“What about Nate?” she asked.
“Brenda was so convinced that Dallas did it, she did a preemptive strike on Nate so he couldn’t help me nail him. Liv told me that.”
“My God,” Marybeth said. “Think about the results: Eldon is dead. Bull is dead. Brenda herself is likely a quadriplegic, if she even makes it.”
Joe nodded.
She asked, “What is Dallas going to do when he recovers?”
“If he recovers,” Joe said. “I broke his leg and smashed in his ribs. I don’t know about internal injuries. But it’ll be a long time before he hits the rodeo circuit again.”
“If ever,” Marybeth said.
“Yup.”
She said, “Don’t blame yourself for any of it. This is all Brenda Cates’s doing. She could have been honest and come clean and not tried to manipulate everything like some kind of evil spider. If she would have done that, none of this would have happened.”
Joe tried to take solace in that.
But Marybeth said what Joe was thinking. “Dallas is a hothead and we know he can be violent. He’ll want revenge.”
Joe said, “We can put Dallas away for a few years. I’m sure Dulcie will agree to file charges for the assault on April and maybe even for conspiracy for aiding and abetting Brenda’s crimes. I’ve got him for wanton destruction of those elk and pulling a gun on me. I don’t know. Maybe he’ll grow up a little in prison and realize it was his mother that put him on this path.”
“Maybe,” Marybeth said.
But she didn’t sound convinced.
—
SHERIDAN AND LUCY burst through the balcony door with wide eyes.
Joe’s first fear was that something had happened to April, but Sheridan said, “Nate’s gone!”
“What?”
“We talked to a couple of the security people,” Sheridan said. “They’re looking everywhere for him.”
Marybeth gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.
“I knew he winked at me,” Sheridan said. “I knew he did.”
“Wait here,” Joe said.
He strode down the hallway in the direction of the restricted area and was surprised to see Special Agent Dudley coming toward him.
The man was disheveled and he had the distraught look on his face of a friend who had been asked to watch a neighbor’s cat but had let it get away.
“Do you know anything about this?” Dudley asked when he recognized Joe.
“I just heard. I’m here because of my daughter. How long has he been gone?”
“Ten hours,” Dudley said. “Man, I’m going to hear about this . . .”
“Never mind that. What happened?”
Dudley glared at him. His voice was monotone, as if he were tired of telling the story. “I came back from dinner last night and started to sit down in my chair when he got out of his bed and put me in a sleeper hold. I tried to fight back, but I could tell he’s done this kind of thing before. The next thing I knew, I woke up, gagged with medical tape and tied up with electrical cords, and the bastard was gone.”
Dudley shook his head and stared at something fixed on the wall behind Joe.
“I don’t know how long he was contemplating it before he made his move. But on his way out of the hospital, he stopped by the security room and erased the video feeds from this floor.”
“Sounds like Nate,” Joe said.
“We’ll find him,” Dudley said. “We’ve got his description out to the locals, the state people, and the feds.”
Joe nodded.
“He probably stole a car or carjacked somebody,” Dudley said. “He could be halfway across Montana by now, or in another state. Tell me: Where would he go?”
Joe shrugged.
“He hasn’t been in contact with you, has he?”
“Nope.”
“You’ll let me know if he does, right?”
“Probably not,” Joe said. “You set him up by those conditions you put on him. I don’t think he owes you much.”
“Is that your brilliant legal opinion, game warden?” Dudley asked, his face flushing.
“It is.”
—
JOE HAD A SPRING in his step as he rejoined his family on the balcony. He told them what he’d learned from Dudley. He noted how both Marybeth and Sheridan suppressed smiles. Lucy looked from her sister to her mother with a wary expression.
“I was just about to tell Mom another thing when you showed up,” Sheridan said. “That janitor they found was an ex-con from Wyoming. He had a knife on him and the ID he wore around his neck was from the Wyoming State Penitentiary. His name was—”
“Timber Cates,” Joe said.
Sheridan asked, “How did you know?”
“It all makes sense now. Brenda Cates sent Timber up here to keep April quiet.”
“Nate,” Lucy said, her eyes wide.
They stood in silence for a moment as it all sank in.
—
“LOOK,” LUCY WHISPERED, pointing between Joe and Marybeth, toward the parking lot.
They turned as one.
A big man wearing hospital scrubs had his back to them as he slowly made his way through a row of cars to a waiting sedan under the dim glow of an overhead light. He had a blond ponytail and a pronounced limp.
When the passenger door of the sedan opened, the interior light came on. An attractive, dark woman was at the wheel. Liv, Joe thought.
Rather than flee immediately, Joe thought, Nate had obviously thought it all through. He’d erased the surveillance video and found a place to hide inside the hospital. Probably a room where he could change into scrubs and look like he belonged, just as Sheridan and Lucy had done. He’d contacted Liv to rent a car and come get him. Meanwhile, law enforcement was looking for him everywhere but here.
Nate turned and looked up.
Although Joe couldn’t believe he could see them all up there, Nate gave them a thumbs-up before he climbed in and the car drove away.
“Girls,” Marybeth said before Joe could say it, “he saved your sister’s life. What we just saw needs to stay on this balcony.”
Then: “Let’s go talk to the doctors and see how soon we can take April home.”
Stepping aside to let his family pass, Joe looked over his shoulder and down as the taillights of the sedan became pinpricks in the cold Montana dawn.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author would like to thank the many experts and first readers who assisted with aspects of this novel, including Bob Budd, the executive director of the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust; Hon. William F. Chinnock (Ret.); Vahé Alaverdian of Falcon Force (www.falconforce.com); Judge Peter Arnold (Ret.); Bill Haley, Wyoming Game Warden (Badge #1); Mark Nelson; and Dr. Charles Mackey.
Special thanks to my first readers Laurie Box, Becky Reif, Molly Donnell, and Roxanne Woods.
Thanks to Don Hajicek for cjbox.net and Jennifer Fonnesbeck for social media expertise and merchandise sales.
It’s a sincere pleasure to work with professionals at Putnam, including the legendary Neil Nyren, Ivan Held, Kate Stark, Michael Barson, and Tom Colgan.
Ann Rittenberg, you’re the greatest.
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