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Her warmth was refreshing, especially after Nyman’s rudeness. “Looks like you finally ditched the good doctor.”
He gently tugged her coat away to help her into it. Her mouth tightened, at him or at the doctor, he didn’t know. “Holly was tired, so they made an early night of it,” she answered.
She had always been enamored with Jeff Bradford. He hated the guy for that, alone, especially because from the moment Jeff had noticed her, too, Claire had seemed completely smitten.
Even early on, she had talked about living in one of the town’s historic old brick houses, settling down and raising a family here in Hope’s Crossing.
Things hadn’t quite worked out as she planned and Riley knew a moment’s sadness for unrealized dreams. If anyone deserved the life she wanted, Claire Tatum Bradford would have topped his personal list. She’d been through hell as a kid and ought to be first in line for a happy ending.
Was she completely devastated that Bradford had moved on? Riley didn’t want to think so. He had been fourteen when his own mother disintegrated for a while after his old man walked out. He could still remember the nights he would wake up to her sobbing in the living room as they all tried to make sense of James McKnight’s sudden abandonment of his wife and six children.
Another problem he should have anticipated about moving home. Things he hadn’t thought about in years—and didn’t want to waste another moment of his life dwelling on—had a way of pushing themselves to the front of his brain. He quickly turned his attention to Claire’s son.
“Great show.” He shook Owen’s hand with solemn gravity. “Your speech was my favorite of the whole pageant.”
The boy flashed a grin at him. “Thanks. I’m super glad it’s over.”
“Me, too.” A kid with flaming red hair and freckles who had played a highly unlikely FDR in the pageant grinned at him and Riley couldn’t resist smiling back.
“This is Jordie. We’re driving him home,” Owen announced. “His mom and dad couldn’t come see the play ’cause they’re both pukin’ sick.”
His sister rolled her eyes. “Do you have to be so disgusting all the time?”
He shoved his finger in his mouth and made a retching sound until his mother gave him a stern look.
“Carrie and Don have the flu, poor things. I offered to drive Jordan to and from the pageant for them.”
That was just like her, always taking care of everybody else. Apparently that hadn’t changed. “Well, be careful driving out there. Looks like the snow’s finally started. I forgot how lovely spring can be in the Rockies.”
“I have four-wheel drive,” she said.
“Four-wheel drive won’t do diddly-squat if you hit a patch of black ice,” he said, but before she could answer, his cell phone buzzed with the urgent ringtone from Dispatch.
“Hang on, Claire. Sorry, I’ve got to take this.”
She shrugged and finished shepherding the boys into their jackets and gloves while he stepped away to answer.
“Yeah, Chief.” Tammy, the night dispatcher spoke rapidly, her words a jumble. “I just got a call from Harry Lange out on Silver Strike Road reporting a possible burglary in progress at one of the vacation homes near his place. He says the owners were just in town from California last weekend and told him they wouldn’t be back until June but he’s seeing lights inside that shouldn’t be there. He thinks it’s kids. And get this, Harry also reported they might be driving a dark-colored extended-cab pickup truck, just like our suspect vehicle from the robberies.”
“Did he get a plate?”
“No. He said he couldn’t see it from his angle in the dark and didn’t want to move in too close. What should I do? Jess is in the middle of a domestic disturbance over at the Claimjumper Condos and Marty is taking care of a fender bender out on Highland Road. Do you want me to divert one of them or call the sheriff’s department for backup?”
“I can be there faster than anybody else. Have the sheriff send a couple deputies for backup just in case.”
“Right, Chief.”
He was already heading out the door, his adrenaline pumping at a possible break in the case, when he remembered Claire and the kids.
“Sorry,” he said over his shoulder. “I’ve got an emergency.”
He wasn’t sure whose eyes were wider, hers or the kids.
“Are you going to catch whoever stole my mom’s computer?” Owen asked.
“I intend to,” he vowed.
He gave one last apologetic smile to Claire, then raced out the door. Less than a minute later, he pulled out of the elementary school parking lot as fast as he dared and turned toward the canyon road that hugged the mountainside east of Silver Strike Reservoir.
