Page 30 of Lawless Ride

The four of them were so high they hardly knew or cared we were hauling their asses to jail.

It was a tight fit for the four of them in the back of the squad, but we managed. Max and Sarge had to ride in the hatch—something they weren’t too fond of doing.

As soon as the prisoners were secure with the dogs watching them, Harlan and I went back inside with evidence bags and gathered up everything we could find.

A good haul for Molly to put into evidence on Monday morning.

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek.

Jonah Hacking occupied cell one, Tanya Boyd was next to Jonah in cell two. Art Andrews in cell three. Now we had four new prisoners to fit into the remaining three cells.

Being female, Josie Masters needed a cell to herself because I couldn’t put her in with Tanya Boyd. I figured those two women must hate each other because of Tory and would scratch each other’s eyes out.

I locked Josie in cell six alone and that left Grant Andrews and his two drug buddies for the last two cells. I unlocked Art Andrews’ cell and shoved his cousin Grant in with him.

That left me with a cell each for the drug guys. As I was locking them up, I asked them about Clay Peterson.

“Where’s your buddy Clay hanging out?”

They pretended not to know who I was talking about, and I let it go. I’d press them harder the following day while Harlan was booking them, and I found out their names and what kind of jacket each of them had.

At the moment, I didn’t care if they had names or not. This was my weekend off they were screwing with.

“I’ll be back later to bring y’all some dinner. Take a nap while I’m gone. Rest up for tomorrow.”

From opposite ends of the run, Tanya and Josie were screaming threats at each other. There might not be much resting going on for the male prisoners.

Masters’ Residence. Coyote Creek.

While we were in town, Harlan and I went back to the Masters’ house to look for Tory’s phone. This time we did a thorough search and it paid off.

Harlan found the phone under the bed where Tory had dropped it when he was dying. Somehow it had been kicked under the bed and we didn’t see it the first time around.

“Nice work, Harlan. This phone is going to help us out large.”

“It might help Doc Olson out too if we get him the name of the right poison.”

“Consider this. If Josie was the one with the names of the poisons and she didn’t kill her husband, then whoever did kill Tory knew about the phone threats and they knew the names of the poisons.”

“Tory told Ray, his working buddy,” said Harlan, “and Tory could’ve told his girlfriend, Tanya, about Josie texting him. Those were the only two who knew about the texts.”

“Yep. So, Ray or Tanya, and of course, Tanya swears she didn’t kill Tory, but she won’t tell me what she was doing in his house the day he died.”

“Maybe they were having a sex marathon, and she doesn’t want to talk about it,” said Harlan.

“Yeah, I thought about that, but for some reason, I don’t think that’s what she’s hiding. I wish the county could afford a lab and a couple of techs, but it’s out of the question. We have to fumble along like they did in the days of the old wild west. I feel like Doc Holliday taking fingerprints.”

Harlan laughed.

Wild Stallion Ranch.

After we had the phone, we took a quick drive back to the ranch to pick up the girls for the trip to Cut Bank. They were waiting on the front porch for us, excited to be going with me and Harlan.

“Why are we going to Cut Bank?” asked Tammy.

“Harlan needs a laptop for work and we’re going to the electronics store,” I said.

“Wow, this is going to be fun, Harlan,” said Tammy. “What kind of computer are you going to get?”

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