Chapter Eight

Sunday, October 20 th .

Wild Stallion Ranch. Montana.

While we ate breakfast, Billy talked about Sandra Ellington's murder and brought Travis up to date on what we had done so far.

"I've met the lawyer down the street from the station," said Travis. "That his wife?"

"Yep," said Virge. "We already found out she was screwing around on Bob, the lawyer."

"Two at a time according to her neighbor," I said. "One of them drives a Jeep and the other one is calling around regular in a dark red pickup."

"Shit," said Travis. "These fellas have names?"

"Not yet," said Billy. "Don't know how we're gonna get their names either."

"Any of the neighbors across the street got security cams out front?" asked Travis.

"We'll find that out today, Dad," I said. "I don't want this going cold on us."

Sunday listened, made more toast for us then sat down and listened some more. She seemed interested in the murder.

Billy focused his eyes on Sunday and watched her quite steady, and I wondered about that. Billy ain't had a steady girlfriend since those twins were on him like maggots on a corpse. They were nasty pieces of work and turned his life inside out. Maybe he swore off women after that.

Me and Virge left chores until after breakfast because we didn't have to rush to the station. We were in the barn mucking out the stalls when Sunday came to see the horses.

She stood in front of Outlaw's stall and stroked his nose. "Do they have to stay in all winter?"

"Have to," said Virge. "Three feet of snow in the corral."

Sunday laughed. "That's one advantage of having a bear for a pet."

"You got a bear?" Virgie's eyes were wide. "Don't he try to bite you?"

"He tried a couple times at first and I smacked him down with a shovel. He got the message pretty quick and didn't give me anymore trouble. He walks on a leash now."

"No shit?" Virge was into the bear story, and I could picture him trying to tame a huge hulking grizzly for us pretty soon.

"None. I was walking Ted down the mountain on his leash when I came across the wolf pack on Dale trying to finish him."

"I need to hear the details of that," said Virge. "Dad ain't telling me anything and he ain't showing me the damage to his leg."

"Hard to miss the howling," Sunday moved along the row of stalls and stroked Bonnie Grace's nose while she talked, "and I followed the sound and the tracks."

"You have a gun?" asked Virge.

"Nope, just my bear. When I got down the mountain far enough to see Dale, one of the wolves was tearing his clothes and tugging on him, trying to drag him into the trees. The second one was at his throat trying to finish him off while the third one had fangs in Dale's leg ripping that big chunk out of him."

Virge made a face when Sunday said, big chunk .

"How bad is his leg, Sunday?" I asked. "He ain't offered to show me yet."

"Nothing you want to look at, Harlan. Make you heave up your breakfast. A lot of parts are missing and they won't be coming back."

"Why do you live way up the mountain all alone?" asked Virge.

"Like I told Dale, my husband wanted to try living off the grid. He bought the land and built our cabin, and we quit our jobs and moved up there in the spring. I think it was April twelfth. Right around the time the bears were coming out of the caves looking for food. We didn't know a lot about bears, but it seems they were extra hungry and mean this year."

"Yeah," said Virge, "the fuckers are testy in the spring."

"Ted was out getting wood for the stove, and he was gone a long time. Never came back and me and Butchie had to go looking for him. We found him not too far from the cabin. A bear got him. Killed him dead."

"Aw shit. That's a sad story. Sorry for your loss."

"If you moved up there on April twelfth," said Virge, "how long were you there before the bear got your man?"

"Three days. Ted was dead on the fifteenth. I buried him the same day. Ground was still partially frozen, and it was hard digging."

"Aw, Jeeze," I said. "Worst story I ever heard."

"Then you just stayed up there?" Virge wanted all the details. He'd keep going until he squeezed it all out of Sunday.

"Where was I going to go? I had to think about it all summer."

"You settled on what you want to do now?" I asked.

"I'm feeling more solid now, and I'm happy to be here with you boys and Dale and Billy. You are all good people and all lawmen. A houseful of lawmen. I feel safe."

"Yep, we've gotta work today. Gotta catch us a killer."

"I'd like to help you."

"Got any skills, Sunday?" asked Virge. "I mean like besides bear taming and cooking."

"Let's see. Before I got married and moved up the mountain I was a tech for a big company in Missoula. I know a lot about computers."

"That could be helpful for research," said Virge. "Are you beyond skilled…like I mean… can you hack?"

"Could do." Sunday smiled at Virge.

"Great. That's what we need more than anything. Billy and Harlan can look shit up but for the druggies and some of the other criminals and creepers, we need somebody to go way deeper."

"I'm happy to try. When we moved off the grid, I left all of my equipment behind."

