Page 98 of Knox
Knox nodded.
“That’s what we’re here for, bro.” The words sunk in, found his bones. “You don’t have to do this alone.”
He again had the crazy urge to weep.
Reuben squeezed his shoulder.
Outside, Tate and Wyatt were winding up the hoses. Ruby Jane and Gilly had rounded up the goats, Gilly petting one as if she might be in love.
Daisy and her bull stood in the drive, not far away. Knox walked over to her, opened his arms, shook his hand to direct her. “Hup, hup.” She started to move toward the pen, and he clapped his hands, walking behind her. Reuben opened a pen, and she ambled in, her bull behind her.
Then he stopped to oversee the damage. In the darkness, it was hard to make out the extent of the fire. The headlights from the trucks poured over the pens, across the blackened walls of the barn. Could be mostly surface damage, but he’d have to wait until tomorrow to investigate.
“How do you think it started?” Tate asked, which was clearly the question of the hour.
Hardwin came over. “Did you bale your hay wet?
“I don’t know. I was on the road last fall. I left it to Lemuel.”
“How about electrical wiring? This barn is pretty old,” Ruby Jane said, coming over with a barn cat.
“I replaced all the wiring, I think.” He ran a hand behind his neck. “I don’t know.”
Tate stood on the outskirts of the group. “This is awfully coincidental, given that Glo and Kelsey’s bus also burned a week ago.”
“That was a propane leak,” Knox said, but…wait— “Where are they?”
Tate stepped back, looked around. “Glo?”
“Last time I saw them, they were sitting by the campfire,” his mother said.
Knox took off toward the house, but he cast a glance at the barn.
Kelsey liked the barn…
No, he would have seen her— “Kelsey?”
He rounded the house and headed for the campfire pit.
Just the embers smoldered in the rock pit.
Tate burst out of the house. “They’re not inside.” He looked at Knox. “Why do I have a terrible gnaw in my gut about this?”
“Maybe they just went for a walk.”
“In the dark? With the barn on fire?”
“I’ll get the others. Spread out—they couldn’t have gone far.”
“Shh, Glo, stay quiet.”
Although, granted, it had to be hard for Glo to clamp her mouth shut with her arm bleeding, whatever had hit her causing her to pull her arm into her shoulder. And, Glo was bleeding—Kelsey could feel the ground beneath them getting damper.
“Do you see him?”
They were crouched under a bench at Gerri’s overlook, Kelsey practically lying on top of Glo to hide them both. And out in the darkness somewhere prowled someone who’d grabbed Glo as they’d sat at the campfire alone.
Someone with a gun.