Chapter Eight
Sunday, July 28 th .
Days Inn Hotel. Watertown. New York.
Bobby followed Tammy and the old guy she was with all the way to upstate New York. Only twenty-five miles left to the Canadian border when they pulled into this hotel the night before and stopped for the night.
Bobby couldn’t figure it out, but it was a gift to him in the end. He’d been hoping to get a chance to grab Tammy and kill her as they drove north yesterday, but no opportunities came his way.
It seemed to Bobby like she’d become aware of him following her and she was on high alert doing everything she could to avoid him catching her.
Before first light, he packed up his room, made sure he remembered the money in the safe and he left with Cleo on her leash.
After his belongings were loaded into the Wrangler, he walked Cleo around the hotel property and then put her in the passenger seat of the Jeep to wait until it was time to leave.
He picked a heavily treed spot near the fence that marked the hotel property line and hid himself in the foliage. Bobby waited in that spot for at least half an hour, batting away mosquitos, hoping Tammy would come out alone to walk the hounds.
She’d walked them herself the previous morning and Bobby hoped she’d be by herself again. That would make things a lot simpler for him.
After all that waiting and watching, Bobby was in luck. Tammy came out the side door of the hotel with the two hound dogs on leashes.
When Tammy passed Bobby’s hiding spot, he jumped out, snatched her off her feet, slapped a strip of duct tape over her mouth and tossed her over his shoulder.
The hound dogs ran off barking and baying as Bobby ran to the Wrangler, opened the hatch and tossed Tammy in. He had everything ready to tie her up.
He smacked her in the face with his fist, knocked her out and the rest was easy. Using plastic ties, he trussed Tammy up like a pig for the barbeque.
“There you go, you murdering bitch. You haven’t got long now.”
Eyes wide with surprise, she yelled at him from under the duct tape and Bobby laughed. He threw the dog’s blanket over her to cover her up and keep her out of his sight.
“I can’t stand to look at you. This is for Ray and for all the times you tried to finish me. Mostly for Ray.”
Cleo jumped from the front seat to the back and hung her huge head into the hatch while Bobby did his thing. She growled and snarled at Tammy like she wanted to tear her limb from limb.
“You’ll get your chance at her, girl. You hate Tammy almost as much as I do. She won’t be here in the land of the living too long, Cleo. We’ll get rid of her soon.”
Willy waited in the room for Tammy to come back with the dogs and after an hour, he began to worry.
“Did she take George and Gracie and leave me behind?” Willy checked the bathroom and Tammy’s toiletries were still on the vanity. “Her suitcase is here, and it’s not zipped up. She must be outside.”
Willy took the elevator down to the main floor, crossed the lobby in a hurry and ran to the spot where they’d parked the truck the night before.
The truck was sitting in the same spot, and both dogs were sitting next to it waiting to get in. Leashes dragging on the pavement.
“Where’s Tammy, doggies?”
The dogs were happy to see Willy and it was mutual. He gave them each a hug, took the leashes off and put them in the truck. “Wait here for me. I’ll be right back.”
Willy ran back to the room, packed up everything belonging to himself and Tammy and the dogs, and hauled it all out to the truck.
“The cops must have picked her up while she was out walking the dogs. It’s the only explanation I can think of. Maybe Tammy wasn’t being paranoid after all. She was on edge all day yesterday. I shouldn’t have made fun of her and pissed her off like I did.”
He slid behind the wheel and started the engine of the old truck. “Nothing we can do if the police have Tammy, doggies. We’ll go to Canada anyway now that we’re this close.”
George and Gracie wagged their tails. They were happier than Willy was.
Budget Inn. La Grange. Texas.
Virge and I were up early getting ready to fly home to Montana. It was an hours’ drive into Austin to the airport and we had to allow time for breakfast before we left.
Kevin Bennet knocked on the door before I had my stuff packed. He had things for Dad to sign before we left. With him coming at the last minute, it was going to be a rush.
