"We've found a camp, but they torched everything before they left. Do you still want to have a look?
"Yes, thank you."
Dina poked her head through the gap between the front seats. "Uncle Estes. You forgot all about me and Bruno!"
All color drained from her uncle's face and he muttered something she was sure was either a curse or a swear word. She consigned the word to memory, so she could look it up later.
"You and Bruno stick with me, but don't get in the way."
Dina dragged Bruno out of the truck and together they formed up, not quite at the "heel" position, but very close to it. When Estes moved, they moved. They followed Estes up over the hill and down the other side. They followed him to the water's edge, where Chief Press Richards was standing.
Press took one look at Dina and Bruno and swore. Dina pretended she hadn't heard him as she added it to the growing collection of words to be looked up. She waved. "Hi, Mr. Richards."
"Hi, Dina." Press pulled Estes Frost to one side to talk. Every so often either he or her uncle turned to look at her. Finally, it seemed as if Press had come to a decision. "Dina, we can't spare anybody to take you home right now. Can you keep out of trouble until I have someone to spare?"
Mindful that she didn't really have a lot of choice, Dina nodded. "Will it be all right if I look around for milkweed plants?"
"Sure. Is that what you were out looking for today?" Press asked.
"Yes." She looked around the campsite, paying special attention to the still burning shed that someone had built in the middle of a patch of milkweed that would have been worth over a hundred dollars.
The house on Gray's Run looked quiet and peaceful as her Uncle Estes drove the police car up the drive a couple of hours later. As the vehicle rounded the final corner she could see the reception committee that had assembled. There had been little chance that the story wouldn't have broken before she could get home, so Chief Richards had arranged for the office to call home for her, to pass on that she and Bruno were unharmed. Dina touched her uncle on the shoulder. "There's no need to tell mom and dad that me and Bruno saw the men, is there?"
"Well. "
Dina could see her uncle was about to launch into a speech about how her parents had a right to know, so she preempted him. "And there's no need for me to tell Mom that me and Bruno almost got left behind."
Estes stared hard at Dina for a few seconds before a smile flashed across his face and he held out his hand. "It's a deal. So what do we tell your mom and dad?"
Dina put her small hand into his and shook it. "We don't lie, because lies are always found out."
Estes nodded. "So we tell them the truth?"
She nodded. "Just not all the truth."
"You're associating with the wrong people, Dina."
Dina switched her gaze between Estes' eyes and the hand holding hers and raised her brows.
He saw it and grinned. "Enough of that, let's get this over and done with."
Dina had been sent off so her mother could get the real story from Uncle Estes. She knew that because she'd hung around long enough to hear her mom ask exactly that question. She left them to it. Mom was going to freak out when she heard that Dina had discovered three dead bodies, but it wasn't as if Dina hadn't seen dead bodies before-the Croat raid of '32 had taken care of that. She just had to hope that her uncle didn't let slip that she and Bruno had actually seen the murderers when they discovered the police car. That would really freak her mom out. And probably result in all sorts of restrictions being placed on her wanderings.
That reminded her. Bruno had freaked out pretty badly himself when he'd caught sight of the murderers. Why? She wondered. She'd seen Bruno scared before, but never that scared. She probably couldn't just ask him. She'd have to work it into a conversation sometime, but not right now. Not while the memories were too fresh. She needed Bruno to calm down before she asked, because she couldn't risk him freaking out like that again. Mom would be sure to ask uncomfortable questions.
Marcus Acton walked up the drive to his home, his rifle, in a rifle scabbard, slung over his shoulder, a fishing rod in his left hand, and a string of fish he'd caught hanging from his right. His wife was waiting for him at the door. He held up the string of fish. "This evening we eat," he joked.
"That's better than last week." Jocelyn kissed him, carefully avoided the string of fish. "There's been a shooting out on Salt Lick Run. The radio's been full of it."
Marcus glanced vaguely in the direction of Salt Lick Run. "I didn't hear anything. What happened?"
Jocelyn shrugged. "Other than that there was a shooting, and that three people have been taken to hospital, the police haven't said much." She edged the fish away and hugged Marcus. "I'm glad you're safe."
"Me too," Marcus said as he dropped a kiss behind her ear. "I guess we'll get the full story on the evening news."
Later that evening Marcus sat down with his family to watch the news. He wasn't disappointed. The fires he'd lit had totally destroyed the cabin and the distilling shed. It'd also burned a few of the barrels stacked around the back of the shed. It was all good stuff. With that much damage the chances of the police finding anything to connect him to the camp were negligible. He was sorry to lose the site, but with the girl from Treasury learning enough to sniff around they would have had to shut down the operation sooner or later anyway.
It came as a shock that one of the cops had survived, and the news that the bodies had been found by some snoopy kid didn't go down well.
"Dina Frost deserves a medal," Jocelyn said.
"But it was Bruno who carried the policeman out," ten-year-old Bailey Acton said.
"Who's Bruno?" Marcus asked.
"He's a guy that works for Dina's mother's aerial photography business. He goes around with Dina a lot."
"How old is this young man?" Jocelyn asked.
Bailey shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe mid-twenties."
"Celeste Frost lets her daughter hang around with a man in his mid-twenties? I don't believe it."
"The retard's no risk, mom. He'd never hurt his precious Dina. The guy practically worships her."
"We do not call people 'retards' in this household, young man."
"But he's real stupid, Mom. I heard that he'd been left to chop up some firewood, and when he didn't turn up for dinner they found him still chopping wood, even as it grew dark."
"We don't go around calling people stupid either, Bailey."
"No, Mom."
Marcus let the family squabble pass over his head as he stared at the television screen. Two people had found those bodies even though he'd been sure nobody would discover them for months, if not years. How did they find them? And so quickly? Dina and her friend would have had to be close by when they dumped the bodies. That thought raised the possibility that they'd been seen. He worried about that for a while. Officer Heilmann had seen them before he was shot, but that had been from over a hundred yards away. The girl had had an inexpensive down-time telescope, but Marcus didn't think they'd seen them before he and Wilhelm shot them. It was just such a damned shame Wilhelm's shot hadn't killed the guy, then he wouldn't have any worries.
He tuned back to the TV when the Grantville police chief appeared. He snorted in disbelief when Press Richards claimed that they were pursuing several lines of inquiry and that arrests, although not imminent, were expected soon. That was all so unlikely.
"What's so funny?" Jocelyn asked.