“I’ve got an ambulance coming.Wait here while I go check on them.”
He walked past Earl’s truck, caught sight of tire marks along the soft shoulder at the cliff’s edge, and walked over to where the skid had occurred.
Stepping close, he peered over the lip.Cursed under his breath when he saw the wreckage of Willow’s vehicle lying crushed on its roof at the bottom.
Zero chance she would have survived that.Had Lassiter gone after her out of revenge because they’d located the caches?
He headed for the tree line where Earl had indicated.“Tripp?It’s Rafe.Where are you?”
“Over here,” he called back.
Rafe hurried toward him, hand on the butt of his service weapon as a precaution.He stepped out of the fading sunlight into the shadows in the woods.
Thirty yards into the forest, Tripp had Lassiter face down on the ground, his hands behind him and bound with what looked like a belt.Both men were battered, but Lassiter appeared to have taken the brunt of it, one eye swollen shut and blood dripping from his nose and lip.
“You good?”he asked Tripp as he neared them.A pistol and knife lay on the ground about ten feet away, safely out of reach of both men.
“Yeah.Gonna let you take over now though.”
Rafe crouched down next to Lassiter while Tripp moved out of the way.“Darren Lassiter, I’m arresting you for attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon.”He gave the standard Miranda rights recital as he removed the leather belt from Lassiter’s wrists, tied tight enough to leave red indentations.
Replacing it with cuffs, Rafe grabbed him under the arm and pulled upright.“On your feet.We’ll get a medic to look at you at the station.”
Lassiter stumbled slightly as he got his footing, jaw set, his one functioning eye staring straight ahead.Rafe smelled the alcohol on him.“Let’s go.”
He force-marched Lassiter out of the woods, past all three pickups to his deputy’s vehicle.Putting a hand on the top of Lassiter’s head, he pushed him into the back seat, shutting him inside.“Take him to the station and process him.I’ll be back once I get everything wrapped up here.”However long that would be.
The deputy nodded.“On it, sir.”
Rafe walked back toward Earl’s truck, where he and Tripp were both standing beside Willow’s window.“Ambulance is on the way.”
“Cancel it,” Tripp said.“I’m good.”
“It’s procedure, and it’ll save you time waiting in Emergency, since you’ll need a tetanus shot and some stitches.In the meantime, I’m gonna need all of you to give individual statements, one at a time.Starting with you, Willow.”
“Sure,” she answered.
Rafe eyed Tripp and Earl.They stood ten feet apart not looking at each other, arms folded.There was definite tension between them.“You guys good?”
They looked at each other.Tripp nodded.“Yeah.”
Earl nodded too.“All good.”Then he stuck out his hand toward Tripp.
Tripp studied him for a moment, then shook with him.“Thanks, man.”
“Yeah, anytime,” Earl said.“And I want to apologize to both of you for the way I handled things earlier.I was outta line, and I can’t help feeling like this is partly on me.”
“Willow’s safe.That’s all that matters.And I’d like to finish that conversation we had.There are things I need to tell you.Details I didn’t explain before that I think will make a difference.”
Earl’s expression shifted slightly.Softening.“All right.You just let me know when.”
“I will.Soon.”
All right, then.Pals.
Rafe heard the deputy’s vehicle start up behind him.“You two wait by Tripp’s truck,” he said to him and Earl.“I’ll come over when I’m done talking to?—”
At a loud thud behind them they all looked back.The deputy slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the patrol car, drawing his weapon as he scrambled for the other side for cover.“Shot fired!”
