Page 27 of Midnight Ride

“I’m Undersheriff Johnson, Mrs. Davidson.”

“Come in, Sheriff, and have a seat. I’ve got coffee on for you.”

“Thanks. That’s nice of you.”

She set a mug of coffee in front of him and sat down. “I was reading that special edition of the Cut Bank paper and I remembered seeing a big bunch of hunters down at the corner a couple of days ago.”

“Were there two younger guys in the group?” asked Billy.

“That part I’m not sure about. I gave the picture of the missing twin boys a long hard look and their faces didn’t ring a bell, but I wasn’t that close to the bunch of them.”

“Can you remember how many men there were altogether, ma’am?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t. Six or seven. But at the time I thought it was a lot of people to be hunting together.”

“You’re right, ma’am,” said Billy. You don’t often see many large parties like that. We appreciate your call, and we’ll give this area a closer look.”

Mrs. Davidson saw him to the door and Billy went back to his truck. She’d seen a large group of hunters, but nothing specific to help with the case.

Billy backed out of her driveway and figured while he was up there so close to the original crime scene, he’d go back for one more look.

He parked where they’d parked before and tramped across the field until he got to the forest. He was tired and his bad leg always gave him trouble when he did too much walking.

The stones were still there in a circle forming the fire pit. Nothing seemed to have changed, but Billy shivered, and his gut told him something was different.

He pushed deeper into the bush to the spot where Virgil had found Steve Oliver’s body. Billy pulled out his flashlight to have a closer look. It was daylight but not too much sun—kind of a cloudy bright day. The bush was thick with evergreens and the deciduous trees were beginning to turn color. None of the trees had lost their leaves and the woods were well shaded.

He scanned his light back and forth in an arc until it landed on something metallic. Billy dropped to his knees and dug around in the thick bed of pine needles to see what it was.

He brushed it off and held it up to the light to get a better look and it was a keychain caked in dirt. One housekey attached and a red enamel heart. He turned the heart over, cleaned it off with his thumb and there were initials engraved on the back. A.L.O.

“Huh.” Could belong to Alison Oliver. Maybe one of her boys had borrowed her house key. Billy shoved it into the pocket of his jeans and headed back to his truck.

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek.

We all got back to the station just before quitting time and none of us had found out anything that we didn’t already know.

Billy found the house key back at the original crime scene, but we knew the twins had been there and one of them could’ve had his mother’s key.

Molly had a list of calls that came in after we left, and she’d talked to each one of the callers and pre-screened them, so she wasn’t sending us on any wild goose chases.

“How many calls for tomorrow?” asked Travis.

“Four that might have merit,” said Molly.

“We’ll start on them first thing,” said Travis.

“Our prisoner will be spending the weekend here,” she said. “He’s not on the docket for arraignment until Monday.”

“Hope we don’t forget to feed him.” Travis laughed, but he wasn’t too fond of the guy who’d hurt Tammy. “Molly, did you call the morgue to see if Mrs. Oliver made arrangements to have her husband’s body picked up?”

“I called and talked to Doctor Olson and the answer isno. He hasn’t heard anything.”

“Huh. What about the other guy’s kin? Have they called?”

“Yes. Doctor Olson got a call from Richard Morgan’s wife, and she said a funeral home in Pocatello would be picking his body up shortly. I can’t remember the name of it.”

“Okay. We’ve got one wife cooking with gas. I haven’t figured out Mrs. Oliver yet. I got a gut feeling she’s playing us.”

---