She opened the door and called Bandit to enter the house with her. She glanced back as the men strode down the steps. Six men. Each a force to be reckoned with. Now that she had these strong professionals on her side, she would soon know who was trying to hurt her. Wouldn’t she?
17
Ryan led the guys across the tall grass and through a shortcut in the woods that separated the two properties. On the far side of the thick stand of evergreens, he paused until everyone cleared the trees.
He looked at the guys. “We’ll do a grid search. I’ll be moving slow. Don’t want to miss a thing. Form a line to my right. Don’t get in a hurry and overlook something.”
Russ stepped into place next to Ryan, Reid on the other side of Russ.
Russ looked at Ryan. “Guess you’re taking charge.”
“I’m just protecting you, bro.” Ryan resisted grinning. “Without that warrant you mentioned, you shouldn’t be doing this.”
“None of us should,” Reid said. “We’ll be trespassing.”
“Hey, we’re just a group of guys out for some fun, and we accidentally crossed the property line.” Ryan grinned at his brothers.
They both shook their heads.
Ryan looked down the line of men. “Let’s move.”
They started forward, each using a stick picked up on the walk through the wooded area to sweep it through the long grass. They picked their way across the empty lot and turned back four times. A few scrub trees had to be skirted, but mostly they had direct paths from one side of the lot to the other through knee-high grass and weeds.
“Stop.” Ryan held up a hand and squatted. “The grass has been fractured here. Trail starts at the driveway and looks like it goes all the way to the woods.”
Russ got down next to Ryan and spread the grass apart to reveal muddy soil. “Boot print. Fresh.”
“Large,” Reid said from above. “Probably male.”
Ryan nodded as his excitement built. “And the grass hasn’t recovered, so it has to be from today.”
Russ stood. “Could be our shooter. Let’s keep moving. See what we find ahead.”
Ryan got up and looked at the team. “Be even more diligent in your search.”
They proceeded, the pace even slower. They neared the tree line and a reflective object glinted in the sun.
Ryan pointed at it. “There. Looks like a bullet casing. Distance to the lodge door from here is right for our shooter.”
Russ held up his hand. “No one go any closer.”
“I’ll take a better look.” Ryan retrieved his phone and aimed it ahead, using his fingers to zoom in with his camera. “Itisa casing.”
“The shooter didn’t police his brass?” Russ’s incredulous stare mimicked Ryan’s surprise.
“That tells us something for sure,” Reid said. “Either someone disturbed the shooter and he didn’t have time to retrieve his brass, or we’re not looking at a professional hitman.”
“If he’d been disturbed and had to bail, we would likely see a different exit path,” Ryan said. “More frantic from running, but he exited on the same path he came in on, and it’s a pretty straight line.”
“Still,” Russ said. “Seems odd that he’s careful to take one path but leaves his brass.”
“Maybe he wasn’t being careful, but lazy,” Colin said. “Takes more work to plow down tall grass than to follow a path he’d already flattened.”
“Could be.” Russ stared at the brass. “That casing will be visible from Mia’s property. Gives me cause for a warrant. Our spur-of-the-moment search ends right now, and the official one begins.”
* * *
Ryan had insisted on accompanying Mia to Nico’s workshop, but she wanted to talk to Nico alone. So she left Bandit with Ryan outside the building and entered the tiny space that smelled like gas, oil, and pine, the same scent she’d always associated with Nico. She didn’t know how long he’d worked at Evergreen, but she couldn’t remember a time he hadn’t been fixing something or other that had broken on the property.
