COLD OPEN by PATRICIA McLINN

Author:PATRICIA McLINN
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: traditional western mystery series, female sleuth, mystery romance humor series, cozy mystery dog, western murder mystery series, TV journalist mystery series, mystery novels best sellers
ISBN: 9781944126254
Publisher: PATRICIA McLINN
Published: 2020-07-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Six

Shelton’s head jerk prompted another swap between him and Alvaro.

“I need to leave,” Folly called out after him.

He didn’t turn around. “No.” Looking at us, he said, “Over there.”

He passed us and we followed to where the ground rose beside the path to the house, out of Folly’s hearing. He turned, leaving our backs to her.

“What have you got to say for yourselves?”

He’d questioned Folly in our earshot for one reason and it wasn’t to hear a repeat of what we’d already said.

“Three things. Diana, want to go first?”

“She has a cousin in the Sherman Police Department. Randy Hollister.”

“It’s possible she slipped past him, using the same ranch road the flash of red vehicle did the morning of the murder, but in reverse,” I said. “Interesting if she knows about that road. I wonder if she has access to a red vehicle. If Hollister called you about seeing us—” The timing fit. “—and he knew Folly was here… Well, he’d have known what he was letting himself in for. Did you get any sense he was worried?”

“I’m asking the questions. What else?”

“Second, she told you she’d never been here before. She told me that she’d smelled dogs in the house.”

“What dogs?”

“None that I know of. So she was either lying to you or lying to me.”

His grunt said he didn’t much care if she lied to me.

“Also, when I asked her directly if she’d ever seen this place, she sidestepped, telling me she’d been looking at the listing. Why would she be evasive about being here?”

I gave him a chance. He didn’t answer. I kept going.

“Third thing, she couldn’t have come the back way.”

“Why not?”

“Because she was here before we were and we came up the back way.”

“Of course, you did.” He muttered that, picked up volume for, “She got here before you did. You can’t say which way she came.”

“We can say which way she didn’t come. Because we also came up the back way yesterday.”

“What’re you doing? Leading tours?”

I’d already figured he knew about yesterday’s trip. Since there hadn’t been a guard here yesterday and there was today.

“There was a herd—”

“Group,” Diana amended.

“—of pronghorn that crossed in front of us on the way here yesterday. Could see their tracks, clear as anything — sort of like teardrops face to face.” His face spasmed. I kept going. “A swatch of pronghorn tracks, with my SUV tracks over them. I remember seeing that in the rearview mirror. Pronghorn tracks.” I held out my right hand, palm down, pointing to the left. “My SUV tracks.” I put my left hand over my right, at right angles. “See?”

He grunted.

“But when we came a bit ago—” It couldn’t hurt to plant the seed that we hadn’t had time to go in the house, in case Hollister hadn’t seen us right away. “—the snow had covered all the tracks. Pristine snow. No tracks until Diana’s truck. Definitely not Folly’s big wheels. Go look if you don’t believe me, but we’ve got to leave. I have a flight to catch.

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