Too Near the Edge by Lynn Osterkamp Page A

water—that I can’t imagine him falling
accidentally. When he was a teenager he went off a trail, slipped
on some wet rock next to a mountain waterfall and fell into the
rapids. He was lucky he didn’t drown. Instead, he got tossed onto a
rock that was right in the middle of the waterfall. But he had to
be rescued, and he had a fractured skull and concussion. So he’s
been extra careful ever since.”
    “I can see how that would bring on an
attitude shift,” I said. “So what do you think happened at the
Grand Canyon?”
    “The rangers said he went off the trail,
stood too close to the edge, slipped on some icy rocks, lost his
balance and fell off. They told me Adam fit the profile of the
person at the highest risk of a fatal canyon fall—a young male
hiking alone. But Adam was the opposite of a reckless tourist. You
can see why I don’t think it sounds like him.”
    Did Sharon think someone had pushed Adam over
the edge or he had jumped? I didn’t want to be the first one to say
it. So I asked, “Do you have any reason to think Adam was in some
kind of trouble?”
    “Lately he had been working long hours,”
Sharon said. “His office was in the remodeled garage next to the
house, and he was out there all the time. When he did come back
into the house, he was so tired he hardly talked to me or Nathan.
Since he died, I’ve found out that his web-design business had
financial problems. I’m sure he didn’t want to tell me about it. My
dad always thought Adam was a goof-off, and Adam desperately wanted
to prove him wrong.”
    “Your father and Adam didn’t get along?”
    “Well, Nathan’s father, Joel, was one of my
father’s graduate students in behavioral psychology before he
dropped out and left. Dad was furious at Joel for leaving, but
still kept hoping he would come back. Even though we never heard
from him and had no idea where he was. When Adam adopted Nathan,
Dad took it hard. We had to run notices of intent in the paper and
try to find Joel before the adoption, so he had a chance to
respond. Dad thought for sure Joel would show up and stop it. But
he never did, and the court let Adam adopt Nathan.”
    “So your dad saw Adam as taking the place
where Joel should be?”
    “Yes. But Dad was wrong about Adam. He
thought that because Adam was a high-school dropout who got a GED
and went to community college, he would never amount to anything.
As you can see, Dad doesn’t exactly give anyone a break. But Adam
was smart and worked hard, and his business had been doing well. In
fact, I still don’t understand how he could have been in debt.”
    “You say you think the financial problems
were part of what was preoccupying him. Do you think there was
something more bothering Adam lately?”
    “I do. He looked worried. And he sort of
seemed to be somewhere else a lot of the time. I’d be talking to
him, and he’d be staring off into space over my head. I don’t know
what was going on with him. He said he had a lot of things to think
about. He’d go out and hike up Mt. Sanitas to clear his mind, but
when he got home he wasn’t any calmer. That wasn’t like him.
Usually getting out into the mountains by himself was all he
needed.”
    “Is that why he went to the Grand
Canyon?”
    “Yes. Somehow he got it into his head that if
he could go there and hike around the rim, he’d feel much better. I
didn’t really want him to go—it’s so far and it was April when you
can run into some major snow storms in the mountains. But he was
dead set on it. He started telling everyone he knew that he was
going on a ‘midlife crisis trip.’ Which was really dumb because he
was only 37.
    “So are you thinking that if you contact Adam
you can find out what really happened?”
    “It’s the only thing I can think of to do
now. Nobody believes me that it wasn’t just some stupid accident.
The rangers didn’t exactly say it but I could tell they thought it
might be suicide. But I don’t think Adam would