Page 92 of This Time Around
Now, it was almost two o’clock in the morning and Ryan along with Beckett, another guy who graduated around the same year as me and was also a police officer, were strolling across my field toward the house, flashlights sweeping back and forth.
“You have four cows down, unmoving.”
“Shot?”My hand went to my chest.The sick feeling I had slithered down my arms.“Were they shot?”
“Hard to tell in the dark.Saw some blood.One looked pretty torn up so it could have been coyotes.”
“Or maybe the gunshots startled them and they got trampled,” I muttered.I needed to go check on the cattle, but no way would anyone let me out there now.“Have you talked to the Whitmans or Jeffersons to see if they heard anything?”
Beckett scribbled something in a notebook.“We’ll look into it, Rebecca.I’ll send a couple men to talk to your neighbors.We just came back here to call in some brighter lights to do a search.If it was something more than coyotes, we’ll figure it out.”
“Okay.”I nodded.They’d take care of it.They’d take care of me, and I trusted these guys.
A rumble of a truck headed up the road and all of us stood still while Jordan’s Yukon charged down my dirt drive.“Did you call him?”I asked Ryan.
“Nope.Didn’t even think.”
My phone buzzed in my pocket where I’d shoved it earlier, reminding me of all the texts and phone calls I hadn’t answered.
I’d texted him back that everything was fine when the first one came in, but apparently that wasn’t enough because he kept texting.Of course he’d call Jordan to come and check on me.
“You didn’t need to come,” I said as he hopped out of his truck.
“Cooper’s losing his mind.Said you heard gunshots when you were on the phone with him and hung up and aren’t calling back.Called me and sent me out here to check on you.What the hell happened?”As he asked, Jordan’s focus turned to Ryan.“And why didn’t you call me?”
“Because I’m working, dumbass.”Ryan slapped him on the shoulder and gestured toward Beckett.“Come on.We’ll head back out, see if we can find anything, but when the men get here with the bigger lights, send them out carefully Rebecca, got it?”
“Yeah.And thanks.”
“My job, ma’am.”He tipped his head and gestured like he was wearing a cowboy hat, flicking his fingers outward.
“I’m coming with,” Jordan said, but this time it was Beckett who stopped him.
“No.You’re not.Stay here with your sister and let us work, Jordan.If there’s been any foul play out there we can find we can’t exactly have more footprints.It’s going to be hard enough as it is.”
Jordan didn’t like it but arguing any more was pointless.
Another hour later and Jordan and I were in my kitchen drinking coffee that tasted like tar, it was so thick, when Ryan and Beckett returned.I pushed off the chair, Jordan already moving ahead of me and we met them outside my back door.
“We’ll need to come back in the morning,” Ryan said.He showed no sense of his usual good humor and my senses went on alert.
“What’d you find?”
Instead of answering me, he turned to Jordan.“Want you staying with her until we can come back during the day.”
“Of course.”Jordan crossed his arms over his chest.“What’d you find?”
“Shell casing,” Beckett said.He held up a clear bag and the brass color was hard to see in the dark, but even so, I leaned into Jordan.He caught me immediately.“Don’t know any more than that, but you have to promise us you won’t go out on the land until we can investigate further.Lights helped some but we need the daylight.”
“I won’t.”I shook my head.“But what about the cows you saw?”
“Shell was close to it, Rebecca.”Ryan’s tone had gone soft.The only time I’d ever heard him sound like that was the night he showed up after Jordan’s accident.“Other than that, it was still ripped open.We won’t know anything until we can run ballistics on the casing.But we’re not kidding, you stay off your land until we’re done out there.We’ll be back once the sun comes up.”His gaze swung to Jordan.“You staying with her?”
“Yup.”
“Okay then, like I said, get some rest you two.”
Like I could sleep.I’d drank enough coffee to keep me awake until Christmas, plus adrenaline was flooding my veins.Jordan stood next to me while the men slid into their vehicles.
