Page 179 of Ironwood Ranch Cowboys

At first I assumed whoever did it simply knew the ranch well enough to avoid obvious camera coverage.

Now I’m less convinced.

I pull up the barn feeds from the night Annie’s SD card reappeared. Main service lane. Parking area. South side entry.

Everything appears routine.

Employees crossing through frame. Truck lights, shifting shadows, time stamps in the lower corner.

I scrub backward slower.

Again.

Again.

Then stop.

My eyes narrow.

There.

2:13:41.

A ranch hand crosses near the supply entrance carrying feed bags.

I advance the footage.

2:16:42.

The same camera shows empty space.

I sit forward slowly. Something’s wrong with the lighting. The overhead flicker loops identically across two separate timestamp sequences.

My stomach goes cold.

No.

I rewind.

Watch again.

Same flicker.

Same shadow movement.

Same exact frame artifact repeating.

Three minutes.

Exactly three minutes long.

The footage isn’t continuous. It’s looped. Someone edited the security feed.

I just stare at the screen while anger settles into me with terrifying clarity.

Not trespassing or opportunistic access. Not some local idiot testing locks for fun. This was planned, technical, intentional.

Someone didn’t just move through Ironwood. They altered the evidence afterward, which means whoever’s doing this has access to far more than gates and paperwork.