Page 36 of Midnight Ride

“No leads, Mister Tucker. I’m hoping Linda can help me with that when she wakes up.”

“I hope so too, because as soon as Linda tells me who did this to her, I’m going to find the bastard and kill him dead with my bare hands.”

“No,” said Travis. “You don’t want to do that. Be best if you looked after your wife and let me bring in the guy who did the deed. That way, you and Linda can stay together, and you won’t be spending the next twenty years in Montana State Prison.”

Travis left the husband in the waiting room and went into the intensive care unit to sit with Linda. He hoped she’d open her eyes and tell him something before his ten minutes of visitation were up.

Travis leaned back in the chair and watched Linda breathe. He studied the monitors for a bit, keeping track of the squiggly line as it bounced around.

Didn’t seem like he’d been there for ten minutes at all, when a nurse came towards him to tell him his time was up.

Travis trudged back to his truck hoping Linda Tucker would wake up tomorrow.

If she wakes up before I get back and tells her husband who did the deed, they might be dead before I ever get to them. Shit.

Katie’s Good Eats. Cut Bank.

As Travis was unlocking his truck, he saw Wyatt Thompson go into the diner across the street. He locked his truck up again and jogged across the road to the restaurant and joined Wyatt at his table.

“Travis, I didn’t expect to see you in Cut Bank on a Sunday.”

“I was at the hospital waiting for the new game warden, Linda Tucker, to wake up.”

“What happened to her?”

Travis told Wyatt the entire story about the dogs finding Linda in the woods. Wyatt took notes and said, “I can barely believe any hunters would do something as disgusting as this.”

“Somebody did do it—probably more than one person—and Linda Tucker is not doing well at the moment. She didn’t open her eyes the entire time I sat in intensive care.”

“What can I do to help you, Travis?”

“If you could publish a partial story without revealing too many details and ask if anyone saw anything out of the ordinary on Boundary Road a couple of days ago –specifically where the game warden’s truck was parked. And ask them to call the Sheriff’s Office in Coyote Creek.”

“Of course, I’ll do that. I know Jimmy Tucker. He works at the lumberyard here in town. Nice guy.”

“He’s pretty worked up,” said Travis. “I saw him at the hospital.”

“He would be upset,” said Wyatt. “Jimmy and Linda are a close couple.”

Wild Stallion Ranch.

While we ate the lasagna and garlic bread that Tammy made on her day at home, we talked about the cases and what we’d found out.

Travis said, “Linda Tucker isn’t awake yet. Her husband is just as anxious as me for her to regain consciousness and tell him who did it. As soon as that happens, he intends to find the perp and kill him personally. That’s something we have to watch out for.”

“Aw, shit,” said Billy. “I hate it when there’s a half-crazed husband in the mix. It makes it twice as hard to bring in the fucker who did it.”

Travis laughed. “I’ll put you in charge of controlling the husband, Billy.”

“Fuck off.”

That made everybody laugh.

Me and Virge told the story about the guys we were looking for meeting up with the hunters camped off the Old Kelvin Trail.

“I think they’re up there in the north end,” I said. “The murder was south of Oilmont and now they’ve been seen twice only a couple of miles from there. We should concentrate our search up there and give up looking all over the fuckin place.”

“You could be right, Harlan,” said Travis. “We’ll put a bigger effort into searching that area with the dogs the next few days.”

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