the water pulled me away.”
“You sure it wasn’t Meral you saw, arriving after you’d fallen in? She was the one to call this in. Her quick thinking got the search for you going.”
Jewel closed her eyes. After a moment, she shook her head. “I don’t think so. No, I’m sure it wasn’t Meral. The jacket she’s wearing is too bright—even though I couldn’t make out the face of the person I saw, that color would have caught my eye. It was the person who pushed me in. They were standing exactly where I’d been before being pushed.”
Colin hated that her story could be picked apart, especially since she appeared so frazzled. And after his experience in Texas, he resolved to look at the facts and only the facts. He couldn’t go on gut feelings alone.
Jewel’s experience and what she’d seen could be based entirely on her emotional state. But this was Jewel Caraway. Writing her off wasn’t something he was willing to do. Colin would take her seriously. If someone truly had tried to kill her, then he would do everything he could to make sure she was safe.
He frowned. “Was the person you saw male or female?”
“I couldn’t tell.” She looked up at him again. “You do believe me, don’t you?”
“Of course.” He believed she wasn’t deliberately lying, but could her memory be faulty? Eyewitness stories almost always conflicted. Everyone had his or her own perspective. Had Jewel really seen someone? And had that person pushed her?
“Did you see anyone else on the trail during your hike?”
“No.”
“I’ll need to question your sister and her husband.” He wouldn’t divvy this out to his officers. No. This investigation belonged to Colin.
“Of course. They’re waiting out there. I’m surprised you didn’t already meet and question them. They are still out there, aren’t they?”
Colin let out a slow breath. Would she be disappointed if he told her they had already gone? A fact he found strange. What was more important to them than Jewel’s well-being?
“Oh, wait. Meral wasn’t feeling well.” Disappointment edged her voice. “Maybe Buck wanted to get her home. Maybe they decided not to wait for me to get dressed.”
Colin’s throat tightened. Nice guy. “I’ll take you home, Jewel. Don’t worry. Now can you think of any reason why someone would try to kill you?” Maybe this wasn’t a random act, though he couldn’t think of a single enemy she would have made. She was kind and generous, and her guests always raved about their experience at the B and B. But if he’d learned anything as a twenty-five-year police veteran, it was that everyone had dry bones buried in the backyard. As hard as it was to believe, Jewel would be no exception.
“I almost wish I did. Then it would be easy to find out who pushed me.”
Colin agreed. “In that case, I don’t want you to be alone until we figure this out. Do you understand?”
“That should be easy enough to comply with. After all, my sister is here now for a short visit.”
Colin didn’t bring up that she was supposed to be with her sister when someone had tried to kill her—Meral hadn’t been any protection for her then. At any rate, maybe her sister and husband would stay until this investigation was closed. “Come on. I’ll give you that ride home now. Doc give you some scripts?”
“Yeah, painkillers and an antibiotic, I think.”
“Fine. I’ll get you home first, then I’ll run those over to the pharmacy for you.”
Jewel stood, ready to leave, her confusion over the day’s events evident, mingling with exhaustion from the strain on her beaten body. Colin was glad to be the one to see her safely home. If it was actually even safe. He’d determine that when he arrived.
He pursed his lips, envisioning what he wanted to do to her attacker or attackers once he got his hands on them, and before he put them in a jail cell. But that was all it was—a vain imagining.
He opened the door and assisted her out to the waiting room, where they found Tracy with David. Tracy said she had encouraged Meral to go back to the B and B, seeing that she wasn’t feeling well, reassuring them that she and David would get Jewel home. Colin could see the relief in Jewel’s eyes that she hadn’t been abandoned, but all Colin could think was Tracy and David were behaving more like family to her than Meral and Buck. While Jewel thanked Tracy for finding her, Colin talked to David about going back to the falls to look around.
Then he ushered Jewel through the exit where his Jeep waited and assisted her into the passenger seat, taking care he didn’t hurt her. On the drive back, he took the bumps and the potholes slowly and carefully.
Anger boiled beneath the surface at the thought of her injuries. At the thought of someone actually trying to hurt her. At the image of someone pushing her into those falls.
He would have to prevent them from trying again.
But he knew firsthand how difficult it could be to stop a killer. He’d attempted and failed before, and as a result, Katelyn, the woman he’d planned to propose to, had been murdered.
And he’d known all along who had wanted to kill her, and still Colin hadn’t been able to prevent her murder. With no idea where to even look for Jewel’s attacker, how was he going to be able to keep her alive?
The next morning, Colin walked the trail with one of his officers, Terry Stratford, along with Cade and David Warren, who were friends and had been part of the search and rescue for Jewel.
He almost wished Dead Falls Canyon, both the river and several waterfalls, were far from town, where they’d be less of a danger to the people under his jurisdiction, which included the city and borough of Mountain Cove and encompassed two thousand square miles, most of that wilderness in the Tongass National Forest.
But the majestic scenery and unparalleled adventures of the region were all part of the package. The splendor, the pristine nature and magnificent views brought tourists. One of the many reasons people chose to live here.
But beauty had turned deadly more than once.
After his officers and forest rangers had searched the area yesterday and came up empty-handed, he’d decided that Jewel’s attacker was long gone, and there wasn’t reason enough to close off the whole region to nature enthusiasts.
Today’s revisiting of the crime scene hadn’t turned up any evidence or clues either, so far. Jewel’s party hadn’t been the only one to hike the trails or view the falls, so there was no way to try to trace anyone’s tracks.
Colin maintained a keen sense of his surroundings in case someone was watching him. He had that sensation as they hiked the trail, but it could simply be curious hikers wondering what had brought the police out on the trails today.
They’d walked the five-mile circular trail that led to the top where Jewel claimed to have stood and looked down. This was some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, and now it would likely be ruined for Jewel unless she could somehow put those events out of her mind.
He was asking for the impossible. Colin had moved to Mountain Cove to escape his own devastating experience in Texas. He hoped Jewel wouldn’t have to take such drastic measures.
Under normal circumstances, he’d have his officers roam the woods now, searching again for evidence, rather than coming out here himself. He had enough paperwork stacked on his desk and phone calls to answer to last a lifetime, and the tourist season was only beginning.
But this wasn’t normal. This was Jewel Caraway. The thought of losing her, that moment when he’d thought she could have been dead, had forced him to look deep, even though he knew he couldn’t make it too personal and had to tread carefully.