Page 86 of Don't Back Down

***

It began to snow in the night, and when everyone on Pope Mountain woke up the next morning, there was an inch of the white stuff all over the trees and the ground.

Ghost had been born in heat and sand, and even after all the years of living on the mountain with Cameron he still didn’t love the snow, so when Cameron took him out to do his business he ran out to pee, made a quick sweep of the yard because it was his duty, and bolted inside without any kind of urging.

Cameron laughed. “He so does not like snow. He’ll tolerate the cold weather, but snow messes with his chi.”

Rusty gave Ghost a quick pat on the head as he trotted through the kitchen, but when he smelled the bacon she was frying, he turned and plopped down beside the table. She smiled, then turned her attention back to the stove and the skillet.

“How are we doing the eggs?” she asked.

“Just scrambled for me,” Cameron said, as he went to wash up.

Rusty cracked five eggs into a bowl, whipped them with a fork, and then as soon as the last of the bacon was done, poured off the drippings into a can sitting by the stove and cooked the eggs in the same skillet.

They made their plates and took them and their coffee to the table where a stack of fresh toast was waiting.

“You cook eggs like my mom did. Seasoning them with the bacon drippings. Heaven on a plate, sugar. Thank you,” he said.

“Everything should be cooked in bacon drippings,” Rusty said.

Cameron grinned. “I won’t argue with that.”

They ate like they made love, with gusto and an appreciation for the opportunity, and then dawdled over extra toast with jelly and a second cup of coffee.

Cameron had just swallowed his last bite of toast when his cell phone rang. He glanced at caller ID and frowned. “I need to take this,” he said, and got up and walked out of the room, talking as he went.

Rusty cleaned up the dishes, wiped down the counters, and then went to her bedroom to get a load of clothes she needed to wash. She had them in the washer and was adding detergent when Cameron came looking for her.

“Trouble on the mountain. Someone broke into Leo Duroy’s house. He’s one of our elders and is in the hospital recovering from surgery. His wife died over a year ago, so the house was unoccupied. Shit like that doesn’t happen up here. Neighbors went over to tend his chickens and discovered the break-in. They’ve called the sheriff, but they both have to go to work, so they called me because everybody up here knows I don’t punch a time clock. I don’t know how long I’ll be, but you can reach me by phone, okay?”

“Absolutely,” Rusty said, and then she added, “Just a thought. If you rule out everybody on the mountain, then that leaves a good number of people who work at the hospital who also know his home is vacant. Orderlies, janitors, nurses, aides, lab techs, and the list goes on and on. Suggest to Woodley that he immediately check the pawn shops and see if any of what’s missing has been pawned by any locals. If Leo Duroy has had flowers delivered, check florists. They would know he was in the hospital, too. They should all have video of stuff being pawned…unless the thief takes it out of town.”

Cameron started smiling as she kept talking.

“Dang, woman. You’re sharp enough to draw blood. And if Woodley balks at the suggestions, I’ll take the list of stolen property to Chief Warren and have him check.”

Then he gave her a big hug and kiss and went to look for Ghost as he got his coat. A few minutes later they were gone.

Rusty was still savoring that kiss when she took a cup of coffee to the living room, then went to get her laptop. She noticed Cameron had added a fresh log to the fire, and snuggled down in the chair. When she opened her laptop, there was a new file waiting, so she went to work.

***

Cameron had been waiting at the house for over an hour before Rance Woodley arrived with a deputy, and during that time it had continued to spit snow—tiny little specks of frozen ice so light they weren’t heavy enough to fall, just floating about in the air.

They arrived in two patrol cars, making new tracks in the snow, and seemed in no hurry as they sauntered up to the porch steps and knocked on the door.

Cameron watched through the window and waited until they knocked before answering. He knew by the look on Woodley’s face that he was not happy he was there.

Woodley was taken aback and immediately went on the attack. “What the hell are you doing here?” he said.

Cameron held the door open as they stomped inside, tracking snow that quickly melted into droplets on the floor.

“The neighbors who called this in both work in town. They had to leave so they called me. They told me they found blood on the kitchen floor, so it had to belong to the thief or thieves because Mr. Duroy has been gone for almost two weeks. They left me a list of what they know for sure was taken and just asked me to wait for the law to arrive.”

“Oh, yeah, well then,” Woodley muttered. “So where did they break in?”

“Back door,” Cameron said. “If you’ll follow me, you’ll see where they jimmied the lock and see the blood drops begin from the threshold and go all the way across the floor. Looks like one of them might have fallen coming up the steps. There’s blood on the porch, as well. They did all this before it snowed, because the only footprints you’ll see in the yard belong to the neighbors who were feeding Duroy’s chickens and gathering eggs for him. I feel bad for Leo. The thieves trashed the place. Some of this stuff they destroyed belonged to his deceased wife. These little figurines they broke and the jewelry missing from her jewelry box were all he had left of her.”

---