Courage To Follow (Cowboys of Courage 1)

by Charlene Bright

  Wiping his hand on his jeans, Garrett stood and reached to shake Lucas’s hand. “Well, I wish I could say I liked coming down the mountain for social calls, but there’s usually got to be a pretty pertinent reason to get me down here. How fast can you get your team together, Lucas?”

  Obviously taken aback, Lucas shoved his hands in his back pockets with a blank look. “Uh, I can probably have eight or ten people in an hour. What is this, a survey? Or are you trying to figure out if we should put together some sort of competitive event?” He smirked, but Garrett didn’t smile.

  “Start making the calls,” he told Lucas.

  “Wait a minute, Garrett,” Lucas warned, no longer teasing. “I can’t just run out and start calling up the SNR team without cause and a direct order from law enforcement. Last I checked, you weren’t active…” He trailed off as Garrett held up the badge in his pocket. Lucas yanked it from him to inspect it. “This can’t be real. Hoyt would have to keel over, or you’d have to kill him to get this.”

  Garrett wished he could find humor in the statement. “I didn’t want it, that’s for sure. But apparently, Hoyt’s gone off and forgotten to leave a note or tell anyone where he is. Leland wasn’t all too thrilled to come hand it over this morning, though I think he got perverse pleasure in showing up on my land before sunrise.”

  Lucas’s eyes grew wide, and he stepped closer, speaking quietly, as if Walt wouldn’t find a way to hear them anyway. “You think he’s okay? Hoyt’s not in the best of health. That leg, you know…” He shook his head. “We’ve never had a murder investigation before.”

  Speaking loudly for Walt’s benefit, Garrett countered, “We still haven’t had a murder investigation, since I don’t believe Hoyt’s been murdered. I’m waiting on a search warrant right now, but I need you to get your people together so we can scour the entire county for the old man and ride his ass for causing all this hassle.”

  Lucas nodded. “I’m on board with that. I’ll get to the station and make the calls.” The station was just down the block in an old windmill that had burned down forty years ago and had been rebuilt and outfitted as a fire station. “Where do you want us?”

  “The warrant should be here any minute. Let’s meet at Hoyt’s house, and we’ll divide and conquer from there.” The spine-tingling sound of the fax machine rent the air, and Garrett was sure his teeth rattled at the unbearable noise. But it had to be the warrant, since he couldn’t even think of a reason Walt would actually need a fax machine, and he took it with haste, reading it over to make sure he could comprehend exactly what limitations he might have.

  As far as he could tell, Jamison had covered his ass fully, and he pretty much had free rein over any space Hoyt might have occupied and anything he might have touched or even looked at recently. Folding it and stashing it in his back pocket, he threw the remaining food in a bag and carried it with him to his Bronco, waving thanks to Walt.

  As he revved the engine to life, he realized he needed supplies from the police station and didn’t have a key. His was somewhere in the messy drawer he’d pulled the badge from. That meant he had to track down Leland, who likely wasn’t on horseback anymore. Garrett had no idea what the guy drove these days, but he had a good idea where to start looking as he caught sight of Lou’s Diner in his rearview mirror.

  Getting back out, he crossed the street, barely bothering to look for cars, and opened the door to the diner, the bell chiming to announce him. It wasn’t necessary; the space was tiny, and there wasn’t an angle where Lou or one of her girls couldn’t see the door.

  “Hi, sweetheart!” Lou called, her lips the same cherry red she’d worn for as long as Garrett could remember. “It’s good to see you.”

  He lifted the brim of his hat in acknowledgement and made for the booth where Leland sat, enjoying what looked like a king’s spread. Sliding in across from him, Garrett mused, “It looks like you ordered the Lou Special and the Big Bertha.”

  Leland pointed at Lou with his dirty fork and spoke as he chewed. “Our girl here had a lot to say, and a man’s got to eat. I already talked to three or four other people, and I’ll get the rest done as soon as I finish up here. Hell, you don’t think he’s missing, so maybe you’re right, and by the time we get to his house with the warrant, he’ll answer the door and tell me I got no brains.”

