Page 31 of Deputies Under Fire
Eden drew her gun, too, and she fired glances all around them. She expected gunfire, but she couldn’t see a shooter, only the thick woods that were on both sides of the road.
Woods where a killer could hide and lie in wait.
No way had kids done this. A spike strip wasn’t easy to come by, and she knew in her gut, this wasn’t a prank. It was a way to pin them in place while someone moved in for the kill.
Not Diedre, or even Helen, since Rory had taken the shortest route possible for the return trip home, and neither woman could have gotten ahead of them. But either or both of the women could have hired someone to do this. The same could be said for their other suspects, Ike, Frank and even Carter.
Any one of them could be responsible.
“Siri, call police dispatch,” Rory instructed his app, and the sound of his voice cut through the heavy silence that’d settled inside the cruiser. The dispatcher answered on the first ring.
“This is Deputy Rory McClennan,” he said. “I’m requesting immediate backup to the Old Sawmill Road about a half mile from the east side of the bridge on Dead Man’s Bend. My cruiser has been disabled by two spike strips stretched across the road. Tell responding officers to approach with caution.”
“I’ll get someone out there right away,” the dispatcher assured him, and Rory ended the call.
Eden knew it would probably take only about ten minutes for one of their fellow deputies to respond, but those minutes wouldfeel like an eternity. Added to that, the only risk wasn’t from a possible shooter.
No.
They were on the back end of Dead Man’s Bend, which was essentially a steep, blind curve. The cruiser was straddling the center line of the road with no shoulder to speak of that could be used as an emergency lane. They could be hit by another vehicle, and delivery trucks used this route to bring supplies into town.
The cruiser was bullet-resistant, but it certainly wouldn’t withstand a head-on collision with a semitruck.
Eden listened for any possible threat. An oncoming vehicle. A shooter. But she heard and saw nothing.
Maybe this was the attack, having them locked in place like this. If the attacker had done some research, then they might have learned if a truck was indeed heading their way. No more would need to be done to either seriously injure or kill them. And the attacker could simply just walk away.
“Open your door just a fraction,” Rory instructed. He was not only glancing all around them, but he also had his head lifted and was listening. “Not enough so that a shot can get through. But keep it open in case we have to run from the cruiser.”
That definitely wasn’t something she wanted to do. Because a shooter could just gun them down. Still, they might not have a choice in the matter if they were about to be struck by another vehicle.
She opened her door less than an inch while he gave the voice command to the phone app again, making a second call to Dispatch.
“Alert responding officers and any and all traffic that my cruiser is disabled in the center of the road,” Rory said the moment he was on the line.
The dispatcher would no doubt do her best to make that alert, but it would be next to impossible to get out the word to everyone.
“Also remind any responders that there could be a shooter or explosives in the area,” Rory added.
“Explosives,” she muttered.
Dreading what she might see, Eden looked out the window and down at the part of the spike strip and road that was in her line of sight.
And her heart sank.
She’d been so intent on checking the woods for an attacker or listening for a truck that she hadn’t thought to look for a threat much closer to them.
“I think there’s an IED on the spike strip just a couple of inches outside my door,” she said to Rory.
He scrambled over the console to have a look. Rory was right in her face, so she had no trouble seeing the confirmation in his eyes. He immediately pulled away, scrambling back to his own side to gaze out his side.
And he cursed.
“There’s one here, too,” he said.
The adrenaline had already been slamming through her, but that bit of info gave her another round of it. Something she definitely didn’t need. Her body was already in the fight-or-flight mode, and she couldn’t do either.
“Are there explosives?” the dispatcher asked.
