Page 59 of Longest Ride

“Tell me how to get to one of those places.” I tossed my butt to the pavement and stepped on it.

“You can’t get there on your own. You need a guide. The swamp is rough when you run out of road. Bandits, gators and snakes. Guys who will kill you for a pack of smokes.”

“You guys know any guides?”

“A couple. Fishing guides know the swamp like the back of their hands, and they know all the good spots. A lot of the remote places, you can only get to by boat.”

“How do I find me a good guide?”

“Follow signs for fishing camps or stop into a bait shop or an outfitters store.”

“Thanks.”

Beer belly pointed at my truck. “That your Freightliner?”

“Yep.”

“She’s a beauty.”

Beer belly sneered, “Bet she ain’t paid for, truck like that.”

I shrugged and went back to the truck. The truck was probably paid for. Eldon paid attention to details like that. I jumped into the driver’s seat and cranked the engine up. Time to go find us a guide.

“Where we going, Tammy?” hollered Eldon from the sleeper.

“We’re going fishing.”

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek. Montana.

Billy and Travis sat in the office trying to figure out the murders. They went over every piece of evidence they had—and it wasn’t much—all of it adding up to nothing.

“Who should we interview next?” asked Travis.

“We have no real suspect,” said Billy.

“Wishing we did won’t make it happen,” said Travis. His cell rang and he checked the screen. “Cut Bank Tribune.”

“Wyatt the Weasel.” Billy laughed. “Screw him. He gets nothing from us.”

Travis answered and put the call on speaker. “Wyatt?”

“Thanks for taking my call, Travis. I wasn’t sure you would.”

“Didn’t want to.”

“I want to apologize for involving Stacey in the case. Since she didn’t get to see Paula that day and she didn’t pass any information to me, no harm was done. I don’t want our working relationship to be damaged by one little mistake on my part.”

“We have no relationship anymore, Wyatt. We’re done.”

“Come on, Travis. Don’t make me beg.”

Travis pressedendand that was the end of Wyatt Thompson.

Billy shook his head. “That guy is so desperate for headlines, he probably killed those three people just to get a story.”

They both laughed and then Travis thought about it a bit more and raised an eyebrow. “What if he did do that?”

Billy shrugged. “I was only kidding.”

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