Page 33 of Canyon Killer
“We did. He had a sprained ankle, but he’s going to be fine.” She patted the cushion beside her. “Come sit down and I’ll tell you all about it.”
He sat. “Guess who the hiker was?” she asked.
“A celebrity? Some famous actor or something?”
“No, he was Gerald Boston’s nephew.”
“No kidding? Did you ask him about Gerald and Abby? Or is that kind of thing not allowed in search and rescue?”
“We’re encouraged to make conversation when the patient is alert, in order to take their mind off their troubles and pass the time. We had to wait for the rest of the team to show up with the litter and the first aid supplies.”
“So you figured talking about his dead relatives would be a good distraction?”
She made a face. “He didn’t mind at all. And I did tell him I was sorry for his loss.” She flushed. “I know some people think I’m impulsive and even rude at times, but I always figure I should be upfront with people. And in this case, I learned a lot of interesting stuff.”
“Such as?”
“Craig—his name is Craig Boston, which is how I guessed he was the nephew we’d heard about—he said Gerald really loved Abby and that she was pretty and sweet and very different from Gerald’s first wife.”
“Katherine.”
Bethany nodded. “Katherine sounds like a real piece of work. She drank and told lies and was very jealous. And apparently she ran around on Gerald, because Craig said there were a lot of rumors about her being seen in the company of another man,” she explained. “And while she was with that man, she fell out of a car he was driving. The wheel of the car ran over her leg, and he drove off and just left her there! Can you imagine? Craig said instead of blaming the other man for her accident, she blamed Gerald. After the accident, she had to walk with a crutch and couldn’t go very far.”
“So she couldn’t have killed Gerald and Abby.”
“Craig didn’t think so. But he said he wouldn’t be surprised if Katherine’s unknown boyfriend had been involved. He had no idea who the man might be. He said the sheriff’s office promised to investigate, but he doesn’t think, after all this time, they’ll find the killer.”
“Abby could have been the original target,” Ian said. “Maybe a jilted lover, or just some guy who was obsessed with her, who was upset that she married Gerald and decided that if he couldn’t have Abby, no one would.”
She sat back and chewed her thumbnail. “You’re right. I should have asked him more about Abby. By then the other SAR members had arrived, and they needed to get Craig ready for transport to the ambulance.”
“Maybe we can talk to him again sometime.”
“Maybe so. Have you been back up to the caves since we found them?”
“No. The sheriff’s department had people up there for a couple of days, taking photographs and collecting anything that looked like evidence, though I don’t think they came up with much. After that, I never went back up there.”
“I’d like to go up there again to look around,” she said. “Not that I think I would see anything the sheriff’s deputies missed, but now that I know more about Gerald and Abby, I can better envision their situation.”
“Won’t that just make you sad?”
“A little. But I want to see.”
“It’s too late tonight.”
“I know that, silly.” She leaned her head on his shoulder and sighed.
“Rough day?” he asked.
“A little.”
He waited a beat, then asked, “Want to talk about it?”
Did she? Maybe. “Today was supposed to be my wedding day. Well, not today, but this date a year ago.”
He grew very still. Maybe not even breathing. She raised her head and looked at him. “I’m not pining over him—my former fiancé,” she said. “Just, well, grieving what might have been.” She could have been married by now. Maybe even planning for children.
“What happened?”
