Page 30 of Deputies Under Fire (Renegade Canyon #2)

Eden was ready to take hold of Rory’s arm to stop him from bolting out of the station and hurrying to get to Ike’s truck.

But he thankfully didn’t do that.

In fact, he muted the call with the lawyer and voiced the first thought that had occurred to her when she’d heard Arnette say “so much blood.”

“This could be a trap,” Rory muttered, and he fixed his gaze on her.

“Yes,” she agreed. “One that the killer set, hoping we’d rush to the scene where we could be killed.”

He nodded and unmuted his phone. “Arnette, move away from the truck and get back in your vehicle to wait for us. Walk backward, retracing your steps, because there could be IEDs.”

That was highly likely since it had been the killer’s preferred method in the previous attack. But Eden didn’t doubt Ike had been taken.

Or hurt.

However, he was likely alive, for now, anyway, if the killer planned to use him as a lure. The killer could have taken Ike and then set up the explosives for anyone responding to the scene.

“An IED?” the lawyer repeated, and now there was some serious panic in his voice to go along with the worry. Eden hoped that panic didn’t send Arnette running because it could get him blown to bits.

“Get in your vehicle,” Rory repeated. “But don’t drive away.”

Good advice, because if Arnette had pulled off the side of the road, he could hit an IED when he tried to leave.

“Stay put,” Rory added. “Help will be there soon.”

He ended the call, continuing to keep his gaze fixed on her, and then cursed. She knew the reason for his profanity, too, so Eden went ahead and spelled out what needed to happen.

“I’ll go with you in a cruiser,” she stated. “You can’t leave me holed up here since the killer could just find another way to get to us. Let’s try to end this now.”

Oh, he didn’t care for that, but Rory knew it was the right thing to do. Like him, it was her job to go after a killer.

He nodded, gave her one last look that was laced with worry and they went back into the squad room. Livvy, Judson and Bennie were all working at their desks, and they must have realized something was wrong because they got to their feet.

“Arnette found Ike’s truck near the rubble of the old Sanderson barn,” Rory explained.

“There was blood. Eden and I will respond in one cruiser. Judson and Bennie, you’ll go in a second one.

Livvy, I need you here at the station. Call the bomb squad and get them out to the scene.

Hell, the fire department, too, in case there are any more of those gasoline bombs.

And let Grace and Dutton know what’s going on. ”

“What about a roadblock?” Livvy asked.

“We’ll do that after we arrive on scene, but get out the word that the road will be closed indefinitely.”

Livvy nodded, already taking out her phone. “Where’s Ike?”

“No idea,” Rory said, and then motioned for Judson and Bennie to follow them, and they all headed outside.

Rory reached for the door handle of the cruiser and then stopped. “Check underneath for any explosives,” he called out to Judson and Bennie.

That gave Eden a jolt because it was something that she hadn’t even considered. But she sure as heck should have. With the cruisers just sitting there in the parking lot, the killer could have planted IEDs on the vehicles.

All four of them lowered to the ground, and they did a search of the undercarriage.

Eden didn’t see anything suspicious, but she didn’t know if the killer had tucked it away, somewhere out of sight.

Still, it would have been awfully bold to try to do something like that with the police station only a few yards away.

“Nothing,” Judson said several moments later, and Rory echoed the same.

They got in their respective cruisers, and Eden suspected all of them were doing some praying when they started the engines. But thankfully, the cruisers didn’t explode, so with sirens and lights on, they started toward the scene.

It was bold, too, for the killer to do anything in this area, since it had already been the scene of three murders. Then again, the CSIs were long gone, so maybe the killer figured that cops and responders wouldn’t be around anytime soon. Still, it was gutsy.

“This isn’t on the route from the ranch to town,” Eden pointed out. “So what was Ike doing out here?”

“Maybe he was forced to come,” Rory said without hesitation, letting her know he’d thought of the question, too. “The killer could have been waiting for him in his truck.” He paused. “Or done something to lure him here. Hell, or even taken him from the house.”

All of those possibilities could have happened.

There was plenty of extra security at the ranch, but that was mainly around Dutton’s house, and that was for protecting Tyler.

Since the main house couldn’t be seen from Dutton’s, it was possible that someone had sneaked onto the grounds, waited and attacked Ike.

“Remember, too, that Ike came to Carter’s scene because of that message he could save someone,” Rory went on. “I doubt Ike would fall for that again, but it could have been a different tactic.”

“Like what?” she asked.

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.