Page 67 of Rocky Ride

Doctor Olsen arrived an hour later and was upset to record another bear death. “It’s only the end of October and that means there will be far more bear related deaths this year. The weather is all wrong and the bears are off their natural cycle.”

“She saved my life up at the cabin, Doc, and I hate to see her like this.”

“Not much you can do about it, Travis. She’s been dead for a while. Why was she out in the storm in the middle of the night? Can you tell me that much?”

“No. I didn’t hear her get up and leave the house. I can’t tell you what she was thinking.”

“She could’ve heard more growling,” said Virge, “and decided to go out for a look-see.”

Dad gave Virgethe lookto shut him up.

“Why would she go out if she could hear the bear growling?” asked Doctor Olsen.

“Sunday felt she had a gift for taming bears,” said Travis, “but I think it was… misplaced.”

Virge rolled his eyes at me.

Doctor Olsen’s eyes were open wide. “That sounds slightly irrational to me, Travis. Was the woman of sound mind?”

“I’m not sure of that, Doc. When I met her up the mountain she was walking her pet bear on a leash.”

“Oh, my. That might have been one bear in a million.”

“I think so. A bear killed her husband, and she had a fixation, you might call it.”

“I see.” Doctor Olsen scowled.

“I feel like she saved my life up Black Wolf Mountain and I should have saved hers here on my own ranch, but I didn’t hear her go outside.”

“A difficult situation, Travis. I’m sorry for your loss.”

We helped Doc Olsen get Sunday into the body bag and me and Virge carried her frozen remains to the Doc’s van parked on the driveway.

After the doc left, we had one more coffee before we had to go to the station and feed the prisoners. It was the weekend and Molly wouldn’t be doing it.

Dad cancelled surveillance for the day because of the storm and the bad road conditions. Me and Virge were happy about that.

“Billy, you stay home today and take it easy,” said Travis. “The boys can run down and feed the prisoners and that’s all the work we’re doing.”

“Copy that,” mumbled Billy. He headed into the front room and fiddled around with the woodstove.

“Give them coffee and a breakfast container, check the landline and lock up, Harlan.”

“Yep. Won’t take us long, Dad. We’ll come right back and warm up the barn again.”

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek.

I unlocked the back door, went in and started two pots of coffee while Virge ran across the street in the wind to get the breakfast sandwiches for the prisoners.

We had three of them at the moment. Lila Gordon doing her thirty days for trespassing. Jerry Paige waiting for his murder trial. And Jyp Kassinger who couldn’t come up with his bail bond.

While I waited for Virge to come back from the diner, I remembered to check the landline on Molly’s desk. There was a message and I had to grab for a pen and write it down.

“This is Helen Preston calling, Sheriff. I’m Maria Hoover’s mother. I came over to have a coffee with my daughter and she’s dead, Sheriff. My daughter is dead in her own home, and I need help here. Can you send people over here right away?”

I wrote down the Shelby address and phone number and called her back.

“Mrs. Preston, this is Deputy Sheriff Harlan Bristol calling you back. We’re on our way to the address you gave. Fifteen minutes and we’ll be there. Don’t touch anything if you can help it, ma’am.”

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