Free Lies That Bind by Caitlyn Willows Page A

They could do whatever the fuck they wanted.
    Wrong… It’s Tessa ranch.
    The thought stirred his angst.
    “Sorry,” he told Nate. “I didn’t think to arm you.”
    “Oh…I’m armed.” A half grin lifted one corner of Nate’s mouth. “Any problems with poachers?”
    “Not that we’re aware of, or that we’d care too much. We just want the javelina gone. We’re looking into hunting leases.”
    “So anyone out here poaching would have had compound bow, not a firearm. They wouldn’t want to risk being caught.”
    He said it more to himself than to Tyler, but Tyler didn’t have a problem connecting the dots. “Could have been an arrow to the head, not a bullet that killed Derek,” he said.
    Nate nodded. “Someone panicked, cleaned up. Pigs destroyed the evidence. Doesn’t explain the dead horse.”
    “Her forelegs were broke. Derek wouldn’t have let her suffer.” He squinted against the sun and readjusted his hat. “Maybe she fell, and he stood to put her out of her misery only to put himself in the line of someone else’s fire.” It was as good a theory as anything else.
    “For a person so intent on gathering evidence, I don’t see hide nor hair of your sheriff. You suppose it’s that closing-ranks thing you mentioned?”
    “Accident or murder, there’s still something to hide. Tito has his own agenda most of the time. I’ve yet to figure out what that is. Although the election coming up next year might have something to do with it. He hobnobbed and glad-handed everyone at last week’s barbecue. Some of our locals are harder sells than others, despite the close-knit community. Newcomers have a lot to do with that. Old-timers don’t much like it. So far no one’s stepped forward to run against him. If that happens, Tito will have a battle on his hands to keep his position. It’s only a matter of time.”
    “Everyone was at this barbecue?” Nate asked.
    “Not everyone, but a very nice crowd, people coming and going. Or coming and staying, especially the old-timers. They’ve been a hard sell, but we’re slowly winning them over.”
    “Let me guess… They still consider you newcomers.”
    Tyler laughed. “Yeah, and Rex and I’ve been here ten years. We called the event the First Annual Dog Days of Summer BBQ. The aviary was packed. Took days for the crew to clean up.”
    Nate glanced down the rise from the direction they’d just come. Tyler looked too. The buildings shimmered under the heat waves.
    “Sounds like fun.”
    “We hope everyone enjoyed it. We charged a small admission but made it worth their money with good food, entertainment, fun games, and competitions. It was successful enough we’re doing it again next year.”
    “So everyone in town got an ample opportunity to study the ranch’s layout.”
    When put like that… “True. But then the ranch house has been here for generations. No secrets here. Most people have been here before at some time or another. From what I understand, Mike and Mary Ford used to be big on entertaining.” Tyler flicked his mount’s reins. “Let’s move. See what we can find. Between the storm, the pigs, and the backhoe, I’d say the crime scene is pretty fucked-up. We’ll do a perimeter check to see what we can find.”
    “My thoughts exactly.” Nate nudged his heels into the horse’s sides, Tyler signaled his horse, and they moved into the scene.
    The ground was a mess of gouges and ruts. Dirt clods made it hard going. Now that he had some distance from the shock of Derek’s death, Tyler could analyze things a little better. Yes, it looked like pigs had found their way to Derek’s body. But the bigger question was why Derek would have been in the middle of the field rather than hugging the trees and lying in wait to sight the javelina.
    “Looks like he was taking a shortcut.” Nate pointed to a trail bisecting the clearing.
    “That goes to an old line shack. No one’s used that in years.”
    “Could he have been heading