“Yeah, I can see how that would be the case. That place is your life. Was your life, anyway. A lot of things changed that night. I imagine that angered you.”

George glared.

Good for him, Victoria thought. He knows to sit silently when there’s no question on the table.

“Were any other places of business ransacked?” Rory asked.

“Joey Abbott’s was stripped clean. The grocery too.”

“Did you see that while it was happening?”

George rolled his eyes. Déjà vu, right? “No, I did not.”

“Why did you fight with Kyle and Caine Foster that morning?”

“Joey and I found them inside Joey’s store where they didn’t belong.”

“As I understand it, you made some assumptions about their actions leading up to that point, is that correct?”

George looked at the floor.

“Caine Foster is in the courtroom,” Rory said, pointing. “I could ask him to testify if you’d like.”

George took his time, but he got to it. “We saw them in the store, and we assumed that they were the ones who robbed the place.”

“Were you correct?”

“Obviously not.”

“Has something transpired in the past two weeks that makes you more adept at judging the perpetrators of events that you have not witnessed?”

Rory might have pushed too hard with that question. George was getting hot, color rising in his cheeks.

“I withdraw the question,” Rory said. “Need we go through this exercise regarding the murder of Ryan Hamilton?”

“No.”

“Just to be clear,” Rory said. “Did you see who shot Ryan?”

“No.”

“Thank you.” Rory paused, as if to collect his thoughts. He wandered back to his table and looked at some notes he’d written. Then he stood straight and started his slow pacing again. “I want to shift gears now and address the day Mr. May was taken into custody. The day when you and your posse went up the mountain.”

George waited.

Victoria shifted in her seat. She hadn’t discussed this with Rory, hadn’t prepared him for the perils of exploring new territory. Justice was winning thus far, but it was a fragile win.

“What was your intent when you went with the posse up the mountain that afternoon?”

“When Major McCrea over there told us about the body they’d passed on the way in, and about the way the guy they encountered reacted, we thought we needed to check it out.”

“Did you consider at the time the possibility that the people Major McCrea and his party encountered might also be the parties who ransacked your station?”

“Of course.”

Rory returned to his table and riffled through papers till he found the one he wanted. He showed the paper to his witness. “Do you recognize this as the statement you wrote and submitted to Mrs. Emerson immediately after you placed Mr. May in custody?”

“Yes.”