Chapter 10

To Cyrus's frustration, he and Milly had a bit of an enforced cool-down period after their night together. The Montana Bounty Hunters in West Yellowstone had turned their full attention toward capturing Wilma Bassett because other hunters were starting to stomp all over the region, trying to use what MBH had already uncovered to leapfrog ahead of them to snap up their lucrative target.

"Yeah, I got up to Phillipsburg to begin staking out that luxury cabin Felicity found in her title search," Mace grumbled at the morning meeting, "and a neighbor comes tapping on my window to tell me that some woman named Harley Dean had already canvassed the neighborhood. Ms. Harley then stopped by to tell the neighbor she was leaving because her skip wasn't anywhere in sight and to say hi to the hunters who'd come after her."

He grunted, and one corner of his mouth quirked. "She told the woman to expect some Montana Bounty Hunters to show up soon and make sure she got lots of selfies with those handsome hunters. The lady was real disappointed I wasn't Cowboy or Chase or that new guy, Jackson." He rolled his eyes. "She was a little happier when I told her Malcolm would make an appearance in the last episode of the current season of the Dead Horse bounty hunters."

Darleen gave Liesel a pointed glance.

"Yeah, I'll add Harley to the list of possible candidates," Liesel said, grinning.

"So, we've covered every known property in Idaho and Wyoming," Darleen said, looking at their list on the screen.

"Done and done. Plus," Malcolm said, "we made sure neighbors knew there'd be a reward if Wilma turned up at any of the properties, and they let us know about it."

"Felicity," Darleen said, "did you find any more hidden assets in Montana?"

"Besides the Phillipsburg cabin, which was a bust, I have three others, all along the western border of the state. Two are pretty remote."

"Let's hit them quickly. Do a thorough canvass of nearby towns. See if she has shown up for a resupply at any grocery stores or filling stations. Get her picture out there. Let's go in teams of two." Darleen's gaze went to Mike. "You ready for another road trip, seeing as how you just came off a four-day shift?"

Mike glanced at Cyrus, who gave him a nod. "I'll rest up on the drive there."

Mike and Cyrus were assigned the two remote properties because they were closer together as the crow flies.

"Malcolm and Mace, you take the house in Frenchtown." At their nods, she glanced at Hook and Felicity. "I'll need you two to run down any more leads while the guys are out of pocket. Let's do this."

The drive to Superior, Montana, was over four hours. Cyrus didn't mind the quiet as Mike slept the entire trip. Half an hour from their destination, he decided to give Milly a call.

She answered on the third ring. "Where are you today?" she asked.

He liked her voice in his ear. Over the past days, while they'd been separated by their jobs, he'd noted that her tone had grown softer and sexier when they spoke on the phone. "Montana. Past Missoula and near the Idaho border."

"Still trying to find that bookkeeper who embezzled from her church?"

"Yup. We're running out of leads."

"Well, I hope you get her this time. It'd be nice if you could catch some jobs closer to home."

"Yeah, I'd like that. When I get back, I'll take you to dinner. Someplace nice."

"I'd prefer takeout in a hotel room."

He chuckled. "I think I can arrange that." He cleared his throat. "How's work today?"

"The usual. We had a bear-jam on Shoshone Lake Trail this morning. A bear was sitting on the roadside, waving at passing cars. The park scrambled naturalists to the scene to observe and park rangers to make sure folks stayed inside their cars and inched them along the road."

"Those happen often—what'd you call it?—bear-jams?"

"Not as often as in the past. When they got serious about visitors not feeding the animals in the park, the bears stuck to the forests to forage. The rangers used to have awful times with people getting too close or stopping their vehicles and forgetting to engage their parking brakes. There were a lot of accidents and attacks. It's better now."

"What did you do?"

"Cars were parked on either side of the trail; it was hard, but I made my way down the middle of the road. Had to stop a guy from rolling down his window to give the bear a high-five."

Cyrus snorted. "You serious?"

"Bears love to mimic our behavior. This bear had learned to wave, and I guess he looked friendly enough. I think the guy thought it would be great clickbait. I honked to let him know it was not okay to try to touch the bear."

"Anything else happen?"

"No, but I'll be on geyser duty the next couple of days."

"Geyser duty?"

"Yeah, just watching to make sure people stay on the walkways and don't venture too close to the springs."

"From your tone, I take it that's not your favorite duty."

"It's going to be hot as hell because there aren't any trees for shade near the pools, and I'll be chasing down tourists who are too stupid to know that boiling, acidic water is not something you want to ‘hot-pot' in."

"Hot pot?"

"Yeah, we have folks who try to get into some of the springs for a quick dip. Some of the springs are cool enough not to boil you in an instant, but they're still not safe."

"Better you than me."

She chuckled. "Yeah, with your people skills, I can only imagine how that would go down."

He spotted the sign for Superior just ahead. "Well, you stay safe. I have to go. I'm coming up on my exit."

"It was nice hearing your voice."

"See you in a couple of days," he said gruffly, then ended the call.

"How's your girlfriend?" Mike asked from beside him.

Cyrus nearly blurted that she wasn't his girlfriend, but that was only a knee-jerk reaction—an old habit. Milly was his. "Girlfriend" seemed as accurate a description as any. "She's good. She was telling me about her work; she said there was a bear-jam at the park this morning."

Mike shivered. "Can you imagine trying to keep all those tourists in their cars? I've seen videos where they try to take selfies while they stand close enough a bear could run them down easily. And some of them think bison are just large cows…" He yawned and wiped a hand over his face.

"How do you feel?"

"Thanks for letting me get some shut-eye. Get me a cup of coffee, and I'll be ready to tackle the day."

