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Before dinner time I had to drive down to the station to feed the prisoners. Tammy bundled up in her less-than-adequate shabby coat and piled into the truck with me.

“What do the prisoners get for dinner?”

“Umm… I usually get them whatever the diner across the road has for the special. The food is good there.”

“Are we gonna eat there too?” Tammy sounded hopeful.

“Sure, we can if you’re hungry.”

“I’m starving, Travis.”

“Okay. That settles it. We’ll eat first and then we’ll take the food to the jail.”

Mainliner Diner. Coyote Creek.

Since we were going to eat dinner, Tammy and I sat in a booth. I usually sat at the counter if I was just waiting for a food order for the jail.

When Maryanne came to take our order, I ordered for the two of us plus for Purcell and Burke across the road.

“I heard the girl who helped the killers made bail,” said Maryanne. She stared hard at Tammy’s damaged face.

“Yeah, she made bail. They hid out in her apartment in Great Falls,” I said. “She’s been charged with harboring.”

“Huh. How old was the accomplice?” Maryanne glanced at Tammy again.

“Not sure. Twenty-something.”

Maryanne left and came back a few minutes later with our dinner. The special was pork chops, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans. She also set down a basket of rolls and a little dish of butter pats.

“I don’t like green beans,” said Tammy.

I winked at her and said, “Don’t eat them.”

She didn’t eat the green beans but it didn’t take her long to clean up everything else on her plate along with two of the rolls. Tammy weighed around a hundred pounds but she could eat.

When we finished, I paid the check and Maryanne handed me the bag containing the dinners for the prisoners. “These should still be hot.”

“Thanks, Maryanne.”

Sheriff’s Office.

I drove across the street and parked at the back of the building. It was full dark, and the temperature had dropped like a rock. An icy wind was blowing down from Canada to top things off and anger me even further. Standing next to me and holding the bag of food, Tammy shivered as I tried one-handed to insert the key and get the fuckin door open.

When the key finally turned, I pushed on the door, stepped in and flicked on the lights. My body drank in the warmth of the building. Concrete block construction with a good furnace, the station was never cold. Unlike my ranch house.

“You can wait in the break room, Tammy. I don’t want you going into the run where the prisoners are.”

“Ain’t they locked up?”

“They are, but they have nasty mouths on them and I don’t want them saying anything mean to you.”

“I heard most of it already, Sheriff. Tibor never held back nothing from me. He said hearing how men talk made me ready for the real world.”

“That could be true… in a way.” I took the keys off the rack and unlocked the run. Foster hollered at me the minute I opened the door.

“About fuckin time you got here.”

I handed each of them a container and plastic utensils.