Page 44 of Midnight Ride

“Copy that.”

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek.

Billy walked into the break room, poured himself a coffee and sat down at the table with Travis. “How’s the head?”

Travis winced. “Son of a bitch, Billy. Wish I’d never done that.”

Billy laughed. “Hindsight. It’s great, ain’t it?”

“Why can’t we nail down who’s doing these fuckin murders, Billy? We’ve never been this slow on getting a handle on a killer.”

“Maybe we need to talk it out and see what makes the most sense.”

Travis shook his head. “None of it makes any sense to me and that’s the root of my problem. No logical thought pattern to follow. No pattern to the killings at all. No MO to go by.”

“Somebody is killing all the guys in that hunting party for a reason,” said Billy. “There has to be an underlying reason. Steve Oliver was number one, so he is at the top of that list. He was the first one to die. To me, killing him tells us the reason for all of it.”

“Then all of it has to be about the abuse of the boys.”

Billy shrugged. “I haven’t figured it out myself, but it has to have something to do with that. A lifetime of abuse for those boys and as soon as they’re twenty-one—bang—they’re gone.”

“Huh. So, they kill their father to make up for all their years of hell, but why the other hunters?”

“Haven’t figured that out yet.”

“Okay, those are the guys in the woods,” said Travis. “What about the mother and her boyfriend, the brother-in-law?”

“Can’t fit them into the picture no matter how I turn the pieces. They don’t fit.”

“But yet, Alison Oliver won’t go home. Why?”

“Don’t know.”

“Shit.” Travis dropped his head into his hands and was no further ahead.

South of Oilmont.

I drove the squad because Tammy’s arm was still bandaged and sore. We parked down the road from the old motel and waited until Alison Oliver and her brother-in-law came out of their motel room.

Laughing and kissing each other just like Bonnie and Clyde did before they murdered more people.

“Do you think she has a tracker on the twins? Like in their gear bag or something like that. She probably packed their hunting stuff for them.”

“If she does, why doesn’t she just go get them?”

Tammy shrugged. “I don’t know. She’s pretending like she can’t find them.”

“If she’s lying about that, Tam, then she’s lying about the whole deal, and we have to bring her in and let Travis bear down on her. We’re getting nowhere, and now we got three dead guys.”

Keeping out of sight, we followed them as they drove north up I-15 towards Oilmont. They turned onto a county road and headed east.

“This ain’t far from where we were before.”

Tammy pointed. “They’re stopping up there on the side of the road. Slow down and hang back so they don’t see us.”

I put the brakes on and didn’t go forward until the Olivers had a chance to get out of the car and walk into the woods. Then I drove up and parked right behind their car.

“Let’s go see what they’re doing out here, Tammy. Seems pretty weird to me.”

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