by Terry Spear
“Loveland?” Jack was surprised that the guy was living in Colorado when he’d been seeing Gigi in Missouri at the same time Jack was engaged to her. Maybe Ralph moved there, or back here after having some fun with Gigi there. Ralph would have probably known her brother too. Which was another reason they were all working together.
“Yeah, they have a fair amount of cougars there too. He might have been from there originally.”
“And taking college courses in Missouri also.” Jack pulled out his phone to call Dottie. “Hey, Dottie, all of us are fine here. We located Bishop, the one who was Jeffrey’s partner. He’s dead, his new partners killed him. I suspect Hellion, or the other guy with him, wanted to be in charge. Just so you know, Hellion’s new partner is a man called Ralph Solo. He’s one of the men who was Gigi’s lover when we were engaged and she was here too.”
“Omigod, Jack. I know him.”
“Ralph Solo?” Jack couldn’t have been more surprised to learn Dottie knew him.
“Yeah, he was taking some of the same core courses as me and so we had a few classes together—English lit, geology, world history. I saw him kissing a girlfriend in the hallway outside our classroom the one time.”
“Hell, don’t tell me—she was blond-haired, green-eyed, slender build?”
“Sounds like her. He never said her name when I saw them around each other. I guess it was Gigi. When I saw her at the theme park, I didn’t realize she was the same woman.”
“Can you give a description of what he looked like?”
“Dark-haired, tall, lanky, cougar, like us, narrow face, blue eyes. So Hellion or Ralph killed Bishop?”
“One of them did. Gigi, maybe, though I don’t know if she knows how to shoot a gun. So maybe one of the guys did it. We’re waiting on Dan and Stryker to get here and then we’ll head out.”
“Okay, just be careful.”
“I will. Are the kids there? Can I talk to them?”
She laughed. “Yes. Bouncing up and down, eager to talk with you.”
He smiled, glad they weren’t upset with him for not seeing them right away.
Trish said, “Hello?”
“Hey, Trish, I can’t wait to see you. Are you helping your mom out?”
“Yeah. We baked cookies. Mommy says if you’re not home in time, we get to eat them all up. And we can make more for you.”
Jack chuckled. “That’s good. I can’t wait to eat some.”
“Here’s Jeff.”
“Why aren’t you home yet? You said you’d be home.” Jeff wasn’t happy with him.
“I was. And I moved in. Then I had to catch the bad guys.”
“Did you catch them?” Jeff asked, sounding hopeful.
“Not yet. Soon, we hope.”
“Okay. Mom says I gotta go.”
“Love you and Trish and Mom.”
“Hey,” Dottie said.
“I’m glad they’re not too upset with me for not being there when they came home.”
“They said they weren’t leaving like that again, so they wouldn’t miss you again.”
“I love you and the kids, Dottie. I’ll be home as soon as I can.”
“Be safe,” she said again.
When he ended the call, the guys were both smiling at him. “What? I saw you texting Kate earlier. And Travis called his better half twice already.”
They laughed. “Yeah, we did, or we’d get hell when we got home,” Leyton said. “I know you have searched around the area. Let’s do it again.”
“I’m going to shift again and search out a little bit farther.” Jack liked to get close to the ground, smell where everyone had walked, see if anyone had moved away from the area and not just been moving closer to the cabin.
By the time Jack had stripped and shifted, the other guys were outside looking for any clues they’d missed. He headed way out to try and locate anything farther away. He found cigarette butts that Bishop had smoked under a group of aspen, his boot prints, and a couple of other size boot prints too. It looked like the men had all come out here and talked for a while. The grass was tamped down, and ten cigarette butts were in the grass. From the smell of them, the only one smoking had been Bishop.
A car engine rumbled, and Jack was glad Dan and Stryker had arrived to take care of the body. He wanted to go to Loveland and search through this guy’s place, take care of this business, and head on home to Dottie and the kids. Continuing to look for any other clues in a widening sweep of the area, he heard shots fired back at the cabin. Crap!
