Saved by the Sheriff

by Cindi Myers

  “Where are you taking me?” she asked, hating the way her voice shook.

  “I’ve been helping the Elks Club set up for the big fireworks show tonight,” he said. “They were thrilled to get a guy with my experience with explosives to volunteer. They’ve cleared off a big ledge for the staging area for the show, but there’s another ledge above that. Great view of the town, and when all the fireworks start going on, no one will be able to hear you when I kill you.”

  “Why are you going to kill me?” she asked, struggling to keep the tremor from her voice.

  “Because you know too much.”

  “I don’t know anything,” she said. “Not anything to do with you.”

  “Some things you don’t realize the significance of, but we can’t risk you figuring them out later.”

  “Who is we?”

  He gunned the Jeep up a steep slope, gravel pinging against the undercarriage, tires spinning until he gained traction. “That doesn’t matter.”

  She stared at him, a cold, sick feeling washing over her. “You killed Andy, didn’t you?” she asked.

  Ian grinned. “I broke into the office while he was at lunch. I knew it was your day off and that he’d be alone. I hadn’t counted on Jan coming by to see him, but it was easy enough to hide in the bathroom while she pleaded with him. She left out the back door and before he had time to even move, I stabbed him. He didn’t suffer. I left by the back door and drove out of town.”

  “But why kill him?” she asked. “What did Andy ever do to you?”

  “It was a job.” He voice was matter-of-fact, as if he was talking about moving furniture or clearing brush. “He was poking his nose where it didn’t belong. The people who hired me wanted him shut up.”

  “What was he poking his nose in?” She couldn’t recall anything he had talked about, but that had been so long ago.

  “I don’t know and I don’t care,” Ian said.

  “Did Henry Hake hire you?”

  He laughed. “That loser? No. Hake had people above him who ran the show. They hired me.”

  “Why did you bother coming back to town? Why now?”

  “I had a job to do.”

  “For the same people who hired you to kill Andy?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Who are they?”

  He glanced at her, his expression cold. “I don’t see that that has anything to do with you.”

  “Were you the one who tried to run Brenda and me off the road that day?”

  “Yes. I sacrificed a new truck to that one. It was hard, watching it go up in flames. But I had the old Jeep as backup.”

  “And the explosion?”

  “Yeah, that was me. I miscalculated the delay on the timer, though. I should have set it for just a little longer.”

  “Did you shoot Travis’s officer?”

  “I can’t tell you all my secrets, can I?” He parked the Jeep against a sheer rock face, shut off the engine, then leaned over and grabbed her by the arm. “Come on. The show starts in less than an hour. I want to be in place before everyone gets here.”

  * * *

  TRAVIS PUSHED THROUGH the crowds of tourists and locals in the park, searching for Lacy. Once he thought he caught a glimpse of her dark hair in a group of women, but it turned out to be someone he had never seen before. As he circled the edge of the park, he came upon a group of firemen, climbing into the chief’s truck. “Want to come help with the fireworks, Sheriff?” Assistant Fire Chief Tom Reynolds called.

  “You don’t need me in your way,” Travis said.

  “Come on,” Tom urged. “We’re a man short since Ian Barnes left town early.”

  “He left town?” a short, balding man next to Tom said. “That’s funny, I could have sworn I saw his Jeep go by just a little while ago. I waved, but I guess he didn’t see me.”

  “You saw Ian Barnes?” Travis asked.

  “Yeah. I’m sure it was him. He had a woman with him.”

  Travis’s heart pounded. “What did she look like?”

  “I didn’t see her face, but she had dark brown hair.” He grinned. “Odds are, though, that she’s a looker. A guy like that can have any woman he wants. My wife got this dazed look on her face every time she saw him.”

  “Which way was he headed?” Travis asked.

  “The way we’re going,” the man said. “Hey, maybe he decided to stick around and help us and he went on ahead.”

  “Hey, Travis, where are you going?” Tom called as Travis took off across the park at a run.

