Page 80 of Smokescreen

But the man had a head start, and he was fast.

She hadn’t even gotten a good look at him.

Trick joined her, but even the two of them together couldn’t stop this guy.

The man finally reached a side-by-side that had been left on a narrow foot path and hopped on.

He was gone before they reached the area where he’d parked.

Olive sucked in a deep breath, trying to get control of her breathing as she paused and watched the man escape.

She shook her head, mad at herself that she hadn’t been faster. “Who was that?”

“Good question.” Trick’s hands went to his hips as he stared in the same direction. “He didn’t want to be seen, whoever he was.”

Had he come here to watch them? Or to clean up more from Andy’s murder?

They might not ever know.

She scowled again before saying, “We should get back to Reid and Tevin.”

Trick nodded. “Let’s go.”

But the questions remained in her mind. Who had that man been? And what was he doing out here?

If only Olive had gotten a better look . . . but she hadn’t.

The gang went back to the Homestead. Their trip hadn’t been futile—they had found that casing, and they knew someone had been in the woods watching them.

But Olive couldn’t deny that she wanted more answers. Mostly what they seemed to be finding were more questions.

Trick headed out to help with the livestock, while Tevin grabbed his computer. He’d found something he wanted to show Olive. Reid had explained to everyone on his staff that Tevin had been hired to do some work for him but had been injured on the job. That was all people needed to know.

With no one looking, Olive slipped into Tevin’s room to hear what he had to say.

“Hey,” she murmured as she quietly closed the door. “I only have about five minutes before Reid and I have to go into town.”

“That’s all this should take.” Tevin sat on his bed with papers spread out around him. He grabbed his laptop and opened it. “I found this from my footage. I wanted to show you first before I mentioned it to Reid.”

“What is it?” She sat beside him on the bed so she could see the screen.

“The time stamp on this footage shows that these images were recorded about thirty minutes before those men found me and took me to that cabin.” Tevin hit another key with extra gusto. “Watch this.”

Olive leaned closer, not wanting to miss anything. A second later, she watched on the screen as a car pulled to a stop near a service road. Two men stepped out.

“Jon and Edgar?” she blurted.

“Probably,” Tevin confirmed. “But there’s more.”

A few seconds later, a black truck—one she didn’t recognize—pulled up beside the other vehicle, and a man wearing a cowboy hat stepped out.

With the overhead angle of the drone, it was impossible to see his face with that hat.

The man talked to the men Olive assumed were Jon and Edgar for almost a full minute. Then he climbed back into his truck and left in the direction he came from. Again, because of the angle of the camera, they couldn’t see the man’s face or license plate number—which felt unfortunate, to say the least.

“Then look what happens next . . .” Tevin angled the computer to her.

Olive watched as one of the men looked up, and his features came into view. “That’s definitely Edgar.”

---