Dad let him in, and they sat at the table and went over the changes the people who owned the ranch in Lincoln had made.
“This is the amended offer, Travis. You can see here where they raised the price a little and they approved the spot where you aligned the two closing dates more closely so you could close the Montana ranch first and then have the Texas ranch close the next day—just to make it a little less hectic.”
Dad nodded and Kevin handed him a pen. “Everything looks exactly like we agreed.”
Dad signed everywhere he was supposed to, and Kevin shook his hand. “Congratulations, Travis. You just bought yourself a ranch in Texas.”
“Thanks. That’s a load off. Now I have to fly back to Montana and clean up the mess I’ve made up there.”
“No mess, Dad,” I said. “We’ll clean that end up in no time flat.”
Travis laughed. “Glad you think so, Harlan. There’s a little more to it than you know about.”
Austin-Bergstrom Airport.
Dad turned in our rental Jeep and we checked in for the flight to Montana. I hated the thought of being on the plane that long and the only thing that kept me sane was knowing I’d be able to text Lucy.
“You boys might as well sleep until it’s time to land and eat lunch,” said Travis. “This is a long boring flight but it’s the last time we’ll have to do it. Next time we come to Texas, we’ll be driving and hauling all of our stuff with us.”
“A truck, a Jeep and towing three Harleys and a horse trailer.”
“And Billy will be driving his own truck,” said Virge. “A huge fuckin’ convoy, Dad.”
“We’re not sure about Billy yet,” I said.
Travis laughed. “Billy has to make his decision first, Virgie. I hope he’s coming with us, but it’s up to him. None of us are going to talk him into it if he wants to stay in Montana. Wouldn’t be fair.”
“He ain’t gonna stay in Montana,” said Virge. “I think he’s pretty much decided already.”
“My brother is a mind reader.”
“Ain’t saying that,” said Virge. “I can just tell.”
Ivy Lea Bridge. New York State.
As he got closer and closer to the border crossing, Bobby watched for a spot where he could kill Tammy and get rid of her body. He couldn’t cross with a prisoner in the back of his Jeep.
He turned down one of the many river roads that led to cottages and fishing camps all along the Saint Lawrence River. Cruising by slowly searching for the right spot, Bobby came across a camp that seemed deserted.
“This looks like the place, Cleo.”
Bobby eased along the dirt path leading to the little wooden shack, looking for any sign of habitation and there was none. Grass and weeds had grown high since the last fisherman had been here.
“Could be a rental, Cleo. Nobody’s been using this place for a while.”
He parked the Wrangler in the long grass and shut off the engine.
“You can have a run, Cleo, but don’t go far.”
Cleo jumped out and took off exploring while Bobby walked around to the hatch of the Jeep and opened it. “Time to move, Tammy. We’re here at your final resting place.” Bobby chuckled.
Tammy’s eyes were wild as Bobby tossed her over his shoulder and hauled her inside the fishy smelling shack.
The second he ripped the tape off her mouth, she shouted at him, “You can’t do this, Eldon. We’re meant to be together. I’ve been searching all over the country for you so we could get married and be happy.”
“You’re a nutcase, Tammy. You always were since the first day you hopped into my truck. At first I was too hard for you to see it, but my vision has cleared up a lot in the past few months. You are a genuine murdering whacko.”
Tammy kept screaming crazy stuff at him and Bobby’s uncontrollable anger took over. He lost it completely, ran out to the Jeep and jerked his tire iron out from under the front seat.
He ran back to the shack waving the tire iron in the air and shouting curses down at her. “You almost killed me twice and I owe you for that, but this is for Ray. You killed Ray for nothing. You didn’t even know him, and he didn’t do a damned thing to you. You fucking maniac bitch.”
Tammy screamed when she saw what was coming at her and tried to roll out of Bobby’s way.
Bobby leaned over and took a swing at Tammy’s head. He was deadly and well-practiced with his weapon of choice.
