“Better hurry up,” she says. “I’m going out there and I’ll need an escort.”
“Ah, shit,” I say and hurry after her. “Look, we shouldn’t do that. It’s not safe. They’re definitely watching this place now, and they’ll recognize you from the other day.”
“Yeah, maybe. But you’ll be with me.” She glances over and smirks. “You do have a gun now, right?”
I tense. “How’d you know?”
“I guessed. I mean, you seem like the kind of guy to be prepared.”
“Ever since they showed up at the gate, I’ve been carrying,” I admit. “Keep it under my jacket. I think Patricks knows, but he hasn’t said anything.”
“Good. Keep bringing it. But don’t tell my family.”
I laugh. “That’s about the last thing I’d do. I’m pretty sure it would freak them out.”
“Lora hates guns. Mother and Father are a little… I don’t know how to put it. They’re liberal about some things, conservative about others.”
“Where do they fall on gun ownership?”
“They think all guns should be rounded up and thrown in a big pit.”
I laugh. “They’re probably not wrong.”
“I’m not sure I go so far. I mean, I’m all for registering guns, you know? Like how people have to register a car.”
I snort and shake my head. “Gun people would never go for that.”
“I know, but what’s there to hide? It’s not like the government will ever come and take them away. That just won’t ever happen.”
“Listen to you. I didn’t know you were so politically engaged.”
“Oh, you’re shocked a pretty young girl like me has a brain?”
I laugh and bump against her. “Not what I said.”
“I know that.” She grins at me. “But you’re such a muscle-head jock. You probably never thought about any of this.”
“I’ve thought about it,” I admit. “I worked a beat where all the criminals carried. It’d be a safer world if we controlled guns even half as well as other countries. But I’m also aware of how sacred people think gun ownership is.”
“Who knows. Maybe we’ll figure it out sooner or later.”
“Later, I hope.” I pat the gun in the holster at my hip. It’s a small weapon for concealed carrying, but it would do the job. “For now, I’m happy I can have this.”
“Can’t argue with that.”
We step out into the sunshine and start hiking. I radio in to Patricks that I’m escorting Delia out on a walk. He radios back to confirm but says nothing else.
“He must know,” she says.
“You’re probably right. He’s fanatical about protecting you guys, but he’s not stupid.”
“Have you heard anything from the local PD about that license plate?”
“Didn’t get a good picture of it,” I say as we slip through the gate and start hiking along the trail toward my cabin. “Sent them what we had but it was a partial at best. Patricks says he gave them the descriptions, but who knows what’ll come of that.”
“You think anything will?”
“No,” I admit. “I don’t.”
She nods and we walk in silence for a bit. I want to ask her what she thinks of all this. I don’t understand why she wants to put herself in danger by being around me. I can guess, based on why I’m willing to stick around for her, but still.
I’m the one with a noose around my neck. She doesn’t need to shove her throat in the line of fire too.
We crunch along the underbrush and reach the branch in the path. We head down toward my cabin and slow as it comes into view.
“Okay,” she says. “You saw someone smoking, right?”
“That’s right. I think I saw the cigarette glow in the dark.”
She frowns and looks around. “About where was that, do you think?”
I hesitate then point. “I was looking out the back window.”
She stomps in that direction. As we get around the right spot, she slows and looks around. I stand nearby and watch her, arms crossed.
“I don’t know what you think this will prove,” I say.
She shushes me and waves her hand in my direction. She’s staring at the ground, inspecting it hard. I grin at her and let her go, not about to interrupt her concentration.
She combs the ground until she lets out a surprised and excited noise. She drops to her knees and picks something up between her fingers.
I walk over and kneel down next to her.
She holds up a cigarette butt, grinning her face off.
“Okay,” I say. “That’s it.”
“Evidence,” she says.
I laugh and take the butt from her. “Not exactly. But let’s keep it, just in case.”
“Should we bag it?”
I grin at her and nod. I go in through my back door, grab a plastic bag, and drop the butt in there. I come back out and hand it to her.
She takes it and lets it lie flat in her hands. “My first piece of evidence.”
“Do you want to be a detective or something?”