Page 42 of Lone Star Showdown

Or dead.

Rachel had never wished anyone dead before, but in this case she made an exception.

Rafe went to the large screen TV in the living room and used a remote to turn it on. No TV show though. This was the feed from the camera on the van. It was similar to the view from a dash cam, which meant she couldn’t see Jericho and the others only the road ahead. And she couldn’t hear them at all because there was no sound function.

“I’ve gone over all the reports,” Rafe said, crossing to the kitchen to take out a Coke and some sandwiches from the food stash he’d brought.

He offered her some by lifting the items, but Rachel shook her head. She was way too queasy to eat.

“Hopefully, there’s an update on Arnez,” she muttered.

“There is,” Rafe verified. “Interesting reading.”

With a sandwich and Coke in hand, Rafe returned to the living room, using a remote to adjust the TV so it had a split screen. The feed from the van on the right, and he brought up a report on the left.

“The tracker operative that Ruby sent out found Arnez’s hidey-hole in the woods behind the Stronghold compound,” Rafe went on. “It was stocked with lots of guns and food supplies, and it had recently been accessed. Fresh footprints around it. No sign of Arnez though.” He paused. “The tracker said there’s a case that once held two grenades. It’s empty now, and the grenades are missing.”

She snapped toward him for a quick, concerned glance. “You think Arnez is going to blow something up?”

Rafe lifted his shoulder in a shrug that didn’t manage to look casual. “It’s possible the case has been empty for a long time.” He scrolled further down the report, where she saw something that practically jumped out at her.

Blood.

The tracker had found fairly fresh blood at the scene.

“Human blood,” Rafe explained. “It’s being processed now to see if it’s a match to Arnez. So, we’re guessing that Arnez might have been hurt. Could have happened when he fell out of the tree. Or later, when he was running.”

“Maybe he’s hurt enough that he can’t do any more damage.”

“Maybe.” Rafe continued to scroll. “And maybe the tracker will find him.” He paused. “I’ve gone through all the other reports, too. On Paulie, Manson, and Jason. On any and everyone connected to them. I can tell you the names of their third-grade teachers.”

He was probably trying to distract her so she wouldn’t be hanging on every frame of the camera feed, but Rachel couldn’t tear her attention away from it. Still, she wanted to hear Rafe’s take on the investigation.

“Who do you think the killer is?” she came out and asked.

“Hard to say. Paulie, Manson, and Jason all have motive. Well, motive in their eyes anyway. And any one of them could have enlisted help from the dead gunman, Bodine. Paulie has thug friends with both firearms and explosives’ expertise who could be aiding and abetting. Manson does, too.”

“Yes, her drug supplier. Travis Barnwell. I haven’t seen the reports on him,” Rachel admitted.

“A criminal record, of course,” Rafe pointed out, and he brought up a photo of the man. He was beefy, his head shaved, and a coldness in his narrowed eyes. “Ties to a gun-running militia group where he could tap all sorts of unsavory felons to assist him or someone like Manson or Paulie.”

“Paulie?” she questioned. “Barnwell knows him?”

“You bet he does.” Rafe used the remote to scroll further down the screen. “Paulie’s dabbled in selling drugs, too. And Jason. It’s a regular family sideline to sell drugs for Barnwell.”

That twisted at her already twisted stomach. “That didn’t come out in the trial. Then again, it shouldn’t have. I mean, Jason was the victim of abuse.”

Still, something like that could have swayed a jury to bring back a nonguilty verdict for Marla.

“Whoever the killer is, he or she isn’t working alone,” Rafe continued. “In fact, it’s possible Arnez has somehow hooked up with the killer.”

She cursed under her breath. Now, that would be an unholy alliance. She nearly asked how Arnez would have found the killer, but it was possible it’d happened the other way around. It was all over the news about Arnez’s escape so perhaps the killer had sought out Arnez, and that connection could have been made through some underground, dark web kind of thing.

Rachel pushed aside the sickening worry of two people teaming up to come after them, and she continued to stare at the feed from the van. It was on the farm road that led into Canyon Ridge and the hospital. Even though it was dark, the camera must have had some kind of infrared capabilities because she caught a red blob just off the road before the van sped past it. A heat source, she realized. Probably a deer.

Rafe sank down into one of the chairs and used the remote to close down the reports so the screen was filled with just the van camera.

“Marco did thermal scanning on the road when he drove Rayna and me here,” Rafe explained. “He didn’t see anyone.”

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