Page 22 of Stormy Ride

Katie’s Good Eats. Cut Bank.

I sat in a booth near the back of the crowded diner and when the waitress came rushing towards me, I ordered two coffees. Wyatt came in moments later and joined me in my booth.

“Can you help me with this, Wyatt?” I shoved one of my posters his way.

He took a minute to read everything Molly had included, then looked up with a big grin on his face, his eyes dancing.

“Oh, wow, Travis. This is something. This poster says it all and I would be happy to run it for you on the front page.”

“Great. I was hoping you’d say that. I want all the ranchers to see it as soon as possible.”

“Can you give me any other details if I was to put a story with the poster?”

“I don’t have too much more, and I wish I did. For the time being, I’d prefer it if you didn’t talk to Mrs. Quade. Waiting until after the funeral would be respectful.”

“Yes. I was holding off on contacting her out of respect for her situation,” said Wyatt.

“I think I put everything I have on the poster.” I read it over one more time. “Two guys wearing bulky parkas, a description of the rig. The number of stolen horses.”

“Anything you missed that I could incorporate into a little sidebar?” Wyatt sounded hopeful.

“Both murderers could have been treated for buckshot wounds in the backs of their legs or their asses,” I said. “I didn’t put that on there. Molly is checking clinics.”

“Mrs. Quade shot them?” Wyatt’s eyes were wide.

“Yep. She ran out with Randy’s shotgun and she’s pretty sure she nailed both of them from behind.”

“This is great stuff, Travis. I’ll write about the buckshot and alerting the clinics and hospitals. Fantastic.”

I pulled the paper out of my pocket with the descriptions of the horses on it. “You can use this. Mrs. Quade described each of the stolen horses in detail. People could be on the watch for quarter horses with these markings.”

“For sure, they could. Let me get the descriptions down, Travis. This is great.”

I waved the waitress over for coffee refills. Wyatt was going to need a little more time to get all the details down in his notes.

“Also, you could finish off by asking any ranchers who have been visited by these guys to be cautious of their return and to call the sheriff’s office.”

“Holy shit, Travis. Are they casing the ranchers in the area?”

“Yes. I know of one ranch for certain where they’ve been posing as potential customers. I’m thinking if they’ve been to one ranch, they’ve been to others.”

“You can’t tell me where they’ve been?”

“No. But you can be sure I’ve been there and confirmed it in person.”

“This is going to be a fantastic story, Travis. Can’t thank you enough.”

“No problem. We have to help each other, Wyatt. These guys killed an innocent rancher and they have to be caught as soon as possible.”

Cut Bank Hospital.

My next stop was the hospital where I wanted to spend some time filling Billy in on everything, I was doing to find Randy Quade’s killer. It was Billy’s idea to talk to Marilyn Pellegrino and that paid off big time. She had seen the killers in person.

I hoped Billy had come up with something else since the last time we talked. He had time to lie in his bed and think about the case while I was out beating the bushes for suspects.

He was sitting up a little straighter in his bed than he had been the day before and he grinned as I walked into his room.

“Hey, I brought you something to look at.” I handed him one of the big yellow posters.

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