Her Silent Cry (Detective Josie Quinn #6)- Lisa Regan Page 0,71

store. At the very edge of town were several single-lane winding roads leading into the mountains. Josie and Mettner followed one of them two miles into the woods until they saw two Denton police cruisers at the end of a gravel driveway which was marked only by two standing red reflectors on either side of it. Josie parked behind one of them and she and Mettner walked up the driveway toward the small cabin. It was a rectangular, single-level structure, its siding made of faux logs, its roof made of red corrugated tin, peaked to allow Pennsylvania’s winter snow to slide off. To the left of the small porch was a square of grass and then several feet from that a stone fire pit surrounded by outdoor lawn chairs. In one of the metal chairs sat a short, rotund man with white hair. Two uniformed officers stood in front of him, one talking while the other took notes. The owner of the cabin, Josie guessed. Officer Hummel stood on the porch, dressed in his crime scene garb, consulting with another uniformed officer holding a clipboard.

“What’ve you got?” Josie asked him as she and Mettner stepped onto the porch.

Hummel motioned over his shoulder toward the owner and other officers. “Cabin belongs to that gentleman. He lives in town. He hasn’t been out here in over a month. We were doing the checks of all cabins in the area like you said. Found a window broken out back. Called the owner and asked him to come out. He says nothing was disturbed except his gun case. Glass front smashed, guns missing.”

Mettner said, “He didn’t have his weapons in a gun safe?”

Hummel shook his head. “No one comes out here. He thought a curio would be fine. It was locked but like I said, whoever took the guns just smashed the glass in to get to them. The owner says he’s had this cabin for thirty years and never had a problem till now.”

“What kind of guns?” Josie asked.

Hummel looked to the other officer, who flipped a page on his clipboard. Hummel read the notes scrawled there. “A Winchester Model 101, Marlin lever action 30/30, a Remington 700, and a Glock 19.”

Mettner said, “He kept a handgun at his hunting cabin?”

“For him to carry on his belt when working around the property.”

“For coyotes, probably,” Josie said. “A handgun is easier to carry than a rifle if you’re just pulling weeds or sitting out by the fire.”

Mettner nodded.

Josie asked, “You think whoever broke in was staying here?”

“No,” Hummel said, “Like I said, the only thing that’s disturbed is the gun case. We walked the owner through, and he said everything else is exactly as he left it.”

Which meant that there would be little, if any, evidence that would lead them to the person who broke in.

“You think this is our guy?” Mettner asked her.

“Hard to say,” Josie said. “How many break-ins like this do we have each year?”

“One or two at most,” Hummel answered. “And it’s usually teenagers looking for a place to drink. They’re not usually interested in the guns.”

“Well,” Josie agreed. “Hunting is pretty sacred around here. You don’t mess with someone’s weapons.”

Hummel nodded. “You want to have a look around? The team’s in there processing now, but you can go in. There are suits and gloves in the trunk of my car.”

Josie suited up; the uniformed officer with the clipboard logged her in and she went inside the cabin. The place was not much larger than a trailer, its living room and kitchen divided by where the brown shag carpet ended and the tan tile began. Beyond that was a short hallway with two doors. Behind one was a bedroom and behind the other was the bathroom. Hummel was right—the only thing that wasn’t neat and orderly was the living room where the gun curio’s glass had been smashed. She nodded to the two officers inside who were taking photographs of the cabinet and the glass scattered all around it as well as dusting it for prints.

She took a moment to study the room. To her right was a wall with three taxidermy deer heads mounted to it, then the smashed-in curio. To her left was a small living room area with a loveseat sofa and two recliner chairs surrounding a television atop a small stand. If she were a frightened seven-year-old girl in this room with a scary man who was breaking the glass in the gun cabinet, where would