She pointed at the men rappelling down the mountainside just below where they were standing.
“I can’t see Jesse or Bowie.”
“They’re lying down. See the top of Bowie’s head there, between that stump and that scrub brush?”
She looked again, then put a hand to her heart, as if to steady the beat.
“My God, yes, I see. Where’s Jesse?”
Aidan pulled her a few feet to the right and pointed again.
“See him there? Bowie has one arm around him and the other holding Talia.”
“Do you know how badly she’s hurt?”
“No, only that Bowie yelled that she was alive before he pulled her out.”
Leigh shoved her hands through her hair.
“I can’t believe this happened. Are they going to be able to recover Talia’s car?”
“Yes, ma’am. The wrecker crew is waiting until they have Talia in the ambulance before they get to work.”
Leigh looked out across the mountains to the valley below. Eden was down there somewhere beyond the trees, harboring a den of vipers. It was time to run the snakes out of Eden.
“I need to speak to Constable Riordan again.”
“He’s waiting to talk to you, too,” Aidan said. “Want me to go with you?”
“No, you stay here and watch out for Talia and your brothers.”
“Okay,” he said.
He’d seen that look on her face before. He recognized that take-charge attitude. Shit was about to hit the fan.
Leigh looked for the constable, then ran over to where he was standing.
“I need to talk to you,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am. Let’s step over here so we’re out of the way.”
She followed him a few yards uphill and then stopped.
“You saw Bowie’s pickup down the hill?”
“Yes, on the way up. Aidan said Bowie’s brakes went out.”
“I think they were tampered with, and the fact that Talia’s car went off the side of the mountain leads me to believe it was tampered with, too.”
“That’s a pretty far stretch, saying someone got access to both their vehicles and then they just happened to be driving up the mountain on the same day,” Riordan said.
“It’s not a stretch at all. Circumstance put both cars right beside each other today, and I’d bet money that’s where and when it happened. Talia buried her father this morning. Bowie went into Eden to be with her. Both cars must have been parked at her house, because the funeral home would have picked them up there to take them to the service.”
“Why do you automatically assume it was tampering?”
“Because a couple of days ago I had a run-in with my family. It wasn’t pretty. The bottom line is, when we went to leave, if it hadn’t been for Bowie’s quick thinking, Justin would have put a knife in my back. My boys took him down and took the knife away from him. He threatened to get even. He told all of us we would be sorry. And now this? There is no such thing as coincidence when it comes to those people.”
Riordan frowned. “Did you report the assault to Chief Clayton?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“They committed murder and are still living their privileged lives. With the incident being their word against ours? Why bother?”
Riordan frowned.
“I understand how you feel, and I hear your theory. But we still don’t know why Miss Champion’s car went over the cliff.”
“You don’t know yet, but you will find out. But by the time you do, something else will have happened. If anyone else in my family is harmed, or even threatened in any way, and the law still has done nothing, I will go to war with them. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
The hair rose on the back of Riordan’s neck. Leigh Youngblood had just given him fair warning.
“Okay, I hear you,” Riordan said. “I’ll have both vehicles towed into the county impound and get my crime scene team to check them out ASAP. And I’ll have Chief Clayton start investigating your accusation today.”
“Thank you,” Leigh said, and then heard a commotion and saw a lot of people beginning to gather at the edge of the road. “What’s happening?”
Riordan glanced over his shoulder.
“I’d say they were bringing up the injured woman. Excuse me. I need to be there,” he said, and hurried away.
Leigh followed, praying Talia’s injuries weren’t life-threatening. It would kill Bowie if anything happened to her now.
*
While all the confusion was happening up on the road, Bowie and Jesse were waiting for help to get down to them.