Page 34 of Midnight Ride

First thing we did when we got to the office, was run the video we got from Oscar Tiverton for Travis and Billy. We tried to match the guys in the original hunting party to their DL pictures. That way we could tell who was there on camera, and who wasn’t.

Turned out Willy Lindstrom was not at Oscar Tiverton’s back fence with the rest of them. Tammy was correct. Only five guys in the bunch.

“Okay,” said Billy. “Lindstrom wasn’t there. Don’t mean he’s dead.”

“Nope. Don’t mean he’s dead, but he ain’t with the others and makes me wonder why,” said Travis. “Hope he decided to sleep in his tent all fuckin day and not go hunting with the rest of them.”

“Me and Virge are gonna take the dogs up there to Oscar’s place and at least get a direction of where they went when they left his property.”

“Yeah, sure. That’s a good idea. I’ll go to the hospital to see if Linda Tucker is awake. I need her to point us at the guys who strung her up.”

“I think it was a totally separate incident,” said Billy, “and Travis agrees with me.”

“Yeah, I do,” said Travis. Don’t match. One has nothing to do with the other.”

“But it’s not impossible that the same guys hurt Linda,” I said.

“Nothing is impossible, son,” said Travis. “Having those two crimes linked is just not probable.”

Old Kelvin Trail.

Virge and I drove north from Coyote Creek and went back to Oscar’s place to get his permission to run the dogs behind his property.

I knocked on the front door and that set off seven hounds barking and baying their heads off. What a fuckin racket. If Oscar was sleeping, he’d be awake now.

Oscar opened the door and smiled. The noise of the dogs didn’t seem to bother him at all. “Hey. You came back. This your brother?”

“Yep. Virgil. Returning your drive, sir. Appreciate borrowing it, and we made a copy for the office. The sheriff was mighty happy to see that video and he thanks you.”

“Never met our sheriff, but I voted for him. He’s the long-haired fella with all the tats, ain’t he?”

“Yep. He’s our dad,” said Virgil.

Oscar narrowed his eyes. “Y’all don’t look nothing like him.”

I shrugged that off and kept going. “Me and my brother brought the sheriff’s dogs, and we wondered if we could start them off behind your back fence. We’d like to see which way that bunch of hunters went from here.”

“You had no luck down in the valley?”

“No, sir. Not a sign of them. And me and Tammy tramped all over that valley.”

“Sure. Won’t bother me none if you go out back and start there. Might rile up the dogs but help yourself. I hope you can track them. I’ve got some pretty good tracking dogs myself. What kind are yours?”

“Belgian Malinois.”

“Fancy name don’t mean they got the nose for it.”

“They do.”

Oscar nodded and then smiled. “The proof is in the coon up the tree.”

“Yes, sir. You’re right about that.”

I held Sarge’s leash and Virge hung onto Max. We circled around to Oscar’s back fence and the dogs took off from there. They headed north and crossed a wide-open field and then ran deep into a huge section of virgin forest.

“Are we gonna find our way outta here?” Virgil hollered to me.

“Hope so.”

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