CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
At the thundering blast, Mavis, Emma, and Lavinia screamed. The ground under Belle’s feet trembled. The buggy that had stood empty at the turnaround in front of the lumber office careened away as the horses bolted in fright. Belle jerked around to look at Eden.
“What the devil!” Blake shouted, and then grasped Mavis’s arm. “Stay here with the lumber manager. Tell him to keep his eyes open.”
He turned and sprinted away—not toward the road that led to the bridge, but into the trees on the far side of the clearing. Belle grasped the front of her skirt and followed, ignoring Mavis’s demands that she stop.
Keeping up with Blake wasn’t possible. Soon he was out of sight, but she could hear his footsteps pounding on ahead. “Blake, wait!” she called, fear over what could have happened pushing her onward.
At the edge of the river, she skidded to a halt. A bouncing rope bridge spanned the width of the rushing water, and Blake was already almost across.
“Blake!”
He turned. “Go back!” he shouted, jabbing a finger in the direction they’d come. “Stay at the sawmill until I know what we’re dealing with!” The next moment, he was gone.
The bridge swung back and forth. Two thick upper ropes, which acted as handrails, extended the width of the river and were anchored to a large oak. Two lower ropes held wooden slats placed about a foot apart. By the looks of it, the wobbly thing had been here a hundred years. Her mouth went dry. She’d never been keen on heights. Five rotting steps led up to the platform, which would put her about ten feet above the rushing rapids.
Henry is over there! Karen and Mr. Little. Sheriff Dawson and the rest of Eden. Blake now too.
The blast had sounded deadly. She didn’t have time to be frightened.
Taking a deep breath, she forced herself up the steps before she could think differently. Every cell in her body sprang to life. Clutching both sides of the prickly ropes, she tried the first slat with the toe of her shoe and then added a little weight. The board dipped dramatically and then swayed to the side. Her heart pitched forward as she jumped back to safety.
She glanced back the way she’d come. Should she return and use the other bridge, by the icehouse? That would take too long.
A rustle of wind through the leaves sounded like a man’s whisper.
I love you. You’re mine. Take a deep breath and go. Don’t look down.
Unwilling to analyze what she’d just heard, she gripped the ropes loosely beneath her palms and directed her feet to step one after the other. When the bridge swayed, she set her weight in the other direction. Her skirt tangled, jerking her to a stop. With one shaking hand, she worked herself loose. Several times she gasped at the deep bounce, and another time her foot slipped on the slick wood. A cold mist sprang up, wetting her face and hands. If she fell into the river now, there would be no swimming out. In the middle she paused, breathing through her nose to calm her light-headedness.
KABOOM!
Another blast? What on earth was happening in Eden? She sucked in a deep breath and surged forward, counting the steps to the other side. Landing on the platform with a rush of joy, she bolted down the stairs. Emerging through the trees, she realized she was behind a smattering of small houses; one had been pointed out to her as the sheriff’s. Kitty-corner was the tannery. There was not a soul in sight, and one side of the structure was now totally blown away. Thank God Banjo is nowhere to be seen. Where’s Blake? And the rest of the town? Did the first blast happen in a different location? Fear for Mr. Little propelled her forward.
“Mr. Little!” she called, entering through the blown-away wall. “Marvin, where are you?” Boards and hides were strewn about. Smoke blocked her sight as she searched the room, stepping over a pail, a chair, broken glass. Finally, she spotted two legs extending from under a pile of boards. “Mr. Little,” she cried, grasping the boards and pulling them off the groggy man.
“What happened?” he sputtered weakly, a large gash in his head bleeding profusely. His eyes blinked a few times and then closed.
She didn’t know what to do. No one had arrived to help. She had nothing to stop the bleeding. “I’m going for bandages at the doctor’s office!” His pallor had gone from bad to worse in just moments. She placed his hand over the cut. “Press down hard. I’ll be right back.”
Dashing through the room, Belle exited the back door and ran across the alley. Relieved the doctor’s back door was unlocked, she rushed inside. She glanced about. Finding the infirmary, she grasped a bottle of iodine and a stack of clean dressings. She was almost to the door when she heard a scrape in the next room. The doctor? Is it possible he’s here? She whirled and opened the door.
Dr. Dodge looked up from his position on his knees, reaching through a hatch in the floor. He scrambled to his feet. “What’re you doing here?” he demanded.
“Didn’t you hear the blasts?” she screeched. “Mr. Little is badly hurt. He’s bleeding, and I’m afraid he might . . .”
Her words trailed away. Two sticks of what looked like dynamite were visible beneath the floorboards. Fear flooded her mind, and she inched back the way she’d come.
“Get back here!” He lunged forward, grasping her arm. She’d never heard him so angry. “You should have taken the payout and gone home!” His strangled tone sent a shiver down her spine. Eyes filled with confusion glared into hers. “No one was supposed to get hurt. You could have made this so easy, but you didn’t! You’re responsible!”
