Page 15

“Travis, this call just came in. Randy Quade was found dead at his ranch and his wife is hysterical. She was screaming and crying on the phone but from what I understood, two men came and took some of the horses and killed Randy at the barn.”

“Randy Quade is dead in his barn?”

“Yes.”

“I’m on my way. I was about to call and ask you for a background check on Miller Ravary.”

“The new bank manager?”

“The same.”

“Do you expect something to surface?”

“Nope. Also, see if Clay Peterson has any charges we’re not aware of. Previously dropped, or old stuff, or out of state.”

“Of course. I’ll get those checks done right away. Good to have you back, Travis.”

I laughed. “I make more work for you, Molly. You know that’s true. Suspicious nature—always digging.”

“I enjoy your brand of law enforcement, Travis. Keeps me interested.”

Quade’s Quarters. South of Coyote Creek.

After a quick trip to the barn to confirm that Randy Quade was indeed deceased, I called Doctor Olson and headed for the house.

I found Mrs. Quade in the kitchen of the big white ranch house drinking coffee. She didn’t answer my knock and I figured she might be too distressed to do so, hence, I let myself in and called out to her.

“Mrs. Quade, Sheriff Frost coming in.”

She called back to me, and I entered the big kitchen with a huge cookstove roaring in the corner. Made me wish I had me one of those heat-throwers at my place.

A half-full bottle of Irish Whiskey sat next to her coffee cup, and she was running on caffeine and alcohol. She pushed the bottle towards me, and I opted for coffee only.

We sat quietly for a few minutes before I asked her to tell me exactly what happened.

“As I think of it now, Sheriff, it seems so unreal—like it didn’t happen at all.”

“Traumas are like that.”

“Randy went to the barn to do chores before breakfast. All the horses we hung onto at the end of the season are still in the barn for the winter. We’ve got stalls for twenty. About half the size of the herd we run in the good weather.”

“I still have Outlaw, the horse I bought from y’all. Great horse. I’d never part with him.”

Mrs. Quade smiled.

“You go ahead.”

“Breakfast was ready, and Randy still hadn’t come in. I pushed the pan to the back of the stove, put a lid on it, and went to look out the door to see if he was coming. I know how long it takes him to feed the horses, and it had been too long. I figured he had some trouble.”

She sighed and took a couple of breaths. “That’s when I saw the big horse trailer backed up to the barn door. Randy never told me anybody was picking up a horse and if we’d sold one, he would’ve handed over the check because I keep the books.”

“Seeing that trailer out there made me nervous. I grabbed the shotgun off the rack on the wall, put my coat and my boots on and went tramping out onto the porch.”

“When I got outside, I could hear the two guys yelling at each other about which horses they were taking, and I knew something wasn’t right. There was no sign of Randy and that scared me a lot.”

“It would. If they were customers, Randy would be helping them load,” I said.

“Yes, he always helps the customers load the horses. I marched out there to the barn and hollered at the guys to start putting the horses back in the barn. One of them laughed at me and asked what I was going to do about it. You know…like a real smart-ass.”