Page 108 of Threat of Danger
“The day I get lost in the woods is the day I hang up my Versquatcher hat.”
“All right.” The sheriff shook his head. “You have a radio. Call if you get yourself into trouble.” Then, with one last disapproving glance at Zak, he turned the boat around to go upriver, muttering about the overconfidence of young fools.
Jess sat with Derek’s arms around her. She watched Zak until she could no longer see him. He probably wanted to try communicating with Bertie again.
She shivered.
“Anything you want to tell me about the dead body at the bottom of the cliffs?” The sheriff squinted at them. With the spotlight on the water, he probably couldn’t see much.
“Crane attacked Jess on the top of Short Stack,” Derek said. “They went over. He fell on the rocks. She fell in the river. I jumped after her.”
When the sheriff said nothing, Jess asked, “Did you recover the body?”
“It’s secured. We’re waiting for daylight for recovery. Nothing we can do will save him now. No sense risking personnel on those rocks.”
They fell silent for a minute or two, only the sound of the outboard motor filling the night.
The sheriff kept frowning. Then he finally said, “Never figured him for one of them perverts. Used to hunt together. Neither of us likes venison, so we used to give the deer we shot to the homeless shelter. Then they got some new rules, wouldn’t take ’em no more.” He shook his head. “I stopped hunting, too old for it anyway. Crane kept going. Don’t know what he did with the venison after that.”
Fed it to the crows, Jess thought, and shivered. He’d fed those crows like pets. That was why the birds followed him around.
Derek tightened his arms around her middle. She lay her head on his shoulder and let his warmth surround her.
Sheriff Rollins took them to the bridge, where they were transferred into a waiting ambulance. The EMTs cleaned cuts and scrapes and put on bandages, two young guys in blue overalls, couldn’t have been more than twenty-five or twenty-six. Since Jess had been shot, they had her lying on the gurney, while Derek sat on the bench.
The sheriff promised to come by the house in the morning; then he closed the door before either of them could say anything. When the ambulance started up a second later, Derek took Jess’s hand.
She stared at the white ceiling.Principal Crane. Kaylee. The water. Then Derek...Too many thoughts circled in her head. She couldn’t line them up. “I can’t think straight.”
“Hypothermia does that,” the younger of the two EMTs told her. “I can get you another blanket.”
Heat seeped into her from Derek’s hand. “No. Thank you. This is OK.”
She spent the trip in a daze, her mind rerunning the events of the night as if she were watching back movie-shoot footage. She’d stop the recording, think,Holy shit, then rewind again.
She didn’t fully snap back into the here and now until they ran into Kaylee in the ER. The EMTs stopped with her for a second to update the intake person who hurried over to receive them.
“I’ve already been discharged,” Kaylee said. “Six stitches.” She showed off the bandage on her forehead. “I didn’t cry. I was tough. Abuelito was tough through heart surgery, right? We’re the tough kind.” She fought hard not to let her face crumple.
Jess couldn’t have been prouder of the girl or more impressed. After being kidnapped and threatened with death, Kaylee still had the presence of mind to think about her grandfather, and the fortitude to hold strong. She was going to grow up to be an exceptional woman. And Jess wanted to be there to see that.
Zelda hurried up, her face pale, her eyes red-rimmed, and put an arm around the girl while her gaze searched Jess. “Are you all right?”
“Barely a scratch,” Jess said. “They’re only bringing me in as a precaution. How did you get here?”
“Pam drove me.”
As if on cue, Pam popped up on the other side of the gurney. “You’re doing this to hook up with a hot doctor.” She tried to turn her worried expression into a teasing one, but didn’t entirely succeed. “Admit it.”
“There’ll be no hooking up.” Derek grumbled and took Jess’s hand.
Pam shot Jess a look that said,I knew it!Then,I can’t believe you didn’t tell me before.Then,You’ll pay.
Before Jess could think of what to say, the EMTs wheeled her through the swinging doors. Derek went with her. Everybody else had to stay back.
Jess was checked out and patched up in less than twenty minutes, then discharged. The retelling of the night, when they went up to Rose’s room to let her know everyone was all right, took longer than the doctor’s exam.
Jess’s mother didnothandle the news well that her gentleman friend was a serial killer. Jess had to assure her at least a dozen times that she didn’t blame her. “Come on, Mom.Nobodyhad seen that coming.”
