Page 65 of Rough Stock
Jimmy did exactly as he’d been told. He headed straight to the arena, tipping his hat or speaking to and shaking hands with every cowboy he met along the way. Climbing the stairs, he knew he’d have to give the performance of his life when he opened that door, and he hoped he was up to it. With shaking hands, he stuck the key in the doorknob, unlocked it, and let out a yell. “Oh my god! Oh my god, Dale! Somebody call the cops! Please!” he screamed, and he knew the people down in the concession stand could hear him.
By the time a couple of cowboys thundered up the stairs and filled the doorway, Jimmy was bent over Dale, a hand on his throat. “Oh my god, he’s dead. Call the police!” he screamed at one of the men, who yanked a phone from his pocket and started pushing buttons.
Mission accomplished, Jimmy told himself. He certainly hoped it was all worth it in the end.
Three mileswest from the arena, Max stopped along an isolated stretch of two-lane highway and dropped Jensen’s trailer at the side of the road, then knifed one of the tires before he drove away. He’d been scoping out the area for the last two days in case he needed an escape route, and he knew exactly where he was going.
Another two miles and he pulled off the edge of the highway. Watching carefully, he dragged Jensen from the truck bed to the edge of the road, bound his wrists and ankles with duct tape, and ran a piece across his mouth to keep him quiet until hehad time to die, then rolled him down an embankment. Soon as he’d finished, he climbed back into the cab and kept driving. When he’d put another five miles of distance between him and his deadly deeds, he dropped the wiped-down handgun on the floorboard, wiped everything inside the truck as best he could, and started walking. It would be a long walk back to the arena and the little dirt road off the entrance where he’d parked his own truck for the night. By the time he got there, everyone would be gone?the audience, the cowboys, the police, and the body. Nobody would even see him leaving.
Gresham was out of the way. Strader was a lucky bit of collateral damage. And his disappearance would implicate Owens, who’d probably disappear anyway with her pitiful little broken heart, the cops on her heels.
And pretty soon, he’d be rolling in dough. He hoped Jimmy wasn’t going to get too greedy. He’d hate to have to get rid of that guy too.
But if he had to, he had to. After all, it wasn’t about friendships. It was all just business, and now it had to become business as usual.
Shyanna paced back and forth.Where the hell was Jensen? Why hadn’t he come back? The seventh bull was in the chute, and he was riding the ninth. They loaded the eighth, and she got antsy, but when the ninth came up and the chute boss yelled, “Strader!” there was no answer.
Something was wrong. Shyanna managed to get her helmet off, then stripped off her vest and neck roll before taking off at a run down the concrete walk that connected the staging areawith the concessions building. Bounding up the stairs, she tried the first office door, but no one was there. The second one was locked.
Where had he gone? Standing there above everything on the walkway, she twisted and turned, hoping she’d catch sight of him somewhere below, but she didn’t see him. Running back down the stairs, she headed to the concessions area, but he wasn’t there either. “Would you please check and see if JensenStrader is in there?” she asked a guy coming out of the men’s room.
She heard him call, “JensenStrader? Strader?” There was no answer.
That was the moment when panic set in. She bolted out of the concession area and across the parking lot, dodging cars and people leaving early, and headed straight to the barn. He wasn’t there. The trailers were next, but they were both locked up tight. Where the hell could he be?
Back at the arena, she scanned the crowd and didn’t see a single sign of him. “Seen Jensen?” she asked Amos as he came up to the staging area to talk to one of the other cowboys.
“No. Did he scratch from the bull riding? I thought he was competing tonight.”
Shyanna’s heart was pounding out of her chest. “He was. They scratched me without even telling me. He went to ask why and he’s never come back. I’ve looked everywhere.”
“Looked in the trailers?” She nodded. “And the men’s room?”
“Yes. All those places.” Her hands had begun to shake and she couldn’t stop them. “Amos, I’m scared. Something’s wrong.”
“I think you’re right. Go to the concession stand and ask them to call him over the loudspeaker.”
For some reason, that seemed like a very bad idea. “Uh, no. He’ll turn up, I’m sure,” she said, trying hard to believe her own words as she turned away. A chill fell on her and her kneeswent weak, but she couldn’t give in to fear. She had to find Jensen. Shyanna wandered aimlessly, hoping he was standing somewhere talking to someone, but he was nowhere to be found.
She had decided to go out and check the barn and the trailers for the second time when the sounds of sirens filled the air, and her heart swelled with fear. Had something happened to him? The entire rodeo audience and all the participants watched as officers filed into the arena grounds, and Shyanna ran toward the concessions area. Standing at a little distance, she saw all the officers stopping and roping off the area around the association’s little check-in office. Planted inside the door was JimmyFuller, and she moved in as closely as she could to try to hear what he was saying. She got “found him when I came in” and “don’t know how this could’ve happened,” along with “we’ve been friends forever” and “you guys have to figure this out.” Jimmy seemed animated, and she wondered if Dale had been hurt in some way.
But ten minutes later when the gurney left with the body bag, she knew Dale wasn’t hurt?he was dead. What the hell? She’d never been his biggest fan, but he’d always treated her fairly and been polite. As soon as the gurney was gone, the police took over the office. Then she heard something she couldn’t believe.
“The last person I saw go into the office was JensenStrader, and he didn’t come out. There’s a back door to this place. Maybe he went out that way.”
No. No, Jensen didn’t do this. He didn’t have any reason to!the screaming inside her head repeated over and over, and she turned and ran down the nearest stairs, straight out through the back alley and out the side of the building by the parking lot. It was too far to the trailers, but not too far for her to see something she just couldn’t believe.
Jensen’s rig was gone.
Without a second thought, she barreled toward the barn and stopped in front of the stalls where they’d left the horses earlier. Both were there. That didn’t make any sense. Even if he’d done something like that, Jensen wouldn’t have left Snowman?never in a million years. It just couldn’t be.
Think, Shy. What’s going on here? Something’s wrong.Shyanna thought back to everything that had gone on since she’d first realized Jensen hadn’t made it back for his go-round. There was a missing piece, something she couldn’t figure out. And then it hit her.
Shyanna ran to the event lists on the wall outside the main office and looked down them, checking names of competitors. Then she looked at the lists of competitors and their times in each event. And one name was conspicuously absent from the results list.
Max Barlow. That son of a bitch.
Something flicked through Shyanna’s mind at breakneck speed. She’d seen Jimmy and Max coming out of the office several times. She’d seen Max hunkered down against the railing in the stands, talking to Jimmy. And she’d seen that strange suit with the glasses talking to Max out in the parking lot before the day’s events started.Investment banker my ass, she thought. Something much bigger was going on, and she didn’t know what it was, but she’d figure it out. Remembering what they’d said about a back staircase, Shyanna walked that way around the building, sticking close to the wall, and was surprised to see there wasn’t anyone back there. There were no signs of a fight there, but as she turned to walk away, something caught her eye.
