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“How long have you been at this residence?”
“May twenty-ninth. Martha Benson gave me a four-month lease on the place. I’m on medical leave for three, but I wanted a little leeway, just in case. I hope to be back to work soon as I can.”
The deputy peered at him over his half glasses. “Where do you work?”
“Allied Computer Systems in Dallas.” The company belonged to an old friend, and he’d used it as a cover several times before. Unless a new employee answered the phone, his cover would hold.
The deputy gave him a keen look of appraisal. “Do you remember me, son?”
Zach gave him an easy smile. “I’ve been trying to place you, but I’ve come up dry.”
The deputy didn’t smile back. “You and me had a run-in a time or two. I didn’t ever expect to see you in these parts again.”
Studying him, Zach mentally subtracted fifteen years and forty pounds, and added a full head of hair.
On his last night in Fossil Hill iit had been dark as pitch on that country road. Everything had happened too fast, and with his adrenaline rush of fear, most of that night was a blur. Was this the belligerant deputy who had threatened him?
“I haven’t been here for years,” Zach said slowly. “I’m sure not looking for trouble.”
“Right.” The deputy’s doubtful gaze shifted briefly to the house, where the geese still squawked and flapped their wings whenever anyone drew too close to the backyard fence. “See or hear anything suspicious this evening? The sound of a car?”
“Not at all. I’m sure those geese would have let me know.”
“Any idea how this blaze started?”
“Looks like arson to me. The barn’s electricity was turned off, and there sure wasn’t any lightning.”
Rocking back on his heels, the deputy frowned. “Some folks come to an isolated area, figure it’s a safe place to do a little business outside of the law. Sometimes,” he added, “we bring in the drug dog from over in Blackburn just to check things out.”
Did the guy think he’d been cooking meth? The irony nearly made Zach laugh. “Be my guest. Search the barn and bring out the dogs. If someone was doing anything illegal out there, I’d be the first who’d want to know.”
“So you were here all night and saw nothing?”
The venom in the man’s voice stopped Zach short. He had an idea of who started the blaze, but had no real name, no physical description. A moment ago, he’d been on the verge of quietly revealing information about the e-mail threats and asking for help from the local authorities. Now he knew that such a revelation would only cast greater suspicion upon himself.
And unless he dared unleash a cascade of inquiries looking into his own past—which might bring agents into the area and end his chance of apprehending El Cazador—he wasn’t yet ready to discuss being part of the DEA.
The deputy straightened, hitched up his gun belt. “Got nothing to say?”
Zach stared back at him, knowing he couldn’t admit to spending the night at the pretty vet’s home, even though it had been entirely innocent. Small-town gossip being what it was, both her reputation and her practice might suffer. “Guess I’m a heavy sleeper—I didn’t hear a thing.”
“He was with us at the ranch,” Dana called out. She sauntered up and threaded an arm through Zach’s. To an onlooker she might have appeared fully at ease, unless one noticed the tense set of her jaw. “He went with me on a late farm call, and when we got back his...Katie...was sound asleep. Zach stayed on my sofa.”
The deputy gave her a dismissive glance. “You don’t live far away.”
Dana snorted. “You think he somehow slipped over here, set this barn on fire and went back to my place? Gabe would have barked like crazy at anyone sneaking through our yard at night. Easy answers aren’t always the right ones, Robinson.”
“I’m not looking for easy. I’m looking for facts. And this guy and I go way back.”
“The kids and I can account for every minute with him since yesterday evening. Maybe you need to look a little further—like those troublemakers over in Gresham or Culver. Didn’t they burn the Grayson’s calf shed just south of here?”
Ignoring her, the deputy met Zach’s eye. “Don’t worry. I’ll find out how this happened, and I’ll make sure the right person is charged.”
* * * *
DAWN SHADED THE ROLLING hills to the softest hues of rose and violet as the fire trucks slowly headed down the lane to the highway. Dana stood on the porch of the little house with her hands on her hips.
“It’s good you’re moving out for a few days,” she called. “The smell of wet, charred hay is overwhelming.”
