynez Mountains and then get back to work.
    Use the press when you need them
, Hannah thought. Hannah and the Wall were there, along with reporters from the
LA. Times
, the weekly
Santa Barbara View
, several local radio stations, and the network TV affiliates from Los Angeles. Hannah always sat in the front row of the small auditorium. It was tougher for Gearhart to ignore her from there. She set her tape recorder on an empty seat beside her-there was always an empty seat beside her-and took a stenographer's notebook from her shoulderbag. Hannah usually filled several pages with questions, though she always starred two or three of the most important. Usually, that was all she got to ask.
    The press conference started nearly fifteen minutes after four as Gearhart was late getting in from the mountains. Hannah wondered if the delay was intentional. Gearhart was a skilled politician. He may have wanted to create the impression that only the responsibility of calming the public could tear him from the field. Chairperson Andrea Danza, a young Santa Barbara native, took the podium to introduce Sheriff Gearhart. Chairperson Danza claimed to have problems with Gearhart as well, though she only confessed those off-the-record, woman-to-woman. She, too, was a skilled politician.
    In usual Gearhart fashion, it wasn't so much a conference as a recitation; the sheriff said he wouldn't take questions until the end when, of course, he would be in a hurry to return to the scene.
    Gearhart began by saying that the sinkhole on the road itself had been cleared out. There was a map of the Santa Ynez Mountains behind Gearhart and he called on Dr. Thorpe to explain how there was a series of fissures that wound through the mountain, possibly connecting to the cavern where Jim Grand had found the radio. Though she and a deputy had made a cursory examination of the fissure Stan Greene had entered, they had found no trace of the engineer other than the backpack. The sheriff said that both backpacks had been removed from the site and were being studied by the crime lab for "the three Fs" -fibers, fingerprints, fluids-as well as any other "remnants." He indicated that while Greene's backpack appeared to be intact, there were gashes on Bill Roche's backpack that were also being analyzed. He didn't want to speculate about what had caused them, though he said that nothing was being ruled out.
    Gearhart then revealed that "the team" had also found a flashlight, apparently belonging to Bill Roche. It was discovered in a cavern beneath the cave where the radio had been found. The sheriff speculated that it had been washed down with the radio and said that nothing else had been located.
    Overall, Gearhart said, the search-and-rescue effort now consisted of twenty-four deputies covering the ravine, the roadway, and the surrounding mountains-a total of twenty square miles. He also indicated that helicopters would be watching the surrounding area for fresh sinkholes or persons such as hikers or campers who might have seen or encountered the engineers. When Dr. Thorpe returned to the site, she would lead a better-equipped unit into the Painted Cave fissures to make a more complete exploration.
    Regarding possible explanations as to where the men had gone, Gearhart still believed they'd be found in the area, possibly in the fissures. He acknowledged that a great deal of blood had been reported at the site and that it was lost in the second-phase collapse of the road. That was one reason he thought Roche may have ended up in the sinkhole. Looking directly at Hannah, he said that speculation regarding "criminal activity" was "irresponsible and premature." He said that he had declared the site a crime scene primarily as a precaution to prevent the accidental obliteration of clues.
    Gearhart sat and Chairperson Danza returned to the podium.
    "Thank you, Sheriff Gearhart." Danza looked