Page 23 of Battle Mountain

“Why not?” he said. “She’s our practice grandchild. We need to work on sneaking around again.”

Which made her laugh. But instead of retreating back to the house, Marybeth came into the garage and extended her hand and said, “Follow me.”

—

A half hourlater, Joe’s cell phone burred when he backed his pickup out of the garage. He saw on the screen that the call was coming from Ann Byrnes.

“Joe Pickett.”

“Joe, this is Ann Byrnes, Governor Rulon’s chief of staff.”

“I know who you are. You don’t have to say that every time.”

“Are you in Warm Springs?”

“I got delayed, but I’m on the way.”

He smiled to himself as he said it. The delay was more than worth it.

“I was hoping you’d be there by now,” Byrnes said with obvious irritation.

He sighed. “It’s a four-and-a-half-hour drive from Saddlestring, you know. Not everyone has a state plane.”

“I’m well aware of that,” she said. “Well, I hope you’re successful—and quick.”

“Me too.”

“Because until we can get this situation resolved, the governor will be beside himself. He’s not very productive when he’s in the state he’s in.”

“I get that,” Joe said. “I’ll do my best.”

“Quickly and efficiently,” she said. “And undercover, so to speak.”

“Yup.”

“Please keep me informed of your progress. Even if it’s bad news.”

“Do you think it might be bad news?” Joe asked.

“Well, it’s about to be two days if we don’t hear from him tonight. What do they always say about the first forty-eight hours of a law enforcement investigation?”

“They say if you don’t solve the crime within that time, it’s unlikely you ever will.”

“Let’s hope that’s not the case here. That would be extremely unfortunate, not to mention unacceptable.”

“I’ll keep you informed,” Joe said, punching off.

Chapter Six

Mark Eisele hadslipped in and out of consciousness so many times that he wasn’t sure where he was, how long he’d been there, and what was or wasn’t real. His dreams had been turbulent and elaborate and vivid, and several times he’d awakened with his sheets soaked through with sweat from fever dreams.

In one of them, he had chased his father-in-law down a long hallway of a creepy old resort hotel in the mountains, à la the Overlook Hotel inThe Shining. While he trundled away from Eisele, Rulon kept glancing over his shoulder, imploring his son-in-law to stop pursuing him. The man was winded and flushed. But when Eisele finally cornered Rulon near the elevator and tackled him to the carpet, he was pulled off his father-in-law by massive bodyguards as well as his wife, Megan—andhis mother-in-law. For the purposes of his dream, they were heavily muscled and extremely strong. And he was easy to subdue.

In another, he slowly came to in a gleaming white hospital room. In it, Eisele was propped up slightly in bed and covered with clean sheets. An empty tray of hospital food was moved tothe side of the bed. There was a football game on the overhead television and he could see the gold dome of the state capitol though the window. Snow fell, even though the sun was out. He felt no pain, even though he was heavily bandaged and he couldn’t move his legs or arms. He didn’t know how he’d managed to eat his meal.

Two nurses entered the room and he greeted them. One had Megan’s face and the other his mother-in-law’s, but neither womanwashis wife or mother-in-law, and they were clearly puzzled when he insisted they were.

The nurse with Megan’s face said they had come to check up on him, as they did every couple of hours. When he asked why, the two women shared a glance between them that was ominous and it filled Eisele with dread.

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