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“Is Billy awake?” asked Travis.

“He’s barely awake and I’m not allowing any visitors until tomorrow around noon, but he has something he needs to tell Sheriff Frost.” The doctor held up three fingers. “Three minutes, Sheriff.”

“Okay, I’ll be fast.”

Mrs. Johnson sobbed while Travis was in with Billy and it was kind of unfair that she couldn’t go in to see her boy, but it wasn’t our call.

Travis was quick and as soon as he came out of the ICU, we left for home.

Rolling home in the truck, Travis said, “It was kids in the bunkhouse, and they hit him with a tire iron.”

“The kids in Savanna’s car?” asked Tammy.

“Yep. He saw Savanna’s car and thought it couldn’t be hers. Now we want those little bastards for attempted murder of a police officer. This has gone from being a simple joyride to something that they’ll never shake off.”

“We need to find out what those two kids were locked up for,” said Tammy. “Those little bastards are violent.”

“Yep,” said Travis. “We’ll have Molly get copies of their files from juvenile detention. We need to know everything about them.”

Wild Stallion Ranch.

Dark when we got home, and the horses were still in the corral. Travis fried us up some potatoes and bacon and beans while Tammy and I did the barn chores and locked the horses up for the night.

Travis wouldn’t leave them out because of the bears. Always a risk and one he wasn’t taking with our beautiful horses.

“The bunkhouse is a crime scene,” said Tammy between bites.

I nodded. My sister was right. Our bunkhouse was a fucking crime scene.

Chapter Six

Friday, July 26th.

Wild Stallion Ranch.

At breakfast me and Tammy talked to Travis about treating the bunkhouse like a crime scene and getting a forensics unit in to run it.

“We know our county don’t have the money for it,” said Tammy, “but how much would it cost? We know the names of the two kids that escaped, and those punks are in the system if they came out of the juvie center. There will be prints in the bunkhouse and we can make a positive ID. They have to go to trial for what they did to Billy.”

“Ted and I will do it this morning,” said Travis. “I want to do it myself.”

“Okay, good,” said Tammy. “They committed a felony, and the next thing is getting those fuckers tried as adults.”

Travis smiled and winked at me.

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek.

Molly was already at her desk when Tammy and me got to the shop. “Morning, everyone,” she called.

“Hey, Molly. Me and Tammy are on calls this morning.”

“What about me?” asked Ted. “Where’s the boss?”

“Travis is waiting at the ranch for you to bring the fingerprint kit and the evidence bags,” said Tammy.

“What happened at your ranch?” asked Molly. “Where’s Billy?”

“Hospital,” said Tammy. “Those boys who stole Savanna’s car—at least we think it was them—beat up Billy at our ranch and stole his wallet.”