Page 38 of JoyRide

“Okay, take half. We’ve got tons of work to do. Let’s get back on track. Get the chores done. Get to the office and then after lunch, we can go see Travis and he should be awake.”

“Yep. I’m up. Tonight, I’ll sleep in my own bed. I promise.”

“I’m not saying I didn’t like you sleeping with me,” I said. “Nothing like that. We just wouldn’t have a big case of the guilts if we’d never done it.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I’m sorry.”

“No, I don’t want you to be sorry, and I’m not sorry. Better for living with Dad if it didn’t happen—that’s all I’m say’n.”

“Yeah, I hope I don’t freak out and tell him,” said Tammy.

“That is what you’renotgoing to do, Tam. By the time we get him home from the hospital, it will be in the past and not so fresh in our minds. We’ll be able to live with it better.”

“Yeah. You’re the smart one, Harlan. After Tibor and all that stuff, I figured I’d never have sex with anybody ever. Kind of surprised me when I wanted to have sex with you…like real bad…and it was so fuckin easy.”

I put my hands over my ears so I couldn’t hear Tammy talking about us having sex. Bad idea.

When I came out of the shower, I could hear her downstairs in the kitchen. Probably making coffee. We had a heavy day ahead of us.

We worked through the chores at the barn without any touching and that was best for me. The horses were fed and cleaned out and in the corral when we ran inside for a fast breakfast.

Tammy made fried egg sandwiches and we ate them in the squad on the way to Coyote Creek.

“Our statements about the shootings at the trailer are going to be long,” she said. “Yours and Ted’s will be even longer than mine. Much drugs there?”

“Yeah, Ted bagged all of it and we brought all of the guns in too. Lots of evidence for Molly.”

“But the drug guys are dead. Who can we charge?”

“Their boss, if we knew who the hell that was.”

“They might all have been calling the same number and that’s the boss,” said Tammy. “Molly could compare the phone calls on the four cells and come up with a number.”

“Good plan, Tam. That’s a great idea. We have all of the phones. I took them off the bodies when I grabbed their wallets for ID.”

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek.

“Morning, Molly,” I hollered from the back door when Tammy and I came in with the dogs. They’d been whiny overnight, and they searched the house for Travis this morning. Max and Sarge ran into the squad room to Molly, and she hugged them.

“They been crying, Molly,” said Tammy. “They looked all through the house this morning, upstairs and down, trying to find Travis.”

“Oh, no. That’s a heartbreaking story.” She leaned down and hugged both of them.

I plopped the evidence bag holding the cell phones on the counter in front of Molly. “Tell her your idea about the phone numbers, Tam.”

Tammy explained what she hoped was true and Molly said she would look for a match.

We gave her our statements of what went down at Sunburst Acres, and she got all of it typed into the computer. She barely had time to finish that up when a call came in on the landline.

“Sheriff’s office. How can I help you?”

I stood there watching as she grabbed her pen and started writing down the details. Didn’t take long and the call was over.

“Kids came to Shelby lumber, and they had a gun. One of the men working in the yard is hurt. The kids stole a different vehicle and they’re gone.”

“Those are the same kids who hurt Billy,” said Tammy. “Come on, Ted. We all have to go after them.”

“Bring both squads,” I said to Ted. “Never know if we’re going to need both.”

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