Page 71 of Midnight Ride

Billy started off by saying, “We’ll find her, Travis. She’s strong and she’s a survivor. She’ll call.”

“That’s the only hope I’ve got, Billy. She left the dead guys on her own—at least I think she was on her own—so that means she’s acting of her own free will. If she’s not calling me, she has a reason.”

“We have to figure out what that reason is,” said Billy. “That will get us one step closer to finding her.”

“What did I miss while I was gone?”

“You missed us finding Earl Clarkson, one of the guys in the campsite who raped Linda Tucker. When I sent the cops to his place in Billings to arrest him, he was already dead.”

“Huh,” said Travis. “Jim Tucker got there first?”

“Nope. That’s what Molly and I thought, but Jim was back at work at the lumberyard. It wasn’t him.”

“Who then?”

Billy shrugged.

“You think it had to be Linda?”

“I was waiting to talk to you and see what your opinion was.”

“Aw, shit. I don’t want it to be her, Billy.”

“But if it was?”

“Yeah, then what?”

“I’m letting the Billings cops roll with if for now,” said

Billy. “See what they come up with. They’ve got forensic people and all the rest of the tech stuff we can’t afford.”

Travis nodded. “Let them handle it. It’s on their turf. We’ve got enough to deal with. I can’t fuckin think and I can’t draw a breath, Billy. Tammy is gone.”

“I know that. I can barely think of anything else.”

Coast to Coast Logistics. Winnipeg. Manitoba.

I sat in the truck, smoked, and listened to the radio while Eldon talked to the guys at the depot. It didn’t take them long to unload his truck full of flooring. They checked off the boxes and after they made sure the load was all there, we left the trailer and went to the mall driving just the cab.

Eldon told me his truck was a Freightliner, and he seemed pretty proud of it. It was nice inside, and there was no junk or garbage. Clean and smelled fresh. He was a neat person and had a lot of other good qualities too.

West Mall. Winnipeg. Manitoba.

Hand in hand we walked into the mall like we were a couple. I wanted to be a couple with Eldon. I couldn’t go home, and he was like a gift sent to me from the Fates. Sweet and good looking with sandy hair hanging around his shoulders, and the sexiest brown eyes I ever saw. I’d never been attracted to a guy like I was to Eldon Fontana.

We had lunch in the food court. I had an A & W burger with a Coke and onion rings, and Eldon had his burger with fries.

After that, I checked out a couple of ladies’ stores and bought two pairs of jeans and two shirts and enough new underwear to tide me over. That was about all I needed, besides a toothbrush.

Eldon offered to pay for my clothes, but I paid for everything myself. I had money in my barrel racing account just sitting there waiting for a rainy day.

We left the mall and Eldon headed to a different warehouse to pick up our load for Vancouver. He got his paperwork and a couple of guys helped him hook onto the trailer we were hauling. Didn’t take long and we were good to go.

He jumped into the cab smiling. “We’re all set to go home, Tammy. We dump this load and then we’ll take three days off for ourselves. Can’t wait for some down time.”

“You must get so tired. I could help you drive if you showed me how. I’m a good driver.”

“Oh yeah? That would give me a break if you could handle the rig with a trailer on behind. It takes some getting used to.”

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