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He scoffed. “Clearly not. She was upset. I thought she was reaching for a tissue in the side pocket of her door. Instead, she pulled a knife. It happened so fast. She was screaming. I tried to take the knife from her, but she kept stabbing me. Blood was flying everywhere. I was fumbling for my gun, but I was bleeding so badly, and she was stabbing me again and again. I pulled the trigger. By then I was barely able to stay conscious. I somehow managed to get out of her SUV. Apparently, I called for help. That’s the last I remember until I woke up in this bed.”
“You had no idea that she planned to kill you when she invited you out for a burger?” Forester asked.
“Seriously? You think I would have gotten into the car with her?” He saw the change in the two men. The interrogation was over. They’d done what they’d come to do. They seemed satisfied with his answers.
“So you weren’t aware that she had other weapons in her car?” Andrews asked. “A stun gun and what appears to be a variety of drugs as well as rope and duct tape.”
Shock shot through him, rattling him to his bones. Who knew what she had planned to do to him? Torture him? He shuddered at the thought, remembering her frenzied slashing of him. It had been so fast, so furious, so out of control, that he’d been taken off guard, unable to react quickly enough.
He never should have gotten into the car with her. What had he been thinking? “I should have known,” he said with a curse.
“You can’t always tell when someone is that... unbalanced,” Andrews said as he turned off the video recorder.
“Still, I’m the sheriff,” he said. “I should have...” He shook his head. Hehadknown and still he’d gotten into the car with her. He just hadn’t thought she would go that far. But the truth was he’d wanted to see how far she would go. What the hell was wrong with him? She could have killed him. Almost had.
Andrews was saying something. All he caught were the last few words. “...it’s too bad you didn’t know. Abigail Creed and Leann Hayes met at a private mental hospital out in Washington. Leann was a patient. Abigail worked there, but not for long. She hasn’t stayed at any job long. She was let go from her last nursing position because of a behavioral issue.”
You attract unstable women. The thought cut to the center of him, sharper than Abigail’s knife blade.You’re the one who’s messed up.You got into that car with her. Do you have a death wish? Or were you so arrogant that you thought you could handle her?
“You’ll have time to heal since you’re off duty until the investigation is complete,” Forester said. Both state cops were looking at him with sympathy now. “You got lucky.”
“Yeah,” he said. Lucky didn’t even come close.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
THESHERIFFLOOKEDup to see Tilly and Cooper come into his hospital room. He saw her look of horror at all his injuries. She quickly hid it as she stepped to his bedside. “How are you?” Her voice broke and he saw tears spring to her eyes. He was touched that she cared. As a friend, he reminded himself.
“Damn,” Cooper said, taking his free hand.
Stuart could tell that his friend had been about to make a joke about bringing a knife to a gunfight and was glad he hadn’t. Like him, Cooper didn’t know what to say in a situation like this.
“Why would Abigail Creed do this to you?” Tilly demanded.
“She was afraid that I’d find out the truth about Leann’s death,” he said. “Once Rory Eastwood’s pickup was found in the reservoir, she feared it was only a matter of time before I put it together. She was...sick. Unfortunately, she died before I found out what she’d done with Rory Eastwood’s body.”
He saw Tilly look at Cooper, her eyes wide with fear. “I doubt she would have come after Cooper next.” But he wasn’t sure about that. Abigail had been a whole lot more unstable than he’d realized—even after she’d drugged him.
“Still, she could have killed you,” Cooper said.
“She certainly was trying.” He had a flashback of her lunging at him with that blade. “But it was my own fault. I foolishly got in the car with her. I’m the sheriff. I should have known better.”
“Are you going to be all right?” Tilly asked.
“The knife wounds will heal. I’ll have scars.” He smiled. “Nothing wrong with scars. Kind of manly, don’t you think?”
“This isn’t funny,” Cooper said. “We could have lost you. You aren’t going to be charged for anything, are you?”
He shook his head. “Self-defense. She assaulted an officer of the law. I was fighting for my life.”
“How long are you going to be here?” his friend asked, looking concerned.
He shrugged. “It’s going to give me time to think. I’m not sure I should be sheriff.”
“You’ve had a scare. Anyone would be questioning a job like yours after what you have been through,” Cooper said.
“It’s not fear. I got in that car with her even though I already suspected she was up to no good. Who does that?”
“Suspected her? But you couldn’t know that she would try to kill you,” Tilly said.
