The back offices at the Conard County Sheriff’s department had turned into an ad hoc operations center.
Gage greeted him with “We’re getting ready for the ATF.”
“What are they going to do? Knock on Buddy’s gate?”
“I don’t know. I just found out that first sheet we got on Cap McDonald wasn’t all of it. He’s on a terrorist watch list and has been for a while.”
“Whoa.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. That and what the hell is he doing at Buddy’s place. Buddy’s no terrorist. He likes to dream about it, but he wouldn’t do it.”
“No, he just wants to survive it. I’d bet he doesn’t know much about Cap.”
“Apparently not. But while you and I will distinguish, I’m not sure about ATF.”
“They won’t want another Idaho.”
“Damn, I hope not. The Jacksons have always been on the fringe around here, pretty much keeping to themselves. At least since I moved here a couple of decades ago. But they’ve always been harmless fringe. You know that.”
Craig nodded. “I’ve talked to him any number of times over the past three years. I wouldn’t have pegged him for trouble. So maybe we need to be worrying about him. Just suppose Cap sees Buddy’s place as a base of operations. What if Buddy gives him trouble?”
“Then Cap had better move on because it won’t go unnoticed for long.”
“Sure it would. They never go to town. Who’d notice if they just disappeared?”
“You for starters,” Gage said. “My wife for another. Vera Jackson borrows books from the library on a regular basis to help teach her kids. Emma, my wife, lets her keep them for a month at a time, rather than two weeks, but she’d notice if Vera didn’t show up.”
“And you’d hear about it?”
“Believe it. I wouldn’t get a decent night’s sleep until I went out there to make sure Vera and the kids were okay. Cap may not realize that. He might think nobody would notice.”
Craig rubbed his chin. “Then maybe Buddy’s got a whole lot to worry about.”
“It’s possible. We don’t know all about what’s going on out there, though. As for the ATF...you’re senior officer on the forest lands. I’m going to make sure they understand that very clearly.”
“I’m not at their level. The kinds of crimes I investigate don’t rise to that level.”
“But you know the forest. You know the Jacksons. And it is your job. If nothing else, they’ll have to keep you in the loop.”
That didn’t exactly make Craig feel any better. He was a federal law enforcement officer, yes. But he also knew the limits of his experience: poachers, the all-too-frequent idiots who thought the isolated forest would be a great place to raise some cannabis, and other miscreants.
But he understood what Gage was trying to do. He was trying to keep a federal officer in the loop to protect the Jacksons...unless they were in it up to their necks.
The more he thought about it, the less likely it seemed to Craig. Gage was right, the guy was a bit of a nut, but so far he’d been a harmless nut. If he crossed that borderline, it would most likely be the result of Cap’s influence.
On the terrorist watch list? The thought sent chills down his spine and he hurried to pick up ice and supplies.
Sky might be safe out there, seeing as how she posed no threat to those guys, but he was incapable of understanding the mindset of a terrorist. They struck him as no different from any other mass murderer or serial killer, except they cloaked it in some political reason.
He didn’t get those guys at all.
And that made him fear for Sky.
* * *
Well before noon, the breeze had begun to stir up enough dust that the light lost its clarity. Edges that had been sharp earlier began to blur ever so slightly. Sky sighed contentedly and started to put her brushes away. She snapped enough pictures earlier to have captured the transparency of the light, and digital cameras were far better for that than film, which softened everything just a bit. Not so much that most people would notice, but she did.
She had just finished putting her brushes in a plastic bag along with a little cleaner to keep them soft when she heard something from the woods.
Glancing over, she saw something dart away. She froze, almost certain it had had the shape of a man. She hadn’t felt watched most of the morning, so she tried to talk herself into thinking