Page 64 of Smokescreen

“You’re not telling me everything.” She shot laser beams at him with her gaze. “Are you trying to ruin Reid?”

“Ruin him?” His voice rose, then cracked. “No! Why would I do that?”

“There are lots of reasons, really. Would you like me to go through each of them? Maybe, for example, you want to profit off his land yourself. Or you want to steal his money. Or?—”

“No! I would never do that.” He swiped a hand through his thinning hair. “Okay, look. It’s like this. My friend is actually a reporter.”

Olive tried not to show any surprise at his words. “Is he actually your friend?”

Dippy winced. “No, not really. He hired me to get a job here and find out the scoop on Reid. Mr. Harrison was a tabloid favorite for a while. With the right updates, he could be again.”

Surprise shot through her. “So you’re here as a spy?”

He winced again. “It sounds terrible when you say it that way.”

Was this guy dense? “That’s because itisterrible.”

“Justin is paying me under the table. It was the chance to earn a few extra dollars. I wasn’t doing anyone any harm, and I could use the money.”

“For what?”

“If you must know, I went to college for two years and then dropped out.” He frowned. “But I still have student loans to pay.”

Those student loans could be killers . . .

Her thoughts shifted back to this Justin guy. “How do you even know this reporter is really a reporter?”

“What? What else would he be?” The sweat on his forehead began to trickle down his cheeks.

The scenario came together in Olive’s mind. Justin pretends to be a reporter. He gets Dippy involved. But he really isn’t interested in the gossip. What he really wants is information about Thunder Ridge Ranch so he can enact his sabotage. And since the man is faceless . . . he has nothing to lose.

Olive stepped closer. “Dippy, someone is trying to destroy this ranch. This person has been using you to help them do it.”

He squinted. “Are you being serious?”

“Dead serious. You’re this person’s inside man. When everything goes down, and Reid takes the person sabotaging his ranch to court . . . you’re going to be named as an accomplice.”

“I didn’t know any of that!” His voice cracked. “I didn’t mean any harm.”

“Then you need to cooperate.” Olive stared him down, not wanting to let him off the hook.

“Cooperate with who?”

“With me and Reid.”

“You’re Reid’s girlfriend.” Dippy stared at her. “Why are you acting like a cop or something?”

His words were a reminder that Olive needed to chill. “He’s my boyfriend, and I’m not going to let someone ruin him. I fight for the people I care about. Besides, you’re not in a great position to be asking these kinds of questions.”

“Right.” Dippy lowered his gaze.

“What kind of information have you been sending this person?”

He shrugged quickly. “I don’t know, man. Pictures of the Homestead, the stable, the barn. He wanted some photos of the inside of the house. Of Reid’s truck. Nothing that seemed like a big deal.”

Yet all of those things could be a big deal.

“We need to figure out who the real person is you’ve been corresponding with.”

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