He raced back to the cabin, assuming Hellion and the others had returned to dispose of the body, or thought they’d left something behind that would incriminate them.
The silver Ford Taurus tore down the gravel road out of there as Leyton and Travis tried to hit the tires. The car disappeared around a bend in the road beyond the pine trees.
His fellow agents looked okay, so Jack raced through the woods to see which road the perp would take at the junction. Well away from the road in the direction of the junction, he dove through the pine and firs and aspen.
The car reached the fork and turned right. Suddenly, the passenger’s window rolled down. Jack didn’t expect Gigi to catch sight of him, or to ready a gun and shoot at him. Not because he didn’t think she hated him enough to do so, but because he really hadn’t believed she could shoot or that she really was into killing people.
As many rounds as she fired at him, clipping the tree trunks, branches, and twigs, he knew she wasn’t trying to just injure him. He dove back through the trees, getting far enough away that she couldn’t hit him. Damn the woman.
He loped back to the cabin, and finally reached it and saw Leyton on his cell, calling in the situation to Dan. Travis must have been inside the cabin. Jack ran into the house to shift and dress so he could tell Leyton which direction the driver had driven. Inside, Travis was sitting on the couch looking a bit dazed, a bloodied bandage secured to the side of his forehead.
Hell. Jack hadn’t thought either of them had been wounded or he would have stayed to help out. Travis must have had his head turned so that Jack hadn’t seen where he’d been hit.
Jack shifted, then threw on his boxer briefs and called out to Leyton. “He took the right fork at the road.” Then he hurried over to Travis, took hold of his wrist, and checked his pulse. “How bad are you hurt?”
Travis grunted. “I swear I have to get one of these every mission just to remind myself I’m still alive and working a dangerous job. It’s just a graze but head wounds bleed a lot. And I was getting a little dizzy. Which is the only reason I’m sitting on the couch.”
“Nothing for you to do right now anyway.”
Leyton came into the cabin and nodded to Jack. “Thanks for getting the direction they were heading in.”
“I might not have gone after them if I’d known Travis had been shot. Hell, Gigi was shooting at me too, so she might have even been the one who killed Bishop. I found cigarette butts by some trees out back. All were Bishop’s. But I didn’t find anything else.”
“We weren’t expecting them to return. Naturally. They saw Travis near the parking area and of course, they had no idea who he was. They probably assumed he was just a hiker. If Bishop had been alive, he would have recognized both Travis and me. Anyway, they began shooting at Travis, and he went down. They started to get out of the car to finish him off, when I came around the other side of the cabin and began shooting at them. They dove back into the vehicle and took off down the road.”
“Tell me you hit someone.” Jack finished getting dressed.
“I did. But, like with us, they’re cougars. Faster healing abilities. Though I hit Ralph in the left arm, so it’ll take a little longer for him to heal up.”
“My head’s killing me. I’ll be fine after a few hours,” Travis said.
“You’ll go back with Dan and see Kate.” Leyton was in charge and though Travis didn’t appear to like the idea as sour as he looked, he just slumped back against the co
uch in a defeated posture.
“I have Jack to watch my back, so you don’t have to worry about me,” Leyton said.
Jack suspected that it was more than that. Travis wanted to be one of the ones to take the men down. He didn’t blame him. Jack felt the same way.
Twenty minutes later, Dan and Stryker drove up, then entered the cabin. Dan said, “The coroner is on the way. Hell, Travis, you look like you took a beating. Don’t let Bridget see you or she’ll know she should have been out here with you watching your back.”
“If you have everything under control here, we’re heading to Bishop’s house in Loveland. We’ll let you know what we find.” Leyton looked at Travis. “Are you going to be all right?”
“Yeah, you know me. I’ll be raring to go in a few hours. Don’t do all the work before I’m back on the job.”
Leyton smiled at him, then he and Jack headed back to where they’d left the car.