As he had told Claire, the snow that had been threatening all day had begun to fall, plump fluffy flakes that might look like something off a postcard but played hell with road conditions. Welcome to April in the Rockies.
At least there was little traffic in either direction up the canyon. He was still about two miles from Harry Lange’s place when his dispatcher’s voice crackled through his radio. “Chief, be advised, suspects are believed to have left the premises of the vacation cabin and are now on Silver Strike Road, heading back toward town.”
Which meant they would be coming right at him. He might have missed catching them in the act, but he could still possibly nail them with stolen items from the vacation cabin and then link them to the Main Street break-ins.
“Ten-four, Tammy.”
He wheeled his department SUV around, grateful for all the years he’d driven the mountain back roads and byways around town. This was the only road out of Silver Strike canyon, which dead-ended at the ski resort. The suspects would have to pass him eventually on their way back to town.
He pulled into a turnoff shielded from view from the road by a large pine, then shut off his headlights and killed the engine, lurking in wait for them in the cold.
Normally he hated waiting for anything. His natural impatience, he figured, a consequence of being the youngest of six and the only boy in a house with only two small bathrooms. Seemed like he’d spent half his youth waiting for somebody to finish blow-drying hair or soaking for hours in a bathtub or writing a novel or whatever the hell they did in there.
This was a different sort of wait, just moments before he expected to apprehend a suspect, and he never minded the anticipation.
The suspects in question didn’t give him much time to savor the hunt. Only maybe a minute passed before he heard the rumble of a powerful engine in the cold night, then a dark extended-cab pickup passed him, fast enough that he could nail them for speeding if he couldn’t find any other obvious evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
He waited until they took the next curve before he pulled in behind them. He eased closer and despite the snow that seemed to have picked up in the fifteen minutes since he left the school, he had a clear view of the vehicle, a late-model three-quarter-ton Dodge Ram with a lift kit and a roll bar.
He called in the license plate, still following at a sedate pace.
“Affirmative, Chief. That vehicle is registered to…um, Mayor Beaumont.”
Oh, crap. Riley considered his options. He’d just left the mayor and Mrs. Beaumont at the Spring Fling, so neither could obviously be behind the wheel. What if their pickup had been stolen?
“Don’t the Beaumonts have a teenage son?” he asked on a hunch.
“Yeah. Charlie. Seventeen or so, and a wild one, from what my girls say.”
Charlie, you are in some serious trouble. He was close enough now that he could nail the little punk. He hit his flashing lights and accelerated.
For a moment, he thought it would be easy. After a few seconds, the pickup truck started to slow to around twenty-five miles per hour and Riley tried to focus on driving in the snowy conditions instead of the excitement pounding through him.
The truck didn’t immediately stop, but Riley assumed Charlie Beaumont was looking for a good place to pull over on this fairly narrow road, with the mountains to their right and the reservoir a dark and sullen void across the oncoming lane to the left.
After perhaps two minutes at the slower pace, suddenly the pickup shot forward, fishtailing on the now icy road.
Shit. The idiot was a runner. And under these conditions, too.
He accelerated to keep pace while he picked up his radio again. “Suspect is fleeing. Unit in pursuit. Requesting backup. How far away is the sheriff’s deputy?”
A male voice he didn’t recognize answered. “Just approaching Silver Strike Canyon, Chief.”
“Set up a roadblock at the mouth of the canyon. Don’t let anybody in or out.”
As soon as he spoke, he spied headlights heading toward them in the other direction from town and his insides clenched. Too damn late. Somebody was already coming this way. Possibly more than one vehicle.
As much as he wanted to catch the little punk who had run roughshod over his town—no matter how powerful his father might be—Riley had to consider the safety of pursuit when innocent civilians might be in danger. He had to stop the chase before someone was hurt. He would just have to keep his fingers crossed that the sheriff’s deputies could set up the roadblock at the mouth of the canyon in time. Even if the kid slipped through, he knew where to find Charlie Beaumont.
Riley eased back and turned off his flashing lights to let the kid know he was curtailing pursuit, but the driver of the pickup, probably juiced up on adrenaline and heaven knows what else, didn’t seem to care. The vehicle was still moving dangerously fast, especially on a curvy canyon road in the dark with those big fat snowflakes falling steadily.
