Page 92 of Mountain Man’s Mystic Touch

“There is nothing to discuss.”

His gaze fixes on mine. “Someone broke into your booth.”

“And if I disappear, he learns that it worked.”

“This isn’t about proving you’re brave.”

“No. It’s about refusing to let him decide what I do with my gift.”

Rocco’s eyes harden, but I recognize the conflict beneath. He wants to protect me. He also knows exactly how I will respond if protection begins to feel like another form of control.

“We’re not resolving this here,” he says.

“That sounds suspiciously like a compromise.”

Carver clears his throat, but his mouth twitches before he looks away.

Rocco lowers his voice. “You don’t return to this booth unless I’m satisfied it can be secured.”

“That is a condition I can accept. We can negotiate tomorrow.”

His eyes narrow, but his arm relaxes around me. Deputy Carver photographs the open drawer and begins packaging the Tower card. As he slides it into a clear evidence sleeve, I notice a dark streak across the lower border of the image.

“Wait.”

Everyone stills.

I point without touching. “That mark wasn’t there before.”

Carver angles his light over it. A thin reddish-brown smear cuts across the white edge.

“Could be dirt,” he says.

Rocco crouches to examine it. “The ground outside the east entrance is gravel. No red soil.”

“But there is red clay near the old equipment road,” Grant says from outside. “North of the festival property.”

Rocco rises. “How far?”

“Less than a mile through the trees.”

The men exchange a look that requires no explanation. The intruder may not have approached from the county road. He may have come through the woods and used the service entrance only after reaching the grounds.

Rocco tells Grant to bring up the property map. Carver speaks into his radio, requesting another deputy before anyone searches the equipment road.

Their voices surround me, practical and controlled, but my attention remains on the Tower sealed inside transparent plastic.

The emotional impression has faded. The certainty has not. Whoever left the card doesn’t merely expect something to fall. He intends to be the one who brings it down.

Chapter 17

Rocco

Red clay marks the bottom edge of the Tower card. The old equipment road runs along the northern boundary of the festival property, separated from the vendor grounds by almost a mile of dense pine and uneven terrain. It hasn’t been used since summer, when crews brought in materials to repair the lodge roof. According to Grant, the entrance remains chained, but anyone on foot could follow it without being seen from the county road.

I study the property map on his tablet. The equipment road curves above the festival grounds before ending near an old maintenance shed. From that elevation, a person could see the lodge, the eastern vendor row, and part of the main stage, including Loralee’s booth.

“We need to search it,” I say.