Page 4

I reached the office and sucked in a breath trying not to throw up the eggs Billy had cooked for me an hour earlier. I dropped to my knees beside Savanna and searched for a pulse.

She was warm to the touch, lying in a similar lake of blood to Tim’s. She’d been stabbed in at least four places. “Billy, get paramedics in here. Are they here yet?”

“Just getting here, boss.”

“I need them in a hurry. Savanna is barely hanging on.”

“I’ll speed them up.” Billy took off running to the front of the huge store and came back on the run with the two paramedics from the Cut Bank hospital. I’d gotten to know them a little bit from various clusterfucks we’d attended together.

“Gotta hurry guys. Savanna is in a bad way.”

“Jesus, Sheriff. Who the hell did this?”

“Haven’t got that far yet, kiddo. Let you know when I find out.” I glanced up at Billy. “You get ahold of Doc Olson?”

“He’s on his way.”

“Get every employee gathered in the front of the store and lock all the doors. Find out if there were any customers in the store when this happened. If there were, I want them back here right now for their fuckin statements.”

“Copy that.”

Billy left and I waited until Savanna was on the stretcher and on her way to the ambulance with the paramedics before I looked around the office for any clues. The room was in shambles, papers scattered everywhere, drawers pulled out and emptied. It was clear that this was a robbery gone wrong.

I noticed a slip of paper on the floor near Savanna’s desk and picked it up. It was a note, written in shaky handwriting.

“You stupid bitch. Shouldn’t have tried to be a hero. This is what happens when you mess with us.”

My blood boiled as I read the words. These assholes thought they could come into my town and hurt innocent people? They had another think coming.

Why would they take time to write a note if they were in a hurry to get in, grab the money and get out? Didn’t make sense to me, but stuff people would do for money never made any sense.

I sealed the door to Savanna’s office with yellow tape and called Jack.

“Travis? Why are you calling me at home? You’re scaring me.”

“Go to the hospital in Cut Bank. I need you there.”

“Why, what’s going on?”

“The feed store got robbed and Savanna is in bad shape. I want you at the hospital to monitor her situation. I can’t be there, and believe me, I want to be. I’ve got to get on the guys who did this before the trail goes cold.”

“How bad?”

“Bad. Get the hell going, Jack.”

“Did they shoot her?” Jack sounded like he was going to cry if he wasn’t already.

“Stabbed. Go.”

“Jesus Christ, Travis, I’m shaking. I’m going now.”

“Call me as soon as you know anything. I’ll be at the fuckin store for hours.”

“Got it. I’m out the door.”

“Good man, Jack. If she ain’t ditched the lawyer boyfriend yet, you might want to call him.”

“I think she did, but I’ll consider letting him know.”