Page 89 of Solid as Steele
“Would be a beautiful night to stargaze.” Her low, husky tone rolled over him like a warm breeze.
Ah, yes. Easy to imagine. Sitting in the desert with her at his side. Sharing a quilt for warmth and being at peace under God’s amazing creation. But would Owen be at peace? Or would thoughts of Cassie losing her life in the desert intrude? He’d have to work hard to control them. The same way he’d had to work hard to deal with her disappearance. The pain had become more manageable over time, but the anguish lived as an unquenchable ache in his gut. He should’ve been able to protect her. That was his job—serve and protect—and he couldn’t even do it with his own family.
He let out a breath.
Mackenzie eyed him. “What’s wrong?”
“Thinking about Cassie. Was it day or night when she was murdered? Was she alone? Terrified? Or did the killer shoot her from a distance, and she didn’t know what was coming? The not knowing is eating at me.”
Her hand slid into his. He didn’t pull away but gripped her soft skin. They walked like that. Side-by-side. Hand-in-hand. The night surrounding them. And something akin to peace settled into his heart. Not complete peace. Not when the fresh ache of loss was still there. But a tight knot inside loosened.
Until the lights from Tovar’s complex radiated into the sky like a halo around the compound. And it was indeed a compound. A ten-foot-tall stockade fence surrounded the area that held the trucker’s house.
“That fence says he’s trying to hide something,” Mackenzie said.
He squeezed her hand and released it to retrieve his rifle. He paused to peer through the scope. “He has cameras and security lights mounted on the two front corners of the fence. We’ll have to keep our distance and hike around to see if there’s an area not covered by cameras where we can get close enough for a look inside.”
Mackenzie nodded. “Question is, what’s the reach of his cameras?”
“Most home security cameras have a seventy-foot range. Doubt these are basic home cameras though. Professional cameras can see up to seven hundred feet.” He adjusted his scope. “We’ll use the scope to locate additional cameras and lights, but to estimate yardage as we walk too, so we don’t activate either one.”
“So we have to stay around two football fields away then,” she said.
“That’s right.” He resumed walking, making sure to pause and check their distance and correct their course when needed. They strode parallel to the property and arrived in the back without triggering any lights, and hopefully, not activating cameras either.
He ran the scope over the back. “No cameras or lights. We can get closer.”
“What if he has guard dogs?” she asked.
He looked her in the eye. “He’s on the road a lot so odds could be in our favor. But if we hear barking, we double-time it back to the truck.”
She nodded.
“Stay behind me.” Owen set off toward the compound, making doubly sure of his footing to keep from triggering any sound.
Please don’t let there be dogs.
Silence. Every step. No barking. No alarm. No bright lights calling them out.
Owen reached the fence and slung his rifle over his shoulder. He located a small gap between the boards and peeked inside. A single-story rectangle of a house painted prison gray with a flat roof sat in the middle of the compound. A large metal pole barn stood close to the rear fence, old and dilapidated and held together with rust. Tovar had parked his red cab near the house where lights glowed from a large window on the side.
Owen stood back. Mackenzie took his place and leaned in. He was aware of her as a woman, not a fellow law enforcement officer. Not just now, but most every time he laid eyes on her. He’d come to see her as a woman he would like to get to know better.
What if he did pursue her when this was all over, and he couldn’t shake her involvement in the investigation, and he let that fester? Would he always associate Cassie’s death with Mackenzie?
“Tovar’s coming out of the house,” she said, her voice rising with excitement. “Headed toward the barn.”
Owen wanted to shove her out of the way and look, but moved down the fence until he found another open slot. He leaned close and spotted Tovar coming straight for them, a gun at his hip, flashlight swinging in one hand and a covered wicker basket in the other.
Had he made them? Should they take off?
He didn’t have his weapon out, and he was whistling. And he was carrying a basket, which seemed odd if he knew Owen and Mackenzie were watching him.
Owen would hold tight, but be prepared to run. He crooked his finger at Mackenzie to join him at his vantage point that provided a look inside the barn too. She crept toward Owen, and he resumed peering through the fence.
Tovar slid the door open, the metal groaning on rusty hinges and revealing the inside of the barn. He turned on a light and the beam shone down on an old-fashioned cellar door built into the earth.
Was it a root cellar, and he was simply getting food he’d stored inside? Could be why he carried a basket.