  Travis already had his phone out, calling Gage. “I think Ian Barnes has Lacy,” he said. “They’re headed to that hill above town, where the Elks are getting ready to shoot off fireworks. Get Dwight and meet me up there. And alert Highway Patrol in case we need backup.” He hung up as soon as his brother acknowledged the information. He had to get to Lacy. He only hoped he wasn’t too late.

  * * *

  A LACEWORK PATTERN of glittering lights marked the town of Eagle Mountain, nestled in the valley below an uplift of mountains and cliffs. Lacy looked down at the town from the narrow ledge Ian had brought her to. Travis was down there somewhere, and her parents. They were probably wondering where she was, but she had no way of signaling to them, no way of letting them know what had happened to her.

  Closer even than town, fifty feet below on a much larger ledge, a dozen men swarmed around the metal stands and boxes that contained the explosives set up for the fireworks display. If Lacy yelled, would they look up and see her here? Maybe—but if they did look up in response to her shout, likely all they would see was her death as Ian shot her. And then he would escape, driving away in his Jeep before anyone below had time to react.

  “Come away from the edge,” Ian said, and pulled her back against the cliff face. The gun dug hard into her side. “You don’t want to fall, do you? A drop like that could kill you.” He chuckled at his own joke, sending an icy tremor through her.

  “Why are you doing this?” she asked again. “I haven’t done anything to hurt you.”

  “It’s nothing personal,” he said. “It’s a job. It pays well and it makes use of my talents.” He leaned back against the cliff, his gaze still steady on her. “It’s kind of a shame, though. I mean, you just got out of prison and you don’t even get to enjoy a month of freedom before it’s over. I’m sorry about that.”

  She looked away. How could she even comment on such an absurd statement?

  “I was inside once,” he said. “You did three years, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s what I did, too. Course, I hear the women’s prisons have it better than the men. But it wasn’t too bad for me. I had friends inside and I knew how to work the system. You get respect, even inside, being a military veteran, and I never had to worry about anyone messing with me.”

  “I wouldn’t know about that,” she said.

  “I remember you from before, you know,” he said.

  “From before what?”

  “Before you went inside. When you worked for that lawyer.”

  “I don’t remember you,” she said. Surely she would remember if she had met him before.

  “You never saw me. That’s part of my job, too, not being seen. They won’t see me when I kill you, and they won’t see me when I leave.”

  She closed her eyes, not wanting him to read the fear there. Would those be the last words she ever heard?

  * * *

  THE BACK WHEELS of Travis’s SUV skidded around a sharp curve as he trailed the fire department truck up the dirt road to the fireworks launch site. A number of men and vehicles were already at the site, their vehicles parked well away from the explosives, behind a protective wall of boulders. Travis drove right into the midst of the men working. “Something wrong, Sheriff?” one man asked, as Travis lowered his S
UV’s window.

  “I’m looking for Ian Barnes,” Travis said. “Have you seen him?”

  “I haven’t.” The man looked around. “Anybody seen Ian Barnes?” he called.

  “I thought he left town,” someone said.

  Tom walked up to Travis. “I don’t see him or his Jeep,” he said. “Maybe Walt was wrong about seeing him.”

  “I saw him.” Walt walked up behind Tom. “But you’re right that he’s not here.”

  “Where else could he have gone?” Travis asked.

  Both Tom and Walt registered confusion. “I don’t know,” Tom said. “There’s nothing else up here.”

  Travis scanned the area. The road he had driven up continued past this ledge. “Where does that road go?” he asked.

  “It just climbs up a little ways then peters out,” Tom said. “There’s an old mine site. I’ve been up there looking for artifacts, but it’s pretty picked over. There’s an adit, but the tunnel’s full of water and the timbers are falling down, so it’s not safe to go inside. There are warning signs posted, but no gate.”

  A flooded mine shaft. The perfect place to dispose of a body. Travis shut off the SUV and got out. “What are you doing?” Tom asked. “You can’t just leave your vehicle here—not with the fireworks so close.”

