Font Size:
Checked the front door.
Locked.
Back door.
Locked.
Kitchen window.
Locked.
Then I stepped outside.
Cold air hit my face.
The ranch stretched around me.
Dark.
Still.
Watching.
I moved toward the barn first.
Then the side pasture.
Then the north fence.
My flashlight swept over every board.
Every gate.
Every patch of dirt.
Nothing.
I was almost back at the house when I saw it.
A broken piece of fence wire.
Bent low near the back corner.
Not enough for someone todrive through.
Just enough for a man to slip beneath.
My pulse slowed.
The dangerous kind of slow.
I crouched beside it.
Shined the light toward the dirt.
Boot prints.
Fresh.
