She nodded. She’d thought of that herself.
“The good news is there’s at least a hundred k in the sack.”
For the first time all day, the urge to smile tugged at her cheeks. “That is good news.” Very good news.
“Unfortunately, even though it’s on your property, it could be evidence of a crime.”
“So we don’t get our money back?” Rachel asked.
The sheriff shook his head. “Eventually, yes, but for now, I have to impound it.”
Two steps forward and one back. They’d made it this far with limited funds; a little while longer wasn’t going to kill her. “What else are you thinking?”
The two men glanced back and forth at each other. Preston was the first to speak. “Ray or his men, someone, or some people, are lurking around.”
“They know about the cameras too.” Preston twirled the hat in his hand.
“You might want to try installing cameras that aren’t obviously cameras,” the sheriff suggested.
“Oh, yes.” A plate in her hand, Rachel spun around to face everyone. “Like a nanny cam. No one realizes the teddy bear has a camera.”
“Don’t you think a Teddy bear would be a little out of place in a line shack?” Alice faced her daughter.
“She’s on the right track.” Preston raked his fingers through his hair and placed his hat on a nearby hook. “We should have thought to be more discreet.”
Several handshakes, and back slaps, and promises were made to let them know as soon as the police knew anything as the sheriff left the house.
“I guess; now we wait.” Preston sighed.
“And Clint?” Alice asked.
“He’s overseeing the last of the crime scene people. Then he said he was going to gather the cattle so he could fix the fence. I’d go help, but I have to get back to the office.”
Alice nodded. “Good. We need to get the roaming cows off Doc’s property.” Stripping off her rubber gloves, she tossed them on the counter and decided with the cupboards cleaned out and Rachel putting everything away, working outside would be just the energy release she needed. “I’m going to go see about the fence.”
Rachel’s gaze dropped to her mother’s. “Dressed like that?”
Glancing down at herself, Alice frowned. “Like what?”
“Mom, you’re wearing your favorite housecleaning jeans.”
“Okay…” Even though her daughter was right and she’d owned these pants since before she was married, it wasn’t like they had holes in the knees or rips at the pocket. “The fence won’t care.”
Shaking her head, Rachel shrugged. “Well, if you don’t care that you look like you fell out of a Monkey Ward’s catalogue from a million years ago, I guess the fence won’t either.”
“Atta girl.” She smiled at her daughter. The kid had a point, in the wide-legged pants reminiscent of bell-bottoms from her mother’s era, she did indeed look a bit out of place. But thenagain, what did the fence care was spot on. “You finish up here and I’m going to get started.”
“You shouldn’t be working out there alone,” Preston mentioned casually. Too casually. They all knew he was thinking of when she got tossed onto the fence by the spooked horse and had to wait for Brady to bring help.
“I’ll have Brady with me, and Clint won’t need long to round up a handful of cattle.”
Preston and Rachel flashed a look at each other. Preston sighed and Rachel barely shrugged.
“I’ll see you all for dinner.” And with those few words, she was out the door, on her way to the old truck. With a quick nod, she’d tossed the large auger into the bed, then added several bags of cement, as well as new posts. Brady hopped into the front seat and they were off.
It didn’t take long to reach the portion of downed fencing. Pulling up by the first fallen post, she pulled out the auger. It had been years, maybe decades since she’d handled one of these suckers, but she still remembered how it was done. Her plan was simple: dig all the holes now, and by the time Clint was finished rounding up the cattle, he could help set the posts. Working outside, in the fresh air, straining muscles she’d pretty much forgotten she had, all of it was an outstanding distraction.
Standing at the first spot, she positioned herself close enough to be able to both control and push on the auger. Easily, she set the choke, turned on the ignition, and pulled the start cord. First try, the thing almost danced away from her. It really had been a while since she’d done this. And the men always made it look so easy. There was no way she was going to let this hunk of curled metal get the best of her. Inching closer, she gripped the handles tightly and tried again. Only this time, she’d made one more miscalculation; always tuck wide-leg pants into her boots. Within seconds, the heavy equipment had started spitting dirtevery which way before biting at her pant leg and threatening to knock her off balance.
