Chapter 14
14
Brett
I jumped in my truck and rushed down the dirt road towards the neighborhood ranches and farms. Dread washed over me. What if none of the other farmers had any footage? What if Roger Adams had covered his tracks too well? No, screw that. I needed to find evidence, any shred of proof that would expose Adams for the despicable man he was. I had to do it for the ranch, which had been in Sofia’s family for generations and would one day be passed down to little Max.
As I arrived at the first farm, I jumped out of my truck and walked up to the front door. A stout middle-aged woman answered, wiping her hands on her apron. I explained my mission to her, hoping for some good news.
“I’m sorry, dear. We don't have any cameras on our property.”
My heart sank. I thanked her and moved on to the next farm, and the next, receiving the same response each time. No one had any footage. It seemed like a hopeless endeavor.
Someone had to have something. I had two more on my list. The McAdams Farm and the Parrish Farm. Sofia was counting on me to help her and I couldn’t let her down.
I pulled up to the house on the McAdams property and a gruff old man with a bushy white beard came out.
“Can I help you, son?”
He recognized me and put the gun down. Thank god. “I’m checking to see if you have cameras the edge of your property line toward the road?”
“Can I ask why?”
“The Walters ranch was vandalized. Anything you have would help us tremendously, sir.”
He smiled. “Anything for that family. Come on in, son.” The man took me to his study which held his computer that housed the cameras around his property up on the screen. “I may have something that can help. I installed these cameras around my property a few months ago when there was a string of burglaries in the area. Let's see if we can find anything useful.”
My heart beat faster as we scrolled through the footage, and finally, there it was. Roger Adams, his face clear as day coming down the road toward the ranch right around the time the destruction occurred. He was caught red handed, that little bastard.
“You wouldn’t happen to have a printer so I can print that image with the time stamp, would you?” I looked around, not seeing one but the older man didn’t seem to know much about technology either. “My grandson has one but its not plugged in. He said you didn’t have to.”
It must be bluetooth. “That’ll work.” He showed me to the printer and I turned it on and got the first piece of evidence against Roger. “Thank you so much, Mr. McAdams. This will help us catch the man responsible. Keep your eyes out!”
He looked over to the gun at the side of his front door. “I’m always prepared to protect my property.”
I walked down the dirt road back to my truck to my one last stop, Parrish farms.
As I approached, there was a tractor chugging in the distance. I walked up to the front porch where an older woman sat in a rocking chair, sitting on a beverage. I cleared my throat, causing her to look up at me. “Excuse me, I’m looking to see if you possibly have cameras on your property?”
She stood up slowly. “Brett, is that you? I haven’t seen you in ages. How long have you been back in town?”
I smiled. “Yeah it’s me, Mrs. Parrish. Listen, this is important. Someone set fire to the Walters ranch and we are trying to find out who it is. Anything you might have caught could help us.”
“Oh my word. In our small town? Who would do such a thing?”
I explained my situation to her, and she nodded. “I do have a camera on the southside of the property,” she said, “but it's only facing the road. I could check and see if it caught anything, but I doubt it.”
I thanked her and waited patiently while she went inside to check her camera. A few minutes later, she emerged with a printed picture in her hand. “I don't think this will be of much use to you, it’s blurry,” she said with a shrug, “but you're welcome to take it.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
After shutting my truck door, I looked at the picture closer. The car was the same one in the other photo but this caught the license plate, and even though it’s hard to read, I could decipher it. Rogers Adam, we caught you.
I drove to Roger's office building, and parked in the visitor's parking lot. I approached the front desk. “Hey, I haven’t seen you in ages. How are you?”
She looked up from her computer. “Well if it isn’t our very own almost famous person.” Her arms wrapped around my neck and brought me in. “What are you doing here?”
“Would you just look at something for me?”
“Of course, Brett. Anything for you.” She motioned towards the seat across from her desk.
I sat down and pulled out the photo of Roger's car with his license plate clearly visible. “Do you recognize this car?”
She leaned forward and looked at it closely before sitting back in her chair. “Yes, that's my boss’ car.”
“And does he have any reason as to why he would want to harm the Walters ranch?”
Her face turned serious and she hesitated before answering. “Well, from what I've heard around the office, Ms. Walters has been refusing to sell her land to Roger for years now. And we all know how determined he can be when he wants something.”
I nodded, taking this information in. “Thank you for your honesty, Angela.”
She nodded back with a small smile.
“Is there anything else you might have noticed or heard that could help us?” I asked.
She paused for a moment before responding. “Actually, last week when we were filing some papers together, I overheard him making some phone calls and he was talking to someone about what to do if they didn’t agree to sell the land soon.”
My heart raced as I wrote down this new information in my notepad. “Do you remember who he was on the phone with?”
Angela thought for a moment before responding, “I couldn't hear the other person's voice, but I did catch a name. Bryson.”
“Bryson? Do you know who that might be?” I asked, hoping for another lead.
“I’m not sure, sorry.”
“Thank you, Angela. You have been a big help,” I said as I stood up.
“No problem. Just let me know if there's anything else I can do.”
I left the office building and got back into my truck. This new information could be key in solving this case. I drove to the Walters ranch to update her on my findings so far.
As I pulled up to the ranch, Sofia was sitting on her porch swing sipping on iced tea. She looked up and smiled as she saw me approaching. “Hey, I noticed you didn’t come to work today. You feeling okay?”
“I have some new information regarding the fire,” I said as I sat down next to her.
She leaned in closer with interest as I told her about Roger's car being caught on camera. “And his friend Bryson may also have some involvement.”
“Bryson… that name doesn’t sound familiar.”
My phone buzzed in my pocket and I took it out seeing Angela’s name.
“Hey. Did you remember something else?” I put the phone to my ear, Sofia leaning forward as if to try to hear.
“Roger’s GPS in his car shows him on the road parked for twenty minutes on the night of the fire. He was definitely there, Brett. You know what this means, right? He is willing to do anything to get his hands on that land. You need to warn Sofia.”
A chill ran down my spine as Angela's words sank in. Roger Adams was more dangerous than we'd realized. I ended the call and turned to Sofia, who was looking at me expectantly.
“We need to talk. It's worse than we thought.”
I quickly filled her in on what Angela just told me. Sofia's face paled as she listened.
“Oh my god,” she whispered. “He really tried to burn the ranch down?”
I nodded. “It seems that way. And I'm worried he might try something even more drastic next time.”
Sofia stood up, wrapping her arms around herself. “What are we going to do? I can't sell this place, Brett. It's all I have left of my family.”
I stood and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “We're not going to let that happen. We have evidence now. We can go to the police.”
Keeping her and Max safe had become my top priority. The police didn’t need to get involved just yet. Men like Roger Adams had to be dealt with in other ways. We just needed to even the playing field. “I’ve got a plan.”