After that, everything happened in a blur. At the next curve, Charlie swung too wide, too fast, and veered into the other lane—directly in the path of the oncoming vehicle.
Riley saw headlights flashing crazily as that driver veered to the shoulder to avoid a head-on collision. He held his breath, hoping the other driver would be able to maintain control. For a second, he thought the other vehicle would make it safely back onto the roadway, but he didn’t even have time to offer up a prayer before the vehicle somehow found a gap in the guardrails along the reservoir and a moment later the headlights soared over the side.
“Oh, shit, oh, shit, oh, shit!”
Riley hit the brakes and felt the patrol SUV’s tires slither to gain traction. He turned into the skid and fought to regain control…and as he did, he vaguely registered the headlights of Charlie Beaumont’s pickup were nowhere in sight. How had he escaped so quickly?
He picked up the mic and yelled for the sheriff’s deputy to hold the roadblock and for the dispatcher to send emergency vehicles, that he had a vehicle possibly in the water. Without waiting to answer questions, he grabbed his waterproof flashlight and a crowbar from the trunk, then raced to the edge of the slope.
Snow stung his face, but he barely noticed as he scanned below into the dark water. Finally his flashlight picked up the shape of the vehicle about twenty feet from shore. It hadn’t rolled, a good sign, but it was leaning nose-down toward the driver’s side, submerged in water up the bottom of the windshield.
Riley made his way down the snow-covered slope as quickly as he dared, sliding a little as he went. He was nearly to the bottom when he heard a voice from above, barely discernible over the wind.
“What can I do?” a man called from the road. “Need me to call for help?”
He didn’t recognize the voice and couldn’t make out the man’s features from this angle. “I’ve done that already,” he shouted back. “Keep an eye out and direct the ambulance.”
Until he had a chance to assess the scene, he didn’t want another civilian down here for him to worry about.
“Should I go check on the other guys?”
He paused in the act of shoving his flashlight into his waistband and removing his Glock 9 mm and holster. “Other guys?”
“Yeah. The pickup truck. He spun out and crashed into a tree just around the curve.”
Riley’s gut clenched. He’d been so preoccupied watching in horror as this car sailed into the water that he hadn’t seen or heard the other vehicle’s collision.
For a second he was torn about what to do, then he yanked off his other boot. As far as he was concerned, the suspects could rot while they waited for help. If Charlie Beaumont hadn’t been such an asshole to run, none of this would have happened. Innocent victims got first dibs on rescue, that was his philosophy.
“Yeah, go check on them,” he answered the man he now recognized as Harry Lange, although what the wealthiest man in town might be doing spying on intruders at his neighbors’ house and responding to accidents in the middle of the night was anyone’s guess. “Does your cell work this far up the canyon?”
“It’s spotty but I might get lucky.”
“Call 9-1-1 and tell the dispatch we’ve got two accidents to deal with and we’re going to need all available units up here.”
“Got it.”
He was taking too long with this, while the occupants of the vehicle in the water needed rescue. He just had to trust Lange would be able to reach dispatch to send more help. With a deep, steadying breath, he braced himself and headed into the water.
The shock raced through his nerve endings like ice blocks clamping hard around his feet and calves. He ignored it, pushed past it and waded out.
By the time he had crossed ten yards, the brutally cold water had reached his waist. Snow and wind whipped any exposed flesh and every breath seemed to slice at his lungs like tiny switchblades. He was aware of the bitter cold on some level, but mostly he forced himself to focus on what had to be done.
“Help us. Please, somebody, help us.”
The desperate cry chilled him worse than the elements. By the sound of it, that was a kid’s voice, a young girl, wet, cold, possibly injured.
Kids. Damn it.
“I’m coming. Hang on.”
In the cloudy moonlight, he could finally make out the vehicle was a small SUV, a Toyota, by the look of it. He saw at least a couple of heads and now could hear other young voices crying. The sound of those desperate voices pushed him even faster and he finally just dived in and swam the remaining distance.
