Smokescreen (Pros and Cons Mysteries #2)

Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28

A fter everyone left the barbecue and darkness had fallen, Olive and Reid remained downstairs, putting some things away from the get-together.

She’d told Reid about what Dippy said, and Reid said he was going to have a talk with him later. Right now, he had too many other things on his mind.

A knock sounded at the front door, and Reid answered.

Trick stood on the other side. “Can I have a moment of your time?”

Olive’s heart leapt into her throat.

If Trick had come here to talk to Reid, then something was up. Most likely, something big.

Reid nodded toward his office.

Without invitation, Olive slipped inside with them and shut the door. “I hope you don’t mind if I’m in here.”

“No, I need you in here also,” Trick muttered, lines of worry around his eyes.

“What’s going on?” Reid crossed his arms as he stood in front of them, waiting for an explanation.

“As you know, our colleague Tevin was flying his drone today, looking for anything suspicious here on the property, something that might provide us with some answers.”

Reid shifted. “Yes, I was anxiously waiting to see what he learned.”

“He was supposed to check in with me tonight,” Trick continued. “Earlier he’d said he found something we’d want to see.”

“What was it?” Reid’s voice caught with anticipation.

“That’s the thing.” Trick rubbed his jaw. “He never called me back. So I slipped away and tried to call him. He didn’t answer.”

Olive sucked in a breath. Tevin hadn’t checked in? That wasn’t like him.

Her heart pounded harder.

“I take it that’s not normal?” Reid asked.

“Not at all.” Trick ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “I took it upon myself to go see if I could find him. I knew the basic area where he’d parked and where he was heading to do the flight. I found his van.”

“But?” Olive asked, knowing there was a “but” in there. Part of her didn’t want to know.

“His van was there, but Tevin was nowhere to be found,” Trick finished, a frown tugging at his lips.

The knot in Olive’s throat seemed to swell until she could hardly breathe. “What are you trying to say, Trick?”

“I’m afraid something happened to Tevin. I don’t know if it’s related to what’s going on here at the ranch or if a wild animal got to him or something else entirely. But I’m worried.”

Reid’s gaze narrowed with thought. “Does he have any wilderness survival training?”

Trick shook his head. “No, Tevin is strictly an office and gym workout kind of guy.”

Reid strode to his desk and pulled a gun from his drawer, shoving it in his waistband. “We need to look for him. He shouldn’t be out at night in this wilderness by himself. Wild animals, cliffs, fast-moving streams—and those are just nature’s dangers. Add the person who’s been sabotaging my land, and it’s even more dangerous.”

“Should we call the police?” Olive tried to think each scenario through.

“Let’s check everything out first,” Reid said. “But we’ll call them if we need to.”

“Okay.” The thought of Tevin being out there alone or hurt made her heart twist into a tight knot.

Reid turned back to Trick. “Gather some of the guys. Tell them that the surveyor I hired is missing. Cooper will know what to do. Tell him I’m going to start in the area where Tevin left his vehicle. I need you to go with him and keep an eye on things from that end.”

“Will do.”

“I’m going too.” Olive didn’t word it as a question.

“Of course—you should stay with me.” Reid nodded at the door. “Let’s go. There’s no time to waste.”

Olive and Reid drove down the service road, bumping on the unpaved lane. As they did, Olive called Rex and gave him an update on the situation.

“I can send backup,” he said.

She gripped the phone more tightly. “Give us some time first to make sure backup is needed. We’re doing our best to find him.”

“You’ve got two hours. Then I’m sending help, whether you want it or not.”

“Yes, sir.” Olive lowered her phone back into her lap and glanced around.

It was so dark around them. Darker than what Olive was used to experiencing without the lights of the city or homes or streetlamps.

Finally, Reid’s headlights illuminated a van in front of them. Tevin’s van.

Reid slammed on the brakes and threw the truck in Park. Then they both hurried out.

Before they reached the van, Olive held up her hands, motioning for Reid to stop. “I need to search the ground first, just in case there’s any evidence there. I don’t want us to trample it.”

Reid stopped where he was. “Makes sense.”

She pulled out a flashlight—a nice one, not just the one on her phone this time—and she shone it on the ground, searching for any clues as to what had happened.

Based on the footprints near the back of the van, Tevin had come to grab his drone. Then he’d walked to the front of the vehicle to an open space. Most likely that was where he’d done his launch.

It was grassier here, but she could see some strands had been smashed.

Knowing Tevin, he’d launched the drone here and then gone back to the van and sat on the bumper as he navigated it.

He had a lot of ground to cover, but he’d probably used a grid system to map everything out and a spreadsheet to track each movement. He believed there was a system in place for everything, and spreadsheets were his system.

Olive’s heart pinged with a moment of grief.

No, it was too soon for grief. She still needed to hold onto hope that he was okay despite the dangerous situation.

“Well?” Reid asked behind her.

“I’m still trying to form the total picture, but you can join me if you want.”

Knowing someone was watching her back made Olive feel better. Even if there wasn’t someone else out here, wild animals were always a possibility.

The last thing she needed was to walk up on a grizzly or a mama moose.

She continued to aim her flashlight at the ground. Then she squinted.

“What is it?” Reid asked.

She leaned down and picked up something, a sinking feeling in her stomach. “This is Tevin’s phone. He would never go anywhere without it. Something must have happened to him.”

Reid’s hand came down on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Olive.”

The compassionate tone in his voice made her heart twist with some kind of unknown emotion—an emotion she couldn’t deal with right now.

Instead, Olive swallowed hard and continued to observe the area, determined to focus on finding Tevin instead of worst-case scenarios.

She pointed at the ground. “The footsteps . . . they lead away from this area and toward the woods in the distance.”

“And that’s strange?”

“I don’t know why Tevin would feel the need to walk into the woods. He usually stays close to the van and makes note of everything as he records it.”

“Maybe he saw something,” Reid suggested. “Or his drone went down.”

Olive’s jaw tightened. “Or maybe he saw someone .”

What if Tevin had happened upon the person behind these dangerous events at the ranch? If he’d seen something he shouldn’t have . . . then someone would be desperate to keep him quiet.

Maybe even desperate enough to kill.