Page 31 of Midnight Ride

“Yeah, sure did. “Come on in, son. I saw them guys the sheriff is looking for.” He saw Tammy sitting in the truck. “Bring your sister in too. She can’t sit out there by herself.”

I waved to Tammy, and she got out of the truck wearing her best smile.

“What’s wrong with your arm, girl?” asked Oscar.

“Got stabbed in a bar fight, sir.”

“You shouldn’t be fighting in a bar, little girl like you.”

“No sir. I’m a deputy and I wasn’t fighting. I was trying to break up the fight.”

Oscar shook his head. “You need a lesson in that karate shit, girl, if you’re gonna do stuff like that.”

Tammy laughed. “Turns out I do.”

“I don’t let hunters on my land,” said Oscar. “My property is all posted—all four sides—and I had some cameras installed too, so I could see what was going on out there at night.”

“You have video of the hunters you saw?” I asked.

“Sure do. Let me show you the pictures and you’ll see that I was right. Those guys were here.”

“This is great,” said Tammy.

I had to agree with Tammy. We needed help with this case. Up to now, we were stuck tighter than pigs in quicksand.

Oscar invited us to sit down at his kitchen table, the woodstove crackling not six feet away and chugging out one helluva heat on a warm September day.

He played the video, and it wasn’t long—couple of minutes in length. Pictures of the hunters on the other side of Oscar’s fence—standing in a group, smoking and talking to each other.

Tammy leaned in closer for a better look. “There should be six of them,” she said, “and I only see five.”

I looked at the clip again and Tammy was right. There were only five guys in the video. Twin boys and three older hunters.

“Can we borrow this, Oscar?” I asked.

“We’ll make a copy at the office and return this original to you,” said Tammy.

“Yes. I guess it would be okay.”

“Did you notice which way they went from here?” asked Tammy.

“Maybe. Didn’t watch them go, but I told them there was an ideal place to hunt about a mile farther along on the south side of the road. There’s a little valley with a creek at the bottom and it’s a favorite place for the elk to drink. Seen herds of them there lots of times.”

“Fantastic, Mister Tiverton. We’ll check that spot as soon as we leave here. You’ve been a huge help to us, and I thank you for taking the time to call the office. The sheriff will be really happy to see these pictures.”

We went back to the squad, and I tried to remember the directions Oscar had given to the hunters.

“Drive along for a mile,” said Tammy. “South side of the road. Little valley with a creek.”

“Right.” It wasn’t far and we found it with no trouble. I parked and we started walking down the hill into the valley. When we were up high—standing on the road before we started down—we could see the creek in the distance. Must’ve been at least a mile away.

Tammy got tired of walking, and we sat down on a log and had a smoke. After two smokes, we got going again and tramped some more through the trees.

No tracks. No campfires.

“I don’t think they took Oscar’s advice,” said Tammy. “I don’t see a single thing in this sweet little valley.”

“Me neither and you’re getting real damn tired. Let’s go meet Dad at the Run.”

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