Page 74 of Lawless Ride

“The brother has a Shelby address,” said Molly, “and he works at the lumberyard.”

“Great. The notification has to be done before I do anything else. We’ll catch him at work.”

Shelby Lumber and Supply.

Ted knew where the lumberyard was at the south end of Shelby just off the Interstate. I went to the front counter, displayed my badge, and inquired. “Where can I find Kyle Dangerfield?”

“Umm…let’s see. Kyle is delivering a load to a construction site north of town, but he should be back in a few minutes. He’s been gone a couple of hours already. You can watch for the truck out back, Sheriff.”

“Thanks.”

“Is Kyle in trouble?” Pretty girl with long auburn hair and big blue eyes.

“No. Not at all. I need to speak to him about a family matter. He’s not in trouble.”

“Good.” She smiled. “Kyle is a nice guy, and I don’t want him to be in trouble with the cops.”

“Nope. Nothing like that. You can rest easy.”

Outside, we rounded the huge building and waited near the loading dock for the lumber truck to return. It wasn’t long before the truck appeared with Kyle Dangerfield at the wheel—at least I figured it was him.

We strolled out to meet him and there was no doubt he was Ray’s brother. They looked a lot alike. I waited until he shut the engine off and climbed out of the truck.

“Hey, Kyle,” I said. “Sorry to come at you like this, but I’ve got some bad news about your brother, Ray.”

“What’s up with Ray? I ain’t seen him for a couple of days.”

“I’m afraid Ray is deceased, Kyle. So sorry for your loss.”

“No.” Kyle shook his head, then yanked his ball cap off and ran his fingers through his dark brown hair. “That can’t be right. There ain’t nothing wrong with Ray. He ain’t sick. He’s healthy and strong as a bull.”

I rubbed my jaw. “I can attest to his strength. At the last confrontation I had with Ray, he plowed me in the face, and I’ve got the bruise to prove it.”

Kyle wasn’t listening to my feeble attempt at humor. “How could he just die?”

I let out a breath and said the words I didn’t want to say. “Kyle, Ray was shot in the head by an unknown assailant. He was murdered. I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“No, that couldn’t happen,” said Kyle. “Who in hell would kill Ray?” Then a look crossed Kyle’s face like a light was dawning.

“What did you think of?” I asked.

“Women trouble,” said Kyle. “Ray always had two or three women on the go, and he was constantly trying to juggle them so they wouldn’t find out about the others. I always razzed him about it.”

“Who were the current favorites?” I asked.

Kyle sucked in a big breath and didn’t answer my question. “This is bad. I can’t really believe it.” He shoved his hat back on his head and reached for his smokes.

“It will take some time to come to terms with it,” I said.

“Where is Ray?” Kyle lit up an American Spirit.

“He’s in the morgue in Cut Bank. I’m sorry, Kyle, but I need to ask you a few questions.”

“Don’t know if I can answer any questions. I’m not quite believing this. Ray wasn’t even forty, for chrissakes.” Kyle flicked away his half-smoked cigarette, pulled a fresh pack out of his jacket and ripped it open. Nervous energy and he was upset. Extremely upset about his brother.

“Let’s talk about the women Ray was seeing.”

Kyle leaned on the truck and let out a long breath of resignation. “Always Tanya Boyd and him and Tory got into a couple times about that. They were both doing her when her husband wasn’t looking.”

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