Page 8 of Silos and Sabotage

Gage claimed the chair beside her bed and raised his cell phone to his ear. It was time to place the call he’d promised the doc he’d do. The office manager at the police department, a grandmotherly dumpling of a woman named Fran, transferred him to the newly elected sheriff. Nice guy. He and Gage were about the same age.

“I’m with a Jane Doe at the medical center,” he announced without preamble. “It’s possible we’re dealing with some foul play involving Billy Bob Bolander.” He described the events leading up to her hospitalization.

“I’ll be right over,” Luke Hawling promised grimly. “We’ll scan her fingerprints to see if she’s in the system. I’ll also order a forensics exam to see what else pops.”

“Any interest in taking a look at the water and lemons I took from her table at the diner?” If not, Gage intended to call in a favor with a friend at the lab downtown.

“Very interested.” There was a pause and some rustling sounds in the background. “I appreciate you taking the time to bring them with you.”

“Happy to help.” Gage credited it to the ofttimes rigorous training he’d received at Lonestar Security. They’d taught him to be aware of everything around him. Not to leave a single stone unturned when it came to examining a crime scene. Unfortunately, his training hadn’t gotten him many steps closer to his biggest reason for moving to Heart Lake.

“Thanks again for the call.” There were more rustling sounds in the background. “I’ll take that other stuff off your hands while I’m at the medical center.” Luke disconnected the line.

Gage was surprised to hear that the sheriff himself was coming to take Jane Doe’s fingerprints, though he suspected it had something to do with the fact that the Bolanders were involved. It was like they were backwoods royalty or something, with the way everyone in town tiptoed around them.

He called his supervisor at Lonestar Security next to fill him in on everything that had happened at the diner. Gil Remington was the recently retired sheriff of Heart Lake. He was almost as new on the job as Gage was, having started work at the security firm only a few months before he had. However, Gil was eons ahead of Gage in terms of law enforcement experience. Gage was like a newborn baby in comparison, painstakingly learning about the world of private investigating one step at a time beneath Gil’s patient mentoring.

Gage was surprised that the tetrad partnership at Lonestar Security had allowed him to come on board as a private investigator at all, considering his lack of law enforcement experience. However, they hadn’t questioned his reasons. They’d simply swallowed his line about his lifelong passion for ensuring that bad guys were held accountable for their actions — from twenty years as a soldier and now in the capacity of a PI.

He had his reasons, though.One very big reason in particular. He was seeking justice for his former company commander, Mick Lawton, a man who’d grown up at the Bolanders’ ranch. He’d been brutally murdered shortly after his retirement, and his killer had yet to be apprehended. There weren’t even any serious suspects. Mick had been the kind of guy everyone loved. Everyone in his home country, at any rate. No doubt he’d racked up a few enemies overseas, where his acts of valor had made him a Medal of Honor recipient.

“What can you tell me about your Jane Doe?” Gil’s question interrupted Gage’s wandering thoughts and brought him back to the present. His mentor’s voice was all business. Gil had a way of slipping back into sheriff mode as easily as breathing.

Gage’s mind raced over what little he knew about the fragile woman stretched out beside him in a hospital gown and too many wires and cords snaking across her body to count. “She knew my name.” That was the main thing eating away at him.

“Oh?” Curiosity sharpened Gil’s voice.

“She said she’d been looking for me.” That detail was equally puzzling. “The ER doc found a map in her pocket that would suggest she tracked me all the way from Ft. Moore to Heart Lake.”

“Do you recognize her?”

“Never seen her in my life.” Gage would’ve remembered such a soft-spoken beauty. She reminded him of a delicate flower, right down to the way she’d launched herself into his arms. It had felt more like wilting than launching.

He’d also never forget the feeling of protectiveness that had surged inside him, an oddly intense feeling to have for a perfect stranger. During his many years of service in the U.S. Army, he couldn’t recall anyone making him feel quite the same way. Maybe it was his singleness and loneliness messing with his head. It was something he was hoping to change soon. He’d been praying that the Lord would miraculously sendthe onehis way. Though it was hard to classify a Jane Doe as an answer to his prayers, it didn’t feel like a coincidence that a wildly cute blonde woman had literally fallen into his arms today.

“What’s her connection to Billy Bob Bolander?” The wheels spinning inside Gil’s meticulously thorough mind might as well have been audible.

“Not sure yet.” Gage was still noodling his way through that mystery. “The only thing Casey at The Hitching Post would say about the Bolanders is that they’re some of her best customers. She seemed worried that my run-in with Billy Bob might blow back on her and her family.”

“Typical.” Gil’s voice grew hard.

“Would you care to elaborate on that, sir?” Gage was more curious than ever about them.

“There’s not much to tell, I’m afraid,” Gil sighed. “They’ve been around for as long as I can remember, buying up land outside the city limits of Heart Lake without ever crossing the line.”

Interesting.“Staying within spitting distance of your jurisdiction, eh?”But never inside it.

“Exactly.”

“And that’s a problem because…?” Gage sensed that Gil was willing to say more.

“Because their two sons were a menace to society while growing up — reckless driving, drag racing, vandalism, you name it. Always thought they were above the law.” His mentor huffed out a breath. “Things quieted down when their younger son went to jail. The older one quieted down not too long after that. Last I heard, he’s worked his way into an executive VP position at the family firm. Who knows? Maybe he finally grew up.”

For months, Gage had been champing at the bit to ask questions like this. Thanks to Billy Bob’s thug behavior, he finally had a reason to ask them that wouldn’t raise suspicions about his real intentions.

“By family business, I assume you’re referring to their granary.”

“Yep. It’s one of the biggest and most profitable ones in the west,” his mentor affirmed.

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