Page 86 of JoyRide

We ordered our usual lunch, and I leaned in closer to Harlan. “I talked to Mrs. Smollett at the courthouse. Kind of interviewed her real friendly-like about the pickpocket gang.”

“Yeah?” Harlan’s big brown eyes lit up in anticipation of what I was going to tell him.

“I asked her if she knew her husband was running a gang of pickpockets.”

“And?”

“She swore she had no idea, but I had the feeling she was ready for my question. She was lying, Harlan. Easy to spot domestic abuse in her little world—she’s the poster girl—terrified of her husband. She won’t say anything against him until he’s locked up and can’t hurt her—that’s the way I see it.”

“What should we do?”

Maryanne brought our drinks, and I sipped my Coke until she went to the next table.

“Best if we let Dad handle Smollett and see where that takes us.”

Harlan grinned at the thought of Travis and Smollett having a little talk. “Can’t wait for the results of that meeting.”

“Me neither. That prick Smollett has no clue.”

When Maryanne brought our lunch, I ordered the food packages we needed for the prisoners we still had staying with us at the Jailhouse Inn.

“You kids trying to break Travis’s record for the most prisoners locked up at once?”

Harlan chuckled. “Yeah, something like that.”

“How’s the sheriff doing?” she asked. “He going to be back on the job soon?”

“He’s up and around now,” said Harlan. “Won’t be long. He can’t sit on his ass too long.”

Cut Bank Hospital.

Our next stop was the hospital to see if Danny Burridge would help us round up the rest of the car thief gang. We took theelevator to the ICU floor and waited at the nurses’ station until Danny’s doctor came to talk to us.

“Doctor Keene, we only need a few minutes to talk to Danny, then we’ll let him rest.”

“Ten minutes maximum, Deputies, then I’ll have the head nurse toss you out.” He smiled at us.

“Thanks.”

Tammy sat in the chair next to Danny’s bed and I stood beside her and recorded the interview. I hoped he’d give us something—anything we could use to find his thieving buddies—who now had guns.

Danny was awake but a little groggy from the drugs keeping his pain to a minimum.

Tammy started. “Danny, we’d like you to tell us where Stuart Dickinson and the rest of your gang is. There’s been enough violence and it has to stop.”

“Don’t know where Stu is,” he mumbled. “Stuie ran off with a girl.”

“Do you know her name?”

“Susie…something.”

I was happy he was talking to Tammy, but she figured it was all lies and called him on it.

“No more lies, Danny. You’re going away for a long time and the only way you’re going to get a lighter sentence is to help us bring in the rest of your gang.”

He groaned and turned his head.

I jumped in and said, “You’re going down for life for trying to kill a cop. You’d better do what’s best for Danny Burridge and give up the punks you’re running with.”

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