Page 7 of River Ride

Me and Virge had been cleaning up the barn a little extra for the past few days when we found out everybody was coming to Montana for rodeo season.

With all of the kids bringing their rodeo horses with them, the corral would be full in between competitions.

At breakfast I spoke up and told Dad that Virge was worried about horse space. “Virge thinks the horses are gonna be cramped for space, Dad.”

Travis frowned. “Don’t think so, Virgie. The corral is huge, and they’ll have lots of room out there. What y’all do need to do, is check the feed, the supply of hay and straw in the loft, and put an order in at the feed store today.”

“Yep, I can do that,” I said. “I’ll do it as soon as we get to the station.”

“Wonder where Annie is right now,” said Virge.

“Driving north along the side of the Rio Grande,” I said. “Lucy texted me.”

“I want her to text me too,” said Virge. “Is Tammy texting you too, Harlan?”

“Nope. Nothing from Tammy. Not a word.”

“Should we be worried about Tammy, Dad?” asked Virgil.

“The hospital released her, son, so the doctors think she’s well enough to be on her own. Don’t forget she’s on parole too, so her new parole officer in Cut Bank will be watching her close. There’s no need for you to worry.”

Virge looked Travis square in the eye. “Nice little chat, Dad. Thanks for that. Tell me you’re not worried out of your tree after all the shit Tammy did.”

“I can’t say that son. It would be a lie.”

“I figured you were freaked, Dad. Can see it in your face.”

“Now that we’ve got that out in the open,” said Travis, “and we’ve admitted that we’re all worried about Tammy, let’s clean up and get to work.”

“Copy that.”

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek.

While I unlocked the front door of the station for the public, Molly confirmed the notification had been done for Wayne Treadway’s family. “He has a wife and three kids back in Missoula, where he was from,” said Molly.

“Damned shame, Molly.” Travis shook his head. “Why was he poaching way up here if he lived in Missoula?”

“No idea. That might be a question for his wife.”

“You’re right, Molly,” said Billy. “We’d better have a conversation with Mrs. Treadway. I’ll drive down there and talk to her if you want, Travis.”

“Start with a phone call,” said Travis. “Save time and gas if you can.”

“Okay,” said Billy. “I’ll get a list of questions ready before I call. We definitely need to ask her why her husband was way up here, who he was with and who he happened to know up here in the north end of Montana.”

“Yeah, try the phone call first,” said Travis. “Save yourself hours of drive time if you get the answers you want. And ask her about the horse. Did he trailer his horse up here? Who was he staying with? Things like that.”

“Jotting it down,” said Billy.

“I’m hoping Doc turns up something useful during the autopsy.”

“That would be helpful,” said Billy. “Have you thought about Carpenter and his son waiting in the run? We need to bring charges against them today and get them into the system.”

“Yeah, considering the charges. I’m thinking of going with murder in the second degree against both of them. They definitely were not firing warning shots to scare away a poacher. Three shots to the heart is not a fucking warning.”

“Sure isn’t,” said Billy. “I assigned Ted to fingerprint the rifle to make sure only Jed’s prints were on it.”

“And?” asked Travis.

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