Chapter Nineteen

Thursday, October 31 st .

Hallowe'en.

Wild Stallion Ranch. Montana.

"I called the hospital, and they gave me the same old resting comfortably crap. I want to drive over to Cut Bank and sit with Virgil, but I can't. We've got an overload of work staring us in the face this morning."

"Yeah, we do," said Billy. "Did you leave word for Virgil's doctor to call you?"

"I did," said Travis. "With me not able to go, I want to send Harlan to be there when he opens his eyes, but I can't do that either. We're going to need every man today to get through the bookings and the reports."

Dad was upset and so fuckin worked up about Virgie getting hurt, it was pitiful to watch. I tried to come up with something to de-stress him.

"Savanna was crying over Virgie last night, Dad. Would she have time to drive over to Cut Bank and spend a couple of hours with him?"

"Damned good thought, Harlan. I'll call her on the way to the station."

Sheriff's Office. Coyote Creek.

"Meeting in the squad room," said Travis. "This is for everybody."

"Before we start," said Molly, "can I ask how Virgil is?"

"He's not awake yet, Molly. I've got a call in to the surgeon and we're so busy this morning, I asked Savanna to go to the hospital and sit with him."

"As long as he doesn't wake up alone," said Molly.

"Uh huh."

Dad was getting upset again. I could hear it in his voice.

"Let's start with the murders. If the forensic team that Graham Van Cedar hired out of his own pocket doesn't give us a solid piece of evidence to work with, then we have nothing."

Nobody said anything.

"That said, let's move on to the bookings for this morning. Read the names off one at a time, Molly."

She picked up her list. "Toby Darkers."

"Manufacturing illegal drugs for the purpose of trafficking."

"Dan Darkers."

"Same charges plus the assault on Barb Joliceur. He didn't do it personally, but he ordered it."

"Easy Menard."

"Manufacturing, trafficking plus assault causing bodily harm."

"Are the two in the hospital going to make it?"

"Not sure of that, Molly. Let's see if they do before we worry what we're going to charge them with."

"Mister Darkers requested a phone call this morning," said Molly.

"He was booked on previous charges," said Travis, "and already locked up for a while, so I'll allow him a phone call. Bring him out here, Ted. Give him his call and while he's out of the run, book him on the new charges and lock him up again. Then start on the new people."

"Copy that."

"Go with Ted, Harlan. Nobody goes into the run alone with that many prisoners behind bars. Molly shouldn't have been alone distributing the breakfast containers. Won't happen again."

"Mrs. Darkers is quite unpleasant," said Molly.

Billy rolled his eyes.

Ted and I went into the run together to get Dan Darkers for his phone call and as soon as we stepped inside, Toby Darkers started hollering and cursing.

"I want my phone call, you fucking Mickey Mouse Deputies. You don't give me a call right now, I'll choke the life out of this dumb bitch here in my fucking cell."

Toby grabbed Lila Gordon by the throat and bashed Lila's head into the concrete wall a couple of times before Ted got the cell door open and ran in.

He pulled Toby off of Lila and threw her bodily onto the bunk. "Get me shackles, Harlan. Hurry."

I ran to the supply cupboard, grabbed shackles and ran back to Ted. He chained Toby up while I helped Lila Gordon up off the floor where she was crying in a pile.

"My head is bleeding."

"We'll call medical for you, Mrs. Gordon. You stay away from her while I double the guys up and get you your own cell. It'll take a couple of minutes and then you'll be safe enough."

"Thank you."

Ted and I moved one of the men in with another and locked Lila up by herself. She lay down on her bunk and sobbed. We'd have to call Nurse Paderno to come from the Coyote Creek Medical Center and look at Lila's head.

Dan Darkers chuckled as I cuffed him and took him out of his cell for his call. "My wife is a firecracker."

"She committed assault on another prisoner," I said, "and got herself more charges."

I escorted Dan to the squad room and while he called his lawyer, I told Travis and Billy we had to move Lila Gordon to her own cell.

