Page 26 of Midnight Ride

“Who do you answer to?”

“I’m elected, ma’am. I answer to the people who live in this county and since you’re from Idaho—you’re not one of them.” He changed the subject. “When are you planning on holding your husband’s funeral back in Pocatello, ma’am? Time is marching on, and his body is still sitting in our morgue in Cut Bank. Doctor Olson would like to know when the funeral home of your choice will be coming to pick up Steve’s body.”

“I haven’t had much time to plan a funeral for Steve. He’d want me to find the boys first and that’s what I’m doing.”

Travis passed her one of Doctor Olson’s cards. “Call the Doctor and answer his question, ma’am. Have your husband’s body picked up in the next couple of days.”

She snatched the card from Travis’s hand and shoved it into her purse.

Molly rolled her eyes.

Wild Stallion Ranch.

I was asleep on the sofa in the living room with Max beside me when he jumped up, started barking and woke me up. He ran to the front door, stopped barking, and did his happy whine, so I knew it wasn’t a stranger.

The door opened and Savanna called out to me so I wouldn’t be scared. “Hey, Tammy, it’s me.”

“I’m in here, Savanna.”

She rushed into the living room and sat down on the arm of the sofa. “Are you okay? Is your arm hurting a lot, honey?”

“It hurts when it’s time to take more of the pain pills, but it’s not too bad. Daddy wouldn’t let me go to the station today.”

“I agree with that decision, Tam. You lost a lot of blood, and you need to rest today. How about some soup?”

“You don’t have to make me anything, Savanna. I can manage.”

“I want to take care of you. How about soup and a grilled cheese sandwich?”

“Okay.” I sat up straighter and Savanna gave me a pillow under my bandaged arm.

Black Eagle Pass.

From the spread Wyatt Thompson put in the Cut Bank paper, Molly started receiving phone calls from residents who figured they had seen the hunting party we were looking for.

The first call she took came from a rancher down near Black Eagle Pass. He said he saw a big bunch of guys hunting together along county road fourteen.

Frank Sampson was on his way home from the feedstore driving with his window down and he smelled smoke. He saw the guys off in the distance and figured they were camped near where he’d seen them.

Travis sent me and Ted to talk to Mister Sampson and he pointed us in the right direction. We tramped over that whole area and all we came up with was a burned-out fire pit and a lot of cigarette butts scattered around in the pine needles. Not a trace of any hunters in the area any longer.

If they were the guys we were looking for, they were long gone.

“Nothing here, Harlan. Weird too. Hunters usually pick a spot and set up camp and stay there for the whole week of their hunt. They hunt different places, but they don’t move their camp.”

“Yeah. A lot of freaky stuff is going on.”

“You think we’re gonna solve this one?” asked Ted.

“Can’t say. We don’t have much more than when we started on Monday.”

“Only thing we’ve got more of is bodies. Now we have two murders instead of one.”

“We have motive for the murder of Steve Oliver, but nothing for the second guy. Nothing at all.”

County Road Five. South of Oilmont.

Molly gave Billy the call from a lady north of town who lived on county road five. He drove up alone, knocked on her door and she welcomed him in with a smile.

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