"Did you…like save it in case the mountain gig didn't work out?" asked Virge.

Sunday laughed. "Yes. I have all my stuff in a storage locker in Missoula."

"Smart girl," I said. "That was good thinking."

Chores finished, we went back to the house and Billy was taking a call on the sheriff's phone. He wrote stuff down then said to us, "Robbery at the package store in Cut Bank."

"Huh," said Virge.

"Molly's day off, Harlan," said Billy. "You feed the prisoners at the station. Virge and I will take the robbery scene."

"I'll take a ride to the robbery," said Travis.

"I'll help Harlan," said Sunday. "I want to see the station and get a look at the prisoners."

Sheriff's Office. Coyote Creek.

Sunday and Butchie came with me to feed the prisoners. We started across the street picking up the breakfast containers the diner supplied on the county's tab.

"Right now we only have two prisoners. Jerry Paige—he killed his wife in our parking lot right outside the back door of the station. And Lila Gordon—she's the leader of a gang of women who hate strip clubs. She's an arsonist."

"Never heard of people who hate strip clubs," said Sunday, "but there are groups for every topic. One more good reason to live off the grid. You don't have to hear about stupid shit anymore. That's the good part."

Getting killed by a fuckin bear is the bad part.

"Yeah, we never heard of the WASC women neither until they tried to burn down Krystal's Palace in Ethridge."

"You live an exciting life, Harlan."

"Not really, but I'm happy living with my dad and my brother and with Billy. I never had a family before Travis picked me up from Juvie Hall."

"Your dad is a good person. Easy to see that."

"Yep, he's the best."

Tarlow's Beer & Liquor. Cut Bank.

Perry Tarlow stood in front of his vandalized store waiting for the sheriff to show up. Just down the street from Katie's Good Eats, the local diner, Tarlow's Beer and Liquor was the only package store in Cut Bank and did a thriving business.

Overnight the store had been trashed.

Perry let Billy and Virge in the front door and was about to lock it when he saw Travis struggling to get out of the truck. "I think your buddy is trying to come with you."

"That's Sheriff Frost," said Billy. "He's injured. Stay in the truck, Travis."

Travis shook his head and kept on coming.

"I'll get his crutch if he's coming in," said Virge.

"What happened to him?" asked Perry.

"Wolves got him," said Billy. "Tore his leg up bad."

"Fuck. Wolves? Did it happen around here?"

"Up Black Wolf Mountain," said Billy.

Perry held the door for Travis to limp through on his crutch. The entire store was a mass of dumped shelves, rolling beer cans and broken glass. You had to watch where you stepped.

"The money was in the safe in the office," said Perry. "They didn't try for the money. Only merchandise. Far as I can tell with only a quick look, they took beer, tequila and whiskey. I'll have to do a complete inventory to see exactly what's gone."

"You may have to do that anyway for insurance purposes," said Billy.

"Yeah, you're right. It's just such a time-consuming pain in the ass."

"Cameras?" asked Travis.

"Yes," said Perry. "Come into the office and we can take a look and see what the cameras saw."

The store owner sat down at his desk and typed on his keyboard. He pulled up the screen for the indoor cameras and pointed. "Here they are breaking the glass in the bathroom window at two forty-five."

"You have a camera in the bathroom?"

He shrugged. "People steal stuff."

Not much to see as the thieves squished through the bathroom window, but once the boys were in the main part of the large store, the three of them were clearly visible. Masks on. Torn jeans. Leather jackets.

"Look like punks," said Billy.

The parking lot cam showed no vehicles but if the boys were carrying cases of beer, they couldn't have run too far on foot.

"You mind if we take the videos and copy them?" asked Billy. "You'll get them back."

"Sure. That's no problem for me."

"You notice anybody hanging around your store lately you weren't familiar with?" asked Travis.

"Wasn't thinking about it until now," said Perry. "Give me a couple of hours to ponder that or I could run through tapes from the past week and see if the same faces are coming up."

"That would be helpful," said Billy. "Since they didn't bother with the safe, I have to rule out druggies looking for money. Sounds more like kids doing the damage."

"Will you have a crew of techs coming in?" asked Perry. "I'm not familiar with what the local sheriff's office does in these cases."

"We have no budget for forensics," said Travis. "But our fingerprint guy will come as soon as Billy gets him out of bed on his day off."

Perry laughed. "Yeah, there's that."

Kings Court. Coyote Creek.

I drove south to Coyote Creek and Sunday told me she'd never been to this part of Montana before. Cruising slowly along Kings Court I looked for houses with cams mounted outside. Ones that were pointed in the direction of the Ellington house.

