Page 82 of Battle Mountain

“Let me know when you know something,” Joe said.

Then: “I briefed the governor’s chief of staff last night where we’re at. I’m guessing I’m not the most popular guy at the governor’s residence this morning.”

She laughed at that.

“In the meantime,” Joe said, “I’m going to make some breakfast and then saddle up Henry. My plan is to ride him up that road until I get to Summit. How long do you think that’ll take me?”

“It’s fifteen or so miles from where you’re camped, I’d guess,” she said. “It’ll take most of the day. Henry isn’t exactly a sprinter.”

“As I’ve learned,” Joe said. “So that’s my plan. If nothing else, I’ll find that old mining town and scratch it off the list.”

“Keep your phone on,” Kany said. “I’ll let you know how things are going down here.”

“I will,” Joe said, “although I don’t know if you’ll be able to callme on this phone. It’s losing its charge really fast. I don’t know how much longer it’ll last.”

“Crap. There must be something wrong with it. Maybe the battery is shot. In any case, if it goes completely dead, I’ll communicate with you by radio when we get close.”

“I wish I could plug it into a tree or something,” Joe mused. Then: “I’ll try and keep you posted if I can find anything of interest in Summit or along the road. If nothing pans out, I’ll head back and meet you wherever. By the way, thanks for talking to Marybeth.”

“She didn’t sound very happy,” Kany said.

“It wasn’t aimed at you; it was aimed at me. But we talked it out.”

Kany chuckled and punched off.

—

A half hourlater, outside Saddlestring at the state-owned home and game warden station on the banks of the Twelve Sleep River, Sheridan escorted Kestrel out into the garage and buckled the little girl in her car seat in Marybeth’s blue Ford Bronco.

“You have a good day, sweetie,” Sheridan said.

“Bye-bye,” Kestrel said while blowing Sheridan an exaggerated lip-smacking kiss. Sheridan returned the gesture.

As Marybeth entered the garage, Sheridan said, “You look nice today.”

Marybeth wore a dark suit with a white blouse and her string of pearls.

“I’ve got an all-staff meeting this morning,” Marybeth said. “I’ve got to get them prepared for budget cuts from the county commissioners, and that’s never fun.”

Sheridan told her mother that she was also headed to town right behind her to run errands and that she’d try to meet her for lunch. “I’ve got to get a roll of chicken wire at the feedstore so I can repair our Yarak pigeon coop. A fox tried to break in a couple of nights ago to get at the birds.

“I’ve also got a meeting with our CPA. It took me a while to get up to speed on Yarak’s recordkeeping after Liv—”

Marybeth quickly placed her index finger up to her lips as a signal to Sheridan, who caught herself and didn’t finish her sentence in front of Kestrel.

“Let me know if you hear from you-know-who,” Sheridan said after a beat.

“I’dbetterhear from him,” Marybeth said with a concerned look on her face.

—

Road dust fromMarybeth’s Bronco still hung in the air on the gravel road when Sheridan departed for Saddlestring in her SUV. She had a full day ahead of her: chicken wire, post office, grocery store, the meeting with the CPA, then out to Nate’s compound, where the office for Yarak, Inc.was located. She had bills, paperwork, and emails to catch up on, along with the repair of the pigeon coop. There was also a colony of gophers encroaching toward the mews from the sagebrush pasture, making holes in the ground a horse or cow could step into and snap their legs. That’s why Nate’s ancient 12-gauge pump shotgun was leaned muzzle-down on the passenger floorboard.

She was wary about the meeting with the CPA because Sheridan had questions shehopedhe would have answers for. Should shescale back the bird abatement business since Nate was still gone, or ramp it up and hire additional falconers? Demand hadn’t decreased in the past year with Nate away, and she’d been turning down some lucrative jobs because she couldn’t handle them all herself.

If she did hire additional falconers, should they be given a salary or be paid by the job? What would the tax ramifications be for scaling up or down? What regulations would kick in for doing either?

Sheridan wished she’d taken more business classes in college and that she had paid more attention to Liv’s side of the business before Liv was killed. Running a small business was much more challenging than she realized. There were days where she felt that she was flying blind and the business part of Yarak was overwhelming her time and knowledge. Sheridan wished she could return to the days where she was simply a master falconer sent on assignments.

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