Page 35 of Battle Mountain

After Yvette left with the orders of a cheeseburger for Joe and a Cobb salad for Kany, Kany said, “Small towns, eh?”

“Small towns,” Joe echoed.

Kany leaned forward across the table and kept her voice low so she wouldn’t be overheard by the town fathers. “Now you can tell me why you’re here,” she said more than asked. “Please keep in mind that our friends over there are mighty curious as well, so keep your voice down.”

“I understand.”

—

While Joe explainedthe reason he had come, he purposefully withheld several pieces of information. He told her he’d been asked to help locate outfitter Spike Rankin and his employee, but Joe didn’t say who had asked him and he didn’t reveal the relationship between Governor Rulon and his son-in-law.

“I’m hoping you know where Rankin’s elk camp is located and we can find him,” Joe said to Kany.

Her expression showed skepticism while Joe spoke.

“I don’t get it,” she said. “Why didn’t they just ask me to go find him? Why did they send you all the way down here from Twelve Sleep County?”

“That’s how bureaucracy works sometimes,” he said with a shrug. “Don’t take it personally. I quit trying to figure out the logic in state government a long time ago.”

Kany sat back and eyed Joe with suspicion. He didn’t blame her. She was sharp, he thought, and even if she didn’t outwardly question his story, he knew it didn’t completely add up. Joe’s badge indicated that he was number twelve in the game warden hierarchy within the state—the twelfth in seniority out of fifty. Kany’s badge revealed that she was number forty-eight. So she deferred.

Joe wasn’t comfortable thinking of himself as one of the good old boys within the agency, but he understood it if Kany felt that way. From what he’d revealed, there was no good reason why she hadn’t been asked to locate the outfitter in her own district.

“I’ve met Spike Rankin a few times,” she said. “He’s a crusty old guy, but he seems straight as an arrow, and he didn’t give me any crap at all when I asked him for his camp permit or when I checked out his hunters. There was a time last elk-hunting season when one of his clients wanted to mess with me a little by pretending he couldn’t find his license and inviting me to search his tent with him, and Rankin shot that guy down real fast and told him to comply. I appreciated that.”

“That’s good to hear,” Joe said. “I’ve only heard good things about him as well. He’s an ethical hunting guide.”

“He showed me respect,” Kany said. “He didn’t treat me like the new-girl game warden. That doesn’t always happen around here.”

“I was the new game warden once,” Joe said. “I know the feeling.”

“But I sure got the vibe that he’d call me out in a heartbeat if he thought I was doing something wrong or being heavy-handed,” Kany said. “So I played things by the book. I always do.”

“That’s always a good idea,” Joe said. “Even when it isn’t the easiest way to go.”

She smiled shyly at that, Joe noticed. No doubt, she knew much more about him than he knew about her. Although he was proud of his Dudley Do-Right reputation for the most part, he still wasn’t used to being a man whom younger wardens looked up to and shared stories about. He didn’t think he’d ever get used to it. In Joe’s mind, nearly twenty years later, he was still a rookie and in over his head.

“Maybe we should go talk to Sheriff Haswell,” Kany said. “That guy has been here for a hundred years and he knows everyone. He might have an idea where Rankin is.”

Joe sucked in his breath and held it a moment. The governor expressly said he didn’t want to involve Haswell, but Joe couldn’t tell her that. Yet.

“How about we check out Rankin’s elk camp first?” Joe said. “Because if he’s been there all along, there’s no reason to involve the sheriff at all, and I can get out of your hair.”

“You’re not in my hair,” Kany said as her Cobb salad arrived. “It’s a pleasure to host you here in my district.”

As Joe picked up his cheeseburger, Kany said, “I went to school with your daughter, you know.”

“My daughter? At UW?”

“Sheridan,” Kany said. “I was in a couple of classes with her. I talked to her once at a party. She was sweet and smart.”

Joe contemplated that for a moment. It meant Susan Kany wasaround twenty-six, like Sheridan. And it made him feel suddenly very, very old.

“I didn’t tell her I was coming down here to work with you,” Joe said finally. “I’ll ask her if she remembers meeting you.”

“We were on different tracks,” Kany said. “We hung with different crowds. I was interested in criminal justice and aviation. She was more into wildlife biology, I think.”

“That’s right,” Joe said.

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