Aaron nodded. Jake’s wife, Hannah, a paramedic, was expecting their first child.
“The group is always short medical personnel,” Jake continued. “Willa is an RN, a new hire at the local clinic.”
Aaron and Kat—Willa—had met when he had delivered a prisoner for treatment at the emergency room where she worked in Waterbury, Vermont. Two thousand miles and a lifetime from here.
“I hear she’s single.”
Aaron turned to see Jake grinning at him.
Aaron shook his head and turned away. Willa was never going to forgive him for arresting her brother for murder. Never mind that all the evidence had pointed to Gareth. In the end, the district attorney hadn’t felt they had enough evidence to convict. The case had never gone to trial, and Gareth Delaney and his sister, Kat, had moved away, leaving behind a lot of suspicions and unanswered questions.
Now they were here in Eagle Mountain. Kat was a chapter in Aaron’s life he considered closed. But in a town this small, where it was impossible to avoid running into people, they would have to find a way to at least maintain a facade of distant politeness. The prospect left a sour taste, but was it that different from the compromises people made every day for the sake of keeping peace? He had learned to hold back anger at people who broke the law, and to keep his opinions about some things to himself, out of respect for others. He could pretend he didn’t care about Kat anymore. What was one more lie in the grand scheme of things?
Willa tried toconcentrate on the knot she needed to tie, but every nerve vibrated with awareness of the man standing behind her. Aaron Ames. Tall, dark and handsome Double A, as his partner on the Waterbury police force had referred to him. The first time he had looked into her eyes and flashed his confident smile she had been lost. What were the odds of seeing him here, two thousand miles away from Vermont, in a town most people had never even heard of? Had he somehow followed her here? Or worse, did he think she had followed him? The idea shook her so badly she dropped one end of the rope.
“Take your time.” Caleb Garrison picked up the dropped rope and returned it to her. A boyish-looking man with a mop of unruly blond hair, Caleb was helping train search and rescue rookies like Willa. He had the kind of patience that probably came in handy at his day job, teaching history to college students. “You don’t need to rush,” he said.
She nodded, and this time tied the knot correctly.
Danny Irwin joined them. “Sheri and Ryan say they’re ready for the litter,” he said. “Send a body bag down, too.”
Willa swallowed a lump in her throat and nodded. As soon as she had seen the crumpled car, so far down below, she had told herself no one could have survived that plunge. Still, they always hoped for survivors.
“Just the one person in the vehicle?” Caleb asked.
“Seems so,” Danny said.
Willa stepped back and watched as Caleb and volunteer Carrie Andrews lowered the litter. She was here to give medical assistance, but the driver of the car was beyond that. Suicide—if this was suicide—was always hard, on the families, but on everyone else, too.
In the weeks after nine-year-old Rachel Sherman’s death, Willa had been afraid for Gary. He had been so upset not only by the girl’s murder, but also by the fact that everyone suspected he had killed her. Willa had never seen him so despairing; she had worried he might take his own life. She had been furious on his behalf, and more afraid than she had allowed herself to admit. And Aaron, the one person she had counted on to help them through this ordeal, had turned out to be involved in Gary’s arrest.
At first, she had told herself it was Aaron’s job to follow orders given by his superiors. He had been one of the arresting officers, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t on her side. She had even told herself it was good that Gary had a friend on theinside. But when Aaron had expressed his own doubts about Gary’s innocence, Willa had been devastated. Her brother wasn’t a murderer. Why couldn’t Aaron see that? The memory of that betrayal still tore at her.
There were a lot of employees at the youth camp where Rachel Sherman had been murdered, but the police zeroed in on Gary right away. They said he was known to be friendly with the girls—as if this was something sinister. They had two witnesses who had seen him talking to Rachel shortly before she was last seen. Just talking, but that was enough to make him their only suspect. It wasn’t evidence, and the district attorney had seen that, but not before Gary had been held and questioned for several days.
She and Gary had naively thought when the DA declined to press charges that he would be absolved from guilt, but the harassment only intensified—snide letters to the editor and stories in the paper. Emails and phone calls from strangers making accusations. An outcry from Rachel’s family to prosecute him.
“Willa?” She turned to see a young woman with dark braids and a tentative smile approaching. “I’m Bethany Ames. We didn’t get a chance to meet at the training meeting the other night. Welcome to the group.”
Bethany Ames. Aaron’s sister. Willa had taken pains to avoid her, and Aaron’s two brothers, Carter and Dalton, at the search and rescue training session. She knew she would eventually have to explain herself, but she wasn’t ready to deal with that yet.
Bethany had already been living in Colorado when Aaron and Kat were together, but surely she had seen pictures of her brother’s girlfriend. But Willa detected no sign of recognition in the younger woman’s eyes. Bethany had probably been too wrapped up in her own life to pay attention to Willa – she had suffered a broken engagement before she left town. “It’s nice tomeet you, Bethany,” Willa said. “And thanks. It’s good to be part of the group.”
“Not a great first call.” Bethany looked over Willa’s shoulder at the scene in the canyon below. “So sad.”
“Yes.”
“Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself. How are you doing?”
“I’m okay,” Willa said.
“Good. It can be overwhelming at first.” Bethany swept her hand to indicate the array of equipment and personnel. “All this. But you’ll catch on really quick and every one of us is here to help you.” She tilted her head, considering. “Have we met before? You look so familiar.”
Willa shook her head. “No, I don’t think so.”
Bethany shrugged. “I guess you just have one of those faces.” Someone called her name and she took a step back. “I have to go, but let me know if you need anything, or have any questions.”
“Thanks,” Willa said, but Bethany was already moving away.
