Mrs. Dutton (Yellowstone) (Kayce Dutton)

Chapter 4; Broken Glass

I couldn't even hear my scream. I couldn't hear anything.

Kayce yelled something and covered me with his body. We laid there for a few seconds.

And then it was still. Quiet.

"You okay?" Kayce broke the silence. I nodded. He crawled out of bed and creeped towards the window. 

The window was completely shattered. The glass was spread all over the room. The wood frame was blown out too. 

"What the hell was that?" I stuttered. He sighed.

"Either a really powerful gas line blew," He paused and turned around, "Or a big ass bomb." I gasped.

"A bomb? How- Who?" I stuttered. He wiped his face and shook her head.

"I don't know. Let's get some clothes on and make sure everyone's okay." We got dressed and headed down the stairs. Everyone was standing in the living room talking quietly. John saw us come down the stairs.

"You guys alright?" He asked. I nodded.

"Yeah, but can't say the same for the windows." Kayce grunted. We all looked around at the broken glass. I noticed there wasn't any power either. 

"Yeah, a bang like than certainly couldn't be the gas." John mumbled. 

"Let's go check it out." Kayce said. He turned to me. "Do wanna start sweepin' up all this glass?"

"Sure thing. Let me know if you need help." I said softly and squeezed his arm. Kayce, John, Jamie, and Beth all walked outside. I heard Rip and the rest of the boys run up to the porch too. I grabbed the broom and started sweeping. 

I had it mostly swept and thrown away before anyone came back inside. Jamie walked in holding a small item. I leaned the broom against the wall and followed him into the kitchen. 

"Any luck?" I asked. He set the item on the counter. It almost looked like a burnt piece of cardboard. 

"Just some stuff that looks like gunpowder residue," He paused and looked down, "and a few pieces of burnt cardboard."

"Why would someone put cardboard in a bomb?" I scoffed.

"Probably in a cardboard box so it would look natural." Jamie grumbled. He turned and grabbed John's glasses from the counter. "Could you run these out to him?"

"Sure thing." I took them and walked out to the porch. I had to step over a broken chair in the doorway and wade through torn bush limbs until I got down the stairs. There were a few sheriff's department cars parked on the grass. John was staring down at the charred hole in the steps. I tapped his shoulder and handed him the glasses.

"Thank you, Lindsey." He mumbled. I walked slowly around the damaged entrance. Sheriff Haskell finished talking to Rip and walked over to John.

"What is fuck's sake John?" Haskell said. They both stayed silent and looked around for a minute. A crime scene analyst walked over from the spot of the explosion. 

"What you got?" Haskell asked.

"A lot of cardboard shrapnel around, so it was probably sent in a package. There was some type of residue  that we're sending to the lab." The CSA reported.

"How long will that take?" John grunted. 

"It depends on how busy they are, but anywhere from twenty four to seventy two hours." 

"Make it twelve." John said. The CSA nodded and headed over to a van. Haskell sighed and turned to everyone standing around.

"Well, did anyone see anything yesterday? Maybe a post office package or someone putting anything near here?" Nobody said anything. I scoured my mind. I was here the whole day. It could have happened when I was asleep. I started running through my day, event by event while everyone else chatted quietly. I talked to Kayce, went to bed, talked to Beth, went outside to the arena, then went back inside...