By the time Joey had finished what he was saying Glenn was halfway up the stairs, being very careful not to damage the footprints. Joey followed, equally carefully.
“I don’t think those are Nate’s footprints,” Glenn muttered. He pointed his light to the edge of the roof above the bookshop.
Joey immediately saw why he’d said that. The wind had done its thing up there as well as in the cut-through, leaving a fine layer of dust and debris on the rooftops. Footsteps led from the stairs to where Glenn was pointing.
“If I’m reading this right, and I’m damned sure I am, someone went over there, set down what they were carrying, probably a case because the mark is rectangular, and then knelt behind the parapet. He took something out of the case, and I’m betting I know what.”
Joey frowned. “A gun?”
“Yes. Best guess he was sighting it in on something or someone. That means Nate just might have seen something.” Glenn walked across to the area in question and knelt a few feet away. “Okay, Nate looks up for some reason, maybe our perp made a noise. He steps back to try to figure out who’s up here, sees the rifle barrel and decides to investigate. If the man spotted him…”
“He’d want to stop him before he could raise the alarm.”
“At least we have one possible scenario. The problem is how the man got Nate from the cut-through to… whatever. A car probably, which wouldn’t have been able to come into the cut-through.”
“And who is the man after? There’s no one around here anyone would want… dead.”
Glenn must have had the same thought because he nodded. “It was always a possibility.”
“But you said… No one knows you’re here. You told me that and I believed you.”
Glenn gripped Joey’s arms. “Calm down. This is the real world and as such there’s always a way of getting information no matter how well hidden it is. No one should be able to find me, ‘should’ being the operative word in that statement. I’ve covered my tracks to the best of my abilities, and my abilities are primo.” He chuckled softly. “Hoffa has nothing on me.”
“Hoffa’s dead,” Joey muttered.
“Perhaps, perhaps not. No one may ever know for certain. Which is what I’m saying, I’m as well hidden as he is, if he’s still alive.”
“Not quite, if someone’s hunting for you here.”
“Which we don’t know, and right now that’s not the issue anyway. We need to find Nate.”
“I… yeah we do. We need to re-interview everyone at either end of the cut-through about strange cars.”
“Any strange vehicle,” Glenn agreed as they headed down the stairs. “Unfortunately by now they’re probably all at home.”
“Not a problem. I don’t think there’s anyone in town I don’t know so we’ll go rapping on doors.”
Glenn smiled. “Now see, that’s where you have a distinct advantage over me. If I paid any of them a visit they’d probably slam the door in my face.”
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