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“I’m sure the county council will be sorry to lose you.”

“Maybe so.”

As I drove back towards Coyote Creek I got thinking I’d need a real estate agent too. Not much time to get the place into shape and do all the legal stuff that had to be done. The woman who had shown me the place when I first arrived might be the best one. She knew the area well.

What was her name?

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek.

Billy was sitting on the corner of Molly’s desk drinking coffee when I got to the office. “Get any calls?”

“Nope,” said Molly. “All quiet on the home front.”

“I’ll get a coffee.”

“How was the accountant?” hollered Billy as I went into the break room.

“Nice. I liked her.”

I heard Billy’s unlaced boots clunking down the hall towards me as I poured cream in to my coffee. Then I heard Molly’s phone ring. “I’d better drink this fast if it’s a call out.”

“Nah,” said Billy. “Nothing going on but hunting and a bit of trespassing.” He chuckled. “All game warden stuff. No heads for you and me to bust.”

Molly hollered, “Sheriff, need you.”

I hurried into the squad room with my coffee in my hand, a bit of it sloshing over as I ran. “What’s up? Did we get a legit call?”

“Sounded legitimate to me,” said Molly. “I could hear screaming in the background.”

“Screaming? What are we talking about, Molly?”

Billy ran to get our coats.

“Feed store is being robbed. You’d better hurry.”

The siren was blaring and lights were flashing as Billy drove out into the snow-covered street. He was going way too fuckin fast coming out from behind the station. He cranked the wheel too sharply, and we skidded right across Main Street and hit a parked car. Dented in the driver’s door and bounced right off.

“Fuck that. Keep going. We’ll deal with that later.”

“Shit,” hollered Billy. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

“No kidding.”

Four minutes later we were at the far end of town and were running into the Needs and Feeds with our guns drawn. Adrenaline coursed through my veins and my heart thumped in my chest fearing for Savanna. One of my few friends in Coyote Creek.

The employees were standing around in a cluster looking kind of pale and dumbstruck. In shock. None of them were doing a goddamned thing but staring.

“What the hell happened?” I yelled. The guys from the mill section wouldn’t know if anything happened inside the store. They were too far away, but somebody must have been present. The fuckin store didn’t run itself.

Tim, the store manager was face down behind the counter with a pitch fork through his neck. Cash drawer wide open. I bent down and checked for a pulse and Tim didn’t have one. Judging by the lake of blood Tim was swimming in, I figured the fork pierced his jugular. I didn’t touch it, hoping there were usable prints on the handle.

One of the other clerks, a girl named Bonnie, was sitting on the floor near Tim and she was sobbing.

“Where’s Savanna?” I asked Bonnie.

“In her office. The fuckers hurt her, Sheriff.”

“Did somebody think to call an ambulance?” I shouted as I ran down the back hall searching for Savanna. She owned the feed store and might have had a safe in her office that the thieves wanted to get at. That was my biggest fear at that moment.