Page 47 of Lawless Ride

“He didn’t even care,” said Harlan. “You should get him fired.”

“Good idea. Maybe I’ll put some effort into doing just that.”

Wild Stallion Ranch.

After a tough day, doing a job I didn’t want to do, I enjoyedsaddling Outlaw and riding like the wind to the back of my thousand acres.

Harlan had become proficient at saddling his horse and he was quick to check all the details like Tammy and Lucy had taught him. The last thing he wanted was to look stupid or sloppy in their eyes.

“Can hardly wait to see what we’ve got on the cameras,” he said as he stuck his foot in the stirrup.

When we got back to the cams, he examined what all three had recorded and there were no riders or mustangs. Only elk and one lumbering bear.

Disappointed, we galloped back to the house and cooled the horses out. As we fed them, Harlan said again that he wanted to go back to Hannah’s ranch next door to look for the guy I’d shot.

“Yep, we’ll drop over there one day soon,” I said. “If none of Hannah’s hands are nursing a shot leg, it’s going to piss her off bad, Harlan, that we came back at her again.”

“I didn’t know you cared about pissing people off.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I usually don’t. I was considering having to live next door to her as our neighbor if we were wrong about the guy being one of hers. We’re only guessing that he might be. No evidence that he is.”

“What if we rode over that way tomorrow and looked to see if there was a trail or any kind of evidence that the riders were coming from her ranch?” asked Harlan.

“Yep. A little bit of confirmation first. Much better idea. We’ll do that for sure.”

Harlan grinned.

Dry Run Roadhouse.

We heated up leftover lasagna for dinner, got cleaned up and headed for the roadhouse. I needed a pitcher of Miller to relax and if I relaxed enough at the roadhouse, I might be able to comeup with a plausible theory on the two murders. That’s what I was telling myself to justify drinking a lot of beer and forgetting about my problems for a while.

As I drove south, I said to Harlan, “Something is missing from the case. A big chunk of motive for one thing. It ain’t about money—at least, I don’t think it is. I’ve been wrong before but there’s no money trail to follow. None that I can see.”

“Isn’t jealousy a big motive?” asked Harlan.

“Sure is. Comes under love as a sub-category. Love, money, revenge are the top three.”

“Love, money, revenge. I’m memorizing motives.”

“The only money involved will be insurance money on the two men. Josie will get Tory’s insurance when she’s cleared of killing him, and Tanya will get Boyd’s policy money—whatever amount that happens to be—probably a big policy on a guy like that.”

“We should find out the amounts,” said Harlan. “Two women will come out on top of the two murders if they’re cleared.”

“Uh huh. What does that tell us?”

“Tells me that we need to hack into the policies and see how much they’re worth,” said Harlan.

“One more thing to keep me awake tonight. Let’s forget about it for now.” I parked the truck, and we went inside the bar.

Harlan and I sat down at the end of the bar and Jack made a point of serving every other customer before he filled a pitcher for me and got Harlan a Coke.

“What’s up your ass, Johnson?” I was in no mood to be screwed over for something I hadn’t done.

“I heard Savanna’s been spending time at your ranch, and I’m not happy about it.”

“Did the person who told you that say that I didn’t invite her, and she showed up at my place on her own?”

Jack showed me a snarly face and said nothing.

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