Page 49 of Rocky Ride

Jason dropped to his knees while I held my gun on him, and Virge cuffed him.

We added two more to the back of the squad and drove back to the station. Kassinger hollered all the way about his bleeding leg and Virge turned up the radio so we wouldn’t have to listen to him.

“I love this song.”

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek.

One at a time we brought Roach and Kassinger in. Ted booked them and locked them up while Virge and I took the father to the clinic to have the bullet wound looked at.

Turned out to be only a flesh wound. Virgie shot the fucker through the side of his leg—lucky for him. The doctor bandaged Kassinger up and gave him a shot of pain killer. Didn’t take long at all and it didn’t make him any nicer.

We took him back to the station and gave him a primo cell next to his son.

Billy charged the father with attempted murder of a police officer. Molly put the gun into evidence after we gave her our reports on the arrests and exactly how the whole shit-show went down.

“You boys had trouble with those kids. I’m glad you didn’t get hurt. I’ll let their probation officers know that we have them in custody. Nice work, boys.” She pushed the box towards us and said, “Have a donut.”

“Thanks, Molly.”

While the boys were in Cut Bank bringing in the juvies, Molly had a talk to Travis about the girl Harlan had been telling her about.

“She just started work as a cashier at the market here in Coyote Creek, but her father, Danny Darkers is rumored to be an importer…of illegal goods. They live up in Sweetgrass near the border.”

“And she drives down here to work at the grocery store?”

“I can’t explain that, Travis. Maybe the girl left home, and she lives in town now. I’m only telling you what kind of family she comes from because I’m concerned about Harlan.”

“Thanks for telling me. Not just to keep Harlan out of trouble, but we should be investigating the father too and keeping tabs on what he’s smuggling across the border.”

“I’ve only heard rumors at my quilting group, but I think we should know more about Dan Darker.”

“Huh,” said Travis. “I’ll take a drive up there on my way home to the ranch. A little out of my way, but I’m curious now.”

“Be careful.”

“Copy that.”

When they quit for the day and locked up the station, Travis told Billy and the boys he’d meet them at the Run for a beer in an hour and didn’t explain where he was going.

Darkers Residence. Sweetgrass.

Travis drove north almost to the Alberta border to have a good look at the Darkers place. Situated on about ten acres outside of Sweetgrass, Dan Darkers lived in a double-wide trailer.

If you looked closer—like Travis did using his spotting scope—you could see a large cinderblock building in the trees about a quarter mile from the trailer.

“Uh huh.”

Parked near the almost hidden building were several cars and trucks.

“What do you think, doggies? Should we pull off a little raid before we let Harlan get too tangled up with Dan’s daughter?”

Max and Sarge both wagged their tails when Travis talked to them.

“Yeah, I think so too. I’ll mention it to Billy when we have a private moment.”

Dry Run Roadhouse.

Travis drove back from Sweetgrass thinking about the gang of druggies he knew nothing about and wondering if the building on Darkers’ property housed a big meth lab. Entirely possible.

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