Page 48

When they arrived at the pond, the women had released the ducks for the day. The one that had to be Quackerjack stood on a rock with one foot sticking out like she was doing ballet.

Fox was giving his morning hug to Thea. As they approached, the dog stopped to get Jolie to pat him, then he headed to Knox for his hug.

Ford had never seen a dog hug like a human before, and it made him smile every time Fox did it for his two favorite people. When it was his turn for a greeting, Ford rubbed the dog all over. “Good morning, buddy. We’re going to have a friend for you soon. Are you going to like that?”

Fox gave him a happy smile as he ruffled his head. The others headed to the canoe, but Ford headed around the wildflower buffer to the back of the pond.

When he could see past the bushes and rocks, he swore. “Hang on. Leave the canoe there.”

He sensed Annie go instantly on alert and the surprise of the women.

When they approached, Jolie gasped. “It wasn’t like this the last time we were here. Someone was here. Someone drove right up to the pond.”

She was right. There were tracks, probably from an ATV. The tracks led right up to the edge of the pond, where Jolie was planning to improve the slope for small birds and animals.

He pulled out his phone. “I want to take pictures of everything for evidence before we check things out.”

“Evidence?”

He rubbed his hand down Jolie’s arm. “In case. We don’t know who was trespassing, or why. Annie and I are trained to expect the worst. I hope we’re wrong, but let’s treat this like a crime scene for now.”

Jolie’s eyes moved around the area. “You think something bad is going on? You think it’s connected to Cyril?”

Knox shrugged. “We don’t know enough yet. I hope it’s nothing other than someone exploring the woods on their ATV. But I’d rather be cautious. The timing is weird, and that’s always suspicious.”

With Knox’s gut feeling echoing his own, Ford knew the timing was extremely suspicious. Other than the asshole who’d targeted Thea a few weeks before, nothing weird had happened on the farm. Not in the year Thea had lived here with Jay. She’d never seen anyone this far back on the property.

But right after Jolie found Cyril in the pond, someone drove their ATV right up to it. His instincts told him no one was hiding in the woods watching them now. They also told him the tire tracks weren’t nearly as innocent as he wished.

Cyril was trouble.

Jolie wasn’t sure what to think. She trusted Ford’s judgement as much as she trusted her brother’s. Both men thought something suspicious was happening. In fact, the way they acted, both men thought it was past suspicious and edging into dangerous.

Which had chills running over her body.

Someone had definitely been at the pond after she and Ford had secured the ducks for the night. She turned to check the birds again, but they appeared unconcerned and normal. At least the person hadn’t bothered them. She walked to the Quack Mobile. The bright yellow ducks on the blue paint always made her smile, but not this morning. Thankfully, the coop wasn’t damaged.

She was glad they’d already seen Fox, too. He was fine. Hopefully, he’d stayed far away if the person had been hoping to cause damage.

Nothing else appeared to be out of place, at least not that she could tell. Not that there was a lot of manmade stuff in view. But the land didn’t show any signs of disruption.

Had someone gone into the pond? Had they taken Cyril? The only way they would know about it would be if they’d tossed it there. And then the question was, why? Why toss away a cylinder and then retrieve it?

The men insisted she and Thea stay near the pond and the ATV while they moved into the forest. The army had trained them to do searches. She trusted them both implicitly, but she didn’t like them being out of her sight. She didn’t want them in danger.

When it was just the two of them, Thea frowned at the woods. “What do you think is going on?”

Jolie shrugged. “If it had been just me this morning, and I’d seen the tracks, I’d have been a little annoyed, but nothing more. I would have assumed someone was having fun exploring the woods and had driven up to the pond to check it out.”

“But?”

She grimaced. “But I trust their instincts. They both feel like something is off. I want it to be a kid having fun, but they don’t believe that’s the case.”

Thea nodded, and her eyes studied the woods as well. “Agreed. Without the way they reacted, I wouldn’t have thought much about seeing tracks here. I would have wondered who it was and what they were doing on the farm, but I wouldn’t have been worried.”

Jolie hoped the men were overreacting, but she doubted either of them did that much, if at all. Her brother studied a problem from all directions before he decided on the best solution. From everything she knew about Ford, he was the same.

Which might mean they were simply being cautious. Gathering data before coming to a conclusion.