With icy hands, he pulled his flashlight from his waistband and aimed it into the vehicle window. He saw a form slumped over the steering wheel where a now-deflated air bag had deployed. He moved the light to the backseat and saw three pale faces staring back.
He tried to pull the doors open but they wouldn’t budge because of the water pressing in. “Can you wind down the window?” he yelled.
“No, we tried. They won’t work.”
Power windows tended not to be real cooperative when the car’s battery was submerged in four feet of water. He pulled out the crowbar, grateful for whatever instinct had prompted him to grab it. “Look, I need you to move away from the window and cover your face with your hands. I’m going to break the window, okay?”
“Okay.” He heard the muffled response from inside.
“Are you all clear?”
“Yes.”
Urgency lent him added strength and he slammed the crowbar into the window. It shattered and he brushed at the glass with his wet sleeve.
“I didn’t think anybody saw us. I thought we would be here all night,” the girl whimpered. He knew that voice, but he couldn’t see her features very well. He aimed the flashlight to get a better look at possible injuries and everything inside him froze.
Macy Bradford.
One of the little figures she cuddled was her brother, Owen, and the other was the freckled, red-headed kid who had been with them at the pageant. Jordie something or other.
He jerked his attention to the motionless form in the front seat. “Claire? Claire, honey? Answer me.”
She didn’t respond, although he thought he heard a slight moan. He checked quickly for a pulse and found one there, a little thready but strong. He wanted to do a full assessment but his gut was telling him the first priority was to get the terrified kids out of the reservoir and back to shore, where he could now see other rescuers coming down the slope toward the water’s edge.
“Are you guys hurt?”
“I’m cold. I cut my face,” Jordie said through his scared sobs. “And my shoulder hurts.”
“My arm hurts,” Owen whimpered. “I think it’s broken.”
“I’m okay,” Macy said, but Riley was pretty sure she was lying. He couldn’t wait for stretchers to get here. Not in these conditions. It could be fifteen minutes or longer before the paramedics managed to make it up the canyon and he had no idea what was happening with the other accident.
He was going to have to trust his instincts and go against every stricture he’d ever learned about not moving accident victims who had been injured. Sometimes removing a victim from further injury was the only option and right now hypothermia and shock were both grave concern.
“Macy, I’m going to carry the boys to shore first and then I’ll come back for you, okay? There are people who will help you make your way up to the road and get you all warmed up. Got it?”
“Is my mom gonna be okay?” Her voice shook with fear and his chest ached from more than just the effort it was taking to breathe through the bitter cold.
“I promise you, I will do my best to make sure of that. Hang on while I take care of the boys first. You keep talking to your mom while I’m gone, okay? You ready, boys?”
“Uh-huh.” Owen sniffled as he slid across the seat. Riley scooped him up over one shoulder and then took the other boy over the other in a double fireman’s hold, careful as he could manage of possible injuries.
The trip back through the water was surreal in the moonlight with snow swirling around the inky water. He almost fell once and would have dunked them all but he somehow managed to keep his footing. When he was almost to the shore, several people waded the rest of the way to take the boys from him.
“My wife’s a nurse,” the man who took Jordie said. “She’s waiting on the shore.”
“I think they mostly need to be warmed up, although one is complaining of arm pain and the other says his shoulder hurts.”
Two of the rescuers carried the boys to shore, but the other one turned to Riley. “Is there anyone else out there?”
He was just a kid, Riley realized. “Two more, one with undetermined injuries.”
“I’ll help you get them.”
He didn’t want to endanger anyone else, but the kid was strong, muscled, like a bulldogger. Probably a rancher’s kid, who bulked up by hefting hay bales and wrestling steers. “That would be great. If you can carry the girl to shore, I can check on her mom.”
Riley hadn’t been able to feel his feet for some time now and the snow was falling more heavily, joined now by a vicious wind that churned the water and blasted through his wet clothes. He didn’t care. Not when Claire needed help.
“What’s your name, kid?” he asked as they made their way back to the SUV.
“Joe Redmond.”
There was a coincidence. Redmond was a common name around here, but he was quite sure the kid was somehow related to Lisa, his old girlfriend.
