Page 69 of Peak Suspicion
“Stop!” Ed ordered. “Don’t come any closer or I’ll shoot you, too.”
“You don’t think someone hasn’t heard those shots?” she asked. “You don’t think one of my neighbors hasn’t already called the sheriff? Are you trying to make things worse for yourself?”
“Shut up,” Ed said.
“You’ve done enough,” she said. “Leave us alone.”
Carter’s vision was getting hazy at the edges, but Mira sounded furious. He tried to call out to her, to tell her to calm down and not provoke Ed further. But his words emerged as a groan.
Ed turned toward him again, and lifted the gun. “No!” Mira shouted, and launched herself at the older man.
The gun went off again. Mira screamed. Carter struggled, but wasn’t strong enough to overcome the darkness.
Rage overcame Mirawhen she saw Ed prepare to shoot Carter again. How dare this man think he could decide whether they lived or died. She wasn’t going to let him get away with it. Even as some small part of her brain shouted that she was being foolish, she lunged for him. She put every bit of her strength behind the action, and shoved Ed to the floor. The gun went off again, the bullet hitting a nearby table, splintering the wood. Mira grappled for the gun, her nails digging into Ed’s wrist.
Ed fought back, pulling away from her, but she clawed at his face with her uninjured hand, raking her nails across his skin, grabbing whatever part of him she could. When he tried to club her with the gun, she rolled sideways, trapping his arm beneath her weight. She kicked her feet and pulled at his hair, all the while screaming at him to stop and leave them alone.
The door to the apartment burst open and suddenly the room was filled with people. Someone pulled her off of Ed and wrapped her in a bear hug. She was still screaming and fighting, still enraged.
“Mira, calm down, it’s okay.” Jake Gwynn spoke in her ear. “You’re safe,” he said. “You don’t have to fight anymore. It’s going to be okay.”
The fiery rage drained out of her, leaving her weak and weepy. “Carter!” she moaned, and looked around for him.
“The paramedics are taking care of him,” Jake said. Still holding her, he wrapped her in a blanket. She realized she had lost her robe in the struggle with Ed. Jake turned her so she could see where Carter lay on the floor, surrounded by uniformed paramedics.
“Ed shot him,” she said.
“He’s still alive,” Jake said. “We’re going to take care of him.”
The sheriff joined them. “Mira, are you all right?” Travis asked.
She nodded, then shook her head. “I don’t know.” She couldn’t look away from the crowd around Carter’s prone body. “Is Carter going to be okay?”
“We’re doing everything we can for him,” Travis said. That wasn’t the answer she wanted. She wanted someone to tell her he hadn’t been hurt badly, but having seen the blood seeping out of his chest, she knew that was a lie.
“What happened here?” Travis asked.
“Ed broke into the apartment. He said he was going to kill us. He shot Carter. He tried to shoot me. I was so angry. He had no right to do that.” Mortified, she began to sob.
A woman in a paramedic uniform came over and embraced her. She realized it was Jake’s wife, Hannah.
“We’re getting ready to load Carter into the ambulance,” Hannah said. “Come and talk to him.”
Carter lay on the gurney, covered with blankets, an oxygen mask obscuring much of his face. His green eyes were cloudy and unfocused. Mira wrapped her fingers around the only spot on his arm that wasn’t obstructed by some piece of medical equipment. “Say something to him,” Hannah said. “He can hear you, even if he can’t respond.”
She was afraid to speak, afraid she would burst into sobs. But what if this was her last chance to talk to him? “I love you,” she said, shocked that the words burst forth. But saying them was a relief.
Hannah patted her back, then led her away again as her coworkers rolled the gurney toward the door.
Travis and Gage approached again. “We really need to talk to her,” Gage said.
“I think she needs a sedative,” Hannah said. “She’s been through a lot.”
Mira straightened her shoulders. “No, I can talk. I want to tell you.”
She settled on the sofa—the sheriff across from her, Gage beside her. She reminded herself she was safe now. People were doing everything they could to help Carter. Her job was to make sure the sheriff had everything he needed to stop Ed Anders from hurting anyone ever again.
She took a deep breath. “Ed Anders killed David Ketchum, in Santa Fe three years ago,” she said. “He confessed to me and to Carter. He was never convicted of the crime. I don’t know if he was even a suspect. He left town after that. He’s only been in Eagle Mountain, living with his son, Mitch Anders, for a few months. Mitch took him in because he thought his dad was helpless and had nowhere else to go. But apparently that was an act to fool people. Ed is in good enough shape to climb my fire escape and break my window, and I’m sure he’s the person who attacked me on the hiking trail, too. And he wrote those letters accusing me of having something do to with David’s death.”
