Page 47 of Chasing Justice
“True,” Maya said.
“When they got there, they found his young horse in the barn with no rider. The mare was spooked and upset. The deputies started looking for your grandfather right away, but they haven’t been able to find him.”
Maya leaned forward in the chair, holding her head in her hands. How often had she been so mad at her grandfather? Why couldn’t she have forgiven him? Or better yet, apologized?
Then a thought hit her. “Tell them to stop looking.”
“What?”
“Stop looking. Set up a perimeter. I’ll take Juniper out and we’ll track.”
Josh didn’t answer, but instead immediately went to his radio and made the call to the deputies. After he got off the radio, he said, “Let’s go.”
Maya was already out the door in front of him. She hoped the scent trail was still hot.
Bobbi made a phone call and less than an hour later, she was released. She stomped out of the jail and let the doors slam behind her. This was not how today was supposed to go. She was going to kill Cody. The stolen gun was probably in the truck courtesy of that stupid kid.
She was lucky the nosy officer hadn’t pulled the damn K-9 out and run the vehicle. The dog probably would have alerted on the load of codeine hidden in the truck’s secret compartment. They needed the codeine to make a new batch of Krok as soon as possible. Lana wasn’t going to wait much longer.
Bobbi had to figure out how to get back to her truck. She could just strangle that redheaded Forest Service officer. What the hell was she thinking? Wasn’t she supposed to be ticketing people for not putting out campfires and crap like that?
Damn it. Carson was going to be furious that she was this late. She didn’t worry about the cargo. It was safe, but she’d have to come up with an explanation.
Bobbi marched down the street. It wasn’t like she could call a taxi or an Uber out here. Small mountain towns without ski resorts didn’t have amenities like that.
Down at the local hardware store, Bobbi’s luck changed. She spotted a rancher who pastured cattle near her truck’s location. She stopped for a minute and used her fingers to comb her hair down and then undid the top couple buttons of her shirt, so a glimpse of cleavage showed. She sashayed her way over to the rancher’s truck. What was his name? She didn’t need to worry, though, because the rancher paused from loading T-posts and other fencing materials.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
“Oh, if you don’t mind, I do have a favor to ask.” Bobbi plastered on her sweet smile.
“Shoot. What is it?”
“I need a ride to my truck. Would you mind taking me? I think it’s parked near your ranch.”
“My ranch is close to five thousand acres. Which part are you parked near?”
Bobbi hadn’t expected this. She always forgot about the size of many Colorado ranches—something she wasn’t used to being from the east coast. “The part that borders the national forest.”
“Honey, that’s half my ranch, but we’ve narrowed it down at least.”
Bobbi sighed. When she’d secretly meet up with Doug, he’d always given her good directions. She’d learned some of the back roads, but she didn’t know them like the locals.
Bobbi opened her purse, pulling out fifty dollars in cash. “Look, I’ll pay you for your gas and time. I don’t know the area well enough to tell you exact roads, but I can tell you how to get there.”
The rancher laughed and shook his head. A toothpick rolled around in his mouth. Bobbi wished she had undone another button on her shirt, but there was no need as he opened up the driver side door and, nodding toward the passenger door, said, “Hop in. The door’s unlocked.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
A gust of wind billowed through the trees and threatened to knock off Carson’s black cowboy hat. He slammed his hand down on the hat, waiting until the wind died down. He was getting tired of this godforsaken place. Sometimes he thought about selling off everything and leaving.
He pushed that thought aside and went back to the main issue—where the hell was Bobbi? Carson kicked a stone with the toe of his boot. She’d been getting pretty uppity lately and now she was keeping him waiting. Could she be selling their stuff? She wouldn’t do that, would she?
Jenna didn’t trust Bobbi, and Carson hated to admit it, but his daughter had excellent intuition. She could spot problem people from a mile away. He stared out over the horizon. Jenna probably learned the hard way from having him as a father, but hell, didn’t every parent mess up their kid? Wasn’t that what they were supposed to do?
He knew she wanted to get back to college and at some point, he was going to have to let her go, but for now she needed to stay here, help out, and give something back to this family. Sure, she had come home and nursed her mother when she was dying of cancer, but Jenna owed him. He was her father, after all, and had done nothing but make sacrifices for her.
A billow of dust kicked up on one of the roads out to the east. Carson squinted and could see it was Bobbi’s truck. His watch said 1:15. Over two hours late. What the hell had Bobbi been doing? All the codeine better be in that truck.
