Cold River - Carla Neggers [120]
“Yes, we do,” Elijah said stonily, then turned to Sean. “Do your firefighter thing, brother. Let’s hope these two failed and Bowie is still alive.”
Sean ran into the house through the back door, covering his head with his coat to protect himself as much as possible against the smoke and flames. Right now the fire was contained to the second floor, but it would spread quickly in the farmhouse, with its old, tinder-dry beams. Every firefighter he knew in Vermont hated old-house fires.
Doing his “firefighter thing” amounted to getting in and out of there fast.
Preferably with Bowie alive.
Staying low, Sean raced through the kitchen and down a short hall to the living room. He could hear the rush of the fire on the second floor.
He found Bowie sprawled facedown at the bottom of the stairs, semiconscious but alive. He was deadweight as Sean got hold of him. “You’re too damn big, O’Rourke. Up on your feet. Let’s get out of here.”
“I saved her life and the bitch left me here to die. The blast knocked me off balance on the stairs.” He was disoriented, struggling to breathe. “I was carrying her—”
“She’s got Hannah and Elijah to deal with now. Come on. We don’t know how many bombs this bastard planted in here. He doesn’t need to call them in to trigger them. A spark—”
“Right,” Bowie said, more alert.
With Bowie leaning against him, Sean moved back to the hall and the kitchen. Firefighters in full gear entered the same door he had. Zack Harper, in the lead, got hold of Bowie. Sean warned him about the possibility of more bombs. Another firefighter reached for Sean, but he shot out the door, past more firefighters.
He sucked in the cold, clean air and put his coat back on.
A visibly shaken Beth Harper was there with the rest of her ambulance crew. “You and Elijah are idiots,” she said to Sean. “Wait until Jo gets back from D.C. In the meantime, let’s get some oxygen on you.”
“I don’t need oxygen.”
Beth started to argue with him, but Sean zeroed in on Hannah by the woodshed with Elijah. She was standing with her arms crossed in front of her, and all he could think of was the agony he’d felt when he’d seen her burning car, the relief when he and Elijah had spotted her prints in the snow.
Beth gave a resigned sigh behind him, but he didn’t need her permission. He was already running, focused only on getting to Hannah.
He scooped her into his arms. “Bowie’s safe,” he said, kissing her, “and I love you, Hannah. I love you.”
Elijah grunted. “Finally,” his brother said.
Hannah pressed her forehead onto Sean’s chest and he thought he heard her sniffle, but when she raised her eyes to him, she was smiling. She was so self-contained, so reserved, he thought. Half the damn town was arriving—state and local cops, firefighters, the feds on the task force—but this time, she didn’t seem to care who might see her.
“I love you, too,” she whispered.
Sean winked at her. “More to come,” he said.
They turned to Lowell and Vivian Whittaker, standing side by side, not touching, under Elijah’s watchful eye. Hannah spoke first, addressing Lowell. “Bowie didn’t find Drew’s cabin and tell those killers,” she said. “It was you. You followed his trail up the mountain and found the cabin and told Kyle Rigby and Melanie Kendall.”
Lowell met her gaze dead on.
“And it was you at the crypt,” Hannah said, undeterred, “knocking the rock onto Bowie, calling my name.”
“You’re wrong,” Lowell said coldly. “You local people always stick together against the outsider. It was all Bowie. Those two killers hired him as their local contact. He helped them. He has his own scores to settle here. He knew Vivian and I were on the verge of figuring out he was involved with these killings.”
Hannah tightened her hands into fists. Sean remembered her at the bar fight back in March and thought she might jump Lowell, but she just glared at him. “You went to the crypt in daylight because it’d be easier to explain your presence. You could say you were up there indulging your passion for Vermont history and old tombstones.”
Lowell sniffed at her. “Your lower-class