It took a lot of arguing to convince Virginia and Lily to stay in the truck, but she finally did, telling Virginia to keep an eye out for Cab Johnson. She, Jed and Marion snuck up on Steel’s trailer through a circuitous route through the dripping wet woods that surrounded the park as dusk thickened around them. Stella was finding it hard not to race up to the trailer, burst through the door and see what was happening inside, but she knew she had to be patient or probably wind up dead herself. Instead they came up behind the trailer in the gathering gloom. Soon night would really set in, and everything would get more difficult.
“You can get a good look through the back window into Steel’s bedroom. He doesn’t have shades,” Marion whispered. She indicated a tree stump several feet away from the trailer. Jed loaned Stella a steadying hand as she climbed up and peered inside, raindrops slipping under her collar. There was a bed, the sheets in a tangle on top. A bedside table with a lightbulb but no shade. Behind them, in the corner, was a bureau of some sort.
Then Stella caught sight of something bright against the bureau’s dark wood. A shock of blonde hair.
Liz.
Movement in the doorway of the room sent Stella jumping down from the stump. She grabbed Jed’s and Marion’s wrists and pulled them up tight against the trailer under the window, praying that if Eric happened to look outside, he wouldn’t think to look straight down.
They could hear his muffled footsteps through the metal frame of the trailer. He seemed to mill around in the bedroom for a moment before his steps moved toward the front of the house again. Stella let out the breath she was holding. That was close.
“Now what?” Marion whispered.
Stella had no idea.
When Steel heard more sirens approaching, hope spiked through his chest. Chance Creek and Silver Falls had purchased their cruisers at two separate times, with the result that the sirens on their vehicles produced two separate and easily distinguishable series of noises.
This was a Chance Creek cruiser heading toward him.
When he’d taken off through the woods earlier, he’d heard Daniel Ortiz and Ned Haverstock shouting behind him. He’d given them the slip and hadn’t seen any sign of them since, so he burst out of the woods at a long, straight stretch of the road that would give the driver a chance to see him—and stop the car before whizzing right by. He stood in the center of the road and waved his hands.
He couldn’t blame his fellow deputies for being taken in by Eric Holden’s charges. Everyone in these parts knew Eric was a trustworthy man. Who would imagine someone with over twenty years with Chance Creek county could pull something like this? Far easier to assume Steel Cooper was the criminal.
The sheriff’s cruiser screeched to a halt, water sheeting through the air as it skidded through a puddle. Cab Johnson stuck his head out the window.
“What the hell are you playing at, Cooper?”
Steel didn’t answer. Instead, he raced to the car, jumped into the back seat and said, “Drive!”
Cab drove, but he sent an unamused glance Steel’s way in the rearview mirror. “If I hadn’t just taken a call from your aunt, I would have run right over you.”
“You’re going to my trailer, right? Might as well give me a lift.”
“I’m going to your trailer because Virginia thinks a kidnapped girl has been taken there.”
“By Eric Holden,” Steel added. “I’m not lying,” he said when Cab’s brows shot up. “Marion Wheeler saw him carrying something heavy into my trailer not half an hour after Liz went missing from Runaway Lodge, where as you know Eric has been all day—getting his ass whupped in the water Olympics by yours truly.”
Cab kept driving, but he heaved a long-suffering sigh and shook his head. “If this is some kind of inter-county grudge match—”
“It’s not. Think about it. A number of women died thirteen years ago. William Turner and my dad tried to catch the killer, but they failed—”
“William and your dad?”
“Then the deaths started up again. That’s why I came back.”
“You came back to fight crime.”
Steel understood Cab’s scorn, but it still stung. “I’m a deputy, Cab. Working undercover. Been trying to solve these crimes for three years. Sheriff Bolton will confirm that. But right now Liz is in my trailer with a man determined to kill her and pin it on me.”
Cab pressed the accelerator, and Steel breathed a little easier, knowing at last they were getting somewhere.
“There’s something else you should know,” he admitted to Cab as the cruiser whipped down the road.
“What’s that?”
“Stella, Jed and Virginia are heading to the trailer park, too. They’ve got Lily Barnes with them.” He checked the time. “Probably already there.”
“Bloody hell, Cooper. Got any other surprises up your sleeve?”
He had a few, but he figured the rest of them could wait.
“How can I get in there?” Stella asked Marion in a whisper as the rain tapered off around them. She pushed her soaking hair from her face.
“Bathroom window? It’s always open. Doesn’t have a screen, so Steel always keeps the door shut. Probably helps keep the mosquitos from getting into the rest of the place.”
Stella wondered if Steel had any idea how closely his movements were monitored by his neighbor, but her information was sure handy.
“You can’t go in there. You’ll get yourself shot,” Jed hissed.
“Got any better ideas?” Stella said. “We
