Cold River - Carla Neggers [119]
She heard something—someone moving by the shed.
Lowell?
She leaped up, her legs heavy, and pushed her way through the snow, toward the trees along the river. She’d get to the old cellar hole where she and Drew Cameron had found Bowie back in March. She could hide there. She’d be safe, at least somewhat protected from the elements.
“Hannah!”
She recognized Sean’s voice. Her feet went out from under her, but before she could fall face-first into the soft snow, he was there, his arms around her. “I’m here, baby. Elijah’s right behind me. We’re here for you. We saw your car….”
She stood back from him, his arms still around her as she saw the fear in his eyes, and she realized he’d thought he’d lost her. Her heart jumped. “Sean…” She touched his cheek, her bare hands red and frozen. She forced herself to focus. “It’s Lowell.”
“I know.”
“We have to find him. He doesn’t know I got out before my car exploded. I don’t care how he deludes himself, I was no more than a spider he had to clear out of the bathroom sink.”
Hannah saw Elijah now, behind Sean in the snow, standing next to a bare, gray-barked sapling. He had a gun in one hand, everything about him alert, serious, even as he winked at her. “It’s about time someone blew up that car of yours.”
Sean slipped an arm around her waist and lifted her off her feet and out of the snow. She already felt warmer. “I think he planted a second bomb,” Hannah said. “He’s going to kill Bowie and let him take the blame for everything. I warned Bowie, but we have to find Lowell before he—”
“Not we,” Elijah said. He looked back toward the shed and the farmhouse. “I’ll go. You two…The police and firefighters are on the way. Wait for them.”
Another explosion ripped through the quiet, echoing along the ice-bound river.
Hannah tensed, her heart pounding, but Sean continued to hold her close.
She could hear Lowell screaming, “Fire!” He appeared by the shed, frantically waving his hands. “Sean, Elijah. My wife! Help! The house is on fire!”
Elijah raised his weapon. Hannah eased herself back down into the snow. Sean kept one hand on her hip. “Stay close. Take cover if you have to.” His eyes were a dark navy, intense. “Elijah and I won’t let him near you.”
Lowell was panting as he pointed back toward the house. “Bowie—we opened up our home to him. We gave him a chance, but he hates us. All of us. You, even, Hannah. I had no idea.”
His wife staggered through the snow, coming up behind her husband. Her face was smeared with soot, her eyes red-rimmed. Her hair hung limply in her face. She seemed to be at least partially in shock. “I was on the stairs…Bowie was right behind me. He…he couldn’t…” She was shaking, her voice hollow. “He didn’t get out in time.”
Hannah forced herself not to react. Up ahead, smoke and flames were already visible in the upper-story windows of the farmhouse.
“Where did you last see him?” Sean asked.
“In the upstairs hall. He’d been at the guesthouse.” Vivian blinked back tears. “We were checking on a leak in the chimney.”
Lowell turned to Sean and Elijah. “Bowie must have seen Hannah arrive and put a bomb in her car, then triggered it somehow. I thought he was already up here checking on the chimney leak.”
Vivian shuddered. “He came here to kill us. I think he saw Hannah from the hall window. He knew she’d survived. He decided not to wait for Lowell. He…” She started to sob. “He didn’t expect to die himself. He thought he’d get out alive. I saw it in his eyes.”
Hannah grabbed Sean’s hand into hers, but kept her gaze on Vivian Whittaker. “They’re both lying. Bowie’s in there. I’m going after him—”
Sean squeezed her hand, and Elijah stepped in close to her, both brothers obviously ready to stop her if she tried to make a break for the burning farmhouse. “Easy, Hannah,” Elijah said. “You’re hurt, and this is what Sean knows how to do.”
“You can put that gun away, Elijah,” Lowell said.
Elijah shook his head. “Nope. Can’t.”
Vivian sniffed at him. “You have your killer.