Courtney turned to Alex. “So he reads a lot. What does he do for a living?”
“He’s a retired geologist and has a master’s in engineering. He knows everything about this part of the state and remembers everything. When things go wrong, like they did here, that’s unfortunately not the best trait.” Alex looked around. “He’s got to be around here somewhere.” Alex walked into the kitchen, at the back of the cabin. “Samuel?”
Julia and Courtney followed him into a kitchen that was a small square ringed with knotty pine cabinets and butcher block countertops. The appliances were outdated, and there was a toaster but no microwave. Near the window was a single chair and a wooden table cluttered with papers, mail, and bills.
“Should we check the bedroom?” Courtney peered to the right, where another door was ajar.
“Okay.” Alex came over, and they entered the bedroom, but Samuel wasn’t here either. There was a messy double bed against the wall and more books stacked on the night table, oak dresser, and floor. Alex shrugged. “Maybe he’s out in the woods and didn’t hear us come up.”
They left the bedroom for the kitchen, which had a back door. They opened it on to a large, rocky clearing that had a paddock with a rusted metal gate. An old bay horse stood at a hayfeeder with a large green water bucket.
Alex nodded. “Okay, I bet he went riding. He has two horses, and one’s missing. He rides out for hours. Sometimes he camps overnight.”
“Oh no,” Julia said, disappointed. They didn’t have time to wait.
“Oh my God, look at this.” Courtney was turning to the kitchen table, where there were a slew of photos. “Whoa. These are pictures of Grandma Kay.”
Julia recoiled, scanning the photos. “Wait. Jeez. They’reallof her.”
“Really?” Alex asked, shocked, and Courtney picked through the photos, then looked up, her lips parting.
“Alex, were they seeing each other?”
“I have no idea.” Alex’s blue eyes flared in bewilderment. “Do you?”
“No. She didn’t say anything, if they were. I kind of doubt they were. She loved my grandfather. She never had any interest in dating after he died. She was fine being on her own. She actually liked being alone.” Courtney returned her attention to the photographs. “If they weren’t dating, Samuel obviously had a crush.”
“He never said anything to me. And they would be the oddest couple ever. Samuel’s a mountain man, and Kay was so sociable.”
Julia eyed the photographs. “Her death must have hit him hard.”
Alex nodded. “I knew it would. I haven’t spoken to him since her murder and I don’t know how he found out. I found out from a student’s mom, who heard it in town. I sent out an email to the Shenandoah list but Samuel doesn’t have a computer.” Alex shook his head, nonplussed. “Maybe he found out in town. Word travels, and everybody knows him.”
Julia thought it over. “Maybe he was so upset he took off for a few days. Does that sound like him?”
Alex nodded. “Yes. He isolates, big-time.”
“Look at this one.” Courtney picked up a photograph that showed Kay pulling weeds in her garden. “This is at the house, but taken from far away, maybe from the treeline beside the pasture.” She turned to Alex, her eyes narrowing. “Did he have a telephoto lens?”
“Sure.” Alex blinked. “He had an old Nikon SLR with all kinds of lenses. It was with him all the time. He probably took it with him now.”
Julia put it together, aghast. “Kay didn’t know he was there. He must’ve been hiding in the treeline, taking pictures of her.”
“Fucking asshole!” Courtney threw down the photo and started rooting through the others, then Julia and Alex joined in.
Half an hour later they had gone through all of the photographs and sorted them into ones taken with Kay’s knowledge and those taken without. Thirty-two of fifty-five photos were taken at Kay’s house without her knowledge, snapped from various vantage points and at different times. Most were of Kay weeding, planting, or tilling the beds in her garden, and others were her reading outside in a chair or talking on the phone.
Courtney’s eyes flashed with fury. “He took pictures of her on the phone? She’s probably talking to me! That fucking freak!”
“I can’t believe it.” Alex rubbed his face. “He’s a gentle guy. I’m sure he didn’t mean any harm.”
“Thisisharm, Alex,” Courtney shot back. “It’s an invasion of her privacy. It’s stalking, too. What if he killed her?”
Alex recoiled, frowning. “What? You told me you saw the guy who killed her, you chased him. It wasn’t Samuel.”
“No, but there could’ve been more than one man. He could’ve been in the truck already.”
Julia agreed, her mind begging to race. “Maybe he’s the one with the missing object from the basket. He could have been with her when she found it. Or she told him.”