  His facetious attitude made Garrett want to say as much, but he held his tongue. “I’ve got the warrant. I need the keys to the station. SNR is coming out, and I need gloves. We don’t want to leave any prints or mess anything up until we can get a crime scene unit out here, and that might take time.”

  “Where’s your key?”

  “At home. Just give me the keys, Leland. You’ll get ‘em back.” He was already tired of being the boss. It didn’t seem to get him anywhere.

  Looking away, Leland told him, “It’s not locked.”

  “What do you mean, ‘it’s not locked?’ ”

  “No one around here would break in. There’s nothing in there worth the time. Besides, we do have cameras. Who would be dumb enough to break into a sheriff’s office?” Leland whined.

  “Leland, you have pellets for brains,” Garrett said, shaking his head. “You think someone could have kidnapped or killed Hoyt, but you don’t think someone would sneak into an unlocked sheriff’s station? You really need to assess your reasoning, pal.” He stood to leave, livid and wanting to move on.

  Halfway to the door, he heard Leland call after him, “Lou tells me a couple of strange men came into town about two weeks ago, ordered the daily special, and asked a lot of questions about Courage. She said she told Hoyt about it because they seemed suspicious to her, and he acted a little frazzled. That sounds to me like a lead.”

  Garrett turned around, and Lou came out from behind the counter. “He was all flustered and stuttering, but he said he just didn’t like it when strange people came into his territory. I let it go on account of him being the sheriff and all, but it seems like an awful coincidence, don’t you think?”

  It sounded dicey at best, and Garrett gave her another tip of the brim. “You’re a doll, Lou. Do me a favor and give Leland here the best description you can of the two men. It might be very important to finding Hoyt.” He walked out, considering how this impacted his theory. Of course, those two men might have taken the sheriff or killed him, but that seemed pretty farfetched. More likely, they’d shaken Hoyt up, and he’d hightailed it out of town.

  But what would frighten him about a couple of guys who wanted to know about Courage? It was a small town, but it sat in one of the most beautiful spots in all of Montana. Most of the population had been here all their lives and descended from other lifers. They had a quiet, peaceful setting, and it tended to intrigue the rare person stopping through on their way from one place to another.

  No, it must all be a coincidence, Garrett decided, starting the SUV. He could have walked to the station, but with the supplies he was going to gather, he wanted to just open the back hatch and dump them in rather than carry them back. He cursed as he opened the door, thinking how stupid Leland could be. Anyone could grab files or weapons or cash from the office, and they wouldn’t even have to bust in.

  The place was a disaster anyway, and it couldn’t have looked much worse if the place got ransacked. Papers and empty candy wrappers littered both desks, and dust half an inch thick covered the shelves of books and miscellaneous junk. It was disgraceful, and if Garrett ended up holding the badge for longer than a couple of days, he planned to clean the place up and implement rules. He couldn’t work in an environment like this.

  He passed through to the storage closet, ducking as he opened it in case anything fell on him. Luckily, it was packed so tightly that didn’t happen, and he fought to collect a box of latex gloves, a couple rolls of crime scene tape, and a fingerprinting set. Pulling on a pair of the gloves, he made a preliminary pass over Hoyt’s desk, looking for a receipt for a flight or bus ticket anywhere or a note about meeting someone. H
e checked the calendar on the wall, scrawled with birthdays and other occasions, but found no reference to leaving anywhere for two weeks before or after the time in question.

  He would have looked further, but he wanted to be at the house when the SNR team arrived. He trusted Lucas to coordinate it; the man was good at his job and had tracked down stolen horses and sheep and a lost little girl over the past couple of years. Still, Garrett wanted to head up the effort. If he didn’t show his face, people would gossip, and he would come out smelling like a man who’d just finished rolling in the pigpen and then aggravated a skunk.

  Chapter 2

  When he arrived, he found Lucas and one other man leaning against Lucas’s battered pickup, and he walked to them with a slow gait. “Gentlemen, thanks for coming out.”

  Lucas shook his hand again. “It’s no problem. This is Mike Preston. Mike, this is an old pal and the acting Sheriff, Garrett Woodward.”

