On Her Father's Grave (Rogue River #1)(29)

Ted Warner collapsed.

Zane gestured for Carter to go to Ted and spun back to Stevie. “Did you get hit?”

She lay on her back, one hand clasped around the wrist of her bleeding hand on her chest, staring up at him. “No. Only from the first shot.”

Concern and worry filled his face as he hovered over her, patting her down, checking for new wounds. “Are you sure?”

Stevie tried to take stock of the rest of her body, but the fire in her hand hogged all her focus.

“I don’t see anything else,” he said.

“He was going to shoot you,” she muttered.

“I saw your eyes focus over my shoulder on him.”

The smoky blue sky behind Zane’s head started to spin. “I think I’m going to puke now,” she croaked.

Deft hands rolled her onto her side, and she vomited into the dirt. She spit, trying to clear her mouth. She closed her eyes and sighed. “I’m okay.”

“I’m gonna go check on Ted. Don’t go anywhere.”

“I promise.”

She heard fire engine sirens.





CHAPTER 9


Three days later

Zane handed over the small stack of journals to Patsy, and she invited him in for iced tea. He followed her into the house, and she pointed through the kitchen windows at Stevie in a lounge chair on the back deck, her bandaged hand propped up on a few pillows beside her. “Go see her,” Patsy told him. “I’ll bring out some tea in a few minutes.” He stepped out onto the deck. Stevie spotted him and started to swing her feet off her chaise.

“Don’t move,” he ordered.

She eyed him but relaxed back into her seat. A bit of haziness in her gaze told him she was still taking her painkillers. She’d had immediate surgery in Medford on her left hand. Luckily they’d had a skilled surgeon available to assess and treat the damage.

“At least it’s not my shooting hand,” she’d joked as she was loaded into the ambulance.

“Sheesh, two days on the job and you got worker’s comp already,” Zane had replied.

On that awful day, after the explosion, Zane hadn’t seen anyone at the back of the barn and was returning toward the front when he heard the rifle shot that hit her hand. Seeing her standing frozen with blood on her front had emotionally rocked him in a way he hadn’t dreamed existed.

He’d never been so happy to see just a hand injury.

The surgeon didn’t know if she’d recover 100 percent use of the hand, but he’d seemed upbeat about her chances for coming close. “No tendon damage. She’s very lucky to have some chipped bones and torn muscles.”

He pulled a chair close to her chaise and sat, simply happy to be in the peace of her mother’s yard and see Stevie smiling.

“Did they figure out how the explosion was triggered in Ted’s barn?” Stevie asked.

“Ted used gas from the cans for the lawnmower to start it. The fertilizer in the building caused the explosion. I guess we’ll never know why he came back to the shed after it went up in flames.”

“Because he wanted to shoot you,” Stevie said bitterly.

Ted paid for that shot with his life. Zane’s bullet had caught him in the neck.

“Grace Ellis stopped by the office yesterday. She saw Ted’s picture in the paper and she’s positive that Ted was the man she saw with Hunter before the party at the lake. A few other kids have come forward and admitted that Ted had tried to sell them “a new high” that night at O’Rourke’s Lake.”

“I’m glad we figured out who the mystery man at the lake was,” said Stevie.

“Loretta says he was selling something, and she hadn’t cared as long as he wasn’t stealing the cash out of her purse.” Zane shook his head. “She said she’d asked Ted how they could afford a brand-new truck but not new shoes for Russ, and Ted had refused to answer.”

“What’s the latest on Kenny?”

“He’s still in intensive care, battling damage to a kidney and secondary infections that kicked in from having his intestine nicked by a bullet.”

“He’ll pull through.” Stevie gave a shaky smile. “He’s a tough one.”

“I hope we all pull through. We were going to be seriously shorthanded. I’m thankful the Rogue County Sheriff’s Department loaned me three reserve officers for two months.” The reserve officers weren’t paid county employees. They were volunteers who went through a large chunk of the regular police training and bought their own equipment. But they seemed happy to help and most of them already knew their way around Solitude.

She gave a sympathetic look. “Beggars can’t be choosers.”

“They’re good guys. We’ll make it work.” He pressed his lips together and looked out across the field behind the deck.

“What is it?” she asked.

“No one can find Roy Krueger,” Zane said. “I just stopped by there. His house is locked up, his truck is gone and you know he hasn’t been answering phone calls. He’s left town.”

Stevie straightened in her chair. “That’s impossible. He would have told us. He would have said something to my mother. He was part of the family.”

“I’m at a loss here. Everyone’s pretty stunned. Do you know if he has family somewhere?”