They stopped at the first gas station off the highway. Cyrus put gas into the Sequoia while Mike used the facilities and grabbed them coffees from inside.

When Mike returned with drinks and a paper sack, he held out the bag. "They had breakfast burritos. Thought you might be hungry, too. I also left a picture of Wilma with the desk and our card in case they see her."

They both got into the car, and Cyrus pulled into a parking space at the side of the building while they ate their potato, egg, and chorizo tacos. Then, they were on their way to the first property.

It was a mobile home sitting on a half-million-dollar piece of property nestled in a valley in Bitterroot Mountain Range. The plot had been cleared of trees, so they didn't have any choice but to drive straight up to the house. They spent about twenty minutes peeking into windows and checking out the two outbuildings. There were no indications that it had been used as anything other than a hunting cabin, and not recently at that. The electricity was turned off.

Still, they made their way to the two houses nearest the property and talked to the owners, sharing their business cards and asking for their help apprehending their fugitive.

"She looks like my grandma," one young woman holding a child at her hip said. "What'd she do?"

"She stole a bunch of money from her church," Mike said.

"That's just not right," the woman said. She gave them both a solemn nod. "If I see her, I'll call."

The older man who owned a mobile home adjacent to the Bassett's property wasn't as obliging. "She married?" he asked, perking up.

They returned to their vehicle and headed toward the other property, which was farther along the highway and nearing the Idaho border.

"Hope this one's not a bust," Cyrus muttered. "I'm not looking forward to hitting every grocery store and gas station along the highway in Superior. I hate canvassing. It's the worst part of the job."

"I do a lot of that working with the police. It's boring as hell."

There wasn't much information regarding any house on the property, just a description of the tract of land. It was worth a sweet two-point-five million dollars due to the near-mile of riverfront that came with it, and most of the acreage sat on a hill overlooking the river.

They followed the GPS coordinates until they arrived at a gravel road with a metal gate and a padlock.

Cyrus backed up to the main road and followed it a little further until they found a shoulder wide enough to park off the road. He didn't like leaving his vehicle, but they had little choice.

They met at the back of the SUV to gear up. They donned Kevlar as a precaution. He stuffed the box with the earpieces in his pocket, then snapped his holster to his thigh and pinned his badge on the front of his vest.

"I'll make a quick call back to Darleen to let her know where we are," Cyrus said.

Mike nodded.

Liesel answered Darleen's phone, and he quickly passed along their location and the fact that they were getting ready to walk in.

"Mace and Malcolm are heading your way," she said. "They passed Superior about fifteen minutes ago, and they have your coordinates. Said they'd help canvass the town if your last site doesn't work out."

"Good to know. I'll get back to you after we check this place out."

"Out here."

They walked back down the road, followed the drive to the metal gate, and climbed through it. The road was rather steep and rutted in the middle from rain. However, there appeared to be recent tread marks in the gravel and dirt.

"Looks auspicious," Mike said softly.

Cyrus nodded. "For all we know, someone's been using it as a deer camp."

"Better keep our eyes peeled. Folks don't like strangers walking up on their hunting camps."

When they neared the top of the hill, they moved from the road into the trees. The trees thinned until they reached the edge of a clearing that looked out over the river far below. A shiny black Dodge Ram sat in the clearing next to a large travel trailer. A low humming sounded, likely from a generator. There was no one in sight.

Cyrus pulled a small pair of binoculars from his vest pocket. "We got a problem," he said, handing them to Mike.

"Wireless door sensors," Mike whispered.

"Sneaking up on the site isn't going to be an option."

"What do you want to do?"

Cyrus glanced at the clear blue sky above and then back at the trailer sitting in the middle of nowhere—a rather fancy trailer to be serving as someone's hunting camper. "I'm going to walk back a ways and try to grab enough bars to get word to Darleen, Malcolm, and Mace. This could be it. I'd prefer to wait for the other two guys to get here if we have to go in blind. In the meantime, we can sit and see if whoever is inside stirs."

Mike waved the binoculars. "I'll hold onto these."

After Cyrus made the calls, he headed back up to Mike, who sat with good cover behind a stand of tall bushes.

"Any movement?" he whispered as he moved beside him and took a knee.

"None. I haven't heard a peep. Not even a creak of a footstep from inside."

"The guys are nearly here. I gave them directions. When they get here, we'll take up positions around the house before moving in. We won't know what the sensors are set to or how close we can get before they're triggered."

"Let's hope it's Wilma and not some group of hunters who grab their guns before they determine the threat. Though if it's her, I'll feel kind of bad if we scare her half to death."

"I won't feel a bit sorry," Cyrus said. "She knew what she was doing when she decided to run. She's been clever as hell."

"Or maybe she's already in a grave after someone relieved her of all that dough."

Cyrus shook his head. "You are a dark one, Mike Meakin."

The sound of footsteps crackling on dried leaves sounded behind them, and Cyrus turned to see Malcolm and Mace, with his dog Taco, climbing the hill toward them.

When they were gathered, Cyrus sent Mace to cover the back of the trailer while Malcolm moved to the truck to cover it in case Wilma tried to make a run for it. When the guys were out of sight, Cyrus tapped his earpiece. "You two in place?"

"Affirmative," Mace said.

"Affirmative," said Malcolm.

Cyrus patted Mike's shoulder. "Keep a distance behind me in case anyone opens fire." Then, to the rest of the team, he said, "We're heading to the door."

At about one hundred feet out, a siren blasted through the clearing. Cyrus winced but moved quickly forward to the metal steps leading into the camper.

Twenty feet from the trailer, he heard a shout through his earpiece, "Cyrus, rifle in the window! Get down!"

Because there was nothing for him to get behind, he didn't have much choice but to duck and continue storming toward the door when the first shot rang out.