Page 8 of A Touch of Murder
"I'll give you a call if we need feet on the ground but let us check out a few places first. Your clue about a stream gives me a couple of locations to look. First, I need to go talk to Edith and make sure Roy isn't home. I'll let you know what happens." Kyle gripped the saddle horn and picked it up.
"Thanks." Adam went over and held the door open for Kyle. He watched as he put the saddle into the back of his truck, then climbed in and pulled away. Turning back, he met Jacey's stare. "I hate delivering bad news."
"But if you didn't, it could take them even longer to identify who they're looking for and he could lay out there longer. This way, hopefully Kyle gets to him before the animals do." Jacey held up another candy bar. "Eat this."
Adam walked back over to the desk and sat down in Jacey's chair, taking the candy bar. "Thanks."
"Well, that was an interesting start to the day." Jacey leaned against the desk. "You want more water?"
"I'm good." Adam took a deep breath. "Not how I like starting the day. Roy's death is going to hit the community hard." The family was one of the richer in the area and owned a large amount of land just outside town. They ran cattle along with training horses. Adam didn't know the family well, but everyone knew either the older couple or one of their five kids.
"My mom's good friends with Edith. Do you think I should call and let my mom know what happened?"
"Not yet. Let Kyle be the one to handle things. I don't want people rushing to Edith's side before Kyle has a chance to speak with her. I didn't see the man's face. For all we know it was someone else on that horse. I know it was male and older. I'monly assuming it's Roy. Kyle could get out there and find Roy alive and well."
"True." Jacey went over to the shelf that held the coffee pot and poured himself a cup. "You want one?"
Adam held out the cup he'd been drinking when he unlocked the door this morning. "Thanks."
Jacey took the mug and filled it. "So do you think the police will be back to talk to you more about the Wilson case?"
"I think they'll be back." Though he wasn't sure whether it would be due to the Wilson case or because of what had happened when he held Barret's handcuffs. He still wasn't sure what to think about all that. "The one cop who doesn't believe I have any talents will investigate me as a suspect. It's happened before. It's my own fault. I should have been clearer with the Wilsons on the fact that I didn't think their daughter was found here in Hidden Falls."
"You told them you didn't know where she was, only that she had been found and was in a morgue. We don't even have a morgue last I looked."
"We don't, but they were distraught. I'd just told them she was dead. I can't blame them for being confused." Adam stood. "We'll worry about the police when they come back but be prepared for it. My guess is they'll spend today looking through Jane Doe cases and find her, then come back to find out how I knew."
"I don't know how you put up with people thinking you’re a con artist. Anyone who knows you—"
"That's the thing. Not everyone knows me. I'm used to it. Besides, I can't blame them when the world is filled with con artists claiming to do things like I do. There's nothing I can do about it other than prove to them I'm the real deal. They either believe or they don't. I've got some bills to pay and emails to return, but yell if anyone walks in for a reading. Let me knowwhen the packages come and I'll help you set the new items out." Adam headed toward his office in the back.
"I've got this. Go relax. Eat another candy bar. You're still pale." Jacey waved him off.
Adam smiled. Jacey knew him well. He went into his office, closed the door, and drank two more bottles of water while eating half of another candy bar. He was sure it was psychological, but death readings always seemed to take more from him. As he thought about Ray and Edith Rowin, he hoped this once he was wrong and the death had been someone else. His gut told him he wasn't wrong. He just prayed they found him so the family could have some peace.
CHAPTER FIVE
Barret had planned on spending the morning calling morgues in the surrounding areas and had started doing just that when the call came in that they had a missing person on one of the trails. Like everyone else working today, he left what he was doing and joined the Search and Rescue team along with the Fish and Game officers to help find him.
Like everyone else who had grown up in the area, he knew most of the trails by heart. He also knew that a missing person didn't always stick to the trails and could be anywhere. The fact that this person had probably been on horseback for a while and either lost his horse or fell from it told him they could be looking for someone who wasn't mobile.
"Take the quad runner and head up Sheep Camp Trail." The search commander, Gary Noring, handed Barret the key to the four-wheeler. "Vance, head up Cottonwood Trail and see what you find. You'll have to take a horse. The trail's too narrow for anything else."
The radio crackled and Barret paused, listening to the call.
"Just got confirmation that the horse belongs to Ray Rowin. Edith said he went riding around six this morning and hasn't come back. Edith told me he usually went up to Two Drops Falls when he went riding, but that he didn't tell her where he was headed this morning. I've got two of my guys taking horses up Two Drops, but let's keep searching all areas within riding distance of the Rowins' place," Kyle Landers said over the radio. "Gary, keep your phone close. I'm about to call you."
"Might as well wait to see what he says." Vance stood beside Barret.
"Two Drops Trail is on the other side of the Rowins' property from here." Barret pointed down at the map. "If he usually wentthat way, we're wasting our time here. Where was his horse found?"
"Ernest Collins found it in his yard," Gary told them as his phone rang. He held up a finger and answered the call.
Barret exchanged a look with Vance. The Collins' place was just down the road from the Rowins' property. The horse could have been returning home on its own. He'd seen horses do that before. What bothered Barret was the fact that Ray spent his life on horseback. It wasn't likely he'd let his horse just wander off, and he doubted Ray had been thrown unless something really spooked his horse, which was always possible in this area.
Gary set his phone down on the table and sighed. "Sounds like we might be looking for a body. Kyle took the saddle over to Touched to see if Adam Wrecker could figure out who it belonged to. He sent Kyle to Edith, but said he had one of his visons and he saw what appeared to be a man clutching his chest and falling from the horse. Said the man was dead, though I'm not sure how Adam would know that. But that's the update."
Barret frowned. "Don't tell me you believe in that hocus pocus shit that Adam Wrecker claims to do." He'd worked as an officer for years in the area, and knew the rumors of what Adam did, but now, in less than twenty-four hours the man was involved in two cases that Barret was working.
