Page 57 of Killer on the Homestead
His gaze moved from the door to her. “Because stubborn is your middle name?”
“Because, as little as it might seem right now, we’ve got plenty to go on. So let’s get on it.” They walked back out to her truck, and she drove to the Kirk Ranch with her radio on, trying to discourage conversation.
She needed to think. About camera placement. About how to untangle these strange twists and turns.
About literally anything buthim.
It was dark when they arrived back at the Kirks’, which was good because she’d need dark to hide a surveillance camera outside the bunkhouse. She parked down at his cabin again. People would just think…
Well, she didn’t need to consider that. “You can stay here,” she told Duncan, maybe a little tersely, as she hopped out. She opened the back door of the truck, pulled out the equipment she’d need for an outdoor camera placement.
He came over to her side of the truck.
“I’m going with you.”
“Look, it’ll take maybe fifteen minutes when I get up there, and it’s less suspicious or noticeable if it’s just me wandering around in the dark.”
“That’s a lie and you know it.”
She stopped what she was doing and glared at him, though it didn’t matter. It was dark and the light on his porch didn’t reach all the way out here.
“You’re not wandering around in the dark with an unknown murderer on the loose, Rosalie.”
“Because you’re going to save me with your wounded arm even though I’m the one carrying?”
He sighed at her. “Because you’ll be focused on putting up the camera, and you need someone watching out to make sure no one happens upon you doing it.”
She couldn’t argue with that, even though she wanted to. But she was being prickly and petty for no good reason, and that irritated her too.
So she let him tag along. They crept across the ranch in the dark, and Rosalie was used to this kind of thing, but Duncanmust have still known the ranch pretty well despite all his time away because he didn’t take any stumbles or make any noise.
There were a few old trees around the bunkhouse, and Rosalie had already decided on hooking her camera up to the one that faced the front door. If anyone noticed it, it could easily be played off as a trail camera meant to catch glimpses of wildlife, not people.
“I’ve got to use some light, so situate yourself in front of me where your body should block most of it from anyone looking out from the bunkhouse. But make sure you’ve got a good view of the door and the driveway.”
Duncan followed instructions, but unfortunately, he was right. With his eyes watching, she could focus on the work rather than worrying if anyone was spotting her. She wished she could get into that bunkhouse, hide a few cameras in strategic places, but she had to believe tomorrow morning would be soon enough.
What would happen in there tonight with Owen in the hospital? She didn’t think much of anything. She hoped to God nothing.
Once she was sure the camera was connected and she could access it from her phone, she tapped Duncan on the shoulder. “Good,” she whispered.
They didn’t say anything, just started walking back to his cabin. Once they were closer to his cabin than the bunkhouse, Duncan spoke.
“What about actual surveillance? Like following guys around? Watching what they do?”
“Even if you hired out all of Fool’s Gold, we wouldn’t be able to follow everyone. Maybe if we just watched who came and went, but even that’s a tall order considering most of these guys only leave the ranch sporadically.”
“Well, we don’t have to follow Terry. Maybe we can do it like that. Narrow down who it could have been.”
Rosalie nodded. “See if your dad knows where everyone was over the course of the morning. Anything we can rule out helps us focus in.”
“He’ll be in bed by now, and he hasn’t been sleeping, so I don’t want to interrupt on the off chance he is. I’ll talk to him in the morning, see what he can tell me. Maybe talk to Terry. Even if he was at the hospital all morning, he would know what everyone was supposed to be working on.”
“Good idea. I know Terry’s not on our list, but we need to be careful what we tell him, so he doesn’t inadvertently let on to whoever is doing this something we don’t want spread around. No matter who we think is innocent, we have to be careful what we say to them.”
“That’s depressing.”
“That’s murder investigations for you.”
