Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
“See you,” she called as he walked away.
“Oh yeah,” he replied, not looking back.
He made sure Tonks, who had followed him, didn’t escape, the door was locked, then he jogged down the alley and up a side street before he jogged to the sheriff’s office, because it’d take less time to do that then get in his truck and find another parking spot that might not be much closer.
At the end of it, he realized fucking was exercise, but he needed to diversify and definitely do what he’d been putting off because he’d been so busy: ease back into his normal routine. He wasn’t breathing heavy, but a four-block jog took more out of him than usual.
He pushed into the station, and Sean Stoll, one of Harry’s deputies, immediately noted him, caught his gaze, jerked his head to the swinging door, and after greeting Hutch, escorted him to Harry’s office.
Sean closed the door after Hutch entered.
Harry was behind the desk, Rus leaning his ass against the round conference table, legs straight in front of him and crossed, as were his arms, and Cade Bohannan was sitting in a chair in front of Harry’s desk.
There were greetings, chin juts, and Harry indicated Hutch should sit in the free chair in front of his desk.
“We’ll get right down to it,” Harry said. Then, addressing Hutch, “As you know, we were coming up with nothing as to how to approach property owners on Stony Bluff to ask if they had any downed trees without raising suspicions which lead to questions and might lead to something else if people found someone was stealing their lumber.”
Hutch nodded. “I know.”
“Fortunately, that worry evaporated when Hugh Tidwell came in this morning, reporting he thinks someone is stealing his trees,” Harry said.
Fucking hell.
“He was out on his ATV, something caught his eye,” Harry continued. “Got off, had a look, brushed some leaves, dirt and pine needles away and saw a somewhat fresh, clean-cut stump to a tree he did not fell. He got back on his ATV and did a closer scan. Dotted around about ten of his acres, he found nine stumps that had been covered to avoid detection. He quit looking then to come down here, but he’s concerned there’ll be more.”
“So they aren’t clearing, they’re cherry picking,” Hutch surmised. “You’d miss a cluster of trees gone. You might not miss one here and the other there.”
“That’s what we think,” Harry said.
“So now…?” Hutch prompted.
“Now we got cause to send deputies up there to knock on some doors, and those deputies are already up there,” Harry told him.
Hutch smiled. “That’s a good break, Harry.”
“We’re not done,” Rus said from behind him.
Hutch glanced that way, but it was Cade who started talking.
“Had several requests from a police department outside Philly to do a talk for their officers,” he shared. “Been turning them down because they can’t afford my full fee. Seein’ as this place is about fifteen miles from the Amish community Lars Enstrom grew up in, I decided to accept a reduced fee.”
Fucking hell.
“Larue and I headed out, I did my thing, then she and I got in our rental car and took a drive,” Cade went on.
Larue was what he called Delphine, his partner, Misted Pines’s most famous resident, and she wasn’t famous because of bad shit, but because she authored one of the best American novels ever written.
Cade kept going, “We left the community alone. They don’t like outsiders and more than likely wouldn’t share anything. So we asked about Lars in town. Not a surprise, time has passed, and he didn’t live in town. No one knew him.”
Well, shit.
“Except one guy,” Cade said.
Hutch returned to alert.
“Guy said Enstrom was always trouble. He’d sneak out of his community, come into town, do stupid shit. Graffiti, petty vandalism of cars and property. Man said he didn’t know what Enstrom got done for during his Rumspringa. But he reckoned the only people in his community who didn’t want him gone were his parents. They got their shot to shun, they jumped all over it.”
“Right,” Hutch said.
“The other thing he knew was that Enstrom had been back. Briefly. About five, six years ago. And he came back to pick up his long-time secret, by then not-so-secret girlfriend. A woman named Taylor Martin.”
Cade’s head turned Harry’s way, so Hutch’s did too, but his attention caught on Harry’s computer screen that now had two pictures side by side on it.
Left, definitely DMV.
Right, a grainy picture Hutch took, zoomed in and cropped, of the woman who he’d seen necking with Enstrom on the compound.
Even grainy, it was impossible to miss they were the same woman.
“Now there’s this,” Harry said as he clicked out of that, and another two photos came up.
Left, security ID from a hospital of maybe a doctor or nurse.