Page 65 of Fatal Deception
“Not those Young girls,” Duncan said with the ghost of a smile. Because even though Duncan had spent over a decade off in California being a professional baseball player, he’d grown up right here. Next door to the Youngs.
Which gave Copeland an idea. “What do you know about Tim Young?”
Duncan gave him a once-over, then shrugged. “Not much. Rosalie’s version of him is a mustache-twirling villain, and hewas a worthless SOB, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t have any insight into him that isn’t that.”
Copeland could press Audra on the details, but he kept…pulling back there. Maybe he needed to—
“My parents might,” Duncan said.
“Would they talk to me?”
“If I told them to.” Duncan squinted off into the distance, toward his parents’ place to the east. “But they might be more forthcoming with me.” He glanced at Copeland. “If you tell me what you want to know, I could go over there right now, probably get some answers.”
Copeland considered. He’d rather do the questioning himself, but… Well, it made sense. Duncan was an insider. His parents would trust him to use the information wisely without second-guessing if they should be handing it out. Copeland was still an outsider, so they’d be more…careful.
“I want to know their impressions of him. Anythingtheyknow about the second family. I think it’s pretty clear what kind of man he was, but I want to know…an outsider’s point of view. What, if anything, they might have known or suspected about his second family.”
Duncan nodded. “I can get that, if you think it’ll help.”
“Can’t hurt.” No, it couldn’t hurt. “Maybe ask if there’s anyone in town he was friendly with. Someone who might know more about that second family that I could question.”
Duncan nodded. “Sure. I can go right now.”
“Yeah. I’ll finish up out here. And listen…”
“If you’re going to tell me not to tell my wife about this, it’s a no-go. And if you think she won’t tell Audra…well, I think you know Rosalie better than that.”
“He’s a sore spot for Audra. She’s got enough of those.”
Duncan studied him with that same scrutiny he had since he’d arrived on the scene. “Some advice you didn’t ask for. Youcan’t protect them from their sore spots, but you can be there when they hurt.”
Copeland didn’t have the first clue what to say to that. He supposed it was fair advice all in all. But right now, he had more important things to worry about than if Audra’d…let him be around for any hurts.
“I’ll finish up here. You let me know what your parents say.”
Duncan nodded. He put away his tools, gave Copeland a little salute, then headed off toward the Kirk Ranch on foot.
Copeland watched him go for a few minutes, trying to figure out his next steps. Rosalie and Franny were with Audra, and he had no doubt Rosalie wasn’t letting her out of her sight. It gave him the chance to do a full perimeter check. Someone had to be coming in from somewhere to shoot the house, dig the holes, set fires, et cetera.
It wasn’t coming from the front road. And he’d wanted to poke around the back of the property, but without her. Now was his chance.
Audra wouldn’t appreciate him doing it alone, but he had his gun, and he was adetective. This was his job. He eyed the horse he’d been riding during his time here.
“Well, Bo, let’s see what we can do on our own.” He got the horse saddled and out of the stables, then mounted easily enough. “See? I’m a pro,” he muttered to himself before urging the horse into a trot.
He rode out to the west fence, then trotted along the property line. He scanned the area around him for entrance and exit points. He studied the ground for misplaced footprints or tire tracks. He rode through a warming afternoon and felt the strangest sense of peace being on the back of a horse, in this gorgeous landscape. Almost like he belonged.
Something to think about, and maybe worry over, later. He was coming up on the far back area of the ranch where he’dnever been before. The land kind of changed, became overgrown with lots of stumps forming some kind of line. Was it a property boundary? He’d expected a fence, but—
The sudden explosion of a gunshot had the horse rearing, and since Copeland was reaching for his own gun in response to the shot, he didn’t have a tight enough grip on the reins. He tumbled onto the ground with a hard, painful crash while the horse whinnied and galloped away.
Copeland swore, but he didn’t have time to be hurt when he knew that had been a gunshot. Maybe it hadn’t hit him, but it had been meant to he was pretty sure. He struggled to roll over to get his arm free to reach his gun. Pain shot down the arm, stars danced in his vision. Broken, no doubt.
He swore some more, then clamped his teeth together and got the gun in his left hand. He wouldn’t be able to aim worth a darn with his left hand, but maybe it would be enough of a scare tactic to…
“Drop it.”
The female voice was sharp. He heard footsteps approach, looked behind him at the overgrowth where a figure was emerging. Maybe he should have been surprised, but it just made too much sense.