"That's okay, son. As soon as Dan is finished his call, you and Ted re-book him and then start the new bookings one by one."

About halfway through the booking process, the DEA Agents from Great Falls dropped into the station to thank us for the gift we'd given them. They supplied us with a list of evidence for the trials that would be coming up in the next few months.

They shook our hands and congratulated our station on getting thousands of dollars' worth of opiates off the streets.

It got even better when our next visitor came in. The tall blond lawyer from Conrad who volunteered to pay the lab people, came to give Travis copies of the reports from both crime scenes. One report from the Ellington house in Coyote Creek, and the other from the Hoover house outside of Shelby.

"The main point of interest," said the lawyer, "is the DNA trace left on Mrs. Hoover's body by the killer."

"Was the DNA in the system?" asked Billy. Without that, anonymous DNA wasn't worth much.

"It was," said Van Cedar. "It belongs to a woman named Toby Darkers. She has a criminal record, and her DNA was on file."

Travis smiled. "That's handy, ain't it?"

"What do you mean?" asked Van Cedar.

"We have Toby Darkers locked up in our jail at this very moment."

"Amazing," said the lawyer. "Did she kill Mrs. Hoover and Mrs. Ellington because her husband was screwing around with them?"

"Could be," said Travis. "That's a nice tidy motive, ain't it?" After thanking Van Cedar for the reports and for his efforts to solve the case, Travis went into the run to confront Toby Darkers.

"Evidence has just come in from the lab in Great Falls, Mrs. Darkers, and your DNA was found at the scene of Mrs. Hoover's murder."

"What?" Dan Darkers ran to the bars at the side of his cell so he could see his wife at the other end of the run. "If you killed those women, Toby, I'll divorce you before you ever get the needle, you stupid bitch. You have no idea how much I hate you."

"Shut up, Dan," Toby yelled back at him. "You're a liar and a cheater. You were the worst possible husband and I hope you rot in jail and get buttfucked by a skinhead until your teeth fall out."

"I wish Virge was here to see this, Dad. He would've laughed so fuckin hard."

Travis laughed. "You can tell him all about it when we go to the hospital."

Shadow Valley. West Virginia.

Leaving their cabin on the fire road halfway up the mountain, Ray and Bobby drove down the winding road into town to shop for groceries.

Before going home, they spotted the pool hall down the block on Main Street and went in to have a cold one.

"Nice place," said Ray. He grabbed a stool at the bar and a gorgeous girl with long pink hair set a pitcher and frosted glasses in front of him and Bobby.

"Haven't seen you boys in here before. Y'all new to Shadow Valley?"

"Uh huh," said Bobby. "Bought ourselves a little house up the mountain a ways."

"I was raised up that mountain and it's a beautiful place to live. I'm Clover. I live in Texas, but this is my pool hall and I come back here every few weeks to check up on things."

"Nice place you have here, ma'am," said Bobby. "Where do you live in Texas?"

"Elgin. East of Austin. Why don't you boys shoot a game of pool and try out my tables? First game is always on the house."

Bobby beamed a smiled. "Yep. That's just what me and Ray are gonna do as soon as we finish this pitcher of beer."

Cut Bank Hospital.

Travis left work a little early when the doctor called and said Virge could go home. "Virge is being released, Harlan. Let's go pick him up."

"Yahoo. I feel bad for him being in so much fuckin pain."

When we got to the hospital, Virge was lying awake in the recovery room with Savanna sitting next to him.

"They're cutting you loose, son. Your doctor called me to come and drag your ass home."

"Great. I want to get out of here," said Virge.

"Would you mind if I came by the ranch tomorrow while you guys were at work and made Virgil soup and a sandwich?" asked Savanna.

"Don't mind at all," said Travis. "Nice of you, and Virge always appreciates food."

My brother's face was as white as printer paper and he looked to me like he didn't have a drop of blood left in him, but he smiled.

"I can eat soup."