Page 54

Taking a couple more steps into the foyer I could see luggage sitting at the bottom of the stairs. “You taking a trip, Tanya?”

“Just a short getaway with my sister.” Tanya’s voice had an icy edge. “After everything that’s happened, my nerves are shot, Sheriff, and it has a lot to do with you and your unsubstantiated rush to arrest me for something I didn’t do.”

I grinned at her. “You know what, Tanya? I’m still not a hundred percent sure it wasn’t you, or Josie, or you and Josie, or you and Josie and Ray Dangerfield who killed Tory and Floyd. The three of you are all mixed up in the two murders together and until I figure it out, I’d prefer it if you didn’t go anywhere. Because you are free on bail, you can’t leave the state of Montana.”

“I’m only going to my sister’s house, Sheriff. Floyd died just down the hall,” she hooked a thumb over her shoulder, “and that’s one of the things getting to me. It’s giving me the creeps just living here and knowing that. Being alone here at night is the worst.”

“Don’t miss your hearing, Tanya. I’ll have to come get you, and you don’t want that to happen.”

“You threatening me, Sheriff?”

“Yep. Third threat I’ve handed out this morning. I’m having a good day.”

Harlan smiled.

Mendenhall Residence. Conrad.

We headed down the interstate towards Conrad and Harlan asked, “Do you think she’s going to run for it?”

“Lot of luggage for just going to her sister’s house. I’ll find out the sister’s address and check to see if Tanya is there. If she’s not, I’ll put a bulletin out on her.”

“We might have to send one of those skip tracers after her,” said Harlan.

“Yep. I’m sure Molly knows the local ones working out of the DA’s office. We’ll hire us one if we need to.”

“I might like doing that…like for my real job,” said Harlan.

“Uh huh. You’ve got time to decide. You can be anything you want. You want to go to University, I’ve got you covered there too.”

He nodded with a pensive look on his face. Harlan was a serious kid.

We cruised by Joe Mendenhall’s house in Conrad and the front door was still sealed with yellow tape.

“Do you think the DEA guys caught the woman yet?” asked Harlan.

“Palliser said he’d send us a copy of the arrest report when he had her.”

“But we didn’t get it yet?”

“Nope.”

“They can’t fuckin find her or they’d have her by now. We might need the skip guy.”

I laughed.

Wild Stallion Ranch.

I got my Harley out of the garage and had it ready to go long before dark. Harlan rode it up and down the lane a few times—just for practice. I was thinking hard on getting him his first Harley for his sixteenth birthday.

We waited until full dark and a time late enough that Hannah’s boys should all be in the bunkhouse.

With the help of the headlight on my bike, it was a lot easier to see where we were going than riding in the dark on horseback. Faster too.

I found the trail that led to the Hargrove ranch and the bike rode better on the hard dirt than it had bouncing across grassy fields.

Didn’t take long to cut through the narrow, wooded area between the two ranches and once we were in sight of Hannah’s bunkhouse and barn, I cut the engine, set the stand on the bike and we ran from there.

Once we got to her yard, the pole lights helped us see a lot better.