Page 39 of Midnight Ride

“I was.”

“Thanks for finding me, or thanks to your dogs and your deputies.”

Travis smiled. “Happy we got to you in time. Can you tell me what happened?”

“Doctor said experiencing a trauma blots out parts of your memory to protect the victim. I’ll remember more as I can handle more, he said.”

“Yep, I believe that’s true. It would be helpful if you could tell me who attacked you and I could bring him or them in and lock them up.”

“Four of them in the camp. Had southern accents like they were from Texas or the next state over.”

“Arkansas, Louisiana…Oklahoma?”

“I’m not sure. I saw the plates on their truck, but that’s one of the things I can’t picture at the moment.”

“What was their reason for hurting you?”

“They were over their limit, and I called them on it. My job to enforce the hunting laws and they went kind of nuts and lost their minds.”

“All four of them attacked you?”

She nodded. “One guy started on me, and the rest joined in. They beat me and then raped me and after that I don’t remember anything at all. Jimmy said that was a good thing. He doesn’t want me to get that memory back.”

“Course he doesn’t. I spoke to your husband yesterday and warned him off going after those guys on his own.”

Linda shook her head. “He’s not a good listener, Sheriff. He’s out there now searching for them. I told him they were probably long gone back where they came from.”

“Uh huh. When my boys found you the campfire was stone cold. They’d been gone for at least twenty-four hours.”

“Jimmy is out there in the bush looking for them, Sheriff. Could you find him and tell him to stop?”

“I’ll try. Did you ask for their licenses when you went into their camp?”

“Yep. First thing I do.”

“And did you see any names?”

“I did, but before I had a chance to write anything down and issue the fines, that first crazy guy had me on the ground.”

“Can you describe what they looked like? Young? Old? Anything at all?”

“On the young side. Late twenties, all four of them. As soon as I remember more, I’ll call you.”

“Thanks. You try to rest. You’ve got a lot of bruising to heal up before they’ll let you out of here.”

Travis glanced at her face as he stood up to leave and Linda was so black and blue, she was barely recognizable.

No wonder Jimmy Tucker was off his nut.

Old Kelvin Trail.

The call came into the sheriff’s office on the landline and Molly wrote down the details. Hunters had found a dead body about a mile from the Old Kelvin Trail.

Travis sent me and Virge on up there with the dogs and we figured it was Willy Lindstrom because he was the one missing from the twins’ hunting group.

One of the guys we’d already talked to was sitting in his pickup at the road waiting to show us where they’d come across the body.

“Hey, Deputy. You were right about a dead guy being in the bush near us. Not much left of him when we found him.”

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