“Sure is weird, and it seems like they know exactly where they’re going. How do you explain that?”
“Can’t.”
Trying to be as quiet as we could, we hurried to catch up to Alison and Trevor. As we got closer, we could hear them talking.
“They can’t be far from here, Ali. This is where the tracker said they were.”
“This is going to be a great day. I can’t wait to give Phil Dyson what he deserves. He’s going to be sorry he ever messed with me.”
“Like I said on the way here, I think we should quit now and go back to Idaho before we get caught.”
“We’re not going to get caught, Trev. That sheriff has no clue what’s going on. We have him completely snowed. I’m not stopping until I kill every one of those jerks and take the boys back home where they belong.”
“That’s it, Tammy,” I whispered, “we’re bringing them in.”
“Yeah, we have to.”
We ran to catch up to the Olivers and I hollered, “Down on your knees. Hands on your heads.”
Alison Oliver screamed and ran into the woods leaving the brother-in-law with his hands in the air. Tammy ran after her while I stayed with Trevor.
“On your knees,” I hollered at him again.
Trevor Oliver dropped down and I cuffed him. “You’re under arrest for murder.”
“I didn’t kill anyone,” he said.
Tammy came running back a few minutes later and she was out of breath. As soon as she could talk, she gasped out the words, “I can’t find her. We’ll have to come back with the dogs.”
“Yeah. We’ll take him in and lock him up and come back for her.”
Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek.
Trevor Oliver wasn’t any trouble in the squad or when we got back to the station. I locked him up in an empty cell while Tammy and I told Billy what had happened out in the woods.
“You heard them confessing to the murders?” asked Billy.
“Yeah. I was wishing I had a recorder with me, but I didn’t and neither did Tammy.”
“We’ll have to go back with the dogs,” said Billy. “If Alison Oliver is on foot, she can’t get too far.”
“Unless she gets back to her car,” I said.
“They went into the woods at that spot because they have a tracker on the twins,” said Tammy. “Mrs. Oliver was gonna kill another guy today.”
“Did she have a gun with her?” asked Billy.
“Yep,” I said. “She had a rifle slung over her shoulder.”
“Huh. What the hell? Go into the break room and tell Travis all of this. I’m going into the run to talk to Oliver. Maybe he’ll open up now that we’ve got him away from his sister-in-law.”
Tammy and I sat at the table in the break room and told the story to Travis. He listened to us and didn’t say anything. He was so hung over his eyes were weird.
“Billy booking Trevor Oliver?”
“Yep.”
“As soon as Ted and Virge come back from Cut Bank, y’all take the dogs back to that spot and see if you can track Alison Oliver down.”