  “Then you move it.” Travis tossed him the keys. “I’m going up there to look around. When Gage and Dwight get here, tell them where I’m at.”

  “Okay, Sheriff,” Tom said.

  The noise and activity of the preparations for the fireworks show faded as Travis climbed. He kept to the shadows at the side of the road, moving stealthily, ears tuned to any sounds from above. The trail was steeper up here, and narrower, and Travis breathed hard on the climb. He doubted many people had the nerve to take a vehicle up something this steep, but Barnes apparently hadn’t hesitated.

  He crested the last rise and spotted Ian’s Jeep first, the battered vehicle tucked in next to a cliff face. Freezing, he waited, listening. After a few seconds he heard the low murmur of voices—a man’s, and then a woman’s. A band tightened around his chest as he recognized Lacy’s voice. He couldn’t make out her words, but he felt the fear in her tone as a tightness in his own chest.

  Travis drew his gun and began moving toward the voices, stealthily, placing one careful step at a time. By the time he reached the front bumper of the Jeep, he could make out the two shadowed figures against the cliff face and stopped.

  He apparently hadn’t been stealthy enough. “Step out where I can see you and toss your gun on the ground.” Ian’s voice was calm, the words chilling. “One wrong move and I’ll blast her away right now.”

  Travis tossed the gun to the ground and raised his hands over his head. Come on, Gage, he thought. Bring in the cavalry anytime now.

  “Come over here and stand next to your ladylove,” Ian said. “When the fireworks start, I can shoot you both. And hurry up. They’re almost ready.”

  At that moment, the first explosions from below shook the air. Lacy gave a cry of alarm and Ian turned to watch the first rockets soar overhead. “Now,” he shouted, but before he could turn back to them and fire, Travis rushed him.

  “Lacy, run!” Travis shouted.

  * * *

  LACY RAN, BUT not far. She made it only a few feet before she tripped and went sprawling. Gravel dug into her palms and her knees. Shaking with fear, she crawled to the cliff face and sat with her back against the rock wall, watching as Travis and Ian struggled on the ground. The two men rolled, grappling for the gun, while deafening explosions sounded overhead. Flashes of red and blue and gold illuminated the struggle, and bits of paper and ash rained down. Smoke and the smell of gunpowder stung her nose and eyes, but she blinked furiously and tried to keep track of what was happening.

  Travis’s discarded gun lay a few feet away. She crawled toward it and had almost reached it when a man stepped out of the shadows and scooped it up. “No offense, Lacy, but I’m probably a better shot with this than you are,” Gage Walker said, joining her in the shadows.

  “Are you alone?” she asked, looking over his shoulder.

  “No. I’ve got Dwight and a couple of Highway Patrol deputies surrounding this place,” he said. “But I’m not sure there’s anything any of us can do right now but wait and hope one of us can get off a good shot.”

  Explosions continued to echo off the rocks. Lacy covered her ringing ears, but kept her eyes fixed on Travis and Ian, who continued to wrestle, gouging and kicking. In the flashes of light she thought Travis might be bleeding from a cut on his cheek, and Ian’s shirt was torn. They rolled to the edge of the ledge, until Travis’s feet hung over the edge. Lacy moaned. How could he win? He was in good shape, but Ian was phenomenal. She remembered Travis saying he wouldn’t want to meet Ian in a dark alley. What about a dark mountain ledge?

  The two men rolled away from the ledge, and Lacy let out her breath in a rush. Beside her, Gage did the same. She glanced over and saw that he was kneeling, steadying his gun with both hands, keeping it fixed on the two men as they moved. “All I need is one clear shot,” he said in a lull between explosions.

  The next round of volleys began, and then Travis was on top of Ian. He slammed the other man’s head into the rocky ground, then lunged to his feet and staggered back.

  “Freeze!” Gage yelled. “One move and I’ll shoot.”

  “All right.” Ian sat up, his hands over his head. “I give up.” He struggled to his feet.

