“We can’t assume anything, but if he is the killer, we just left one of his victims alone with him.”

We both rushed back into the resort lobby, then jerked to a halt.

Wyatt stood at the front door with a rifle aimed at Roy and Liam. He immediately shifted his attention, and his aim, to us. “Drop the pistol, Bram.”

Bram shook his head. “You don’t want to do this, Wyatt.”

My focus narrowed. A high buzzing started in my head. I reached for a nearby wall to keep from falling. The world was moving in slow motion.

Wyatt’s face was flushed. “Don’t move. Drop the pistol. Don’t make me have to shoot.”

“Why did you do it, Wyatt?” Roy asked.

“I didn’t do anything.” Wyatt moved so he could keep the rifle on all of us. “I just got back from trying to find that last horse and mule and found the body in the barn.”

I clung to the wall.

“How do we know you didn’t kill him?” Bram asked.

“And how do I know you aren’t the killer?” Wyatt shot back.

Cookie moaned.

Her voice shook me out of my stupor. I walked on unsteady legs to the prone woman. “Go ahead and shoot me, but don’t let Cookie suffer.” I reached her and placed the ice on the lump behind her ear. “Wyatt, I’ve been with Bram and Liam this whole time.”

“Not quite,” Bram said. “You were with me the whole time. Liam walked back to Mule Shoe by himself.”

I nodded. “Right. Anyway, there was an accident . . . or at least we thought it was an accident.” I told the others about the landslide, the wagon, Dee Dee, the brake handle, and then finding the wrangler’s body behind the cabin and the man in the barn.

Wyatt slowly lowered his rifle. “The radio—”

“Destroyed,” Roy said.

Wyatt returned to the front door and shut it. “So we’re effectively cut off from the world with a badly injured woman and a homicidal maniac on the loose.”

Chapter 15

The sun dropped low. Roy sat hunched in a chair, bent over, head in his hands. Bram and Wyatt kept their weapons out and stared at each other. Liam mopped up his spilled beer, found another can of brew, then settled near the dining room. I stayed next to Cookie, pressing the ice pack to her head. Her color looked better, and her breathing was less labored.

My neck itched like crazy, but I held off scratching, knowing once I started, I wouldn’t be able to stop.

Wyatt relaxed slightly. “There’s still four members of the regular staff unaccounted for, plus Angie and the three guests. And we need to move those bodies. Bear, wolves, cougars—”

“We get the drift.” Bram looked at me.