Page 37 of Midnight Ride

“What if nobody finds Willy Lindstrom?” asked Tammy.

Travis shrugged. “Let’s wait for a day or two and see if a hunting party comes upon him.”

“Or what’s left of him,” said Virge. “That first guy was all torn up by bears and wolves. Willy will be the same if he’s out there for two or three days.”

“Yuck,” said Tammy. “Let’s think of something nicer than a torn-up body while we’re eating. Who wants to go for a night ride to the back of the ranch?”

“I can’t ride yet,” said Travis. “After a day of work, my side is too fuckin sore.”

“I’ll go with you, Tam,” I said. “We haven’t had enough riding time lately and the horses need exercise.”

Virgil rolled his eyes at me.

Nobody else wanted to go, so me and Tammy went to the barn and saddled up Windrider and Bonnie Grace, and we took the dogs with us and rode through the dark to the back of our thousand acres.

A nice moonlight night for a ride and I needed time alone with Tammy without my whole family staring at me. My brother in particular.

When we got to the back of the property, we dismounted and tied the horses to a tree branch. We didn’t have a blanket with us, so we just laid down in the grass close to each other and stared up at the stars.

I was kissing Tammy when we heard a growl, and a pair of wolves ran through the field we were in. They weren’t too far away from us, but they couldn’t see us in the grass.

“They can smell us,” said Tammy.

“Wolves ain’t so bad but if bears come by for a visit, we’ll have to get our asses out of here.”

Tammy giggled. “I heard that bears love to chase you when you run.”

Chapter Eight

Monday, September 9th.

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek.

“Harlan, get the prisoner into the squad and drop him off at the courthouse. You help your brother, Virge.”

“Copy,” said Virgil. “Should we wait at the courthouse to see if he makes bail, Travis?”

“He should make bail with no problem, but y’all better wait to see if he can come up with the money.”

“Copy that.”

“Ted, you search Linda Tucker’s truck and print it. I’m sure the wildlife people will want it back as soon as we’re done with it. Molly already let them know where the truck was and informed them about Linda.”

“I’ll start on it right away, boss,” said Ted.

Travis finished shouting out orders and was about to head for the hospital when Mrs. Oliver walked into the squad room with her brother-in-law.

“Help you, ma’am?” asked Molly.

“We’re going home to Pocatello this morning and just stopped in to see if by some miracle you people had managed to solve my husband’s murder.”

“Nope,” said Travis. “We haven’t solved Steve’s murder, and we haven’t solved his buddy’s murder either.”

“Not very impressive police work,” said Mrs. Oliver.

“And how would you know how much work we’ve done on the cases, ma’am? I don’t have to justify our solve rate to you or to Trevor here. Only to the citizens of this county.”

“You still have no idea who killed my husband, do you?”

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