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Cecily opened the door to Andy. “Thanks for getting here so fast.”
He flashed a quick smile. “Not a problem.” He shifted his gaze to Frank, clearly assessing the cowhand. A cop thing, or a man thing? Either way, she didn’t need any posturing. She moved to introductions. “Frank, this is Andy Markham, one of the county detectives. Andy, Frank Wembly, one of the ranch hands. He can take you to the scene.”
Andy glanced over his shoulder. “My RAV4 going to make it? My kit’s in there.”
“It’ll get us close enough. Shouldn’t be a problem,” Frank said. “Let me get my boots.” He strode off toward the mudroom.
“Frank’s retired military,” Cecily said. “Army Rangers. He’s an expert tracker.”
“Good skill to have,” Andy said.
Frank returned a moment later, along with Bryce. Cecily did another round of introductions, and Andy did his assessment thing again. So did Bryce. His was definitely a guy evaluation. What was it with men? Why did they all think everyone was a rival? Pretty soon, they’d be smelling each other’s butts.
“Mind if I come along?” Bryce asked.
“Fine by me,” Andy said. “Let’s get going. Don’t want to lose the light.” He pivoted, trotted down the stairs, and went to his vehicle.
Bryce told Frank he could ride shotgun. “You being the expert here.”
Cecily gazed heavenward and climbed into the rear seat, behind Andy. Bryce took the passenger side, sitting a little bit closer to the middle of the bench than to the door. She buckled herself in and occupied herself gazing out the window. No matter how many times she’d seen the familiar terrain, it was always different. The way the pine boughs danced in the breeze, their shades of green in stark contrast to the luminous gold of the aspens in the late-afternoon sunlight. The grasses, changing from summer green to fall yellow. The blue of the sky, dazzling bright, as if it had been colored with a child’s Magic Marker.
Frank gave directions. Andy asked detective type questions. Frank responded. Bryce sulked.
Why had he wanted to come along? She could feel his gaze bounce between her and the window, as if he didn’t want her to know he was watching her.
“Stop here,” Frank said. “We’ll have to walk the rest of the way.”
They climbed out of the SUV, and Andy retrieved his kit from the back. Frank led them to the area he’d marked with the red plastic ties they used to flag areas of fence that needed attention. Cecily held back while Frank and Andy compared theories. Andy took pictures and collected some branches Frank thought were blood-stained.
“I can do a quick presumptive test right here to see if it’s blood or not, but anything to identify who or what it came from has to be done at the lab,” Andy said. “Running DNA isn’t the norm in cases like this.”
Cecily watched in fascination as Andy snipped off a stained pine twig. Next, he took what looked like a cotton swab with liquid in the stem and swabbed the needles. Then, he dropped the end of the swab into a vial and shook it.
Cecily’s eyes widened as the liquid in the vial turned a blue-green color. “Does that mean it’s blood?”
“It is, but this test doesn’t tell me what kind of blood. Any animal might have left blood on these bushes. I wish I could say I’ll run it to the lab and have your results by dinnertime, but this would be low priority. To tell if it’s human is a fairly simple test, but we don’t carry those kits. That’s in the Crime Scene Response Team’s bailiwick.”
“Wouldn’t the boot prints indicate a human was involved?” Frank asked.
“They say a human was here, but not that the blood belonged to him.”
“So, if whoever killed the steer came through here, covered in blood, this could be the animal’s blood,” Bryce said. “Which wouldn’t help us find him.”
“Precisely,” Andy said. He collected some branches and put them into an evidence bag, then addressed Frank. “You mentioned a potential route the guy took to and from the road.”
“Yes. The terrain made it difficult to track, but I’ll show you what I found.”
“What about the dead steer?” Andy asked. “Is it around here?”
“No, it’s over in the next pasture,” Frank said. “We can go there next.”
The men headed into a copse of trees. Rather than get in the way, Cecily opted to wait by the vehicle while Frank showed Andy whatever clues he’d found.
“I’ll hang back, too,” Bryce said. “You don’t need another set of footprints.”
Andy gave him another of those narrow-eyed macho guy stares, but set off with Frank. “We won’t be long.”
Bryce played with his ponytail, enough of an indication of his nervousness, even if she couldn’t read it in his face. Which she could. Like it was written in huge block letters. She sat sideways on the edge of the backseat of Andy’s car, her feet dangling out the open door, studying the embroidery pattern on her boots.
She didn’t know why she was being so stubborn. Bryce wanted to talk, but she perversely refused to open the dialogue. His problem, his move.
The silence between them was a vacuum, demanding to be filled.
“How’s Grady doing?” she asked. “We got interrupted before you could answer.”
His fingers moved faster along his ponytail, hopping from one rubber band to another. “Okay, I guess.”
“C’mon, Bryce. It’s important. I know seeing the steer shook him up, but what about the other chores? Is he working? How’s his attitude?”
Bryce opened his mouth, then snapped it shut. Flipping his ponytail to his back, he stomped away.
She folded her arms across her chest. What now? She’d tried to make conversation. He couldn’t be bothered to answer a few simple questions?
Bryce still hadn’t returned when Frank and Andy emerged from the trees. She hopped out of the SUV. “Did you find anything you can use?”
“ATV tracks, but nothing distinctive,” Andy said. “Frank’s original hypothesis seems correct. Whoever it was came in and out from a point on the road that crosses your ranch property.”
“They didn’t drive the ATV all the way to the pasture, did they?” Cecily asked.
“No,” Frank said. “We found where he parked it.”
“So they must have known where they were going. Not some drunken fools out joyriding.”
“That’s the theory. Someone definitely wanted to cause trouble,” Andy said.
“Just one person?” Cecily asked.
“If there was more than one person, the others stayed in the ATV. One set of boot prints, and whoever left them was being careful. Stuck to gravel wherever possible. Doubt someone drunk would have been able to manage,” Frank said.
“I want to take a look at the steer.” Andy glanced around. “Where’s Bryce?”