Chapter Sixteen

Monday, October 28 th .

Wild Stallion Ranch.

Me and Virge came in from the barn and Billy had his uniform on and seemed in a lot better spirits. With Billy back at work we'd be able to make headway on the murder case, at least that's what I hoped.

Dad and Billy worked in two different ways. Dad sat in the break room and thought about the cases until he figured them out in his head while Billy shouted out orders and made things happen with legwork. Not saying which way worked best, but me and Virge would rather be doing something than waiting for Dad to figure it all out.

The two murders were driving Dad around the bend because we didn't have a clue who the killer was. We had the suit guy locked up, but Dad was pretty sure Hal Hoover didn't kill his wife or Sandra Ellington either.

"Do we need to go back and check the ownerships of more black Wranglers?" asked Virge. "I've been wondering if we gave up on them too soon."

"Good thought, son. We'll put Molly on that first thing this morning. You might have something there, Virgil. We can't let anything fall through the cracks—no matter how small."

Coulter-Ross Ranch. La Grange. Texas.

Annie packed her bag and carefully chose the weapons she wanted to take with her on the hunt for Bobby Prescott. She had come up with a few ideas how they might find him and during her flight to the Big Easy, she intended to jot all of her thoughts down.

Her memory was unreliable, and Doctor Kaplan said she could no longer count on it.

Elated at the thought of working with a seasoned pro bounty hunter like Mason Swift, she was anxious to get to the airport and get started on her adventure.

Sheriff's Office. Coyote Creek.

As we came in through the sally port and kicked the snow off our boots, Molly was letting Bob Ellington in the front door of the station.

Billy said, "Virge, talk to Molly about the black Wranglers. Go back to the original list Sunday worked from and have Molly widen the search."

"Copy that."

Then Travis said, "You and Harlan are on Darkers in Sweetgrass today."

"Okay." No enthusiasm from Virgil.

"I get it, son. Too much surveillance pisses the best man off. Put in half a day and come back to the station."

"Thanks, Dad." Virge grinned.

"Take coffee with y'all, son."

Travis went into the squad room and spoke to Bob Ellington. "You need a word with Hal Hoover before we deliver him to the courthouse?"

"Yes, I'd appreciate it, Sheriff."

"No problem. I'll unlock the run for you."

Billy hunkered down in his office and tried to catch up on all the reports that weren't done. He had to do something to keep his mind off Sunday and what she had done to herself.

He had trouble believing a person's mind could be capable of thoughts so irrational they would walk right up to a growling grizzly bear. Made no sense to him at all.

Harrison County Courthouse. Coyote Creek.

Travis sat near the rail and watched Hal Hoover stand in front of the judge. Hoover could've made the very suit the judge wore under his robe. Seems he was the only custom tailor in Harrison County.

Bob Ellington stood next to Hoover and did all the talking for his client. Hal entered a not guilty plea and Ellington argued for bail.

The judge listened and made his decision after reading through the reports in front of him.

"Bail is granted in the amount of two hundred thousand dollars. Bailiff, escort Mister Hoover to the bond office."

"Yes, your honor."

Hal Hoover had no trouble coming up with the bond and after a few minutes, he and Ellington left the courthouse together.

Travis followed them to the parking lot and was surprised to see Ted sitting in his pickup watching his man—Graham Van Cedar.

Van Cedar was focused on Ellington and Hoover, and Travis wanted to know why. What did Van Cedar know that he didn't? He intended to find out.

Louis Armstrong International Airport. New Orleans.

"You have to wait in the truck, Clyde, while I go inside to fetch the beautiful lady." Clyde whined and Mason promised him a biscuit if he behaved himself.

A bit nervous on embarking on a hunt with a partner, Mason figured he wasn't too old to try something new. If it didn't work out, he might have fun finding that out.

His heart pounded a little too enthusiastically when she came through the door with the other passengers from Texas.

Mason smiled, reached out and pulled her into his arms and holding her close to him and inhaling her soft perfume felt like the most natural thing in the world.

"I'm so happy to see you."

"Same. I hadn't thought of coming with you, when I called, but I do know the Bobby Prescott case inside out and I may be able to help you with a lot of details that will help locate him."

"He may be living under an alias making him harder to locate."

"I'm sure he is, and if Bobby is as smart as I believe he is, I'm sure he sold his truck by now. Thinking about it on the flight, that's one way we may be able to get a read on his new identity."

Mason laughed. "You've been thinking hard on it already."

"I had time to kill on the plane." Annie laughed.

Mason took her bag and escorted Annie to his truck parked at the curb. Clyde wagged his tail and whined when Annie jumped into the front seat.

Annie twisted in her seat so she could stroke Clyde's velvet ears. "I missed you, Clyde." She pulled a large biscuit out of her pocket and gave it to him.

"All set," said Mason wearing a huge smile. "Shall we head towards Nashville?"

Darkers' Residence. Sweetgrass. Montana.

I cruised by the Darkers place twice looking for the perfect place to park where we wouldn't be noticed. Virge picked a spot down the road where the snowbanks weren't so high, and we could see a little bit of the cinderblock building through the trees.