  Mike held out a hand, and he had a sturdy shake. He was also built like a barn, not too tall but thick and muscled with almost no neck. He wore a skullcap, but Garrett would have bet his life the guy shaved his head and kept that goatee manicured on a daily basis. “Good to meet you, Mike. Where you from?”

  “I got property in Rosebud County, but I’ve been building a house over here in Courage. My wife and I are staying with her mom till it’s done. Lucas tells me you’re a lifer.”

  “I tried to get out, go to Helena. I found out there’s nowhere better for me than right here.” He held up the folded paperwork. “I got the warrant, and I brought gloves and whatnot. I don’t want anything moved or taken, just in case I have to call in the big guys.”

  “That’s fair enough,” Lucas agreed. “I have seven more men coming out. They should all start trickling in any time now. Just tell us what we’re doing and where we’re going; we’re at your disposal.”

  Garrett liked when people made his life easier, and he knew he was going to enjoy working with his old friend. He talked over the details he had with the two men as others started to arrive, and in turn those two filled everyone else in. They worked together to form teams that would comb the entire property and then split up to take on the sheriff’s office and the community center where Hoyt still had physical therapy once a week.

  Leland showed up half an hour into the search with nothing new to report. “As far as I can find, no one saw him after Lou, and that was dinner on Tuesday night. He left around seven, and no one’s talked to him since.”

  Today was Thursday. His jaw muscle twitching, Garrett asked, “Maybe I’m grasping at straws here, but when he didn’t show up at the office yesterday, didn’t you find it a little strange?”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time. We get time off, too, you know,” Leland said indignantly, like he was trying to justify his actions--or lack thereof. “Besides, we’re cutting corners right now anyway. You know the law. No one over the age of eighteen is considered missing for the first seventy-two hours. We’re at half that.”

  “But you came to me anyway,” Garrett reminded him. “I think you know more than you’re saying.” He crossed his arms and loomed over Leland threateningly.

  Leland held his ground. “I don’t know anything I haven’t told you, Garrett. I know we don’t have the best history, but I’ve never given you any reason not to trust me, and I’ve never done anything to raise suspicion in my entire life. So quit letting that badge go to your head and do the job.”

  “Hey, guys,” Mike interrupted, and they both turned to glare at him. He held up his hands in surrender. “Whatever’s going on here, I’m not part of it. I just thought I’d tell you we finished the search and didn’t find anything useful, except some boot prints outside the kitchen window. They look old, though, so I don’t think they mean anything.”

  “Hoyt doesn’t wear boots,” Leland and Garrett chorused. Garrett cast a sidelong glance at the deputy and added, “He’s got a bit of a limp from a horseback riding incident when he was a kid. He can’t wear boots. He trips all over himself. Show me where they are.” He and Leland followed Mike to the kitchen window that overlooked the deck built onto the front of Hoyt’s house. The prints were clear in the snow that had frozen over days ago.

  “Someone else was here, but it’s been a while. Hey, Leland, was Hoyt seeing someone? These prints are awfully small, like a woman’s tracks.” Garrett raised an eyebrow at the deputy.

  “Not that I know of, but he could have had a delivery of some kind, or someone coming through town could have gotten lost and stopped to ask for help. It could be anything, or it could have something to do with his disappearance. Maybe someone was scouting ahead of time, looking for the best way in.”

  “You watch too much television,” Garrett mumbled. It sounded like the plot to some crazy drama series, and things like that just didn’t happen in real life, especially not in Courage. He turned to Mike. “Let’s regroup and split off to cover the other two locations.”

  Nothing turned up at either the sheriff’s office or the therapy office, and Garrett felt like they were spinning their wheels. “Leland, we’re done for now. If the SNR team wants to waste their time looking through the woods and digging through the town, they’re welcome to it. But I won’t pass on the orders because I don’t think Hoyt’s missing. We don’t have any evidence, and the only suggestion that something might be wrong is Lou’s encounter with the strangers. And that was two weeks ago. If they had something to do with this, Hoyt would have been toast a lot sooner.”

