Page 84 of River Ride

Willy slung his shotgun over his shoulder, picked up the girl and flopped her over his other shoulder. Thin and limp, she didn’t weigh much more than a hundred pounds. Maybe a hundred and ten.

He started walking.

George and Gracie ran on ahead doing a little whining. They weren’t partial to company. Strangers made them skittish and wary.

Willy laughed at them as he trudged along. “Y’all will have to get used to her. This girl is hurt bad, and she’ll be with us for quite some time.”

When he got the girl back to the cabin, he laid her on a blanket on the rug in front of the woodstove. Couldn’t put her on the cot until he got all that blood off her. That would take a few buckets of well water to get the job done.

“This girl can’t have much blood left in her, doggies. She’s in serious trouble.”

Willy heated water in the kettle—too hot to have the woodstove on in July—he poured the hot water into a basin of cold and checked the temperature. When he felt it was right, he dipped a cloth in and started to clean the blood off the girl’s face.

“Got a lot of blood in your pretty hair, little girl. Have to save that for the next kettle of water.”

Willy had been cleaning her up for a couple of hours before the girl opened her eyes and looked at him.

“I’m hurt.”

“God’s truth,” said Willy. “You’re in a bad way, little girl, but I can fix you up if you let me.”

“You a doctor?”

“Yep. Mountain doctor. I’m Willy-John.”

“I’m Tammy.”

Tammy looked up into kind brown eyes and a handsome weathered face. Long hair like Travis, but dark brown. Willy-John was beautiful.

She closed her eyes and passed out.

Chapter Sixteen

Monday, July 15th.

Wild Stallion Ranch.

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek. Montana.

Mister and Mrs. Arnott were sitting in the parking lot behind the station waiting for us to arrive at eight o’clock in the morning.

Billy jumped out of his truck and unlocked the door into the sally port. He and Ted went inside while Travis talked to the Arnotts, and they introduced the attorney they’d hired.

Travis shook his hand. “Nice to see you again, Mister Van Cedar. I can let you have twenty minutes with Graham Arnott, but his parents will have to see him at the courthouse. They can wait in the car or in the squad room.”

“We need to see our son,” said Mister Arnott. “We have rights.”

Tired of explaining it, Travis shook his head. “Not until he gets to the courthouse. Sorry.”

“Harlan, show Mister Van Cedar where Graham is in the run.”

“Copy that.”

When the Arnott’s left for the courthouse, it was time to get the prisoners ready to go too. We secured Graham Arnott and Trevor Carpenter in the back of the squad and neither one of them said a word.

The silence was new for Trevor, but now that his father was dead and he was on his own to face what he’d done, the gravity of his situation was taking hold.

Both boys were pasty white and looked scared shitless. Theyshould be. They were both going down for murder and they’d spend the rest of their lives in prison.

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