“I sure hoped you’d taken them out. So what happened to Hellion?” Jack climbed into the passenger’s seat.
Leyton got into the driver’s seat and they took off for Loveland. “He didn’t return. I suspect Ralph and Gigi came back for the body. I don’t know why they would have returned otherwise.”
“For something they’d left behind? Though we couldn’t find anything. You don’t want to try following them first, do you?”
“No. They have too much of a head start. We go to Loveland like we had planned.”
“Why didn’t they take care of the body the first time around? Why come back for it?” Jack couldn’t imagine they got spooked, left, and then returned unless they’d needed something to wrap the body in and didn’t want to use anything from the rental cabin. Might be too suspicious.
“Maybe they had second thoughts about leaving a body behind. Or maybe they hadn’t planned to kill him and didn’t have anything to wrap the body in. They decided they didn’t want to get blood in the trunk of the car. You know, it could be that he fought with them about who was in charge or what they were going to do. Then the disagreement was resolved permanently.”
Jack pulled out his phone and looked up the nearest hardware store. He called the store and said, “I’m Jack Barrington with a special police force investigating a local crime. Can you tell me if anyone recently purchased a tarp, maybe a roll of tape also?”
“For a dead body? Oh, I know I let my imagination go wild sometimes. When the man and woman checked out, that’s the first thing I thought of. They were here about a half hour ago. Maybe a little longer.”
“We’ll be right there.” Jack ended the call and Leyton glanced at him, probably wondering when he’d agreed to go to the hardware store. “The store is located in the direction Ralph went. It won’t take us but another half hour to go there.”
Leyton shook his head. “Somehow, I had the impression you were working for me. And this is your first training mission.”
“I am. So it’s your call.”
Leyton headed for the hardware store at the junction of the roads. “I take it that Ralph bought a tarp and tape at the store.”
“Yep. And the clerk even assumed the man and woman were going to take care of a dead body.”
Leyton smiled.
“Vivid imagination. But if it was them, he was right on the money.”
When they arrived at the store, Leyton showed the clerk a picture of Hellion, Bishop, and Ralph, courtesy of Chet who sent them a picture of his driver’s license photo on file.
“Okay, yeah, that guy was the one who bought the tarp and tape.”
“But not the other man?” Jack asked. “What about the woman?” He pulled up an old Facebook photo of her.
“Yeah, that’s her. The other two guys were in here a few days ago. They were getting just the usual stuff. A couple of grocery items.”
“If you see any of these people in here again, call us.” Leyton handed him a card. “They’re armed and extremely dangerous. So no heroics. Just wait until they’ve left the store.”
“Yes, sir.”
“We don’t believe they’ll return, but just in case. Did they say anything that you can recall?” Jack asked right before they left.
“The man and woman who came in today were arguing with each other. Oh, God, they really did kill someone. That’s what the tarp was for.”
“What did they say?” Leyton hurried to ask.
“The guy said if her brother was going to keep going off the deep end… Then she told him not to worry. It had always been the plan. I was stacking some floor heaters on the shelves, and the man and woman were on the other side of the shelves in the next aisle over. Then we got busy and I got called up to the front to help check out people. They ended up in my line. He said to her that he wasn’t always going to clean up his messes. She just looked stormy-faced and didn’t answer him. Then he said, ‘Do you understand?’ And she said, ‘I heard you the first time, all right?’ I just figured it was a couple having an argument. My brother and his girlfriend have them all the time.
“Then they paid cash and the two of them stalked out of here. A few minutes later, she returned to buy a candy bar and a soda. Then she left.”
“Thank you for all your help,” Leyton said. “Just call us if you see any of them. Don’t, whatever you do, try to make a citizen’s arrest.”
When they left the store, Leyton said, “Good call about getting some more intel from the hardware store. At least now we know your ex-fiancée didn’t kill Bishop. Her brother did.”
“No. She just tried to kill me.”