All of the activity took place in that building and we still had no fuckin clue what was going on in there. Travis was sure it was a meth lab, but it didn't stink like one. What else could they be doing in there? We had no idea.

My coffee was gone, and the Jeep was getting cold when my phone signaled a text. I'd been texting Penny almost every day and I liked her a lot.

"Are you working?"

"Yes. On surveillance."

"Exciting."

"Not exactly."

"Who are you watching?"

There was no way I could tell her I was watching her father, so I made something up.

"Watching a murder suspect."

"Ooh. Don't get caught and get shot or anything."

"Hope not. Want to go out on the weekend?"

"Sure."

"We'll make a plan."

"Who's that? Penny?" asked Virge.

"Yep. I asked her out for the weekend. Are you going to ask Vicki again?"

"Thinking about it, but I'm not a hundred percent on her like I thought I would be."

"Why not?"

Virge screwed up his face like he couldn't figure it out. "Can't say for sure."

"You must have an idea what you don't like about her."

"Nope. Not really."

We'd been watching from our hiding place for about an hour when Virge let out a holler and scared the bejesus out of me.

"Did you see that?"

"See what?"

"A black Wrangler just pulled into the property. Drive by the end of the lane real slow and see if we can get the tag."

I drove past the Darkers property and using the spotting scope, Virge got the tag written down.

"Drive to the corner out of sight and give me a minute to run it."

"Sure."

Virge ran the tag through the DMV and nodded his head when he got the result. "Yep. That baby belongs to Daniel Darkers."

"Holy shit. He was fooling around with Mrs. Ellington. That's why he showed up at her funeral."

"Drive back to the station. We have to tell Dad. He'll want to hear this right away."

"We could call him with the scoop, and finish our morning of surveillance," I said.

"Do you want to do that?" Virge gave me the stink-eye.

"No."

"Okay then. I'm thinking Dad probably wants Darkers to be a killer more than he wants him to be a drug guy. See what I mean?"

"Yeah, I get it. He'd rather solve the murders than arrest another drug fucker in his county."

Virge gave me a fist bump.

Sheriff's Office. Coyote Creek.

Virge tore into the station with his good news and there was another surprise waiting for us. Graham Van Cedar was in the break room having a man-to-man talk to Travis. We'd have to wait to see what that was about.

Van Cedar left the station about ten minutes later and Dad came out to give us the goods. "Surprisingly enough, Mister Van Cedar offered to pay for a forensic team to run both crime scenes."

"What did you say, Dad?" asked Virge. "You know how fuckin bad we need that."

"I was honest and told him the Ellington scene might not be in the best shape. After all this time, it could be contaminated, but the Hoover scene would be better. I said it was his money, and he could go ahead with it if he wanted to."

"Yahoo," hollered Virge. "We need that so fuckin bad."

"Tell Dad the good news we have, Virgie."

Travis focused his hard blue eyes on my brother. "Tell me, Virge."

"Dan Darkers owns a black Wrangler."

"What? I didn't notice him driving it at the funeral home."

"Here's the tag and it's registered to him. We just saw it at his place and ran it."

"Wow, that's impressive, boys. Now we've got something to work with. We can bring him in for questioning on the murders now that we have this piece of evidence."

Virge couldn't stop grinning.

Happy for Dad having a fresh suspect, but I worried about Penny having a murderer for a father. Maybe he wasn't the killer. Maybe Dan Darkers screwed around with a bunch of women but didn't kill them.

Travis's phone rang and he glared at the screen before he read the name and answered it. "Hey, Doc. How's it going?" He put the call on speaker so me and Virge could hear.

"Startling news for you, Travis."

"How startling, Doc?"

"I've confirmed that the blades of the knives used in the two murders are not the same. We either have two different killers or the same killer used two different knives."

"Goddamn it, Doc. That screws me all up. I'm looking for one person."

"Sorry, Travis. I was surprised too, but the neck wounds do not match."

"You're certain?"

"Absolutely certain."

"Fuck that."

"Just because the killer was smart enough to use two different knives, don't mean we got ourselves two killers, Dad," said Virge. "Just a killer who ain't as dumb as he looks."

"Thanks for that, Virge." Travis smiled at my brother.

Birmingham. Alabama.

Mason pulled into a rest area just outside of Birmingham to give Clyde a break from the truck and a run in the doggie area.

Driving with Annie had been relaxing and fun so far and despite being nervous about deviating from his usual course of action, everything seemed to be going well.

"Will you be ready for dinner soon?" asked Mason.

"Any time you are. I can grab a bag of chips and last another hour. Your call."

"We'll stop soon. I'm always ready to eat. Must be why I have to work out three times a week just to keep my weight at a respectable level."

"I run five miles in the mornings," said Annie. "Been hard since my last leg injury. It's not the fun it used to be, that's for sure."

"How did you hurt your leg?"

"Took a bullet and then before the leg was healed, I got drunk at my son's game and fell down an escalator at the ballpark." Annie laughed. "Serves me right."

Mason stared at her in amazement.