She turned in a blur, meeting his concerned gaze with her own. “I’ll tell you later.”
Her grandpa picked up the phone and dialed something. “Hello, this is Arthur Hale. I was wondering if Deputy Barlow is available.” He reached for her hand. “He’s on patrol, you say?” His breath rushed out. “I have a credible tip Deputy Barlow and my granddaughter, Meredith Hale, are in danger.” He listened for a moment, his chapped lips clenched in a tight line. “Okay, thank you.”
The phone fell when he missed the receiver. “They’re starting a search.” He nudged it into the cradle. “I’m not taking any chances. Barlow didn’t respond when they called him, and they’re using his phone to find him.”
“Why didn’t you tell them the truth?” Jill demanded.
“We don’t know what’s going on, but my gut is burning. Better to be safe than sorry. If I’m wrong, I’ll blame it on early dementia.”
“Why not just tell them Barlow’s dirty?”
“They’ll work harder to find their own.”
Brian rubbed her back, silent and tense. He didn’t know what was going on, but he was offering her support nonetheless.
“I’ll call Tanner.” Jill dialed. The jagged glass in her belly cut deeper the more times the phone rang. “It’s going straight to voicemail.”
“We’ll keep trying. I’ll get the Attorney General’s people up here too. The main thing is to find Meredith.”
The phone rang again. Jill jumped as her grandpa lunged for it, knocking over a pen holder. Ballpoints rained across the floor.
“Yes?” He clutched the receiver. “Barlow’s in Killer Pass? Thank you.”
“That’s nuts. Why would they be there?” Brian asked from behind her.
All the energy drained out of her feet. “Avalanche conditions.”
Her grandpa slammed his hand on the desk. “We’ll have the sheriff get a rescue team out. If they’re planning another accidental murder, we’ll nail them in the act. They are not taking my granddaughter. Let’s go.”
Jill handed him his cane and followed him out, forcing aside her feelings of shock and horror. When Brian brushed her side, she took his hand in hers, needing the connection.
“Stay with me,” she said.
He tightened his grip, his face stark white. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Chapter 53
The endless expanse of rock trailed up to a cloudless blue sky. The opening she remembered was somewhere in the middle. They could do it. There was no other choice.
Meredith eyed her watch, now fitted over her coat sleeve. “We have eleven minutes.” Her fingers curled around cold stone as she eyed the indentations from past climbers. “Since I’ve climbed it before, I’ll go first.”
She fitted her body against the rock and started up the rock face, fighting the urge to rush, trying not to think about her lack of equipment. The impending explosion. God, she’d never seen an avalanche, but she’d heard one before. Deafening barely described it. She shuddered and took a deep breath. Clearing her mind, she reached for the holds she’d used years ago.
When she looked down, she saw the top of Tanner’s dark head and his swollen hands gripping the rock. A shot pockmarked the wall to her right. She cried out, her fingers clenching for support. Barlow hadn’t been kidding about playing with them.
“Fucker’s got a long-range rifle,” Tanner called out. “Relax. He’s just trying to break our concentration. He doesn’t want our bodies to be riddled with bullets. Ruins the whole ‘accident’ thing.”
Relax. Yeah, right. She fitted her toe into another crevasse and reached up for another hold. Her nerves sizzled like an electrically charged fence as she kept climbing, slowly but surely. She bypassed a mossy patch and reached for another ledge. Another shot plowed into the wall a few yards away. Her toe slid, and her foot dangled. She looked down. Oh, God, it was a really far fall. Her head swam. She dug her shoe into a groove.
“You okay?”
She panted for a moment before reaching for the next hold. “If that was Kenny, his ex-military training sucks.”
“Remember, they don’t want to actually hit us.”
No, they just want us to slip and fall. “So he could accidentally shoot us?”
“Try not to think about it.”
The idea put a block of ice in her stomach. She glanced at her watch. Six minutes. Holding her panic at bay was the hardest thing she’d ever done, but she lifted her hand for the next edge and kept climbing. How much farther? When she looked down, she saw blood on Tanner’s bare hands. She forced herself to look past him, all the way to the ground. Calculated the distance.