“No. I don’t have friends,” Hope confessed. Gage rubbed her back.
“Love, don’t be ashamed. It’s your bastard father’s fault you never left that damn prison of a house in the first place.” Gage looked at the detectives and said, “I haven’t dealt with a Russian in years, and he was deported.”
There was no doubt in Gage’s mind that this had everything to do with Cummings. He looked around the room, trying to control the fury building. His wife’s sperm donor had played his cards well. Gage wondered if Cummings had actually been injured or had faked it. The more he thought about the spiderweb of IP addresses, he knew that it couldn’t be anyone else. No one would put in that much effort and not point it to Cummings directly.
The tech added, “Give us the name, and we’ll see if he’s behind it. It’s a long shot because I’m sure the email came from much closer, but we can still check it out.”
“Good, because I’m certain it’s Cummings. That lawyer of his gave me a funny feeling. I bet his ass is crooked.”
“We’ll do what we can.” They packed up their gear and left.
Gage and Hope went about their day like nothing had happened, although in the back of both their minds, trouble was a moment away.
Just as the techs pulled out onto the main road, Bill came running up the steps, panting while wiping the sweat off his brow. “The bull is missing. I checked the area, but I can’t find him. There’s another hole in the fence in a different spot. The camera’s there and recording, but the pole has been knocked over.”
“Shit. Have the men scanned the area?” Gage asked.
“Yes, but there’s no sign of the bull. And it’s worse.”
“What?”
“I found this by the camera.” He opened his hand to reveal a spent shell casing from a long-range rifle. Gage’s heart sank.
“So someone shot down my camera.” Gage paced the room, thinking of everything he learned.This all must lead to Cummings—but how?
“It would appear that way.”
“I need all of you out looking for the bull. Cummings is in the hospital, so I doubt he’ll come after us. I need to review that camera’s feed and see what time it happened.” Bill left right away to send out a search party.
An hour later, Gage found the time of the shooting, which had been at four in the morning, just before they began their day. What it didn’t show was what happened afterward. A loud rumble and shout could be heard out of the speaker, but that was it and then it went silent.
His phone rang as he stood up to check on Hope, who had gone to feed the baby.
“What’s up, Bill? Please tell me you have some good news.” From the long pause, Gage knew the answer would be no.
“I’m afraid I don’t. I found the bull. He’s dead.”
“Son of a bitch!” He slammed his phone down on the desk. Regaining his cool, he picked it up and said, “What do you know?”
“It wasn’t an accident or anything. He’d been shot and left in Colt’s field.”
“Shit. Okay.” That was a message.Colt would have wrangled up the bull and called me, so who shot the fucker?
“Colt said he’d handle it.” Gage nodded to himself. His cousin was a truly professional rancher and was used to dealing with dead animals.
“Thanks. I’m going to need a drink.”
“Sorry, boss.”
“Thanks again. Finish up the work for today and get some rest. I’ll talk to you later.”
Colt called Gage twenty minutes later with a lead on the suspect. “I’m sorry about what happened. I pulled my footage, but the only thing my cameras picked up in passing was a dark blue Ford pickup. The model was unclear as well as the plates, but at least that’s a start.”
“Thanks, man. Can you send me a picture of it?”
“Absolutely.”
“Good. I need to call this into the police.”