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Carter made it his business to keep a watch on Chris and he followed him around waiting for something to happen.

That one night when Chris didn’t come home from work, Carter went into his office and found him dead in his chair at his desk.

He brought Chris back here in the back of his truck and we dressed him in his hunting clothes and got his survival gear together. Carter put Chris’s rifle over his shoulder and he was ready to go.

Carter drove Chris up to Robert Thorn’s ranch because it had all been pre-arranged and we were paying Robert to leave the body on his ranch for a week to freeze, so it would all look natural. That’s all I know.

I listened and most of it made sense. “Why didn’t you put Chris’s truck on a county road to make it look like he was really hunting?”

“We couldn’t find the keys to the truck. Carter had the keys at one point when we changed Chris’s clothes, but he lost them.”

“Molly will type your statement up in the morning and you can sign it before you make your court appearance.”

“Thank you, Sheriff Frost. You’ve been kind to me.”

I put Suzie back in her cell and locked the run.

Tammy and I turned off the lights, locked up the station and went to the Dry Run for a beer on the way home.

Dry Run Roadhouse.

We sat in a booth with Savanna who was hanging around the roadhouse a lot more since she and Jack were getting back together. She looked a little better, but still thin and pale.

Tammy had a Coke and an order of fries. She was always hungry.

Jack brought me a pitcher of Miller and I told him the case was almost wrapped up. “I want to leave Billy with a clean slate to start. He’ll have enough to learn as it is.”

“You haven’t changed your mind about going back to Texas?”

“Nope. That will never happen. I have to go back. I have unfinished business that has to be taken care of.”

“Want to share details of your unfinished business?” asked Jack with a big smile on his face, and I knew he was thinking it was Annie.

“Can’t share, Jack. I don’t want to put you in any danger.”

Jack gave me a look and I laughed.

Chapter Fifteen

Monday, October 22nd.

Wild Stallion Ranch.

Billy had come home late from Brenda’s place but he was up before I was, chopping kindling and making a helluva noise. Tammy was up too, and I was the lazy old man still in bed.

I lay there thinking a week ahead and how good it would be to be home in Texas and not hiding who I was anymore. I’d be putting my life on the line, but wasn’t it on the line every day anyway being sheriff of this county?

Too long running away from who I was and hiding from the people who wanted me dead or captured. Once I got back to Texas, I’d be fair game—but I had a plan.

I pulled on a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and a flannel shirt over top and I was ready for coffee and a smoke.

Tammy smiled when I shuffled to the kitchen cradling my left arm in my right. Even though it was healing, it wasn’t working right and made me wonder if it had been fixed properly.

Before my butt even hit the chair, Tammy had a mug of coffee on the placemat in front of me. “Saw you holding your arm, Travis. Is it hurting?”

“Not so much. Has to hurt to heal, so they say.”

“Who said that? Did the doctor tell you that?”