said he was a man comfortable with himself and with caring about others. Very different from her ex. Hector had seemed uncomfortable with strong emotions other than anger, and, like a lot of guys, poked fun at anything that might elicit tender feelings or tears. Guy-tough. Craig didn’t seem to have a problem with that, but truthfully, how well did she know him?
After a sandwich she made from some bread and cold cuts she’d bought, she decided to return to her hilltop and paint. Besides, she had offered to be extra eyes for Craig, and so far today she hadn’t done it.
She considered walking back down the road to the place she usually parked, then decided against it. If she needed for some reason to move fast, she didn’t want her wheels to be nearly a mile away. And this time she remembered to turn on the radio.
She reached her hillside and quickly spread out her supplies and put her canvas on the easel. Today she wasted no time, but squeezed paint onto her palette and set to work. She needed to lose herself in her art, a good kind of getting lost within herself, and forget everything else. Most especially Craig. Heck, he probably wouldn’t even show up today. From what she’d gathered, he didn’t spend every night at that cabin and he had to cover a lot of territory. Buddy notwithstanding, his concern about the valley stream down below might take him quite a distance away.
In terms of immediate threats, and the size of those threats, she figured the stream was probably a top priority.
Pretty soon she was pleased with the way she had captured an impression of those wildflowers on the mountainside, surrounded by the deep green and shadows of the forest. Leaning back, she thought she’d done a good job of making the flowers appear to glow with a light of their own, creating a sense of mystery.
Feeling content, and realizing she was starting to lose the light, she began soaking her brushes and packing them away.
Then, on impulse, she picked up her camera and looked across the valley at Buddy’s place. What she saw made her gasp.
She snapped a quick picture, scanned the valley with outward casualness because all of a sudden she had the worst feeling she was being watched. She snapped a few more photos, then began packing. She didn’t want to walk through the woods alone, but there was no other choice. As she hefted her gear, she tried to arrange it so she could use at least some of it in self-defense. She could see no one around anywhere, hadn’t heard anything, but that didn’t matter.
No amount of evidence to the contrary could dispel the feeling that she was being watched, and that was one feeling she’d learned not to ignore in Iraq.
God, she didn’t want to use the radio. Anybody might be listening. She just hoped Craig showed up.
* * *
Craig’s visit to Sheriff Gage Dalton proved illuminating.
“Buddy seemed normal enough,” Gage said, “but I didn’t like that Cap guy.”
“Exactly my reaction.”
“I liked it even less when Buddy gave me a little tour. He’s proud of what he’s accomplishing in self-sufficiency, but you know that. Unfortunately when he was walking me around his garden, I saw some other things.”
Craig leaned forward, his interest surging. “Such as?”
“He’s bringing in an awful lot of supplies. Some trucks were coming toward me as I drove out there, and I could clearly see they came from Buddy’s. There’s nothing else up that road anyway, except for the ghost town, and that’s pretty much off-limits.
“Anyway, he’s filling up his barn, to judge by what I could see through a crack where a door wasn’t completely closed. And then there are the footprints.”
“Footprints?”
“I figure there are at least four other grown men out there in addition to Buddy and Cap. No evidence of women or children, though, other than Buddy’s.”
“How’d that strike you?”
“Probably about the same way it’s striking you. Why would he need more men out there? He’s been all about his family surviving a catastrophe. If he wanted another family out there, that would fit with what I thought I knew about him, but four men? That Cap guy in particular. I managed to get a photo of him I’m going to run through recognition software, but that might take ages.”
Craig frowned, feeling his uneasiness about Buddy deepening. Worse, he felt a leap of concern for Sky. She was out there alone today. Not