Page 81 of Shadow of Fear
“It could,” Colin said. “But he might only be the drone operator and not the shooter.”
“You mean we could be looking for two suspects.” Kinsley didn’t want to think this was actually true, but it wasn’t the first time they considered this possibility.
“Either way, I’m going to head back to the office and do some research on him,” Russ said. “Colin, you work your magic on the keyboard and see what you can learn, too.” Russ shoved his phone into the belt holder and gave them a long look. “Hopefully I can get someone at the prison where he was incarcerated on the phone at this time of night to give me the address he provided at discharge. If so, I can pick him up for questioning.”
“You’ll want to run that past Dev before you do.” Colin set his jaw and held Russ’s gaze.
“I can do that.” Russ’s amiable attitude was out of character but appreciated.
“I thought Dev would’ve come back with you,” Colin said.
“He was making phone calls to our guys in Portland before he came back. You fill him in on this, and he’ll tell you all about that when he gets back.”
“Text the photo to me,” Colin said.
“Will do, but I need to go. Don’t let your guard down and keep your eyes open. We don’t know anything about the kind of threat Yapp could pose.” He looked each person in the eye, then marched out the door.
Colin turned to Kinsley. “Is there anything you remember about this guy other than he got the Bluebird Cabin?”
“He stayed for two days, and he didn’t do much while he was there.” She thought back to those days. “The only thing I remember him doing was scuba diving in the lake.”
“He could still be a diver,” Colin said. “So when Dev gets back, we should plan an additional defense against access from the lake.”
Kinsley nodded and tried to come up with any other information she could share that might be helpful in finding this man. But honestly, she couldn’t even wrap her head around the fact that this could be the guy who was shooting at her. A pail of water above his door and a Vaseline-greased toilet seat certainly weren’t anything worth killing over. Were they?
The blackness receded, and Dev opened his eyes to look around. He was sitting up, leaning against a tree. Not bleeding out, thank God. The diver in the water was nowhere in sight, but his slick wetsuit and fins lay on the shore. The spear had been pulled from Dev’s hip and lay nearby. The pain was more of a throbbing ache now than a sharp stabbing.
He started to get up. Pain razored into his body, but he ignored it to push with his feet. He couldn’t move. His body was bound to the tree, and his wrists were tied behind him. The speargun line again. Of course his assailant would have the heaviest line used for large catches. Dev was experienced with spearguns, and this abrasion-resistant polyblend over braided line, was used for large, heavy-duty catches.
He was stuck.
Kinsley! She needed him. Needed his protection.
How long had he been unconscious? Her assailant had probably reached the cabin by now or was close to it.
No!Dev jerked hard on the line. The cord didn’t give but cut into his chest, and his hip pain sent stars dancing before his eyes. He had to find a way to free himself. Or get to his phone, if it even worked after he submerged it in water.
He glanced around for anything that could help him. The spear that had pierced his hip lay discarded five feet away. He could use the sharp tip to cut through the cord at his wrists, but he had no hope of reaching it without releasing the cord around his body.
He looked up. The tree narrowed. If he was able to shimmy up, the cords could potentially loosen, and he could duck under them.
He drew up his legs and planted his feet on the pine needles littering the ground. The pain in his hip ripped into him and those stars floated again. He thought of Kinsley and took a deep breath to ward off the pain. Then another. And another.
You can do it. Kinsley’s counting on you.
He rose up. Gave a mighty shove. Ignored the increased pain. Budged the rope a fraction of an inch.
Yes! You’re doing it.
Hope sprung up in his heart. He gave it another try. And then one more until he was nearly standing, and the rope had loosened. He maneuvered his shoulders around until one was free, then the other, the rope lying around his neck and dangling over his chest. He dropped down and freed his head.
He plunged to the ground, the agony nearly taking him out. But he rolled instead of letting the stabbing torture get to him until he had the sharp spear in his hands. He fumbled a few times until he finally got the spear in a position to saw at the rope.
Progress was slow. It was going to take time. Time Kinsley didn’t have.
Please don’t let this take too long and that the assailant hasn’t managed to overpower Colin and Hayden to kill Kinsley.
