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“She’ll be safe enough alone until we get back,” I said. “We’ve got these guys with us.”

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek.

Billy unlocked the back door of the building while I hung onto Garrison by the chain on his cuffs. I had my gun drawn in case he put any moves on me and I was hoping he would so I could kill him and save us a whole lot of bother in the future.

It would also save the cost of a trial for Harrison County.

Billy opened the run and flicked the lights on. That woke Foster and Purcell up and they started hollering curses at us for disturbing their sleep.

“Shut up,” I hollered in their direction as Billy and I shoved Garrison into the cell at the end of the run and slammed the door shut. “Now y’all can go back to sleep. Sweet dreams.”

“Fuck you, Sheriff.”

“Same. Double.”

Coyote Creek Medical Center.

That left us with Tyrone Reading bleeding in the back of the squad. Billy drove him to the clinic about three blocks away to get him fixed up.

In the middle of the night, there were no other patients in the waiting room and Tyrone Reading received all the attention of both the nurse and the doctor.

Only one of Tammy’s shots had hit him. The bullet punched a hole through the side of his thigh and missed the artery. Not life threatening. He was lucky.

The doctor on duty cleaned the wound and stitched it up. He and his nurse applied a thick bandage and gave the pain meds to me for the prisoner. Reading could be given two of the little white pills as needed.

I charged the medical expenses to Harrison County and back we went to the station.

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek.

Back at the station we only stayed long enough to lock Reading up in a cell next to Garrison. I gave him water and two of his pills and told him to lie on his bunk and keep his leg elevated.

He nodded and didn’t say a word.

The doctor had told him the same thing, but I didn’t know Tyrone Reading well and had no idea if he was a good listener. Whether or not he did what he was told didn’t concern me too much.

We locked the office up for the night and headed back to the ranch hoping we’d find Tammy back in her bed.

Wild Stallion Ranch.

The first place I checked was her room and she wasn’t in her bed. Barn was next. Billy ran inside and checked the loft and Outlaw’s stall, and she wasn’t in either place.

A glance in the garage, the bunkhouse, and in the driving shed where the tractor and plow was parked and there were no more places to look.

If she’d run to the road and hitched a ride with somebody, we had no clue where she would be.

Out of options, Billy and I sat down at the kitchen table and had a beer. “Only a couple of hours and we have to get up. Let’s sleep.”

Billy grinned. “I am a bit tired.”

Chapter Eleven

Thursday, October 18th.

Wild Stallion Ranch.

While Billy got the woodstove going, I checked Tammy’s room to see if she’d sneaked in during the two hours I was asleep. The covers were pushed back, the pillow on the floor where she’d thrown it when she grabbed the gun and run to the kitchen to shoot Tibor, missed, and shot Tyrone Reading instead.

I could picture her outside someplace freezing to death just like the old guy I’d found in the snowbank. Not a picture I wanted in my head.