Page 87 of Roaring Fork Wrangler

In the one from her senior year, there was a photo of my mother with Joe Sr. They’d been voted cutest couple. It was wild to see my mom at that age. I couldn’t recall ever seeing photos of her unless they were taken with us kids. There weren’t even any with my dad that Iremembered.

I’d taken a screenshot of it when Decker showed it to me, and studied it on my way here. There was something about the guy that looked familiar to me, but I couldn’t place him. Joe Junior favored his mother rather than his dad, so that wasn’t it. Still, it niggled at me.

In another photo of my mom with Brianna, both were wearing cheerleading outfits and the caption read their names followed by “Best friends and cheer sisters.”

Decker was certain that, rather than it being a coincidence, it had had some bearing on the son’s actions.

Me? I had a hard time buying it. It made a lot more sense that Jimmy Rooker was somehow involved.

However, the mystery of how Joe Junior had circumvented having his profile entered into the security system was cleared up when I looked for his employment records and couldn’t find any.

After Pete said none of the other cowboys recognized the kid, I thought back to the one and only time I’d met him in person. It was the night before my attempted murder, when I was headed out in the snowstorm to get the herd to safety. I’d seen him parked outside the estate gates and asked if I could help him. After he’d said he was Buck, I told him to get in thetruck and ride out with me. I couldn’t remember seeing him after we met up with the rest of the crew and he went out with a group on snowmobiles. Or at least that’s what I thought he’d done.

“Sam and Juni, any luck looking through Miss Cena’s journals?” Deck asked.

“Not so far,” Sam responded. “We were just about to get started when Gray asked us to join you.”

“My gut is telling me the kid’s parents are involved in some way. Each of them is being interviewed separately this morning. I expect I’ll hear if anything of interest comes of it.”

I scrubbed my face again.

“Cord? You got somethin’ to say?”

“No, sir.” I’d already told him I thought it was a huge stretch to think anyone not connected to Jimmy Rooker would want me dead. Especially my mother’s ex-boyfriend and her former best friend.

“Then, let’s move on.” He looked from Sam to Juni. “What I want the two of you to focus on is anything that mentions either Patricia, Wilkins, or his wife, whose maiden name was Conrad. Also, anything at all about Colorado.” He turned to Grayson. “You saidyou’d heard Johnny Rooker was living out west. Were you able to recall where you’d heard it?”

“No, sir,” Gray answered like I had.

“I’m coming up empty there too. Once the guy turned eighteen, it’s like he walked off the face of the earth. I even went as far as looking at protective-custody and witness-protection programs, but there wasn’t anyone matching his age, name, or social security number. No driver’s license in any state, no bank accounts.Nada.”

Decker stopped talking and studied something on his phone. After several seconds, he raised his head. “Also on that note, no death records either.”

While the rest of us waited for him to say something else, he went back to his phone, then cleared his throat.

“The precursors to the present-day internet were developed in the sixties. Functions were specific to military and government applications and, on the rare occasion, academics. If John, or Johnny, Rooker had no involvement with any of the three, the ability to track him, even as recently as thirty years ago, just wasn’t there yet.” He looked around the room. “Which means prior to twenty years ago, it was ahelluvalot easier for someone to go off the grid.”

He seemed distracted, and I wished he’d just tell us why.

“Do you want us to include Johnny in our search?” Sam asked.

“Affirmative. Given this family named the firstborn son the same fucking thing for four generations, keep your eye out for nicknames and initials too. I have a strong feeling that’s the key to why this seventeen-year-old kid tried to commit murder.”

“Understood,” Sam responded.

“Gray will be working with the two of you. He’ll have the ability to quickly scan whatever you find and get it over to me. I don’t want you or Juni bothering with that. The two of you are most familiar with those journals and will notice things the rest of us might not.”

Decker looked over at me. “I want you in with them in case they need any help. If I’ve got something else for you to follow up on once I hear from Pete, I’ll let you know.”

“Yes, sir,” I responded, but something was bugging me. I’d always known my mom was young when Buck was born, but I hadn’t realized the significance of it until right this minute. I swiped the screen of my cell and opened the photo Deck had sent me of JosephWilkins with my mom when they were still in high school. “Holy shit,” I said under my breath, looking up at him with wide eyes.

“What is it?” he asked, walking in my direction. I led him out to the front porch.

“Buck was born in December of 1992.”

Deck’s eyes scrunched. “From what we’ve been able to piece together, your mom left sometime that year.”

“Because she was pregnant?”

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