Page 45 of Cowboy Mountain Man

By eight thirty, I’m dressed in my own jeans and sweater, sitting at the kitchen table with my tablet.

Harlan and Alden stand beside the counter. The sheriff’s deputies have found a delivery van on the old mine road. Empty. They’ve also found more equipment hidden in the barn. Whoever was moving it had a better night than we did.

“Owner’s coming in to identify what belongs there,” Alden says.

“Today?” I ask.

“Tomorrow. She lives four hours away.”

I look down at the photographs. Four hours. I arrived yesterday afternoon. Somebody knew exactly when the house would be occupied again. “Who gave me the key?”

Both men look at me.

Harlan answers first. “Martin.”

“He sent it. But who had it before him?”

Alden reaches for his phone. “I’ll ask.”

I go back to the study photograph. The crate sits beside the desk. Above it, reflected faintly in the window, is part of the wall behind me. A calendar.

I enlarge it.

“Wait.”

Harlan comes around the table. “What?”

“The house was empty for eighteen months.”

“Yes.”

I point. The calendar is open to October. This year. A little red square marks the first day of my assignment. Under it, somebody has written two words.

Photo girl.

Harlan leans closer. His expression changes. “I didn’t see that,” he says.

“Neither did I.”

My stomach contracts. They expected me. The clean mug. The supplies. The man in the barn. None of it was somebody being careless because the house was abandoned. They were there when I arrived because they knew I was coming.

Alden is already calling Martin. I open the older photographs Mrs. Bell’s daughter sent. Same wall. Different calendar. Different year.

There’s also something else. A little wooden rack beside the study door. Three hooks. Two keys.

I swipe back to my photograph. The rack is empty. “Martin told me not to go in the barn,” I say.

Harlan looks at me. “He said it wasn’t part of the inventory.”

“Was that in writing?”

“Yes.”

I pull up the email. The wording seems harmless.

Please restrict your work to the residence. The outbuildings are being handled separately by the property’s local caretaker, Daniel Pike.

I read the name aloud.