“I bet she was thrilled to see you.” Leyton smiled as they got on the road again.
“I think that’s why it took her so long to shoot at me. She was so shocked to see me in the woods there too that it took her a moment to react. Once she did, she was shooting up everything behind me. Thankfully, I made it out of her range quickly enough. They’re probably trying to figure out who you are and then now what I’m doing here with the two of you guys when the last she knew, I was in the army.”
“Well, if they hadn’t killed Bishop, he would have known about Travis and me, at least.” They drove in silence for some time, then Leyton spoke up again. “You know that Dottie gave up her degree plans because of you. Basically because she learned she was pregnant and she was afraid that Hellion might learn of it.”
“Yeah, we haven’t discussed it. If she wants to go back to college, she can.”
“What about work?”
“That’s up to her. I already told her I’d support her so she could stay home with the kids. And when I’m not on a mission, I’ll stay with them. She’s free to have some fun with the ladies. Whatever she wants to do. I suspect with the baby on the way, and the kids at home, she’s going to want to quit.”
“Well, Dan and everyone will miss her at the job, but I’m glad she has choices.”
“What about you and Kate? Any plans for kids?”
“Eventually. I don’t think she’ll want to give up her practice though. She’s the only doctor in town, and she wouldn’t want to leave everyone in a lurch. Plus, she loves what she does. So for now, we’re good.”
A call came through for Leyton on his dashboard, and it was Kate. “Hey, honey, after being shot, Travis looks pretty gray, but hopefully, he’ll be okay when you run the scan on him,” Leyton said.
“Dan said they’d be here soon, Bridget’s on her way over, and Travis is talking away like nothing’s happened. I’ll let you know how he’s doing as soon as I examine him. But I had a moment between patients and was calling to tell you something that can’t wait. We’re having a baby.”
Jack laughed out loud.
9
At the sheriff’s department, Dottie had another call from the cat lady, Mrs. Sorenson, third time in two weeks. Dottie knew she wanted to see more of Stryker, since her own son, Mick, Hal and Tracey’s boss, who was in charge of taking down animal traffickers, didn’t make it into town that often. “I’ll have someone check into it righ
t away.”
“Send Deputy Hill. He knows how to get to my house.”
“I’ll see what I can do. He’s out on another call right now.”
“Not another missing cat case, is it?”
Dottie swore Mrs. Sorenson was afraid some other cat owner meant he’d only have time for another owner’s missing cats now. “No.”
“Oh, my, all right. Then I can wait for him for a little while longer.”
“Good. I’ll tell him as soon as we get off the line.”
Dottie swore she was going to tell Stryker to ask Mrs. Sorenson out on a date, just to encourage her to quit calling about one of her cats being in the tree or missing in the woods. They eventually got down on their own or came home if none of the deputies could make it in a timely fashion, especially when Mrs. Sorenson put out a bowl of cat food. So everyone knew she was just lonely.
Later that day, Mrs. Sorenson called again about a cat. This time she sounded really excited.
“The one in the tree isn’t your cat?” At least that was what Dottie was guessing, since Mrs. Sorenson sounded more excited than usual.
Then Dottie got a call from Dan and she said to Mrs. Sorenson, “Hold on a second, Dan’s calling and it might be something crucial to a murder investigation.”
“Okay, the cat’s not going anywhere.”
“Dan, yes?”
“Anything going on?” he asked.
Though Dan knew if there was anything really important going on, Dottie would have told him already. “Just Stryker has another by-request mission—treed cat—”
“Don’t tell me. Mrs. Sorenson.”
“Yep.”
Dan laughed. Then he told her what had happened with the dead body and Travis.
“Travis is okay, from what I hear from Kate. Just got some downtime for a day or two,” Dottie said.
“Yeah, he’s good. Just needs his mate’s loving. Listen, as long as we don’t have any dead bodies show up or, Leyton and Jack don’t need some help with their case, I need to take care of some personal business so I will need to take off.”
