Page 44 of Hunting the Crossbow Killer

Niall.

He was aiming his crossbow at Aidan.

Niall sneered. “Finally, after all these years.” A single tear coursed down his cheek. “Killed anyone else’s mom lately?”

“Drop it!” Grace yelled, aiming her gun at Niall.

“No,” Aidan shouted. “Don’t.”

Niall whirled toward her, still holding his bow.

“Son, don’t do it.” Aidan jumped to his feet.

Bam!

A red wet spot appeared on Niall’s shirt and quickly began to spread across his chest. His eyes widened in surprise as he fell to the ground, his bow landing harmlessly beside him.

Aidan froze, then looked at Grace in horror.

“No,” she whispered. “I didn’t shoot.”

He turned and saw Fletcher still sitting on the ground, her pistol in her hands, pointed at his son.

“Dad?” A pitiful, confused rasp broke through Aidan’s shock. “Daddy?”

“I’m here, son. Daddy’s here.” He dropped to his knees and desperately pressed his hands against Niall’s wound to try to stop the bleeding. As if through a long, deep tunnel, he registered the sounds of Grace calling 911 for an ambulance and Fletcher calling Dawson, telling him they needed help. But all of that faded at the horror of feeling his son’s lifeblood seeping through his fingers.

CHAPTER TWENTY

As Aidan sat beside Niall’s hospital bed, watching his chest rise and fall, he couldn’t help but wonder at the miracle that his anonymous donation to buy Mystic Lake a medevac chopper had saved his son’s life. Two days after the shooting, Niall was still miraculously clinging to life in the intensive care unit at a Chattanooga hospital.

He was in a medically induced coma to help his body heal. But he was breathing on his own now. Seeing him on a ventilator that first day had nearly destroyed Aidan. He didn’t think he could survive watching another loved one suffer the way Elly had. But Niall was young. And he was a fighter.

He’d need that fighting spirit not only to bounce back physically, but to live down the toxic lies the media was spreading. The reporter who’d been staying at the B and B had announced that the Crossbow Killer had been operating in Mystic Lake and that he was now clinging to life at the hospital after being shot by police. Aidan was grateful that his son’s name had been suppressed in the news reports because he was aminor. But in today’s world of social media, someone would leak his name eventually and it would spread across cyberspace.

A tap on the large glass window to the hallway had him looking up to see Grace, looking nervous and somber beside her boss, Dawson, Aidan’s lawyer and friend who was also now Niall’s lawyer, and of course, Niall’s legal guardians, the Larsens.

As if that odd mix of people wasn’t enough to remind him that his son had yet another battle on his hands if he managed to recover, the uniformed police officer in the hallway guarding the door was more than enough to jog his memory.

Grace said something to Aidan’s former in-laws. Judy Larsen hugged her and then she and her husband, Sam, entered the room. They headed directly toward Aidan, barely giving him time to rise from his chair before he was enveloped in yet another of their group hugs.

He was as astonished at their acceptance and support now as he had been at the parole hearing when they’d urged the board to grant him an early release. They’d told the board they were skeptical about his confession, always had been. But that even if he was guilty, they forgave him and were relieved that their daughter was no longer suffering. The fact that they were supporting him even now, and not blaming him for their grandson having almost died, humbled and shocked him.

It also shamed him that they still didn’t know the full story, exactly what had happened the day their daughter died. But telling them now seemed cruel. What good would it serve?

He looked over the top of Judy Larsen’s head and met Grace’s worried gaze. He’d hidden the full truth from her, too. He hated lying, even by omission, especially to her. But he had to keep lying or hurt the Larsens even more.

After giving them a summary of what the doctor had said about Niall’s condition while the two of them had taken a much-needed break at their hotel down the street, he headed into the hallway.

Grace gave him a smile of encouragement and the two of them followed the others down the long hall to the conference room that the hospital administrator had lent law enforcement for their interviews. Aidan had put off answering their questions as long as he could. But with the arrival of the supervisory special agent, Grace’s boss at the FBI, they couldn’t be put off any longer. Especially after Aidan’s probation officer told him he had no choice but to speak to them or risk violating the terms of his parole. He was so tired of the threat of returning to prison hanging over his head. But he had several more years of parole to endure.

After following Grace into the room and shutting the door behind them, Aidan turned around and stilled, shocked to see so many people there, many of them strangers. But it was the only other person dressed in a casual shirt and jeans, like him, who had his stomach dropping.

Stella. She knew—and could prove—the full truth, that one detail he wanted to keep secret above all else.

“Aidan.” Grace touched his shoulder. “Over here.” She led the way to two empty seats in the middle of the long table and took the one on the left for herself, leaving him to sit beside her with his lawyer, now Niall’s lawyer, on his other side.

“Aidan O’Brien,” Grace said, “I’d like to introduce you to Levi Perry, FBI supervisory special agent of the Knoxville field office, my boss.”

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