Page 61 of Deputies Under Fire
He looked at her, and she saw the worry in his eyes. “The killer could have called for a showdown, a way for Ike to put an end to this. Ike might not have turned that down.”
True. After all, Rory and she hadn’t, and this could have all been put in place to get them killed. But something about that bothered her.
“If the killer’s intentions are to flat-out murder us,” she said, “then why not just shoot us when we were at the barn or when we were with Carter’s body?”
Rory lifted his shoulder. “It could be that shooting isn’t part of his or her skill set. We know Frank had firearms training in the military, but I don’t have any idea how sharp his skills are. And I don’t recall anything in Helen’s or Diedre’s background to indicate they’re markswomen.” He paused. “Then again, there’s nothing to link Diedre to having the know-how to make explosives.”
No, but there was that link to Helen. And perhaps one to Frank, if Helen had been telling the truth about the magazines she saw. But even then, owning magazines like that didn’t mean someone knew how to construct an IED.
Just in case the killer did decide to launch a sniper attack, Eden kept watch around them as they drove to the scene. It didn’t take long, and they only passed one other vehicle during the five-minute drive.
She soon spotted Arnette’s sleek silver Jaguar on the side of the road, and just as the man had said, Ike’s truck was on one of the trails. Definitely not out of sight, though. In fact, it was barely on the trail itself, which meant the killer had likely wanted it to be found.
Rory pulled to a stop, not on the side of the road but right smack in the middle of it. He turned off the sirens but kept the lights on. Behind him, Judson did the same, and when Bennie and he got out, they all looked around on the road and the shoulder.
Nothing.
Well, nothing visible, anyway.
Eden took out two sets of latex gloves from the supply kit under her seat. She shoved one pair into her pocket, and Rory did the same to the pair she handed him.
“Get the roadblocks up,” Rory told Judson and Bennie.
The two deputies went straight to the trunk and brought out the bright yellow plastic barricades. Livvy would send out a road crew to set up signs farther up, but this would do for now. At least there weren’t any steep curves, so anyone traveling here would be able to see the barriers and the whirling blue cruiser lights in time to stop.
No repeats of what had happened to Rory and her with those strips of spikes.
Arnette didn’t get out of his car as she and Rory approached, but he did lower his window a fraction. The lawyer was clearly rattled. He was sweating, and his hands were shaking.
“Is there a bomb?” Arnette blurted.
“Haven’t had time to look yet, but I don’t want you driving off. Go ahead and move to one of the cruisers. They’re bullet-resistant.”
That didn’t ease the panicked look in Arnette’s eyes, but with a shaky nod, he got out of the Jag and scurried toward a cruiser. There were no keys in the ignition, so the man wouldn’t just be able to drive off. At least this way, though, he’d be semiprotected if all hell broke loose.
Again.
“Watch where you step,” Rory muttered to her as they started toward Ike’s truck. “And look for any footprints.”
She did and so did Rory, along with firing lots of glances around them. As for spotting footprints, she soon realized that would be next to impossible. The entire surface here was fine gravel. It was perhaps why the killer had chosen it, since some of the other trails were dirt.
Rory went to the driver’s side, and she went to the passenger’s. Both doors were closed, but she had no trouble seeing what had alarmed Arnette.
The blood.
It was spattered on the windshield, the dash, the seat and the coffee mug that was in the cupholder. The total amount probably wasn’t enough to indicate a fatal blood loss, but she could understand why Arnette had been so alarmed. The spatter likely meant Ike had received a blow to the head.
Or someone else had.
Because, after all, they had no idea if the blood was Ike’s. He could have been involved in some kind of altercation and maybe had been the one who’d delivered such a blow. But if that was the case, where was he?
She slipped on one of the gloves and was about to open the door for a closer look, but Rory’s warning of “no” came through loud and clear.
“The doors could be rigged with explosives,” he reminded her.
Eden mentally cursed. Of course. That’s something this killer could do to ensure their death.
After taking off the glove and shoving it back in her pocket, Eden settled for doing a visual of the interior and outside of the truck. There were way too many places where an explosive could have been set, and out of sight. Best to leave this for the bomb squad ,and eventually, the CSIs.
