Page 98 of Hero Unbound

He nodded. “Understandable. Then what happened?”

“I told him to go away, and I didn’t hear anything else. But then he grabbed my ankle and yanked me down.I tripped on therungs, hit the ground, and then blacked out.” She tried to keep it as matter-of-fact as possible since shedidn’twant to describe the terror that had overwhelmed her those brief seconds.

“So you didn’t see him once you were on the ground either?”

“No, but I know it was him. I would recognize his voice, no matter what.”

Sheriff Webb went through it all one more time before putting away the tablet. “Okay, that’s all for right now. Gareth is waiting in my office, and we’re going to question him too.He was actually here at the hospital earlier when you first mentioned what happened.”

A chill rushed over Eva’s body. “I don’t want to talk to him. I don’t want to see him at all.”

“You don’t have to. Don’t worry. Nobody’s going to make you talk to him.”Sheriff Webb reached over and squeezed her shoulder gently. “There’s a security camera in that alley that I’m going to check out. If Gareth is on the footage, we’ll definitely make an arrest.You’re still waiting for a last MRI result, correct?”

“Yes.Dr. Annie doesn’t think there’s anything to worry about, but she wanted me to stay here to make sure.”

He nodded. “Your being here is good. Let me gather what evidence I need, and then I’ll be back to talk to you.”

She sat curled up on the hospital bed as the sheriff packed up his things and then left.That last part she’d told him hadn’t been the complete truth. Dr. Annie was sure enough that Eva was okay that she’d given her the choice to leave if she wanted to and Annie would provide any problematic results by phone.

But the truth was, Eva didn’t really have anywhere to go.

She’d asked Dr. Annie to call Theo, hoping he’doffer to come get her and take her back home.But apparently he already knew what happened and had been at the hospital—just hadn’t wanted to see her.

That told her everything she needed to know about where things stood with him.

Fortunately, Mr. Collier came in to see her before she could let herself get too worked up about Theo. The older man was more upset about her fallthanshe was. Evidently, he hadn’t heard that foul play was involved, so Eva didn’t mention it. She didn’t want to make him even more upset.

She tried to explain it wasn’t his fault, but he wouldn’t listen. He told her to keep the car keys and drive it for as long as she needed. They would work out payment later. Eva suspected that if it weren’t for having to explain the whole situation to his wife, he would’ve given her the car outright. Not that she would’ve let him, but it was a relief to know that even if she didn’t have a home, she at least had a vehicle.

Which reminded her to text Lilah to see if she could let the dogs out and feed them. They didn’t love her as much as they loved Theo, but Theo wasn’t an option.

She went down to the cafeteria to get some food and noticed that everyone she passed was staring or talking about her.

“Do I havesomethingon my face?” she asked the cashier. She hadn’t looked in a mirror since this morning. She’d hit the back of herhead, but maybe she had a nasty bruise she wasn’t aware of.

The older woman smiled gently. “No, honey.Everybody’s just excited because they like the drama. Not every day someone gets pushed down a ladder by her ex-boyfriend.”

Eva grimaced. “Word travels fast.”

“That’s life in a small town for you.Gossiptravels faster than the speed of light.”

Eva wasn’t sure she liked being the source of town gossip, so she took her food back up to the room. The next thing she knew, she’d fallen asleep and it was Sheriff Webb who was waking her.

She couldimmediatelytell that something was differentabouthim this time. He was more stiff, less friendly.“Is everything okay?”

He looked her over from head to foot, then pulled out his computer notebook again. “I need to ask you a few more questions.”

“Okay.” She felt too vulnerable lying on the hospital bed, so she swung her legs over the side so at least she was sitting up.

“We got the security footage that shows that back alley.” He typed something on his tablet then turned it so Eva could watch the footageherself. “As you can see, there’s no sign that anyone except you was in that alley. The fog and mist certainly aren’t helping, but we could see you.”

She watched, and sure enough, in the eight or nine minutes of footage that he showed her, she was the only one who could be seen. And even that was mostly as she got in and out of Mr. Collier’s car. The ladder was nearly invisible in the fog.

“Eva, I have to ask you again. Are you sure that it was Gareth? You said that, at first, you thought you might be imagining things. Are you sure that wasn’t what happened?”

He paused the footage at a certain shot. “See? Right here. You’re already up the ladder. If Gareth was there, we should be able to see at least his feet. He wouldn’t have known there was a camera in the alley, so if he was pulling you down from the ladder, this would’ve been the most logical place for him to stand.” He pointed to the bottom of the ladder.

Eva just stared. She couldn’t argue the logic of that statement.

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