Page 33 of Smokescreen

“Of course.”

She watched him scurry away. She hoped she’d spoken loud enough that Trick had heard her.

She’d bought as much time as she thought she could manage.

She watched Dippy disappear into the bunkhouse. Then she stepped back into the stables to finish with the horses.

When she returned, she was surprised to see a figure standing there.

Trick.

“You got out in time . . .” she murmured as she joined him by the horses.

“Yes, thanks for the heads-up. I heard you and got out of there fast.”

“Did you find anything unusual?”

Trick stepped closer. “I did find one thing. I looked under his mattress, and there was a burner phone there.”

“A burner phone? People usually only have those if they’re hiding something.”

“Exactly.”

“So what is Dippy hiding?” Olive asked.

“That’s what we need to figure out.”

CHAPTER 14

Reid had returned to the ranch homestead about an hour after Dippy came back. He and Olive both needed to get ready to go into town to meet Reid’s attorney.

Olive had taken a quick shower and changed clothes. She was curious to hear the lawyer’s take on this supposed will that Lucy had materialized.

Not long after, Olive had climbed into Reid’s King Ranch truck, and they took off toward town.

“So now that I have a moment alone with you and I can assume no one’s listening . . .” He paused and glanced across his dash. “Should I assume that?”

“I quickly checked the truck over for listening devices when I was waiting for you to come out,” Olive said. “I didn’t find any.”

He let out a breath. “Smart thinking. Any more updates on your end?”

She told him that Trick had found a burner phone under Dippy’s mattress.

Reid grunted. “I was a little suspicious of that man. I’ll keep that in the back of my mind.”

“If you were suspicious of him, why did you hire him, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Reid shrugged as he stared at the road ahead. “It’s hard to find good help out here. A lot of the people I end up hiring are vagabonds, men coming out of bad situations.”

“Sounds risky.”

“Maybe. But I have a lot of men working for me who keep everyone in line. Besides, Dippy isn’t someone I plan to let into my inner circle, so we should be okay.”

More miles rolled past, each one offering an eyeful. Mountains. Forest. Pastures. Streams.

As they passed the area of the highway where the cattle could have wandered onto, Olive frowned. Whoever had cut that fence had been irresponsible, to say the least.

“Someone wanted to create a headache for you,” she murmured.