Page 95 of Longest Ride

Bang.

Virgie finished Wyatt off and put him out of his misery.

I stared down at the icy river and there was no hope for Stacey Croft. The current had pulled her under, and she’d be headed for Lake Elwell. That’s where we’d find her body in a couple of days.

Virge and I sat in our orange Jeep, called Travis.

We lit up smokes and waited for him and Doc Olsen and Ted to come with his tow truck.

The tow truck arrived first with Dad riding shotgun. Travis took a look at Wyatt lying just where Virge had killed him. He nodded his head, and we hopped out to tell him just how it happened.

“We weren’t fast enough to get to Stacey before Wyatt threw her over the railing,” I said. “Feel bad about that, but she was a murderer. She killed Paula and her baby out of jealousy.”

Virge said, “I got a deathbed confession out of Wyatt, Dad. He said he killed the three in the trailer to free Paul from Harry Flemming. He didn’t give a rat’s ass about Alex Perkins or Carla Venner. They just happened to be there.”

“You and your brother can record all of it when we get back to the station,” said Travis. “Give Ted a hand to hook the Mazda up.”

“Sure,” said Virge.

Doctor Olsen arrived and did his preliminary exam on Wyatt. He was dead all right. Virge made sure of that.

“I guess we’ll be short on news for a while in Harrison County,” said the doctor without a smile.

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek.

Back at the station, Molly had her hands full recording all the stuff we had to tell her on how we solved the four murders.

Virge was on a high because we did it on our own with no help from Travis, Ted or Billy.

“Wonderful job, boys,” said Molly. “I guess the two of you will be getting that fifty dollar bonus your father promised to Ted.” She laughed.

“We didn’t know anything about a bonus,” said Virge. “We solved four murders out of the goodness of our hearts.”

Travis and Billy both laughed.

“Time to celebrate, boys. Dry Run for beer and ribs.”

“I’m for that,” said Ted.

Dry Run Roadhouse.

Jack sat at our table, and he wanted to know all about solving the murders and how it all worked out. He gave us a couple of pitchers of beer on the house and we were having a pretty decent time until Dad got the phone call from the hospital.

He said, “I’m going home now, boys. Y’all stay as long as you want. I’ll see y’all at the ranch.”

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