Shotgun Sheriff

The person who’d thrown the accelerant or whatever might have used it as a ruse to draw them out. It was entirely possible that someone would try to kill them the moment they climbed out. Still, there was no choice here. Even though he’d already called the fire department, it would take them twenty minutes or more to respond to this remote area.

If they stayed put, Livvy and he could be dead by then.

“I’ll go first,” he instructed. He took her equipment bag and hooked it over his shoulder. That would free her up to run faster. “Cover me while I get to those trees.”

She nodded. Coughed. She was pale, Reed noticed, but she wasn’t panicking. Good. Because they both needed a clear head for this.

Reed didn’t waste any more time. With his gun as aimed and ready as it could be, he hoisted himself over the sill and climbed out. He started running the second his feet touched the ground.

“Now,” he told Livvy. He dropped the equipment bag and took cover behind the trees. Aimed. And tried to spot a potential gunman who might be on the verge of ambushing them.

Livvy snaked her body through the window and raced toward him. Despite the short distance, she was breathing hard by the time she reached him. She turned, putting her back to his. Good move, because this way they could cover most of the potential angles for an attack.

But Reed still didn’t see anyone.

He blamed that on the smoke. It was a thick cloud around the cabin now. There were fires, both on the front porch and the back, and scattered around the fires were chunks of what appeared to be broken glass. The flames weren’t high yet, but it wouldn’t take them long to eat their way through the all-wood structure. And any potential evidence inside would be destroyed right along with it. If this arsonist was out to help Shane, then he was sadly mistaken.

Of course, the other possibility was that the real killer had done this.

It would be the perfect way to erase any traces of himself. Well, almost any traces. There was some potential evidence in Livvy’s equipment bag. Maybe the person responsible wouldn’t try to come after it.

But he rethought that.

A showdown would bring this fire-setting bozo out into the open, and Reed would be able to deal with him.

“Will the fire department make it in time to save the cabin?” Livvy asked between short bursts of air.

“No.” And as proof of that, the flames shots up, engulfing the front door and swooshing their way to the cedar-shake roof. The place would soon be nothing but cinders and ash.

Reed was about to tell her that they’d have to stay put and watch the place burn since there was no outside hose to even attempt to put a dent in the flames. But he felt Livvy tense. It wasn’t hard to feel because her back was right against his.

“What’s wrong?” Reed whispered.

“I think I see someone.”

Reed shifted and followed her gaze. She was looking in the direction of the county road, which was just down the hill from the cabin. Specifically, she was focused on the path that Woody had taken earlier. He didn’t see anyone on the path or road, so he tried to pick through the woods and the underbrush to see what had alerted Livvy.

Still nothing.

“Look by my SUV,” she instructed.

The vehicle was white and barely visible from his angle so Reed repositioned himself and looked down the slope. At first, nothing.

Then, something.

There was a flash of movement at the rear of her vehicle, but with just a glimpse he couldn’t tell if it was animal or human.

“There’s evidence in the SUV,” she said. Her breathing was more level now, but that statement was loaded with fear and tension. “I’d photographed the cabin and exterior with a highly sensitive digital camera. Both it and the photo memory card are inside in a climate controlled case, along with some possible hair and fibers that I gathered from the sofa with a tape swatch.”

Oh, hell. All those items could be critical to this investigation.

“The SUV’s locked,” she added.

For all the good that’d do. After all, the person out there had been gutsy enough to throw Molotov cocktails at the cabin with both Reed and a Texas Ranger inside, and he could have broken the lock on the SUV or bashed in a window.

Livvy grabbed her equipment bag from the ground and repositioned her gun. Reed knew what she had in mind, and he couldn’t stop her from going to her vehicle to check on the evidence. But what he could do was assist.

“Stay close to the treeline,” he instructed.

He stepped to her side so that she would be semi-sheltered from the open path. Another automatic response. But this time, Livvy didn’t object. However, what she did do was move a lot faster than he’d anticipated.

Reed kept up with her while he tried to keep an eye on their surroundings and her SUV. None of the doors or windows appeared to be open, but he wouldn’t be surprised if it’d been burglarized. Obviously, someone didn’t want them to process that evidence.

He saw more movement near the SUV. A shadow, maybe. Or maybe someone lurking just on the other side near the rear bumper. Behind them, the fire continued to crackle and burn, and there was a crash when the roof of the cabin gave way and plummeted to the ground. Sparks and ashes scattered everywhere, some of them making their way to Livvy and him.

Livvy didn’t stop. She didn’t look back. But when Reed saw more movement, he latched on to her arm and pulled her behind an oak. This was definitely a situation where it would do no good to try to sneak up on the perp because the perp obviously was better positioned. Despite the cover of the trees, Livvy and he were in a vulnerable situation.

“This is Sheriff Hardin,” he called out. “Get your hands in the air so I can see them.”

He hadn’t expected the person to blindly obey. And he didn’t. Reed caught a glimpse of someone wearing a dark blue baseball cap.

Reed shifted his gun. Took aim—just as there was a crashing sound, followed by a flash of light. Someone had broken the SUV window and thrown another Molotov cocktail into the vehicle.

“He set the SUV on fire,” Livvy said, bolting out from cover.

Reed pulled her right back. “He might have a gun.” Except there was no might in this. The guy was probably armed and dangerous, and he couldn’t have Livvy running right into an ambush.

“But the evidence …” she protested.

Yeah. That was a huge loss. Like Livvy, his instincts were to race down there and try to save what he could, but to do that might be suicide.

“He could want you dead,” Reed warned.

That stopped Livvy from struggling. “Because of the evidence I gathered from the cabin?”

Reed nodded and waited for the rest of that to sink in. It didn’t take long.

“Shane couldn’t have done this,” she concluded.

“No.” Reed kept watch on the vehicle and the area in case the attacker doubled back toward them or tried to escape.

“But someone who wanted to exonerate him could have,” Livvy added.

Reed nodded again. “That means the fire starter must have thought you saw or found something in the cabin that would be crucial evidence.”

That also meant Livvy was in danger.

Reed cursed. This was turning into a tangled mess, and he already had too much to do without adding protecting Livvy to the list.