"There's one," said Sunday. "Straight across the street. That cam might have recorded the killer's vehicle."

"Yep. Let's ask." I pulled into the driveway and parked, and Sunday and I walked up to the front door.

Holding up my badge, I said, "Sheriff's office, sir. I noticed you had a security cam mounted outside and I wondered if I could have a look at your recent videos."

"What are you looking for, son?"

"Searching for any record of vehicles coming in and out of the Ellington's driveway, sir. Could you help me with that?"

"Of course, I'd be pleased to help your office with the investigation. My wife and I were horrified when we heard what happened to Sandra. This is supposedly the safest street in Coyote Creek with all the security systems and cameras we have installed. I'm Frank Wendover." He stuck out his hand.

"Deputy Harlan Bristol, sir." I shook his hand. "Were you and your wife friends with the Ellingtons?"

"Not close friends but we consider ourselves to be good neighbors. I'll get you the video for the past week. Won't take me a minute."

"Thank you."

Frank returned and handed over the drive. "Will you let me know if you find anything useful?"

"I will. Thank you for your help, sir."

We hopped into the Jeep and Sunday stared at the thing in her hand. "Good. Something for me to analyze. I like being useful."

"Yep. I'm hoping this will give us a clue into at least one of the boyfriends."

She giggled. "I wonder what it's like juggling two boyfriends and a husband at the same time."

I shrugged. "She might've had them on some kind of schedule."

"You could be right about that, Harlan."

Wild Stallion Ranch.

At the barn, Virge told me about the messy robbery, and I told him about getting the video from the neighbor across the street from the Ellingtons.

"Might be too far away to see anything," said Virge, "but we might get lucky and see a plate or a piece of one. That would be more than we have now."

"I'm hoping for more."

Virge made a face at me. "That's because you're an optimist and I look at the world more realistically."

"Right." My brother made me laugh.

When we came in from the barn, Dad was all cleaned up and his hair was brushed. Billy was in his room changing his clothes.

"Where you going, Dad?" asked Virge.

"I want to thank Sunday for saving my life, so I made a reservation for us at the Inn. We're going there for dinner."

"The Inn, Dad? Are you sure?"

"I'm pretty sure I'll be okay, son. You boys get cleaned up. No rush. When y'all are ready, we'll drive down and have a great dinner."

Me and Virge ran upstairs to get changed and my brother wasn't buying into it. "It's too fuckin soon, Harlan. Dad is not going to be okay eating dinner at the Inn."

"Only one way to tell, bro. We've got to test the waters."

"Jeeze, Harlan. I'm not sure I'm ready for that test."

"Sure you are. Change your clothes and we'll go see which way Dad is gonna rock."

Virge plopped down on his bed. "I'll stay here. Bring me a steak and some lemon pie."

"Get changed, Virgie. You're going."

Coyote Creek Inn.

Dad was calm and I think Sunday had a lot to do with it. She was such a calm person and she seemed to like the Inn a lot. Looking around the beautiful dining room made her smile.

Sunday wore a pretty dress and brushed her hair down long. She even had some lip gloss on.

Billy looked at her a lot and it made me wonder if he was hot for her. I was pretty sure Dad wasn't. Not in the way he was for Annie. The way I figured it, Sunday saved Dad's bacon and she was just a friend.

The food was amazing like it always was, and Dad did fairly well. He was quiet and didn't look around much, but he made it all the way through dinner.

When it was time for dessert, he handed Sunday the dessert menu, "Order one of the desserts, Sunday. There must be one you want to try."

"Try the lemon mousse," I said. "It's so good you'll want two of them."

She laughed. "I'll try it, but I'm too full to eat two."

Brooke served us and I felt kind of guilty for not calling or texting her for a long while. I'd been out of touch since everything had gone wrong with Tammy and I wasn't wanting a girlfriend too much.

When we were on our way out she stopped me in the hallway and whispered, "Are you ever going to call me, Harlan?"

"Yeah, sure. Sorry. I've been away, Brooke. I had to go to Texas for a while and I'm just getting straightened out after that trip."

"I heard you were away looking for your sister. Did you find her?"

"Umm…yes. Look, I'll call you this week and we'll go somewhere."

She flashed him a big smile. "Keep your promise, Harlan."

"I will. For sure I'll call you."

On the way to the Jeep Virge said, "She nailed you, bro. You have to take her someplace."

"Yeah, I'll take her to a movie in Shelby on Friday night. I'm not sure I like her enough to take her out more than one more time."

"We've got to look harder," said Virge. "Where should we look for new talent?"

I laughed. "Let me think about that."