Page 62 of Canyon Killer
“I’m going to give you something for the pain,” Hannah said to Ian. “Then I recommend you let us transport you to the hospital. You need to have your hands seen to as soon as possible.”
He didn’t protest, since the bulky bandages on both hands made doing much of anything impossible, and the pain medication they had administered was already making his vision fuzz at the edges. Bethany kissed his cheek and promised to follow him to the hospital.
“Be careful,” he told her as he lay back on the gurney.
“Don’t worry.” Aaron spoke from behind her. “I’ll follow your Jeep all the way to Junction.”
“You don’t have to do that,” she said, anger sharpening her voice once more.
“Someone tried to kill you tonight,” he said. “I’m not willing to take a chance at them trying to force your Jeep off the road or ambush you on some dark stretch of road.”
“You should be doing something more useful than babysitting me—like trying to find the person who set the fire.”
They appeared ready to square off for an argument, so Ian interrupted. “He’s right,” he said. “Don’t take any chances. Let him follow you.”
She leaned into the back of the ambulance and touched Ian’s leg. “All right. I’ll do it for you. But they have to find out who’s doing these awful things. This can’t go on.”
Maybe it was time to give up, Ian thought, though he couldn’t say the words out loud. Risking someone’s life—Bethany’s life—wasn’t worth continuing.
But everything in him rebelled against quitting. Against letting his unseen enemy win.
* * *
Bethany waited atthe hospital while the emergency room doctor treated Ian. Aaron had insisted on waiting with her. She ignored him, focused on her worry over Ian and her fury over whoever had done this to them. Remembering those frantic moments in the trailer when Ian had picked up that heavy chair and hurled it at the window, only to have it bounce off made her shaky inside. And then when he had finally broken the glass, the fire had roared to life. She had literally felt it licking at her back and smelled her own singed hair. She had been terrified and panicked as she’d tried to climb out through the broken glass.
Then Ian had grabbed hold of her and pushed her out. In those moments in his arms afterward, lying on the cool ground while the inferno had raged only a few feet away, she had never felt more cherished.
The doors from the outside hissed open, and Sheriff Travis Walker entered. Bethany sat up straighter. Everything about the sheriff, from his crisp, pressed uniform to his movie-star looks, made her want to be on her best behavior. He zeroed in on Aaron. “Deputy Ames,” he said.
Aaron sat upright, almost dropping his phone. “Sir.”
The sheriff turned to Bethany. “How are you doing, Miss Ames?”
“I’m okay,” she said. “I mean, I’m pretty shook up, but physically, I’m fine. Ian was burned pretty badly when he pulled me out of the trailer, though.”
“I wanted to hear from you what happened,” he said. “And Ian, too, when the doctors agree it’s okay to talk to him.”
“Of course.”
The sheriff took the seat across from her, which Aaron had vacated. Her brother stood to one side, arms folded, like a bodyguard. “Tell me, in your own words, what happened tonight,” Travis said.
“Where do you want me to start?”
“Start with when you got to the trailer. Was that this evening?”
“Yes. We got there about seven o’clock. It was already pretty dark.”
“Did you see any other vehicles on the way into the canyon?”
“Not after we turned onto the county road. But when we pulled up to the trailer, Walt Spies was waiting for us.” She told them about Walt and his warning to Ian and the note he’d said someone had sent him.
“We talked to Walt,” the sheriff said. “He says he was home by seven fifteen. His wife backs up that story.”
“He still could have started the fire and it didn’t burn enough for us to notice until half an hour later,” she said.
“We’ll be checking into all of that,” the sheriff said. “What happened after Walt left?”
Bethany told the same story she had related to Aaron and Hannah. “Ian said someone had jammed the door so it wouldn’t open. And our cell phones wouldn’t work. You should check to see if anyone tampered with the satellite dish.”
