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Woodley pointed at his deputy. “Get photos in all the rooms. I’ll call in the crime scene team. We’ll dust for prints and get some blood samples. Probably some damn kids from up here, since everybody knew he was gone.”
Cameron turned and glared. “We don’t steal from each other up here.”
“Bullshit,” Woodley said. “Teenagers these days will take anything that’s not tied down.”
“And you’d be wrong,” Cameron said. “There’s a whole other group of people who know Leo Duroy was not in his home.”
“Like who?” Woodley asked.
“For starters, all the people who work at the hospital. Everyone from janitors to doctors, nurses, aides, the pharmacy techs and lab techs would all know the old man and it wouldn’t take much digging to find out he lives alone. Hell, he probably told them in passing. Check pawn shops in the area. Here’s the list of stolen property with descriptions. I’m getting out of your way now. If you need me, I’ll be outside.”
Woodley was irked with himself for popping off to Pope because he knew the man wasn’t someone he could bully or back down, and the fact that Pope had been hanging out with the feds made him nervous. There were things about this man he didn’t know.
“You can go on home. We’ve got this,” Woodley said.
Cameron stared at him, and knowing all he did about this man and his past, it was all he could do to keep his composure.
“I’ll be outside in the Jeep with my dog. And when you’re done, I’ll lock up,” he said, then walked out, leaving Woodley to his business.
***
Rusty received an email from Jay Howard with the trail cam video attached and the comment that they didn’t ever get a good enough view of the killer’s face to identify them. They wanted her and Cameron to take a look before considering it of no use. After two hours of reviewing the same grainy footage over and over until she’d given herself a headache, Rusty had nothing to add.
The video was all birds and wildlife, and Vanzant in and out until Leslie Morgan drove up and went inside. Then it showed Jack Barton arriving on the golf cart in the middle of Leslie’s hasty retreat, Kevin talking to Barton, then disappearing inside the trailer for hours afterward.
She fast-forwarded it after that until it began to get dark. At that point, she saw Vanzant come out of the trailer carrying a sack of what looked like garbage. He walked toward the end of the drive, dumped his trash, and headed back toward his trailer. She saw him walk all the way back to the trailer and open the door to go inside. He was partway up the steps when he suddenly turned to face the road. He was still silhouetted by the light inside the trailer, but she could see his mouth move as he spoke—like someone had arrived and called to him.
Even though she knew he was about to be shot, she still jumped when the bullet’s impact threw him backward into the trailer. All of a sudden, she saw the back of someone’s head come into view of the trail cam and what appeared to be a male figure advance toward the trailer. He was wearing a dark hoodie and carrying a rifle. He was average in height and weight and had an odd stride that tilted slightly to the side as he walked.
“Oh my God, there you are!” she muttered, and leaned forward, praying he would turn around. Instead, he propped the rifle against the trailer and stepped up, then over the body, and went inside.
She watched as Kevin’s body was dragged all the way in and out of sight, and then just before the man came out, he turned off all the lights inside the trailer and emerged in shadows. The missing laptop the man held clutched against his chest was the most visible thing about the footage because it was silver and reflected the light from the security light at the end of the drive. He picked up his rifle, but instead of walking back toward the camera, he turned sideways and walked toward the trees and out of range. It was a dead end, in more ways than one.
All she could do was hope Cameron would see something she didn’t.
***
It was almost noon by the time Cameron and Ghost left Leo Duroy’s to go home. He was fed up with Woodley and Woodley knew it, but they kept their distance from each other until the sheriff and his crew finally left the scene.
Leo’s only relatives lived on the other side of the mountain, and one of the neighbors who’d discovered the break-in had called them. They showed up as Cameron was getting ready to leave, horrified by what had happened. He gave them all of the info he had, a copy of the list of stolen items, and the name and number of the sheriff who’d investigated. It was all he could do. The rest was their responsibility.
The drive home was actually calming. Traffic on the road had worn the snow down to blacktop, leaving a clear one-lane set of tracks right down the middle. The snow-covered trees were picture-worthy, and the faint scent of woodsmoke from the chimneys of houses all over the mountain permeated the air enough that he could smell it inside the Jeep even with the windows up.
About three miles from home, a huge buck darted out of the trees and across the road in front of him and disappeared into the forest on the other side, but not before Ghost had spotted it and set up a continuous bark and howl until Cameron had to make him stop.
“Ghost! No. Lie down!” he said loudly.
Ghost gave Cameron a you’ve-got-to-be-kidding look but obeyed, leaving Cameron shaking his head.
“Yeah, you’re ready to take on a buck from a moving car, but you ran from a crippled bear, thank God. What am I going to do with you,” he muttered.
Ghost whined.
Cameron reached over and scratched him between the ears. “You’re not in trouble. And you’re right. He was beautiful, but not as amazing as you.”
Ghost laid his head on his forepaws and sighed.
They made the rest of the drive home in silence. When Cameron pulled up beneath the carport and parked, the urgency of seeing Rusty again kicked in.
