“Answer that, would you?” Scott mumbled sleepily from behind her.
Passion surged within her from his sexy voice, making her fingers tingle. “Yes.” She reached for her phone and lifted it to her ear. “Frost.” She didn’t have the bandwidth to use her whole name or title.
“Hey, Millie. It’s June.” Panic rose in June’s voice.
Millie sat up. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know, but a bunch of emergency vehicles have been roaring by for the last fifteen minutes, headed to the chief’s house.” June lived a mile down the dirt road that led to the chief’s house, which was nestled at a turn in the river.
Millie wiped sleep from her eyes. “What kind of cars?”
“All of them. I’m talking fire truck, paramedics, every cop out there. Something’s happened, and considering the only case he’s working on right now is yours, I thought I should call you.” She coughed quietly. “I figured you could find out what was going on with your government contacts, right?”
“Yeah, I can get us some answers.” Millie pushed herself from the bed. “Thanks, June, I’ll let you know.”
Scott was already standing and reaching for his jeans, his broad back still bare. “What’s up?”
“Something about the chief.” Dread engulfed her insides. “Maybe it’s a coincidence, but he’s the only one who lives along Downey Road other than June, and she said a bunch of emergency vehicles have sped by.”
“Do you want Brigid to monitor the frequencies?”
First Millie needed to find out what was happening. Had she gotten the chief hurt as well? “No,” she said, “let’s not get her out of bed. I mean, this is River City. Let’s just go up there.” She still had a badge she could flash if necessary.
“Okay.”
They hurriedly dressed and quietly exited the house to drive the twenty miles outside of town toward Shady Mountain. Millie pointed to a small wooden A-frame set back from the road as they passed it. “That’s June’s house.” The lights blazed from every window.
They followed the twisting road another five miles and reached the chief’s sprawling cabin. The world was a cacophony of red and blue swirling lights. For once the clouds had parted and the stars twinkled down with the moon high and full, illuminating the chaos.
Scott stopped and jumped out of his vehicle, running toward a clearing where many of the deputies used buckets to throw dirt and water from the river on the burning building. Activity buzzed around the fire truck in the driveway, and the three volunteer firefighters battled with angled hoses, pouring water onto the flames.
Millie caught sight of the chief on a gurney being loaded into an ambulance. She ran toward him. “Chief!” He lay still beneath the blankets with his eyes closed.
“He’s been shot twice,” Janet said tersely, helping to heft the chief into the ambulance.
Millie looked back toward the flames. “Shot, and then a fire started?”
“Looks like it,” Janet said grimly.
“Chief,” Millie whispered, looking at the gnarled man. He’d already been strapped in, and burn marks showed on the side of his face. “Please call me when he’s out of surgery.” She pivoted, running to grab a bucket.
She worked tirelessly with Scott and the other volunteers until finally the fire died out, quieting from a deafening roar to a smoldering crackle. She turned her head and coughed.
Next to her, Officer Locum dropped his bucket. Soot covered his face and his sweats. He must have jumped right out of bed when he got the call. “You okay?” he asked.
“No.” She looked around. “Who would shoot the chief?”
“I don’t know, but we’ll find out. We have two deputies covering him at the hospital.” Counting the three fighting the fire, that included pretty much everybody.
“Was he working on any other cases besides Millie’s?” Scott asked tersely, wiping soot off his forehead.
Locum nodded. “Yeah, we had a B and E yesterday at one of the outfitting stores. Somebody stole a bunch of fishing poles. We’re thinking a tourist took advantage of the busy day.”
“Anything else?” Millie asked.
“No, it’s been pretty quiet. Things usually heat up around here in summer, as you know.”
Millie craned her neck and looked at the still-smoldering building. As the firefighters rolled up the hoses, the smell of burned wood and metal clouded the air along with debris. She coughed, her lungs heaving.