When they reached the SUV, Riley aimed the flashlight into the backseat and the kid made a sound of astonishment. “Mace? Is that you?”
“Yeah. Hey, Joey.”
“My mom’s gonna freak that you guys were the ones hurt.”
“How’s your mom?” Riley asked Macy.
“I think she might be waking up. I was trying to get her to talk to me and she moaned a few times.”
“You did great, honey. Let’s get you warmed up, okay, and I’ll take care of Claire from here. Joe, are you sure you can carry her?”
“You bet. Come on, squirt.”
He made sure Macy looked secure in the kid’s arms before he focused all his attention on Claire while they headed for shore. “Claire? Honey, can you hear me?”
She moaned again, an encouraging sound.
“I need to break another window. I’m going to cover your face, okay?” He had to hope she could understand and wouldn’t come back to full consciousness in a panic that she was being suffocated.
He grabbed her scarf and managed to protect her face as best he could before he hefted the crowbar and half waded, half dragged himself around to the passenger side across from her. This window was already cracked and it took only a hard smack to shatter it completely. He was guessing by the way the vehicle was tilted toward the driver’s side that the vehicle had landed on that side. Her body would have absorbed most of the impact and it made sense that her injuries would potentially be more severe than the children’s in the backseat, who probably hadn’t braced against the crash like Claire would have done.
The water inside the car was up to her waist and she was shaking violently despite her unconscious state. Guilt crashed over him, colder and more vicious than the waves. He should never have started the pursuit under these conditions. He should have just waited and set up a roadblock at the mouth of the canyon to take care of it.
When he pulled the scarf away, she blinked at him and her huge, dilated pupils and pale features ripped at his heart.
“Cold,” she moaned.
“I know, honey. I know. I’ll get you out of here as soon as I can figure out if it’s safe to move you. Where do you hurt?”
She squinted at him, then closed her eyes and he saw blood oozing from her temple.
“What…happened?”
“Accident. You went off the road to avoid a head-on. You probably saved your kids’ lives.” He batted away the deflated air bag and worked on her seat belt.
A second later, she opened her eyes and started moving frantically. “My kids?”
“Hold still while I get this. They’re okay. A little banged up, but they’re over on dry land getting warm right now. They’re going to be okay.”
Her agitation subsided and she sagged against the seat. His radio squawked static and he fumbled with fingers that felt icy and useless to turn it down so he could talk to her.
“Where do you hurt, Claire?” he asked again, more firmly this time.
“Legs. Wrist. Um, head. Everywhere.” The last word came out a whimper.
“I don’t want to move you until we can get a stretcher out here, unless I absolutely have to. The ambulance should be here soon. We just have to wait it out here a few more moments.”
“My kids. I need to take care of my kids.”
“They’re okay. Someone else is with them.”
“Promise. Promise you’ll make sure.”
“I’ll stay right here with you until you’re out of the water and then make sure all of you are okay.” He brushed a hand over her hair and saw blood oozing from a cut on her forehead. “Just hang on, sweetheart.”
“This isn’t fun.”
Her ragged words somehow managed to shock a laugh out of him in spite of everything. He had never been so frigging cold in his life and he could barely breathe around the icy guilt pressing in on his chest. “No, I can’t say that it is. I don’t think it’s supposed to be.”
“First my store, now this.”
“I know. You’ve had a pretty rough day. Got to rank right up there with the worst day ever.”
“Stupid horoscope,” she muttered, for reasons he didn’t understand. He would have asked her, but nothing else mattered except making her safe.
CHAPTER FOUR
WHERE THE HELL WERE the paramedics?
Riley glared at the shore and the noticeable absence of flashing lights besides his own. He could see the flurry of activity as those on shore helped the children, but the ambulance was nowhere in sight. If this was the way the Hope’s Crossing paramedics responded to emergencies, he was going to have to have a serious discussion with the fire chief about the response time of his crews.
“C-cold,” Claire whimpered.
“I know, sweetheart. Hang on.” He adjusted the blanket around her more snugly. Time was definitely not on his side. The longer she stayed out here in these frigid conditions, the greater the chance of hypothermia.