“Too bad about the fire,” the sheriff said. “Prob’ly got the barn insured, right?”
“I’ve got a little insurance, enough to cover about eighty percent of the building and what was inside.”
“Lucky you didn’t lose any horses.”
“I’m grateful for that.”
Howler tipped his head toward the door. “Woman’s only been workin’ here a while. Any chance she set the fire? You know what they say about a woman scorned.”
A muscle in Josh’s cheek subtly tightened. The beard shadow was back. He only seemed to shave every few days. Tory wished it didn’t make him look even sexier.
“She’s my employee,” Josh said. “Other than that, I don’t have a relationship with the lady. As far as the barn goes, if it hadn’t been for Tory’s help, I wouldn’t have gotten all the horses out.”
The sheriff pondered that. “Any idea who mighta’ done it?”
“You might check out a kid named Randy Stevens. Worked for me a few days. Stole a five-gallon can of gas and I fired him for it. He wasn’t happy about it.”
“Randy Stevens? Jim Stevens’s boy? Good kid. I doubt he’d do anything like that.”
“Probably not,” Josh said. “I just thought I should mention it.”
“Good way to ruin a kid’s reputation, accusing him falsely of somethin’ like that.”
Josh’s jaw went tight. “I didn’t accuse him. I thought you’d want to know. If there isn’t anything else, I need to get back to work.”
It was beginning to get dark, a wall of clouds rolling over the flat green lands in the distance. Fading sunlight glinted on the surface of a distant pond.
The sheriff sauntered away, walked out from under the covered porch. “I’ll let you know what we come up with,” Howler said. “You might want to keep an eye out, though. Sounds like you could have an enemy somewheres about.”
Josh made no reply, just stood watching as the sheriff walked to his white, blue-trimmed, extended cab patrol pickup, hefted himself inside, started the engine, and drove away.
Tory opened the door and walked out on the porch.
“You okay?” Josh asked.
“You showed up at just the right time. I’d rather the sheriff didn’t start digging around, stirring things up.”
“Howler’s a real dumbass. The chance of him finding the arsonist is none to minus zero.”
She chuckled. “You think it might have been this kid, Randy?”
“I don’t know. Wheeler called while I was in town. The accelerant was gasoline. Randy Stevens stole a five-gallon can of gas and I fired him for it. Maybe he figured using it to burn down the barn was payback. Howler’s not going to check it out, which leaves it to me. Randy may be young, but if he committed arson, he’s dangerous. He needs to be in jail.”
“I don’t want to wish him bad luck, but I hope they catch whoever’s responsible.”
“Yeah. Speaking of which, I talked to Cole and Noah, brought them up to speed. You got a photo of your ex?”
“I had pictures of him on my cell phone. I threw it away when I left Phoenix. I couldn’t stand to look at him. Plus I didn’t want him to be able to track me. Of course he managed to find me anyway. Since then, I’ve been using a disposable.”
“Smart girl.”
“No photos, but we could use your computer, search the Internet for a picture. I just . . . I don’t want to leave any traces he might be able to follow.”
“We’ll make sure that doesn’t happen. In the meantime, how about a general description? What’s he look like? Short? Tall? Fat? Thin? Any tattoos, identifying marks?”
“Damon’s good-looking. About six-one, thick black hair, olive complexion, nice build. Not like you, but nice.”
Josh’s mouth edged up.
