Page 172 of The Woman By the Lake

Harry still wasn’t done.

“Both those times, not one, but two fires of the gun. Which I’m sure you can imagine a scream and a couple shotgun blasts in the middle of the night would scare the shit out of about anyone, including me. And that’s just what’s gone down at the cabin. The litany of shit that’s gone down at your house before you took possession is just as long. Straight up, when you moved in, I had reservations because this crap has been so relentless. Though, as you know, they’ve left you alone since that time, they haven’t done the same with the renters Brenda and Dave have tried to put in this cabin.”

Fuck.

He should have asked his question sooner.

That wasn’t just kids messing around.

That was someone who was pretty damned determined to scare people off this land.

Nadia had told him about the rock noises, and that didn’t happen in the middle of the night. It happened when she was awake, alone and couldn’t miss it. But it stopped when he approached the cabin.

So that wasn’t Bryce.

That was these fucks, whoever they were.

“I want all the footage on your cloud,” Harry went on. “If they knew there were cameras they had to deal with, that means they’ve cased the place sometime recently. Maybe one of the cameras caught them while they were doing that.”

“I haven’t noticed any indication anyone’s been around who shouldn’t be, except what we found, and Nadia and I searched all around this cabin. Cade, Jace, Jess and Rus have been looking too. They’ve all finished their patches. Nothing. Jace and Jess were going to head to the other side of the lake tomorrow.”

“They might have had warning we’re suspicious, if Sharon Swindell gave them a heads up. Now they’re covering their tracks. Taking more care.”

“Who the fuck is Sharon Swindell?”

“Roosevelt’s assistant. You told me last night of Maribeth’s new theory, and I don’t know if it holds water, but I sure as fuck am not gonna discount it.”

Riggs pulled a calming breath through his nose.

It didn’t calm him.

Then he asked, “That Seattle cop nosing around? Is that what tweaked them to escalate things?”

“He didn’t warn me, but he’s my first call in the morning. Then again, if Swindell is involved, Rus and my visit to her would be enough to tweak them.”

“So, we got all this shit, and the fact that Gia’s been barking and maybe warning Nadia that someone is out here, and she’s been doing that for days,” Riggs broke it down.

“That’s what we got,” Harry confirmed.

Riggs pulled in another calming breath.

It again failed to calm him.

“Nadia know about this message?” Riggs asked, jerking his head to indicate the ground.

“No. Sorry. I gotta take ’em where I can get ’em, so that’s gonna be your job.”

Great.

“That all you got for me?” he asked Harry.

“For now. Get me those feeds. First thing.”

Riggs nodded then turned and jogged back to the cabin.

When he hit the main room, he ordered the women, who were both sitting at the kitchen island sipping at martini glasses, “Pack up. You’re spending the rest of the night at mine.”

Maribeth looked relieved and immediately put down her drink and moved to the closet.

---