32 years ago, he had stood at the edge of a waterfall. He had been just shy of 30, one of the youngest detectives in Transylvania County. The call came on a drizzly Wednesday. A honeymooning couple hadn’t returned from Hooker Falls near the state forest. Their rented Cherokee, luggage, and a few possessions were left behind.
The falls were monstrous. Three days of mountain rain had pushed the Little River into something with real force and indifference. Dellray swept a flashlight beam across the churning pool below and felt the dread immediately—knowledge arriving before evidence that something irreversible had already happened.