Chapter Sixteen
The ground was cool, and Ian pressed his face to it, even as he wrapped both arms around Bethany and rolled her farther away from the fire. She clung to him, shaking with sobs.
“Shhh. You’re okay.” He kissed the top of her head and tried to soothe her.
After a while, she quieted, then pushed herself away from him and into a sitting position. “I’m okay,” she said and looked back toward the fire.
Only a few minutes had passed, but the trailer was almost fully engulfed now, the structure folding in on itself as the blaze roared. The stench of burning metal and rubber and wood filled the air, and the light from the flames bathed them in a ghastly, flickering light.
“Ian, you’re hurt!” She put a hand to his forearm.
He flinched and touched his own hand to the blisters rising on his skin. The backs of both hands were blistered, too. He looked away from the sight. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’ve got a few cuts from the window glass. They’re not too bad.” She indicated some scratches on her arms, blood beading along one of them. “And my hair and clothing are a little scorched.”
Hearing her words shook him out of the stupor he had been in since first seeing the blaze. He stood and reached down to pull her up. “We need to get out of here,” he said. “Whoever set the blaze might still be in the area. Or they might come back. Come on.”
They jogged to his Jeep. He fumbled for the keys in his pocket. His fingers didn’t want to work right. But at last he had them and pressed the fob to start the vehicle. They climbed into the seat, and he put the vehicle in gear.
He was backing up while she was still grappling with her safety belt. The idea that whoever had set the fire might still be here, waiting for them, made his skin crawl. All he could think about was getting away.
“Why don’t our phones work?” she asked again. “They’re not landlines that someone could cut.”
“No, but here in the canyon I rely on Wi-Fi calling,” he said. “It works via a satellite dish. If someone destroyed the dish, the phones wouldn’t work.”
“Do you think that’s what happened?”
“Someone tampered with the front door so it wouldn’t open,” he said. “They didn’t want us getting out of there or getting help.”
He gripped the steering wheel more tightly, only dimly aware of the pain, too focused on his rage at the arsonist. They could have died in that fire. Bethany could have died.
“As soon as we get a signal, I’ll call 911,” she said.
Ian stretched out a hand and touched her shoulder. He wanted to stop the Jeep and pull her close to comfort her, but he didn’t dare. He didn’t trust whoever had done this not to come after them.
When they reached the highway into town, he slowed and pulled out his phone.
Though Bethany had offered to report the fire, he wanted to talk to the operator himself.
When his call was answered, he identified himself and reported the fire.
“Tell the sheriff I’m pretty sure the fire was deliberately set,” he said.
“Where are you now, sir?” the dispatcher asked.
“We’re on our way to the hospital,” he said. “My girlfriend and I are both injured.”
“What is your location?” she asked. “An ambulance can meet you.”
He glanced at Bethany. She was weeping again.
He had no idea about her physical injuries, but she was clearly traumatized.
An assessment right away was probably smarter than waiting the hour drive to the emergency room in Junction.
And both of his hands were beginning to throb with pain.
He took stock of his location. “We’re almost to the turnoff for search and rescue headquarters,” he said.
“We’ll meet the ambulance in the parking lot. ”
Five minutes later, he pulled almost to the door of the search and rescue building. A light over the door flickered on.
Bethany had quieted. “I’m okay,” she said when he turned to her. “How are your hands?”
He didn’t want to look at his hands or think about the damage done to them. “The ambulance will meet us here,” he said instead.
Lights flashed behind him, but instead of the ambulance, a Rayford County Sheriff’s Department SUV pulled up. Bethany’s brother stepped out and approached the Jeep.
Ian rolled down the window. “Hello, Aaron,” he said.
“Hello, Ian.” He looked past him and his mask of calm slipped. “Bethany? The dispatcher said an ambulance was meeting us here. Are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” she said. “Just a little shook up. Ian is the one who’s hurt. He burned his hands saving us.”
Aaron looked at Ian again. “Let me see.”
Reluctantly, Ian held up his hands. Aaron shone a flashlight on the blistered flesh and winced. Ian closed his eyes against a wave of nausea. “Oh, Ian,” Bethany breathed.
Aaron swung the beam over to light up his sister. “You’re bleeding. And what’s that in your hair?”
She ran a hand through her hair, and bits of glass fell onto the seat beside her. “Ian broke a window to get out of the trailer. I think some of the glass cut me. The cuts aren’t deep.”
The wail of the arriving ambulance drowned out Aaron’s next words. He pulled open the Jeep door as the ambulance came to a stop. “Stay there,” he said as Ian started to get out. “Let them come to you.”
