Page 72 of Matthew
Her brows pulled tight. “Real Terra?”
“Yeah.” He walked over, pulled out a bench and sat down, elbows on the table. “And Carter found something else. The boxes being funneled through these vendors? They’ve only gone out to small-town nurseries and feed stores. All quiet, low-profile businesses, like yours.”
Callie slowly moved around to join him, settling across from him at the table, her hands curled around the edge to steady herself. “So they’re testing routes. Seeing where they can hide it best.”
“Exactly.” Matthew exhaled, his eyes narrowing. “That truck this morning wasn’t scouting. They came to retrieve the box.”
Callie’s frown deepened. “But Everett said no one got out. And the box wouldn’t have been unloaded near the gate. It was unloaded by the greenhouse.”
“They didn’t need to come in to know that,” he said. “They could’ve used binoculars from the road or maybe from a ridge line, if there’s a vantage point nearby.”
“There is,” she muttered, mentally mapping the land. “Old field access on the north fence line. Overgrown now, but if they knew what to look for…”
“Then they parked where they could observe. Maybe even watched the drop-off yesterday, waited for confirmation it was still here, and planned to grab it early before anyone showed up.”
“But we got to it first,” she said quietly. “And now they don’t know who took it or where it is.”
“Exactly,” Matthew said. “And that makes us unpredictable, which means they’re going to get twitchy.”
Before she could reply, the sound of approaching footsteps had them both glancing toward the path.
Nate rounded the corner, wiping his hands on a faded rag, his expression serious beneath the brim of his cap. Sammy padded along beside him, tail wagging low.
“Didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” he said, his voice gruff but quiet. “But y’all weren’t exactly whispering. Something going on I should know about?”
Callie straightened instinctively. “It’s…complicated.”
“Thenuncomplicated it for me, Cal.” He looked between her and Matthew. “I’ve been around long enough to know when trouble’s sniffing at the door. And I don’t like the way it smells.”
Matthew gave a slow nod. “We’ve got reason to believe someone tried to use the nursery for a dirty shipment. Not fertilizer, something worse.”
Nate blew out a breath and reached down and gave Sammy’s head a pat. “And that truck this morning?”
Callie blinked. “How’d you know about that?”
“You’re not the only one with nosy neighbors,” he said. “Mrs. Lanning spotted it on her way to walk her yappy little mutt and told my wife, who told me before I finished my eggs. Small towns talk fast.”
Matthew swore under his breath.
Nate’s gaze sharpened. “That truck out front this morning doesn’t belong to any of our usual suppliers. And it wasn’t scouting. Not that time of day. It was waiting. Watching.”
Callie’s stomach twisted.
“You think they saw something?” she asked, her voice low.
“Probably scoped the grounds with binoculars,” Matthew said grimly. “The box they wanted was originally unloaded by the greenhouse. If they knew the layout or had someone inside feeding them info they could’ve expected it to still be there.”
Callie’s stomach gave a sharp twist. Someoneinside? She inhaled as a thought occurred. “It could’ve been the driver.”
Matthew nodded.
Nate’s brows dipped. “So, the box wasn’t here.”
“No,” Matthew said. “We—ESI,” he clarified for Nate. “We flagged it the moment it came off the truck. Carter’s been analyzing it since yesterday. But if the delivery schedule was predictable, and the drop point hadn’t changed in months, they might’ve assumed it’d be waiting right there.”
Nate rubbed the back of his neck. “Which means this wasn’t a scout run. This was a planned pickup.”
“And now,” Callie added quietly, “they know it’s missing.”