  “So you’re just calling off the investigation and waiting for him to turn up?” Leland’s voice rose with incredulity. “Not a particularly responsible move, Sheriff. Do you think Hoyt would stop looking for you if there was a question?”

  “I didn’t say we wouldn’t pick back up, but we’re waiting until the seventy-two hours are up. It’ll put us on the target, and it’ll give me time to get my own affairs in order in case I’m wrong about all this. I have to make arrangements for my ranch to be cared for when I’m not there, Leland. I know you don’t get it. You live in a two-bedroom house with your mother and not even a house plant to water. But I have nearly a hundred acres, horses, cows, and a pig. I can’t just set an automatic timer to remind my livestock to make themselves some lunch.”

  The deputy obviously disapproved, but for once, he smartly kept his mouth closed. This was already turning into a cluster, and he’d been sheriff for less than eight hours. Garrett walked away, telling Lucas he and his crew could decide whether or not they wanted to stay involved until the case was officially opened. In the meantime, he was going home to brew some coffee and take care of his own business.

  Chapter 3

  As he sat at his kitchen table with a steaming mug of coffee, Garrett considered the possibility that something had happened to Hoyt. The man had been sheriff for over thirty years, since Garrett was knee-high, and he’d never pulled a crazy disappearing stunt. Everyone in the community respected Hoyt because he always proved reliable, under any circumstances. What would make him just take off without leaving a message or note or something to let people know where he went?

  As much as he hated to admit it, he had to consider something had happened to the sheriff. The question was, what? The strangers asking Lou questions may or may not be involved. They could have just been a fluke, and while it was a strange coincidence, it could be a coincidence nonetheless. Would anyone else have a reason to kidnap or kill Hoyt? Garrett didn’t know of any particular enemies the man had, but he also hadn’t gone looking in Hoyt’s closet for cobweb-covered skeletons. Hoyt was old enough to be his father; that gave him quite a bit of past that Garrett knew nothing about.

  Of course, there was always the possibility that it was a random hit or that whoever had committed the crime chose a law enforcement officer indiscriminately. The problem with that theory was, it would have been a lot easier to strike a random victim in the center of town rather than to get up on the mountain this time of year to snag someone. And
if it was a cop they were looking for, Leland was a sitting duck. He would have been the easy choice.

  Garrett scrubbed a hand over his face in aggravation. He’d come home to deal with his homestead, and here he was, still mooning over a missing-persons case that wasn’t even official yet. He got to his feet and stomped his boots on the hardwood floor, adjusting his jeans and his focus all at the same time. He needed to finish the stables, flake the horses, fill the water trough for the cows, and slop the pig. Then, he had to hack up the wood he’d chopped down over the last two days so he could use it for the wood-burning stove. He was almost out of firewood, and he didn’t want to get stuck without a good stash in another blizzard that took out the electricity.

  He had no idea what he would do if he got stuck working this case long term. He didn’t have anyone to fall back on. Since his brother had taken off for California while he was in the academy, he’d been alone. His parents were gone, their graves at the far edge of his property where he’d started a family plot. And he’d never had time to properly court a woman, so he wasn’t attached. He supposed he could ask Eleanor to ride over in the mornings and look in on the place, make sure it was still standing and that the livestock had food and water. He just hated to impose on the woman.

  He cursed Hoyt for making his life hell. If the sheriff had just left a note or told anyone where he was going, none of this would be happening. As he carried two buckets of water to the barn, knowing the water line would be frozen, he rounded back to Leland. It struck him odd that he’d been so determined to believe Hoyt met with foul play and then seemed to be procrastinating on an investigation he demanded Garrett head up.

  And why would he have insisted on giving him the badge? Leland had seniority and could have played the role of acting Sheriff. Garrett’s deal with Hoyt was as a permanent replacement. Leland acted like it was a done deal, like he was sure Hoyt wouldn’t be back. That raised more than an ounce of suspicion from his perspective, and he couldn’t negate the fact that Leland would have had opportunity. Motive wasn’t as easy, but he was sure he could come up with something and thought he’d make a little trip back to the sheriff’s station tomorrow to see if he could get a clue in that vein.