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“Yes,” Cameron said, and a short while later, Jack Barton arrived in his golf cart.
“Thanks for coming,” Rusty said as Barton stopped where they were sitting.
“Of course,” Jack said. “This is horrible all the way around. I can’t get past knowing someone committed a murder here last night and I never heard a thing.”
“I understand you witnessed an argument between Vanzant and a young woman yesterday. Could you tell me about what you saw and heard?”
“Her name is Leslie. That’s all I know. But I saw her come running out of the trailer with Kevin right behind her. She looked anxious and he appeared upset. I heard him call out for her to stop, but she didn’t. And then they both saw me. She kept running toward her car, but my arrival stopped Kevin’s pursuit. She drove away, and he seemed embarrassed and angry. I apologized for interrupting, then told him what I’d come to say,” Barton said.
“And what was that?” Rusty asked.
“That I was closing the campsite at the end of the month and wouldn’t reopen until spring.”
Rusty frowned. “So, you were basically giving him notice to move on?”
Jack nodded. “He didn’t seem bothered by it. He said he was through with his research and planning to leave in a couple of days anyway. Then he went back inside the trailer.”
“Did you think he was still angry?” Cameron asked.
“Yes, but I didn’t take it as being angry with me. I assumed it had to do with what I’d interrupted. So I left,” Jack said.
“Did you see any cars enter the area after dark?” Rusty asked.
Jack paused, thinking back. “Uh, I saw a couple. One was the pizza delivery car, and another car came twice, but it’s the girl who delivers for Door Dash. My tiny-cabin renters often order late at night. I didn’t see any cars come in after that.”
“Okay, thanks. But if you think of anything else, please call me,” Rusty said, and gave him one of her cards.
Jack made a U-turn and started back up the road.
As he did, Cameron’s eyes suddenly narrowed. “Except for the sound of the tires on gravel, you’d never hear him come and go.”
“Now there’s a random thought. You’re pretty good at this detective business,” Rusty said, and sent Special Agent Howard a text.
I need a full background check on Jack Barton that goes beyond the norm. Everything you can find.
She got a thumbs-up emoji back to let her know the message was received, and then sighed.
“Are you hurting or just tired?” Cameron asked.
“I’m fine. I would turn a cartwheel for anything with caffeine in it, but I’ll settle for water,” she said, and headed for the water hydrant.
Water gushed as she turned it on. Sidestepping the splash, she adjusted the flow, pulled her hair to one side, and then leaned over and drank from what was coming out of the tap.
Ghost walked up beside her and nosed the water pooling in the shallow concrete basin beneath.
“Good stuff?” Rusty asked, and shut off the water so he could drink without it running on his head.
As soon as he backed off, he licked her fingers, then walked beside her back to the bench. Rusty was smiling as she sat down beside Cameron again.
“How did you teach Ghost to be so polite?” she asked.
Cameron scratched Ghost between his ears. “We’ve spent a lot of time together.”
Rusty was getting a firsthand look at the bond between them. “How did you get permission to bring a bomb-sniffing dog back with you?”
“Technically, he wasn’t an American-trained bomb sniffer. We didn’t bring him over. He was a starving pup who wandered into camp. I fed him, and that was that. When we’d go out on sorties, he’d disappear, and when we came back, he always found me. We found out by accident how good he was at tracking, and then it became a game with our squad. I’d hide, and they’d turn him loose and make bets on how fast it took for him to find me.”
Rusty smiled. “What was his best time?”
