Page 36 of River Ride

Billy nodded. “This is a mess.”

“Can you manage the office without Travis?” asked Annie.

“Sure, but he’ll be stressed about being away and not knowing what’s going on. We have a second murder and I’m not telling him about it until he’s back. Nothing he can do from miles away, so it’s better if he doesn’t know.”

“That’s true,” said Annie. “It would be pointless to tell him and only intensify his stress.”

Revelstoke. British Columbia.

7:00 p.m.

Ray parked the truck in front of the restaurant Bobby said he’d been to before. “We’re only an hour away from the cabin, so we won’t have to get a hotel. I’ll call my real estate agent from here and tell him we’ll meet him at his office tomorrow morning around ten.”

“Don’t you think the cops will have eyes on the cabin, Bobby?”

“No, it’s been too fuckin long. They can’t afford surveillance lasting that long.” He laughed. “Even for a bad-ass like me. It ain’t worth it.”

“I hope you’re right,” said Ray.

Best Western. Revelstoke. British Columbia.

9:15 p.m.

Travis drove up to the front entrance of the hotel and shut off the engine. “Enough for one day, boys. We’re only about an hour or two from Bobby Prescott’s cabin and it’s pitch dark. We’ll eat dinner and get some sleep and start again in the morning.”

“Dogs are hungry too,” said Virge.

“Snap their leashes on and I’ll go in and get us a room.”

“Copy that.”

Dad hopped out of the Jeep and went into the hotel while me and Virge got the dogs leashed, ready for a short run.

“I don’t like the way this is going,” said Virge. “It feels all wrong.”

“In what way?” I didn’t get the warning vibes like my brother did.

“Tammy ain’t better, Harlan. She’s doing something weird, and it ain’t by chance.”

“You saying she planned to run from us when she got to the ranch?”

“She planned all of it when she was in the hospital. I think she did it all on purpose,” said Virge. “She acted like she was better and scammed her doctor, so they’d let her out on parole. She’s going after Eldon Fontana again.”

“No. I don’t think she’s that smart.”

Prescott Cabin. Sicamous. B.C.

9:30 p.m.

“This is a beautiful location, Bobby,” said Ray. “Even in the dark I can tell how nice it would be living up here.”

“I loved it before my life got torn apart by that bounty hunter and by Tammy.”

“You’ve told me all the stories, but I can’t picture a nineteen-year-old girl almost killing you.”

“Wouldn’t want to go through that again,” said Bobby. “What a fuckin nightmare that girl is. Funny thing is, she seemed nice and normal when I first picked her up on the side of the highway.”

“One point against picking up hitchhikers,” said Ray.

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