“I’m coming with you,” I said, pulling on my jeans, which I planned to pair with a heavy sweater and waterproof slicker.
The drive out to the old highway was a slow one. Rain poured from the sky, making visibility almost impossible despite the fact that the wipers were working overtime. At least the air had stilled completely, which meant the rain fell directly toward the ground in sheets rather than blowing around as it did at times.
Cass lived on the far side of the lake, so before we could even access the highway, we had to make our way around the narrow lake road. The low spots along the route had already flooded, which most likely meant that by the time we returned, the road would be nearly impassable. I found myself wishing we hadn’t left Milo and Alastair at the house. It would be awful if we couldn’t get back to them. Cass drove a heavy-duty truck with a lift kit, so it would take a lot of flooding to make passage impossible.
When we arrived at the crime scene, we not only found Trent but Cass’s other deputy, Rafe, as well. Both men had on yellow rain slickers, but given the amount of precipitation dumping from the sky, I doubt either had a dry piece of clothing.
“Wait here,” Cass said after he parked the truck on the side of the road. “I’ll check out the situation. There’s no use both of us getting wet.”
I wanted to argue that I was coming with him but didn’t. I’d invited myself along on this adventure, so the least I could do was stay out of the way.
As Cass slipped out of the truck into the rain, an ambulance showed up. Based on what Trent had told Cass, Harrison had been dead for at least twenty-four hours, so I wasn’t sure an ambulance was warranted. Still, they did need to transport the body to the morgue, and perhaps the four-wheel-drive ambulance owned by the county was the best way of accomplishing that given the storm and the flooding that had already occurred.
Sitting in the truck waiting was frustrating, especially given the fact that with the pouring rain, I couldn’t see what was going on beyond the tree line. After at least thirty minutes, Cass returned. The poor guy was soaked to the skin.
“Any idea what happened?” I asked.
Cass turned the engine on, and then he flipped the heater on. “No. Not really. He’s been shot in the back. It looks like he might have been running, and there might have been a trail of blood at one point, but the rain has washed the blood away. There is a trail of broken branches, however, that makes it appear he was traveling through the forest from the north. At this point, I can only assume that someone was chasing him and shot him in the back. He continued forward for a while before falling to the ground and dying.”
“I don’t see a car. How did he get out here?” I asked.
“I assume the car is parked elsewhere in the area. It’s likely the killer moved the car, but if he or she didn’t move it, and we can find it, we might be able to figure out who killed the guy.”
I looked around the area. Other than a handful of isolated farms and ranches, there wasn’t much out here. “You said that Bill’s car was found in the area.”
Cass nodded. “Just around the bend.”
“Do you think a single killer is responsible for both deaths?” I asked.
He wiped his face with the arm of his shirt. “Before Robert’s death, I really had decided that Bill’s death was just a terrible accident, but now I’m not so sure. Bill and Robert had been friends. They both grew up here in Foxtail Lake. They had dinner together a week ago last Thursday, and based on a preliminary investigation, it appears that Bill died later that same night, while Robert died exactly one week later.”
“Which would explain why he never showed up for the filming yesterday,” I said. “It sounds like he was already dead.”
“It does look that way.”
If both Bill and Robert had been killed, the most logical suspect was Jennifer. She knew both men and had dined with both of them Thursday evening a week ago. Maybe she’d killed Bill after he refused to sign the divorce papers, and then Robert found out and threatened to turn her in, so she killed him too. Although that didn’t explain what either man had been doing all the way out here.
“So, what happens next?” I asked.
“The body is being taken to the morgue. Given the fact that it’s Saturday, it seems unlikely I’ll have the coroner’s report until Monday. Rafe and Trent are going to backtrack to see if they can figure out exactly where Robert’s trek through the woods started. I’m going to take you home and then come back and talk to a few of the locals in the area.”
“I don’t want to go home. I’ll come with you.”
Cass hesitated.
“I might be able to help. There might be some folks who will talk to me who won’t talk to you.”
He seemed hesitant but eventually agreed. He pulled up a map of the area on his phone and identified the two properties it was most likely that Robert had been running from when he was shot. Cass pulled onto the highway and then started the long trip around the perimeter of the Farthington Farm. The farm was deserted, but not all that far from where Robert’s body was found as the crow flies, so Cass decided to start there and then fan out in every direction from there.
When the Farthington family had lived in the area, they’d owned a large piece of land. It was shaped like a huge circle with smaller properties tucked in around it. Sam Farthington was the last heir to live on the property. After he died, the place was boarded up and had remained deserted since then. By the time we arrived at the rutted dirt drive that hadn’t seen any maintenance for years, the rain had slowed a bit. At least temporarily. The sky was still dark and heavy with clouds just waiting to burst, but for the moment, the deluge had slowed to a sprinkle.
The house was weathered and gray. The porch was partially rotted, and the windows, which had been boarded, seemed undisturbed. Cass told me to wait while he climbed out and tried the front door. It was locked. He went around the house to try the back door, but I figured it would be locked as well. I studied each of the boarded windows while I waited, but they really did look to be undisturbed. Deciding to check the barn, which sagged in the center and looked as if another strong wind might take it down completely, I slipped out of the truck and crossed the muddy yard.
The door to the barn was locked, but there was a missing board in the siding that provided a space large enough for me to slip inside. The interior of the barn was damp and musty. The roof had holes in several locations that allowed the moisture to leak through. I really hadn’t stopped to think about what might have happened after Sam died, and his family had boarded up the place. I guess I assumed they’d cleared things out, but in addition to a stack of hay, the barn was filled with both discarded farm equipment and boxes of items that looked like mementos Sam may have wanted to keep and stored here.
“Callie,” I heard Cass call.
“In the barn,” I called back.
I listened as Cass first tried the door and then slipped in through the same small opening I had.
“I thought you were going to wait in the truck.”
“I was going to,” I answered, “but then I got bored. Look at all this stuff.”
Cass crossed to the boxes and opened the lid on one on the top. “It looks like Sam used the barn for storage,” he said. “Unless one of the heirs boxed up this stuff and stuck it out here.”
I looked around the dark interior. “It doesn’t look like anyone has been here for a while.”
Cass nodded, poking around as he did so. “The house is locked up. I guess we should check out the closest property either to the west or east.”
“Do you know who owns those farms?” I wondered.