Page 7 of Deputies Under Fire (Renegade Canyon #2)

Eden winced as the nurse cleaned a small cut on her forehead. It was the fourth one, and there were still several more to go. Thankfully, none of them were serious. In fact, Eden could have tended them at home, but Rory had insisted she be examined after their ordeal at the barn.

Where they could have been killed.

Eden couldn’t push that thought aside. Couldn’t push away the memories of seeing the roof fall while Rory was still in the center of the barn. It was a miracle he hadn’t been crushed when the roof caved in.

Lou hadn’t been so lucky. He was dead, killed instantly by whatever explosive had been set off just outside the barn. Eden didn’t have an official report on it yet, but she suspected Lou had been right by, or even on, the device. The young man hadn’t stood a chance of surviving.

David hadn’t come out of the ordeal unscathed, either. He was in surgery for internal injuries he’d sustained from the falling support beam. She did have an official report on him that’d come from one of the doctors. David was critical but was expected to live.

Like Rory and her, Molly’s injuries were mostly superficial. Cuts, scrapes and bruises. Molly had been admitted to the hospital, though, for an overnight stay because of the hit she’d taken to the head. The doctors didn’t think it was serious, but they wanted to keep an eye on her.

And speaking of keeping an eye on someone, that’s exactly what Rory was doing to her.

He was sitting in the chair in the treatment room, talking on his phone and watching as her injuries were treated. He’d already gone through the process and was now sporting a butterfly bandage on his forehead and three Band-Aids on his left arm.

Eden knew this particular call Rory was making was to the nanny, to check on Tyler.

But before that, there’d been one to Grace to update her.

Then, several to the on-duty deputies. He hadn’t put any of the calls on speaker, probably because medical staff were coming and going from the treatment room, but he’d managed to give her updates on the investigation when they’d gotten a moment or two to themselves.

Deputy Livvy Walsh was the senior officer in the squad room, so she was coordinating things with the bomb squad and the CSIs who’d been called in from another county. The explosion had put their own county’s team out of commission, and the scene at the barn would have to be processed.

Eden wasn’t holding out much hope the CSIs would find something to help them with Brenda’s murder. The explosion would have likely destroyed any potential evidence. And that was no doubt the reason it’d been set.

By the killer.

It ate away at her to think the killer could have been there.

Right there, where she and Rory could have caught him.

Now more than ever she wanted this monster behind bars.

And she wanted to know if he or she had also killed Mellie.

That was a wound that wouldn’t even start to heal until she’d gotten the woman the justice she deserved.

“What did Leslie say?” Eden asked him the moment he finished his call with the nanny.

“Tyler’s fine,” he assured her. “He’s napping right now, but Leslie’s going to take him outside to see the horse when he’s awake.”

Good. That was the routine that Eden and Rory had with Tyler, and Eden hadn’t wanted him to miss out on one of his favorite activities. She wished she could be there, to see the enjoyment she knew Tyler would get from it, but they needed to stick with this investigation.

Because they had a possible serial killer on their hands.

Mellie, Brenda and now Lou. That was the magic number for the gut-twisting label of serial killer. And it was even harder to accept since it could be Rory’s own father.

Or his aunt.

Eden certainly wasn’t forgetting what Dutton had told them about Helen. It was hard for her to imagine Helen being enraged enough to kill and frame Ike, but she couldn’t rule out that possibility. So, yes, she and Rory needed to press hard on this investigation, to put an end to the body count.

Rory stood and went closer, checking out the cut on her head as the nurse, Beatrice Garcia, put on the last of the bandages. Eden had known Beatrice for years, and the woman gave Eden a pat on the hand before she picked up her supplies.

“Wait here, and I’ll get some paperwork you’ll need to sign,” Beatrice said. “Both of you,” she added to Rory as she exited the area.

Rory moved even closer, leaning down and pulling her into a gentle hug. It wasn’t exactly a professional response, but it was a welcome one. She needed him for just a moment so she could steady herself.

The hug didn’t last long, and when Rory eased back from her, their gazes met. He said a single word of profanity. Then, he groaned.

She knew what that reaction was about. It was about the entire mess that was now their lives. They were in this together, and somehow they had to ID the killer and stop them.

