Page 28 of Rocky Ride

“You got a job or something calling you?”

“I’m the sheriff of Harrison County.”

“Huh. You look like the opposite of a lawman, buddy.”

“Yeah, I guess I do.”

“I’ll have to drive you home. You can’t drive.”

“True, and I can’t promise when I’ll be able to get you back to your cabin. Bad weather is settling in for the next few months.”

“That’s okay. I’m due for a vacation. I’ll go up to my place and pack up my things. Don’t have much. Me and my husband brought as little as possible when we shook off the old life and started living off the grid.”

“Uh huh. I can see him wanting to do that.”

“I’ll have to bring Butchie.”

“That’s okay.” Travis smiled. “She’s a good girl. What about your bear?”

“Not really mine as most wild things are not possessions. They stay wild when you return them to nature.”

“But you tamed him down a lot,” said Travis. “He walks on a leash, for chrissakes.”

“With nothing else to do, I spent days seeing if I could tame him—just for fun. He won’t starve on his own. He’s a bear.”

Travis laughed.

Dry Run Roadhouse. Coyote Creek.

We left the station with a new murder on our hands and Billy thought we should stop into the Run to drink a pitcher on the way home, just to think things over.

We sat at the bar so Billy could talk to his cousin, Jack. “When’s Travis coming home?” Jack talked to us between customers and when he wasn’t filling pitchers for the servers.

“Can’t say,” said Virge. “He’s got no service up there on BlackWolf Mountain, and he ain’t been calling us since he left right after the funeral.”

“Bad time of year to go up there.” Jack frowned and shook his head. “Too much fuckin snow. He won’t be able to get down the mountain when he wants to get back to civilization.”

“And the early snow means the bears weren’t ready to hibernate,” said Virge. “They’ll be acting up something crazy.”

Thinking about a bear getting Dad made me almost puke and I couldn’t finish my beer.

Krystal’s Palace. Ethridge.

Ted got up from his nap needing more sleep, grabbed a sandwich and a beer and bundled up against the cold of the Montana night.

He warmed up his truck before leaving, then headed up to Ethridge to watch the strip club.

The girls in the group of haters were all free on bail except for Brenda Paige who was dead as dirt. Killed by her crazy husband in the station parking lot. Now, there were only five of them—unless they had a new recruit.

Ted lit up a smoke and remembered the girls being warned by the judge to stay away from Krystal’s property or he would personally revoke their bail.

Sitting in the dark across the road from the Palace, he watched the customers come and go. All men. He’d been in place for about two hours when he recognized Lila Gordon’s car slowing down.

She parked just past the strip club, jumped out and doubled back with a purpose in mind. She ran down the alleyway between Krystal’s club and the building next to it.

Ted hopped out of his truck and followed Lila. He entered the dark alley and hollered, “Hey, Lila, what are you doing here?”

“Nothing.”

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