She clawed and struggled, but couldn’t get free from his iron grasp. Panting, she realized these might be her last few moments of life. “You’re responsible for all the trouble? The kidnapping? The snake? Who else would have such access? You did, every time you came to check on Katie.”
Is that pride in his sneer?
“I even went out to the ranch. How did you like the bloody hatchet? I thought that especially entertaining.”
I have to keep him talking! The alternative was too horrific to contemplate. “You were very clever to send the telegram to Dove Creek. You bandaged the kidnappers’ cuts and bruises once Clint locked them up. It’s all so clear to me now . . .”
In a moment of calm, she tried to jerk away, but he laughed and pinned her to the wall, both of them breathing hard.
Maybe someone will come. Keep talking. Keep talking.
“Please, Doctor! You’re mixed up! You need help. Let us help you.”
“I’ll see this through, only in a different way.” He glanced around.
Is he looking for something to kill me with?
“Please, Dr. Dodge. You were my father’s friend. Why are you doing this? Why? I don’t understand.”
His deranged laughter made her want to cower, but she wouldn’t.
“Your father was never my friend!” He flung the words at her so forcefully spittle covered her face. “I was the one who should have married Celeste. I treated her father the best I could, but he was destined to die. I had a flourishing practice, a nice place for her to live. I could have taken care of her, bought her pretty things. But no. Your father never gave me the chance before rushing her to the altar. I loved her! All those years, I loved your mother from afar, waiting, hoping. But like a rutting stag, he had her with child year after year. He was responsible for her unhappiness, for driving her away.”
“Doctor, I’m sure you’ll feel better later, once you lie down.” His hold around her throat tightened. Her head felt light. Her vision grew dim. Where is everyone? As long as they were talking, he wasn’t thinking about finishing her off.
“When I saw the will, I knew you’d come back to his beloved Eden,” he went on as if it felt good to clear his conscience. “I’d finally have my revenge. Scare you away for good. You’d hate what he’d loved.”
“And the money? Were you after that too?”
Another bark of malevolent laughter ripped from his throat. “That idea came to me later. How rich! I’d not only foil the mighty Brinkman’s plan to bring you all back, but I’d end up with everything he’d worked so hard for.” He sucked in a jerky breath. “With my brother as the mayor, getting access to that fortune won’t be too difficult for me once Harding is dead. My brother has always been as dumb as a log. And then I found dynamite hidden behind the old barn. My plan was perfect . . . and I won’t let you ruin it now.”
His sweaty hand around her throat constricted ever so slowly. No one is coming. No one will find me before it’s too late. She needed to save herself. In a move fueled with the thought that she might never see her sisters—or Blake—again, she jerked up her knee with all the force she could muster.
His breath swooshed out. He swung her around and slapped her with an open hand. “You shouldn’t have come! Now I have to kill you.”
Belle cried at the pain, but just then someone knocked them both over from behind. She fell. Blake and the doctor rolled one over the other until they hit the wall. They scrambled to their feet at the same time. Blake rammed his fist into the doctor’s mouth, which sent him reeling through the doorway. Blake caught him in the infirmary. As they wrestled across the counter, medicine bottles and surgical implements crashed to the floor and against the wall. The doctor grasped a scalpel.
Holding the doorjamb to steady herself, Belle cried out, “Blake! Watch out!”
Too late! The doctor sliced open Blake’s shirt, drawing blood. Blake hooked the large man with a foot around the back of his leg and drove his fist into his abdomen at the same time. Dr. Dodge doubled over with a cry of pain as he fell, but was back instantly with two punches to Blake’s face. Stunned, Blake fell back against the wall.
The doctor dashed out the back door just as Clint rushed in the front.
The sheriff took one look at Blake and Belle. “Where is he?”
Blake hitched his head, and the two ran out after him.
Regaining her senses, Belle followed as best she could. She ran through the alley and found herself in front of the hotel. Frenzied people were everywhere. Nobody understood what was happening.
“Look!” someone shouted and pointed up at the sheer rock wall.
Belle glanced up in horror at the same time Henry appeared at her side. There was no time for words. They watched Blake and Clint closing in on the doctor as he scrambled up the sloped ridge that led to the top.
Blake stumbled, then regained his footing.
“Let him go!” Belle shouted, frightened of the steep drop-off only a few feet away.
At the sound of her voice, the doctor stopped and looked down. Then he turned back to see Blake and Clint closing in fast. Bending, he struggled to lift a large boulder over his head, bent his knees, and launched the weapon.
Blake and Clint darted out of the rock’s path, and it careened past, clattering down the hill, and then off the edge, making people scream and jump back below.
Turning to run, the doctor’s foot slipped. He cried out. With arms akimbo, he looked back the way he was falling, fright etched on his face.
Belle screamed.
Henry grasped her and spun her around to his chest so she wouldn’t see.
A moment later, a deadly quiet settled over Eden—as well as Belle’s heart.