“Ike’s interview has been delayed,” he said, checking his watch. “We’ve got about an hour. You think you’re up to it, or would you rather just head home—”

“I’m up to it,” Eden said, not able to say the words fast enough. “No way do I want to miss that.”

Even though Rory and her wouldn’t be the ones doling out the questions. Still, they’d be able to hear what the man had to say.

Rory nodded as if that’d been the exact answer he’d expected from her. “Ike’s lawyers have told Livvy that he was with them during the time of the explosions,” he went on. “So an alibi for that.”

She shook her head. “That doesn’t mean anything, right? The bomb could have been set before we even arrived at the barn or maybe even the night before, when Brenda was left there.”

“Yes,” he agreed. “That was in the preliminary report from the bomb squad.” Rory glanced at his phone. “I got a text update from them while you were getting bandaged, and they said it was basically an IED that had likely been placed in a shallow hole. When Lou stepped on it, it went off.”

Eden suppressed a shudder. Barely. That IED had cost a man his life, but it could have killed all of them had they been on that side of the barn.

Rory pulled up a photo. “The bomb guys believe the IED looked something like this.”

She studied the tan-colored PCV pipe that had likely contained the explosive material. Along with that, there was wiring, a small battery and some kind of switch that she supposed was the detonator. It seemed small enough for a half dozen or more to fit into a backpack.

“What kind of expertise would it take to make something like that?” Eden asked, because she was having trouble picturing Ike putting together this dangerous device and then transporting it to the barn.

“Sadly, not much,” Rory explained. “Instructions for that kind of stuff can be found on the internet. The bomb squad will gather all the parts of the IED and examine it.” He paused. “It’s possible that it wasn’t homemade, that it was done by a pro.”

Now, she could see Ike doing something like that.

Despite not being the actual owner of the McClennan family ranch, the man still had money.

Eden had learned that during the time she’d investigated him as a person of interest in Mellie’s murder.

When Ike and his wife had married, he’d sold his own ranch for nearly a million before moving to his wife’s family place, and Ike had made some good investments with the cash from that sale.

Added to that, Ike and his younger brother had split a ten-million-dollar estate when their parents had passed away.

So the bottom line was that Ike could afford the best. And if that’s what he had done, then the best IED maker might be hard to catch since he or she would likely know how to cover their tracks. Still, the bomb squad might find something that would help them unravel this.

“I also got another call from Diedre,” Rory continued a moment later.

He was staying close to her, close enough that his left side was against her leg, and he had lowered his voice.

No doubt so that no one passing by the treatment room would overhear them.

“She offered to set herself up as bait for Ike to come after her.”

Of all the things Eden had been expecting him to say, that wasn’t one of them. “Bait? Last night she was terrified that Ike was going to kill her.”

He nodded, and his expression conveyed his mixed feelings about that. “She could have been exaggerating. And if she was, then I have to speculate as to why. Did she think she could convince us to arrest Ike? Maybe,” he concluded. “Or she could have just wanted to plant that seed in our minds.”

“The seed was already there,” Eden pointed out.

“Yeah, it was, but Diedre might have wanted to try to speed things up. She could be doing that with this bait idea, too.”

Eden gave that some thought. And she saw how this could play out. “Diedre allows herself to be in a position where Ike could come after her, and then she somehow arranges for Ike to be there, too, before the cops run in to rescue her.”

“That’s what I figure she had in mind, as well. She could have even planned to goad Ike into attacking her so that it would add to the evidence against him.” He looked her straight in the eyes. “I declined Diedre’s offer.”

Yes. Eden had known he would. Because for one thing it was dangerous.

If Ike truly was the killer, he could murder Diedre before the cops could stop him.

And if he was innocent and did little or nothing to the woman, Ike’s lawyers could add that it was entrapment.

Either way, a bait situation like that wouldn’t end well for anyone.

“So is Diedre a suspect in the murders?” Eden asked.

Rory opened his mouth but didn’t get a chance to answer because his phone rang. When he took it from his pocket, she saw Livvy’s name on the screen and knew he had to take it right away.

“You’re on speaker,” he said after issuing a greeting. “Eden is here with me, and she’s listening in.”