Page 79 of Home Town Knight

“I can’t get out!” He kept flailing. The idiot was only making this worse for himself.

I cursed as the vehicle shifted again. Taking the utility knife from my belt, I reached into the cabin and held the knife out. “Cut the airbag and the seatbelt. See if you can get free.”

He took the blade. After some more jerking movements, then the sound of fabric tearing, he said, “I’m free. Help me!”

I stretched out my arm. Rossiter grabbed onto it. My shoulder strained as I hauled him out of the cabin. He scrambled out, splashing into the creek and throwing himself toward the embankment. I was right behind him.

But just as I climbed onto the bank, Rossiter shoved me backward. My boots slipped. Freezing water closed over my head. Rocks scraped me as the current pulled. My heavy vest dragged me down. Chunks of ice bumped me, but it was late enough into spring that it had mostly broken up. I got my feet back under me, and my head broke the surface.

I thought I heard Gen shouting. I had to get to her.

I grabbed hold of some exposed roots along the bank and pulled myself onto the dry slope. Despite the stiffness in my limbs and the awkwardness of my sopping uniform, I raced toward the glow of headlights.

Then I saw Rossiter. He was frozen in the glare, hands up.

And Genevieve had a handgun leveled at him.

“Don’t you dare move, asshole!” she shouted at him.

I reached for my handcuffs, which were still there despite my dunking. After I’d pushed Rossiter to his knees, cuffed his wrists behind his back, and stowed him in the backseat of my SUV, Genevieve hurried over to me.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

I opened the trunk to pull out my emergency kit, then grabbed a blanket. I rubbed it over my hair and clothes. “Aside from freezing my ass off, and a little embarrassed that I didn’t see his move coming? I’m fine. How are you?”

“Pissed. I wasn’t going to let him get away. But when I saw him push you after you’d saved him? Hell no. He’s lucky my finger didn’t accidentally slip on the trigger.”

“It’s good that it didn’t. Especially because that’s mygun.” I recognized the spare Glock 19 I’d stowed in the glove box.

“You unlocked the box when you got the binoculars out earlier.” Gen handed over the weapon. “Are you that surprised? I’m a resourceful woman.”

I couldn’t help the smile that tugged at my lips. But then I remembered Ellis’s body on the road. Had the same shooter who’d killed Tucker gone after Ellis? Why wait until now?

The fact that Rossiter was a cop would turn questioning him into a bureaucratic nightmare. The backup I’d requested would arrive soon. If I wanted answers, I had to act now.

We got into the SUV. I started the engine to get the heat going. Rossiter was in the back with his head bowed. “I want my union rep,” he said.

“I haven’t said you’re charged with anything.” Even though I probably had him on stealing evidence, vehicular eluding, not to mention assault on a peace officer. I struggled to believe that he was involved with Stillwater, given how he’d been bumbling through all this. “If you tell me everything, maybe I’ll forget about you fleeing and pushing me into the creek. What were you doing with Ellis?”

His eyes flicked over to Genevieve. “Why is she here?”

“Just answer the question.”

He opened his mouth and shut it a few times.

“Look,” I said, twisting in my seat, “you didn’t kill Ellis. You didn’t kill Tucker either.” Genevieve had seen that man’s face, and it wasn’t Rossiter. “It’s in your best interest to tell me what you and Ellis were doing out here tonight. Was it about that evidence you took from Tucker’s hotel room?”

His face flushed red. “I was going to give it back.”

“Sure you were,” Genevieve muttered.

“I was! Ellis told me his buddy found some shit out in the wilderness. That’s why Tucker got killed.”

“When did Ellis tell you that?” I asked.

“After you questioned him at your office in Hartley. I gave him a ride back to the Alpine.”

“But not his friends?”

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