Page 75 of Canyon Killer
“Abby was his date. I don’t know how serious things were between them.”
“Was he telling the truth when he said Gerald stole Abby from him?” Ian asked.
“I heard all about that later. Gossip spreads in a small town, and Eagle Mountain was very small back then. I know the day I took them riding, Gerald was flirting with Abby. She was flirting back. His wife, Katy, was plenty steamed. Craig was more sullen by the minute. I cut the ride short, it was so unpleasant. Then later I heard Katy and Gerald were getting divorced. When he married Abby I kind of put two and two together.”
“Craig said you knew the truth about Katherine’s accident,” Bethany said. “That Gerald was the one who hurt her.”
“Katy and I got to be friends after that riding trip. Nothing romantic, just friends. She liked horses and came out to the ranch several times to ride. She had a quick temper and was jealous of Gerald, but I guess he gave her reason to be. I saw him and Katy in his car the afternoon she was hurt. So when I visited her in the hospital and she told me Gerald was the one who had hurt her, I believed her.”
He turned to Ian, who was leaned back against the rock, clutching his shoulder. “When I got here, I found your security guard unconscious near the welcome center. It looked like someone hit him in the head with a rock. I called 911, then came looking for you.”
“Thank God you did,” he said and slid down to a sitting position.
Sirens wailed in the distance, and soon red-and-blue emergency lights strobed off the canyon walls. An ambulance, two sheriff’s department SUVs and the search and rescue Jeep parked in the clearing below.
Walt stood at the edge of the catwalk and waved. “We’re up here!”
Bethany winced in the sudden glare of a spotlight. “Bethany, is that you?” She recognized Aaron’s voice, tight with alarm.
“I’m okay!” she shouted. “I just need a little help getting out of here.”
“Ian Seabrook has a gunshot wound,” Walt shouted. “Craig Boston shot him.”
“No!” Craig staggered to his feet and lurched toward the catwalk railing. He started to climb over the railing, but Walt pulled him back.
“Somebody get up here and help me with this idiot!” Walt shouted.
Within minutes, the catwalk and approach to it were swarming with people. Aaron and another deputy placed Craig in handcuffs and led him away. Danny and Tony tended to Ian while Ryan and Sheri worked their way over to Bethany.
“Are you hurt?” Sheri asked.
“No. Just kind of stuck.”
“It’s going to be easier if you climb down from here,” she said. “We’ll help.”
With their assistance, Bethany made it to the ground. Carter and Dalton met her there and crushed her between them.
“What were you doing up there?” Carter demanded.
“It’s a long story,” she said. “Right now, I need to see Ian.”
Sheri helped her out of her harness. “The ambulance already left,” she said. “Ian lost some blood, but the gunshot wound doesn’t appear to have hit anything vital.”
“They’ve got a surgeon waiting to see him in Junction,” Danny said.
Aaron led Bethany over to the sheriff. “We need to know what happened,” Sheriff Walker said.
She sat in the front seat of the sheriff’s SUV and told him and Aaron everything that had happened on the catwalk, including Craig’s story of what had happened to Abby and Gerald Boston.
“It sounds like he suppressed everything over the years and the discovery that Gerald and Abby were murdered brought it all back,” the sheriff said.
Gage walked over to the SUV with Walt. “I’ve taken Walt’s statement,” the sergeant said. “He says he remembered there was bad blood between Gerald and Craig when they were younger and felt compelled to come back here and warn Ian to be careful of Craig.”
“Walt saved us.” Bethany slid out of the SUV and hugged the older man, who awkwardly patted her back.
She pulled away and looked him in the eye. “Why were you so against the via ferrata?”
“All the reasons I said in the meetings. I live right next door to this place. I worry about traffic, littering, even crime. But I was outvoted.”
