Page 129 of The Killing Plains

“Like hell.” Colly tried to sit up, but her head throbbed.

“Best not to move.”

“Where am I?”

“In the hospital in Big Spring. You’ve been out of it for a couple days.”

Colly blinked. She looked around. “What happened? Where is everyone? Is Satchel—?”

“Satchel’s fine—he’s at the ranch with Iris. Russ and Avery will be right back. When I got here, they asked if I’d sit with you while they grabbed some supper.”

With another effort, Colly struggled up onto her elbows. “What happened to me?”

Niall pushed a button, and the head of the bed rose slightly. “You should rest. Don’t think too much.”

“Ever tried not to think? I’ll rest better if you’ll answer my question.”

Niall sat down in a chair beside the bed and crossed his long legs. He studied her face. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

She closed her eyes, forcing herself to relax. “I was in the big tent at the Rodeo.”

“Do you remember why?”

“I was looking for Brenda.” Colly opened her eyes. “She killed Denny.”

A look of pain crossed Niall’s face. “I still don’t know how you figured that out.”

“Avery checked security footage of a road we suspected the murderer travelled. She saw a minivan with a Texas Tech sticker on the back.”

“Brenda’s.”

Colly nodded, wincing as the movement made her head throb. “I realized she’s the only person who could’ve known about the hare’s mask you left on Adam. She put one on Denny so investigators would think there was a serial killer.”

“But I never told her about the mask.”

“Yeah, you did.”

Niall’s expression changed. “That’s why you asked if I talk in my sleep?”

“It was the only thing that made sense. I thought I remembered her mentioning it, but I called you to make sure.”

Niall’s hand went to his forehead. “It was my fault.”

“You’re not the psychopath. Brenda is.”

“She’s not, though.” Niall leaned forward. “She asked me to test her once, when we were dating. She’s the opposite—an idealist, high on the empathy scale.”

“Who cares what you call it, if it amounts to the same thing?”

“Do you remember finding her?”

Colly stared at the ceiling and tried to think back. She’d been pushing her way through the hot, crowded tent, she knew. But the specifics came only in flashes of disconnected imagery—a bucket of snake heads. Talford at a picnic table. Avery’s face, tense and earnest.

She shook her head. “It’s mostly a blank.”

“She had Satchel in the back room. When you caught her, she threw him in the snake pit. Don’t worry,” he added quickly. “He wasn’t bitten. He had a balloon that apparently distracted the snakes. Paramedics said there were three sets of fang marks in the latex.”

Colly had a sudden, vivid memory that twisted in her gut like a physical pain—the red balloon bobbing against her face as she lunged for Satchel, the feel of his t-shirt slipping through her fingers, her hands closing on air.

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