“Well, I’m honestly not sure. I’m good at digging for information and piecing together facts I can find. Those are the facts, and that’s what it smells like to me. It might not be the motive for burning down a barn, but it sure as hell explains his outbursts over suddenly being in the public eye because of what PETA posted online. It went viral.”

“And it would raise a flag. Do you think all these people that back him around here are being paid off somehow?” I asked.

“Like I said, I deal in facts. This is all speculation, but again, it’s plausible,” he said.

“Well, the security company is coming by tonight to install the cameras, so hopefully something will actually happen so I can catch this asshole on camera,” I said.

“Have you talked to Cheyenne?”

“As a matter of fact, I have. I went over there last night to talk with her, and everything’s alright.”

“Uh huh,” he said with a grin. “Just how alright?”

“I went over there to check on her and the barn, and I think I convinced her to hold off on the hasty rehoming of her horses,” I said.

“Wow. That’s progress. Good job, Colt,” he said with a teasing tone. “You think she’ll stay?”

“I think I convinced her to at least stay through the fundraiser. I told her I wanted to prove to her how much emotional and financial support this community had for her. She’s seen the terrible side of it, and she’s scared, but I convinced her to hang in there a bit longer.”

“How’d you do that?” he asked.

“Not the way you think,” I said.

“You know I was a lawyer, right?”

“Yep.”

“So I can tell when you’re lying, right?” he asked.

“Shut the hell up, Mike,” I said.

“Anyway, what convinced her?” he asked again.

“I told her I’d drive by in the evenings and at least check to make sure nothing was going on with her barn. I’m also taking one of my shotguns over just in case.”

“That’s actually not a bad plan. She know how to shoot?”

“I taught her a bit,” I said.

“A single woman like her in the position she’s in needs to know how. Good on ya.”

“She contact you about the horse at all?” I asked.

“I told her I’d give her a call. I decided to build a different stall set up for him, and it should be ready in a day or so.”

“Good, good. She’s really excited to give that horse to someone it’s comfortable with. From what she’s told me, that horse was bad off, and he seemed to be comfortable with you.”

“He’s a beautiful horse. He’ll be well taken care of. I actually have a nephew that comes down to the ranch quite a bit. He has special needs, and I was planning on making it his horse; that’s why I’m setting up a special stall,” he said.

“You should tell her that. She’d love that story,” I said.

“Anyway, let me know how the installation of the cameras goes.”

“You’ll know when I call you up to tell you he’s being strung up in my tree by his underwear, like a human piñata, and I might be in need a lawyer,” I said.

Michael got up to leave, but a thought crossed my mind. If his legal contacts came across that information without breaking any laws, it might be enough information about Bill Coates to get the sheriff off his lazy ass and motivate him to actually investigate.

“Hey, Mike?”

Tags: Claire Adams Romance
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