The Witness

keep the money.”
    “I don’t want your money.”
    “Listen, listen, I got lost. I dropped my compass and broke it. I saw the cabin through my binoculars when I was scanning around. I just came for some help. Call the police.”
    “Where did you leave your car?”
    “If I knew, I wouldn’t be lost. I don’t mean to be a smart-ass,” he added quickly. “I drove out of Bickford, south out of town for about a mile, then I pulled over. The light was really good, the shadows. I wanted to take some shots. Photographs, I mean,” he said, with another wary look at the gun.
    “You should respect private property.”
    “Yes, you’re right. I’m really sorry.”
    She pointed. “If you go that way, you’ll come to the road. Turn left. You should find your car in about a quarter-mile.”
    “Okay. Thanks. I’ll just—”
    “Take your pack,” she told him, as he started to step off the porch without it.
    “Okay.” He picked it up, his eyes shifting from her face, to the gun, to the dog, back again. “Thank you.”
    “You’re welcome.”
    She watched him walk away, in quite a hurry, until he was out of sight. Back in the house, she continued to watch him on the monitor as he hiked at a half-jog up her road to the main one, tossing glances over his shoulders every few minutes.
    She’d frightened him, she thought. Well, he’d frightened her. She supposed that made them even.
    R OLAND KNEW EXACTLY where his car was parked.
    He hadn’t been expecting the gun. He hadn’t been expecting the cameras, either. He’d been told she had security, including cameras around the house. Nobody had mentioned she had them ranged back in the woods.
    If he hadn’t spotted one when he had, he’d have blown the job.
    She’d bought the scared, lost hiker routine. Why not? He
had
been scared. She’d held the Glock like someone who knew how to use it. Like someone who would use it.
    He had to admire that, now that he wasn’t standing on the wrong side of it.
    And the dog. He’d known about the dog, but
God damn,
that was one big bastard.
    Then the locks on the back door. As good as they came, he mused,as he tossed the pack in the backseat. He was pretty damn good with the picks, but he’d never get through those. Moot point, as he couldn’t get by the cameras, not without a whole lot of equipment.
    That much security? Overkill.
    The job just got a lot more interesting. Anybody with security like that, the big dog, the Glock, the ’tude?
    She had something to hide. He loved finding out what people wanted to hide.

24
     
    B ROOKS CAME INTO THE KITCHEN WITH A CLUTCH OF WHITE daisies with bright yellow buttons and a rawhide bone for Bert.
    “You brought me flowers again.”
    “My daddy brings my mama flowers once or twice a week, and I figured out it’s because they make her smile, just like you are now.”
    “I worried things wouldn’t be right when you came tonight, that it would feel awkward after everything. And you brought me daisies.”
    “Then you can stop worrying.”
    She got a vase, wished she had a pretty little pitcher instead, and vowed to buy one the next time she went into town.
    “Every time I come in here something smells good, in addition to you.”
    “It’s the rosemary,” she told him, as she arranged the flowers. “It’s very fragrant. I found a new recipe for chicken I wanted to try.”
    “Happy to be your taste-tester.”
    “It should go well with the
Pouilly-Fumé
.”
    “If you say so.” He brushed her hair back, then indulged himself with a nuzzle of her neck. “How’d your day go?”
    “I was restless and distracted, but I finished some work. And I wasinterrupted by a lost hiker—a photographer. I don’t understand why people don’t respect boundary lines. There’s so much land here open to the public, there’s no need to come onto private property.”
    “Grass is always greener. He came to the house?”
    “Yes. He set off the alarm, and I saw him on the monitor. He dropped and broke his compass, and apparently saw the cabin through his binoculars.”
    Brooks paused in the act of pouring their wine. “Binoculars?”
    She checked the chicken. “Yes. I wondered if he’d seen the camera through them, but apparently he was looking for his way, or some help. I went outside, around the greenhouse, so I could come up behind him.”
    “You went out, when some strange guy was coming to the house?”
    “I know how to take care of myself. I’ve been doing it for a long