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“Agent Caldwell, we’re calling to let you know all of your work on Emily Payne paid off. She was doing exactly what you guessed. We have security footage. We have more credit card usage to back it up. She and Kevin Vanzant were in drug rehab together. When she found out he’d been murdered, she unloaded. I’ll send you details, but we wanted you to know.”
“That’s wonderful, sir. But I have more info and I’m handing it over now. Make what you will of it.”
Howard hesitated. “Yes… Okay. What’s up?”
Then she repeated what she’d just told Cameron. “Lindy Sheets was Danny Biggers’s contact on the kidnapping of Lili Glass. And if you remember, Woodley dragged his feet big-time before starting a search. I’m not saying he’s connected…but she is his ex-wife.”
“Oh my God. That’s huge. Okay. We’ll take that from here and do the diligence needed to find the link. Good job!”
“Thank you, sir. And good job on getting Emily Payne in custody.”
She hung up and dropped her phone back in her pocket, then went outside, walked up behind Cameron, and wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her face against his back. She could feel the tension in his muscles and wished she could make this easier for him.
“Do you know how much I love you?” she asked.
He went still, then turned in her arms and cupped her face.
“As much as I love you?” he whispered.
Rusty smiled. “Probably.”
“Ah…God,” he muttered, and kissed her forehead, then the tip of her nose, then settled his mouth on her lips and let go of everything but the feel of her in his arms.
It was the sound of something running that made them stop and turn around. Ghost was coming out of the woods like his tail was on fire, and Cameron’s first instinct said danger.
“Get in the house,” he said. He stepped inside the door and pulled a rifle from a rack on the wall and then ran back out onto the porch. “Ghost! Inside!” he yelled, but it was an unneeded warning. Ghost was already on the way and in midleap over the steps when a black bear came lumbering out of the woods.
“Oh my God!” Rusty cried. She grabbed Ghost by the collar and held on as Cameron fired a shot up in the air.
Ghost immediately turned toward Cameron. His instinct to protect was stronger than his initial fear, but Cameron slammed the door shut between them and fired again.
The second shot stopped the bear’s full-on attack. The animal paused, rocking back and forth on its feet, its big head hanging toward the ground and swinging from side to side. And that’s when Cameron noticed the broken shaft of an arrow in the bear’s shoulder and the fur on that leg matted with blood.
“Oh hell, it’s wounded,” Cameron muttered. His shoulders slumped as he walked to the edge of the porch and raised the rifle. As he did, the bear turned sideways, as if about to retreat. Cameron couldn’t let it leave suffering like this, saw his chance for a double-lung shot, and squeezed the trigger.
The bear dropped, and then Cameron walked off the porch and out to where the animal was lying and put a second shot in it.
It was done.
Rusty was watching, wide-eyed and sick at what just happened, and Ghost was growling.
Cameron eyed the broken shaft, then pulled up the number for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife and made a call.
“Department of Fish and Wildlife. David Andrews speaking.”
“David, this is Cameron Pope. I just had to put down a wounded bear that was after my dog. It’s a really big one. Someone shot it with an arrow and let it get away. It looked like it was pretty bad off.”
“If you’ll give me directions to your property, we’ll send someone out to recover the carcass.”
Cameron gave him directions from Jubilee.
“Okay, got it,” Andrews said. “We should be there within the next couple of hours.”
“Thanks,” Cameron said, then turned and walked back toward the house. He saw Rusty’s face at the window and Ghost standing right beside her and sighed.
As soon as he got inside, he went straight to Ghost and began running his hand all over the dog to make sure he hadn’t been attacked.
“How did you get in trouble so fast, buddy?”
