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Ray nodded, serious as ever. He and Jensen pulled out their sidearms and rushed for the cabin, the men following their lead.
The front door of the cabin burst open and a medium-sized man staggered out. Older, distinguished-looking, in a ripped and rumpled suit. Definitely not Franz.
As Steffan stared at the man with the aid of his infrared goggles, recognition came like a smack to the side of the head.
It was William Rindlesbacher. Treven’s father. Nothing about that man being in the cabin or being here at this moment made any sense, but it did make terror explode in his gut. Everything was wrong right now. Hattie was in extreme danger.
“Help. Please help,” the man called. “Do you have a medic?”
“Hattie,” Steffan burst out. He raced past his brother, pushed through the police line, and dodged around William and into the small cabin.
Two forms were on the floor. Hattie was face-down on top of what had to be Franz.
“Hattie!” he yelled, rushing across the space to her. Franz had killed her. No! He dropped to his knees and frantically pushed her hair aside to feel for a pulse. It was there, and it was strong. “She’s alive!”
She stirred at his yell.
“I tried to stop her,” William said from behind him. “Franz begged me to meet him here, said the woman who’d killed Jane Presley was meeting him and he needed my help. Then she went insane and stabbed him. I knocked her out, but not before she killed him.”
None of the man’s words made any sense. Hattie wouldn’t stab Franz, and she hadn’t killed Jane.
Hattie rolled over and looked up at him. Her eyes were unfocused, pupils small.
“Steffan?” she whimpered. She struggled to sit up.
Steffan wrapped an arm around her and pulled her away from Franz. He cradled her protectively against his side. She was sticky with blood. Hers or Franz’s?
“Hattie, are you all right?”
“My head,” was all she said, clinging to him.
Jensen and Ray hurried to them and dropped to Franz’s side. A knife protruded from the man’s chest. Straight through his heart, if Steffan was any kind of doctor. Jensen rested his fingers against the man’s throat.
“He’s gone,” Jensen said quietly. Steffan could’ve told him that.
“She killed him,” William stated again, his voice full of emotion and anger. “They were arguing. He shouldn’t have stolen her money and credit cards and dragged her in here like he did, but that was no reason to stab him in the chest.”
“I didn’t stab him,” Hattie protested, staring at William and then at Franz. She shuddered in Steffan’s arms. “He had the knife and cut the recording device from my shirt. I tried to elbow him in the throat to get free. Then I felt somebody coming from my side, and I got knocked out. You have to believe me, Steffan.” She looked up at him so beseechingly. “I promise I didn’t kill him.”
Steffan was in shock. No way would Hattie stab a man. It wasn’t possible. Well, maybe in self-defense. She was feisty and brave, but William Rindlesbacher was part of the transaction, and that made everything suspicious in his mind. He claimed they were fighting. Had the man somehow killed Franz and framed Hattie just like his son had tried to frame her for Jane’s death?
“She killed Franz. Just like she killed Jane. Treven always said it was a woman that killed Jane. He was too trusting and didn’t get her name, but he found her on social media. Hattie Ballard. The woman who just stabbed Franz.” He glared at Jensen. “You didn’t believe my son and he’s wallowed in prison for this woman’s crimes, and now Franz is dead too!” William was becoming increasingly upset and he was yelling.
Men peered in through the door, looking to Jensen.
Jensen stood and faced William. Ray stood shoulder to shoulder with him. Steffan stood and helped Hattie up, keeping her in the protective circle of his arms. He refused to let her go. Jensen and Ray would prove Rindlesbacher’s accusations were lies. The man was trying to frame Hattie again, and possibly free his own son from prison in the process. Had he schemed this entire thing with Franz and then used the man for his own selfish purposes like the Rindlesbachers’ were wont to do?
Hattie clung to him, her body trembling. “You believe me?”
“Of course I do.” He brushed her forehead with his lips. “Ray and Jensen will sort it out. Don’t worry.”
They were close enough in the small cabin that William obviously overheard Steffan. “The general and the chief will have no choice but to do what’s right, and that is to prosecute you for this man’s death.” He pointed at Hattie, then at Franz’s lifeless body. “And for your previous murder and escape from lawful custody. I only hope nobody aided or abetted her.” He gave Jensen a significant look.
Jensen didn’t quiver, simply raised an eyebrow at the man.
Hattie trembled, but she bravely jutted out her chin and said, “I didn’t kill anyone. You knocked me out and then you killed him.”
“You were lying on top of his corpse with a knife protruding from it. You killed him. Take that knife and run the fingerprints,” he told Jensen. “The evidence will prove the truth.”
