He looked as if he expected an argument from her. He knew how badly she wanted the leader of the rustling ring. So much she could taste it. But she couldn’t leave him and the calves. She figured he was counting on that.
Rafe would be pushing the cattle down to the next corral, but he couldn’t move up the delivery date because he would have no way to contact the truck drivers with no cell phone service for miles around.
There was time, she told herself as she swung down from her saddle. The calves had already found the creek. She headed for the old cabin. It looked as if it had been used by ranchers who brought their cattle up to summer range, maybe even the Chisholms, though not Dawson. He apparently liked the cave better.
“You can catch up to the herd if you leave now,” Dawson said behind her. “I don’t want you staying for the wrong reasons.” She didn’t turn, didn’t answer. Rafe would be pushing the cattle toward the last corral, afraid something was amiss with her disappearance. She figured that meant he wouldn’t be doubling back again to look for her—or anyone else.
Too bad that wasn’t the real reason she was staying here.
“Jinx,” Dawson said behind her. There was a softness to his voice as light as a caress. She turned around to face him, saw his expression and told herself she should have taken his advice and ridden out before she got in any deeper.
“LOOKS LIKE THINGS GOT ROUGH,” McCall said in her office. Marshall had brought her what was left of the listening device after the brothers had put on the fight at the kitchen table. “It’s not a smoke alarm. It appears to be some sort of listening device, just as Emma suspected.”
Marshall nodded. “She didn’t bail on my father, did she?”
McCall studied the pieces he’d brought her. She was beginning to believe more and more that Emma had been right about a lot of things.
“Now what?” he asked.
“We have to assume whoever put this in the kitchen will have heard the fight up until the point where the device was destroyed,” the sheriff said. “With luck, that person will wait until he or she is sure all of you are away from the house and then try to replace it.”
He smiled, obviously noticing the way she was trying not to say Aggie’s name. “Leaving yourself open just in case it isn’t Aggie?”
“Just trying not to jump to conclusions.”
He nodded. “I checked the house. There are at least two more of these things, one in the living room and another in my dad and Emma’s bedroom, just as you said she told you in the letter.”
McCall could see how angry he was. “We have to keep our cool,” she warned. “If she gets any hint that we’re onto her…”
“I know. We need her to lead us to Emma—if she has her.”
“Have you heard anything from Zane?”
“He called this morning in the middle of the fight. I called him back from my cell phone away from the house and told him what was going on here,” Marshall said. “He’s flying to some place in California today, the last address he could find for Emma. I told him to keep looking for her—just in case we’re wrong and Emma really did leave. I guess we’re covering all our bets.”
“Didn’t you say your brother Dawson went to check on your cattle up on summer range?”
“Yeah.” Marshall frowned. “I got the feeling he’d be gone for a couple of days at least. I don’t think we need to worry about him showing up unexpectedly. My brothers and I were talking. We have some new fence we started putting in before Dad was arrested. It’s up in the north forty far enough that we wouldn’t be coming back to the ranch until late.”
“That sounds good. We want her to know you’ll be gone for a while. I’ll take it from there,” the sheriff said.
“You sure you won’t need any help?” Marshall asked.
McCall smiled. “Thanks, but I think I can handle it.” She knew that all the brothers would be there in a heartbeat if they thought they were needed. She liked the Chisholm men. They were all gallant, all loyal to family.
She thought of her newest deputy, Halley Robinson, and her fiancé, Colton Chisholm. They made a cute couple. Halley made a darn good deputy. McCall was happy for her and hoped Emma’s situation had a happy ending,