They arrived soon after, Hannah Gwynn and a hefty man, his dark beard shot through with gray. “Hannah, I’m glad to see you,” Bethany said as the woman leaned in to look at Ian.
“Hello, Bethany,” Hannah said. “What’s going on?”
“Ian’s hands are burned,” Bethany said before Ian could answer.
“I drove here no problem,” Ian said. “And I can get out of the Jeep.”
“If you’re sure there’s no other injuries,” Hannah said. “Adrenaline can mask a lot of pain, at least initially.”
“I’m okay.” He started out of the Jeep. Hannah put a hand out to steady him as he stood. On the other side of the vehicle, Aaron and the male EMT were helping Bethany.
Hannah led him over to the ambulance and had him sit in the open doorway. Bright lights from inside illuminated the area around them. “What’s your pain level on a scale of one to ten?” she asked.
“Um, five? Maybe six?” He was becoming more aware of the ache in his hands by the minute.
“Are you allergic to any medications?”
He assured her he wasn’t, that he didn’t have any underlying medical conditions and didn’t take any medications.
“Your arms and face are a little burned, too.” She carefully examined him.
“First degree. They’ll be uncomfortable, but nothing worse than a bad sunburn.
You’ll want to have a doctor look at those hands, though.
I’m going to clean and bandage them, then we’ll transport you to the hospital.
Are you experiencing pain anywhere else?
” She strapped a blood pressure cuff to his arm as she spoke.
“No.” He looked over his shoulder toward Bethany. The male EMT was leading her to the ambulance.
“I’m going to dress some minor cuts and make sure we’ve got all the glass out of her,” the EMT said.
“I’m fine.” She flashed a smile at Ian. It was a wobbly smile, but it lifted his spirits. “How is Ian?” she asked Hannah.
“He’s going to be okay,” Hannah said. She removed the blood pressure cuff. “He’ll need treatment for his hands and they won’t feel that great for a while, but you’ll both be okay.”
Aaron moved over to Ian’s side. “What happened?” he asked. “The 911 operator said you called in a fire and that you thought it was deliberately set.”
“We were in the trailer when we heard the crackling and smelled smoke,” Ian said. “Then the smoke alarms started going off, and we could see flames coming from the kitchen.”
“Were you cooking earlier? Maybe you left a burner on,” Aaron said.
“We weren’t cooking. This wasn’t a cooking fire. When we tried to go out the front door, the door was jammed. I tried breaking it down, but I couldn’t.”
Bethany joined them. “When I tried to call 911, our phones wouldn’t work,” she said.
“I have satellite internet,” Ian said. “When it’s working, we can use Wi-Fi to make calls. Otherwise there’s no service in Humboldt Canyon.”
“How did you get out?” Aaron asked.
“Ian hit the window with a chair,” Bethany said.
“He had to hit it a few times to get it to break, and as soon as it did, the fire really roared to life. It was terrifying. And then I had trouble climbing out of the window.” Her eyes widened as she remembered that terror.
“Ian had to pick me up and throw me out.” She reached over and gripped his shoulder. “You saved my life.”
He couldn’t speak past the knot in his throat. All he could do was nod and blink back the stinging in his eyes.
“Did you see anyone suspicious in the area in the last day or two?” Aaron asked.
“Walt Spies was waiting for us when we pulled in tonight,” Bethany said.
“Walt Spies?” Aaron looked surprised. “What was he doing there?”
“He came to tell me if I didn’t stop the via ferrata project, bad things were going to happen,” Ian said.
“Walt threatened you?” Hannah asked.
Aaron sent her a quelling look. “What did Walt say, exactly?”
“He showed us a note he had received that said if he didn’t stop the via ferrata, he would be next.”
“The note said, ‘Stop the via ferrata, or you’re next,’” Bethany said.
“It was typed. He said someone left it in his home mailbox. I think he was making up the whole story to divert suspicion away from him. He’s been the biggest opponent of the project all along, and now this fire starts not half an hour after he left us. ”
“He could have driven a short way up the canyon and walked back,” Ian said.
“Did you see any other vehicles or any other people around when you left?” Aaron asked.
“No one until we were almost to town.”
“I’ll call this in,” he said. “In the meantime, you should get those burns seen to. I’ll take Bethany home.”
“No. I’m staying with Ian.” She glared at him, and Ian wondered if Aaron was going to make the mistake of ordering her to go home. Bethany was already furious, and that wasn’t going to help matters.