  “I said freeze!” Gage shouted again, but already Ian had made his move, lunging toward Travis with a roar.

  Gage fired, the explosion deafening, and Travis dodged to the side. With a scream that rose above the sound of fireworks and gunfire, Ian dove over the edge, the echo of his cry hanging in the air as he vanished.

  Epilogue

  “Goodbye, Jan. And good luck.” Lacy faced the older woman, who had aged even more in the past few weeks. She had accepted a plea bargain in the charges against her involving her hiring of Ian Barnes to blow up the storage unit, and would serve a minimum of eighteen months in the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility.

  “It will be tough at first, but obey the rules and you’ll get along fine,” Lacy said. “Focus on doing your time and coming home.”

  “It helps a little, knowing you came out all right,” Jan said. “I’m sorry again for all the trouble I caused you.”

  “I’m not worrying about the past anymore,” Lacy said. “I’m focusing on the future, and so should you.”

  “You’ve got a lot to look forward to.” Jan’s gaze shifted to the man who stood behind Lacy.

  Travis put a hand on Lacy’s shoulder and nodded to Jan. “Good luck,” he said. “I’ll see you when you come home.”

  Jan turned away, and climbed into the sheriff’s department van that would transport her to Denver. Lacy and Travis watched the van drive away. “I probably shouldn’t, but I feel sorry for her,” Lacy said.

  “She brought it all on herself,” Travis said. “And she got off lightly, considering.”

  She turned to face him and he pulled her close. She sighed—a sound of relief and contentment. “I’m just glad it’s all over and you’re all right.”

  “I’m all right. As for it being over—Henry Hake is still missing, you know.”

  In the whirl of activity in the days following the death of Ian Barnes, Lacy had forgotten all about the real estate developer. “No one has heard anything from him?” she asked.

  “Not a word. According to the latest from Adelaide, public opinion is divided on whether he skipped town to avoid paying debts Eagle Mountain Resort had run up, or whether something has happened to him.”

  “Ian said people who were over Hake hired him to kill Andy,” Lacy said. “Who was he talking about? I thought Henry Hake owned his own company.”

  “That’s o
ne thing I’m trying to find out,” Travis said. “Ian may have been talking about investors—or maybe Hake had silent partners. And I’d like to know what Andy was looking into that got him killed. Knowing that might help me figure out who hired Barnes. Now that Exeter knows Barnes killed Andy, he has turned his focus to Barnes and Hake, as well.”

  “So there’s still a lot of unanswered questions,” Lacy said.

  “I’m going to find the answers,” Travis said. “It may take time, but I have plenty of that.”

  “Lacy! Travis!” Lacy looked up to see Brenda hurrying toward them. “Was that Jan leaving just now?” Brenda asked, a little out of breath as she joined them on the sidewalk in front of the sheriff’s department.

  “Yes,” Travis said. “You just missed her.”

  “We said our goodbyes yesterday,” Brenda said. “Though I meant to be here this morning. I got delayed at the museum.” Brenda was the new director of the Eagle Mountain Historical Museum, a job that came with more responsibilities, but also a raise. Already, Lacy could see her friend blossoming in her new role.

  “Have you seen Lacy’s new apartment?” Brenda asked Travis. “She’s fixed it up so cute.”

  “I have an invitation to dinner there tonight,” Travis said.

  Lacy hoped the blush that warmed her cheeks wasn’t too evident. Now that she was settled into the apartment over Brenda’s garage, she had invited Travis over for a little celebration, which she figured—hoped—would lead to him staying the night.

  “I’d better get back to work,” Travis said. “It was good seeing you, Brenda.” He leaned over and kissed Lacy’s cheek. “And I’ll see you tonight.”

  “How are your parents taking the move?” Brenda asked, when Travis had disappeared inside the station.

  “My mom cried, but then she cries at any change,” Lacy said. “Truly, I think they’re both happy for me.” She and Brenda began walking back toward the museum.