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“I don’t know. But I’ll find out,” she promised him. “Cullen and I will be there in a couple of minutes, and we’ll talk more then.”
Cullen grabbed his coat, too, putting it on as they headed to the door. Leigh hated locking up, but if anyone called in with an emergency, it would go through dispatch, who would in turn notify her. She was hoping though that there wouldn’t be anything else that required her attention because she already had a full plate.
“I’m texting Kerry Yancy, the night deputy, and asking him to come in,” she told Cullen, and she took care of that before they went outside.
They hurried to Cullen’s truck and found the windshield scabbed with ice. Since it would take precious moments to defrost it, they headed to the hospital on foot.
And they both kept watch.
Apparently, there was no need to mention to Cullen that this could be a lure to get them out into the open so that the driver of that SUV could try to kill them again. But it was a risk she had to take. Leigh wouldn’t have felt right being holed up in the office while a killer went after Jamie.
“Whoever made that call could be desperate,” Leigh concluded. She lowered her head against the howling wind and tried not to think of the ache that the cold air put in her lungs. “Desperate enough to try to silence Jamie, or scare him into being silenced, anyway. I need to get out the word that he didn’t see anything and can’t ID his attacker. In this case, the truth might keep him safe.”
“I can arrange for some of the ranch hands to stand guard in the parking lot and keep an eye on who comes and goes,” Cullen suggested.
Something like that would certainly cause gossip. The wrong kind of gossip, that Cullen had his nose deep in this investigation. Still, it might prevent Jamie from being hurt again.
“You trust all your ranch hands and don’t believe any one of them could have had a part in Alexa’s murder?”
“I trust them,” Cullen said without hesitation. “If I didn’t, they wouldn’t be working for me.”
She considered what he said for the last block they had to walk and nodded. “Have them come out when the roads are open, but I want them to stay in the parking lot. I’ll make sure security is posted inside.”
And maybe none of these measures would even be necessary. It was entirely possible that the caller who’d threatened Jamie had done that as a ploy to keep the young man quiet. Thankfully, Jamie had trusted her enough to let her know about it, and Leigh wanted to make sure his trust wasn’t misplaced.
They hurried into the ER, and Amber was there, waiting for them. “We’ve moved Jamie to another room. He was very upset so the doctor had me give him a sedative. Follow me, and I’ll take you to him.”
Jamie must have told Amber about the threatening call as well because the nurse was clearly shaken.
As it had been before, the hospital was still practically empty, but Leigh kept her eyes open, looking for any signs of trouble. They made their way down a hall to a room in the center of what was the patients’ ward, and Cullen and she were about to go in when his phone rang.
“It’s Kali,” he relayed when he saw the screen. He looked at Amber when she stayed put. “I need to take this call.” Cullen didn’t add “in private,” but Amber got the message because she strolled away, heading back to the ER.
“Kali,” Cullen greeted, putting the call on speaker for Leigh. “I’ve been trying to get in touch with you.”
“Yes.” That was all Kali said for several long moments. “I got your messages, but I...well, I needed some time before I talked to you.”
Oh, mercy. There was definitely something wrong, and it sounded as if the woman had been crying.
“I have to speak to Austin,” Cullen continued, obviously zooming right in on what needed to be done. “Where is he?”
The next sound that Leigh heard from Kali was a sob. One that put Leigh’s stomach in knots.
“What’s wrong?” Cullen pressed. “What happened?”
Kali didn’t answer right away. Probably because of all the crying. “I thought Austin would be with you. That’s why I’m driving to Dark River now.”
Cullen cursed under his breath. “Kali, it’s not safe for you to be out on the roads.”
“I have to see him, and he’s not home. I figured he’d go to your house.”
“No. If he had, someone would have called me. I’m at the hospital right now. One of my ranch hands was injured, but if Austin had shown up at the ranch, Rosa would have told me.”
“Then where is he?” Kali demanded.
Apparently, Leigh wasn’t the only one who wanted to know the answer to that. “I’ll try to find out,” Cullen tried to reassure her.
Kali didn’t sound the least bit reassured though. “Did you know?” she blurted out. “Did you know about Austin?”
