He wasn’t there when she arrived.  However, as Darlene returned from her trip east she had spotted lights from over 10 miles away - the sort used to light up an industrial lot or a stadium.  They were just off to the south side of the intersection of I-25 and I-40.  Lights that bright took power, not just some small generator.  But if anyone was resourceful enough to figure out a way to get that kind of energy going, he was certainly the sort.  Maybe a solar farm?

The goat was still at his main base.  He wouldn’t have simply abandoned it.  And he had mentioned a horse he was nursing back to health being kept in the grass field just south of his base.  The temporary coral was still there complete with a wrapping of chicken wire and a very simplified electric fence on top to keep predators from crawling over.

Duncan had said he probably wouldn’t stick around much longer if he planned to leave.  Half of his supply containers were already gone - as was the 18 wheeler tractor - and the 5th wheel trailer he had picked out and set up for her.  He was still working and using the lighting to work after dark.  Darlene was almost the point of having to decide whether to stay and wait, or roll out and try to find Duncan when she heard the sound of the 18 wheeler returning.

++++++++++

Duncan had already been alerted to Darlene’s approach almost half an hour earlier.  He had simply kept working.  He wasn’t about to drop everything and come running like some puppy needing attention.  His face was impassive as he climbed out of the truck.  He didn’t even look at the girl.

Duncan was clearly passive aggressive.

And he was still mad.

He took the paper - still without looking.  He didn’t even bother to read it.  “You can sleep on the couch.”  His voice was dull and flat.  “I already loaded the RV onto the train.  I’m tired.  I haven’t eaten all day.  I need a shower.  I am going to eat or I am likely to say things I might regret later.  There’s enough for you too.”

He kept walking toward his RV without another word.

It was deer stew again.  He seemed to be the sort of guy that would cook the same thing over and over again if he could get away with it.  He was wearing blue jeans and a black T shirt - again.  Come to think of it, that was all she had seen him wear.  He had been drenched in sweat and stank.  He had helmet hair.  His face looked a little sunburned around his sunglasses.

As soon as they walked into his RV he set the letter on the table, turned to head for his bedroom, pulling off his shirt as he went and tossing it into the trash can.  For the first time Darlene saw the criss cross pattern scars of whip marks across his whole back, as well and the 6 inch scar from a knife wound to his stomach.  That was the exit wound.

He showed back up in the dining room cleaned up and wearing brand new jeans and - you guessed it - a black T shirt.  The shirt still had a sticker on it that he had missed.