They were screaming curses at each other so loud, Bobby barely heard Cleo barking and clawing at the door to get in. His fit of anger had taken over so completely, he’d forgotten he’d left Cleo on her own outside.
He left Tammy bleeding from her cracked skull—limp and almost dead on the floor of the fishing shack—and ran to the door barely hanging on its hinges to let Cleo in.
“Cleo, get in here and take a chunk out of Tammy.” Bobby yanked the door open, and Cleo ran in growling. Right behind Cleo stood Tammy’s boyfriend pointing a gun at him.
Willy drove north from the hotel not knowing quite what he was looking for. He broke speed limits thinking he had catching up to do, but he didn’t know with who.
By chance he happened to spot the black Wrangler with the huge Newfie dog in the front seat. He was positive he’d seen that Jeep with the huge dog at the hotel. It made him think that it wasn’t the police who arrested Tammy at all.
Somebody was following her.
“That guy with the dog might have taken her.” He talked to George and Gracie in the back seat of his truck. “Do you think that might be Tammy’s old boyfriend with the dog that did the damage to her leg? What was that dog’s name again?”
His dogs couldn’t give him an answer. Willy made up his own mind to find out and he followed the Wrangler north towards the border.
They weren’t many miles from the crossing point when the Wrangler turned off the highway onto one of the winding river roads.
Willy followed along a good distance behind and when the Wrangler turned on a dirt path that led to a fishing camp, he waited on the road until the guy took Tammy out of the hatch and went inside.
As soon as the old boyfriend went into the shack and closed the door behind him, Willy pulled in behind the Jeep and cut the engine of his truck.
Before he jumped out, he reached across the console and took Tammy’s gun out of the glove box. Willy made sure the gun was loaded before heading for the shack.
“I’ll shoot him if I have to. I have to save Tammy.”
He let George and Gracie out to run free and hopefully distract the killer black dog as he ran to the door of the shack.
Willy was halfway there when the black dog ran to the shack and scratched on the door to get in. He hung back so the dog wouldn’t attack him.
The boyfriend jerked the door open, the dog ran in, and Willy was ready.
He pulled the trigger.
Bang.
Bobby was surprised to see the old guy standing there with a gun. Even more surprised when the old fart pulled the trigger and shot him. A horrible shot even from that close.
The bullet nearly missed him, but not quite.
It sizzled through the skin in Bobby’s side and made him bleed like a good thing. It hurt like a fucker and the pain made Bobby groan. He clutched his side but had nothing handy to stop the bleeding. His head got all dizzy and he figured he was either gonna puke or pass out.
“Cleo,” Bobby mumbled, and she took over.
Cleo jumped on the old guy before he had a chance for the kill shot. She clamped her iron jaws on the old guy’s left leg, tore through his pants and took a huge chunk out of him.
He hollered as he fell to the floor and Cleo had him then. She went after his other leg, and he was toast.
Bobby kicked the gun out of the old fucker’s reach worrying that other fishermen or cottagers had heard the shot and would be doing their fuckin’ duty and pressing the 911 icon on their phones.
“Be right back,” he hollered to the old guy.
For good measure, he bashed Tammy over the head one more time with his tire iron, picked her up and ran out the back door.
Her hands and ankles were zip-tied, and she’d drown in a matter of minutes. His life-blood leaking out his side, he barely had the strength to carry Tammy to the river.
Fighting to keep from passing out, Bobby relied on sheer willpower and adrenaline to carry Tammy’s weight.
He let out a sigh of relief and sank to his knees when he dropped her off the end of the dock. She sank like a stone and disappeared into the deep water.
“Bye-bye, Tammy. This is for Ray, you murdering bitch. I been waiting too long for this.”
He whistled for Cleo and dragged himself around the shack to the Jeep. Slipping under the wheel, he paused to catch his breath before starting the engine.
The motor turned over and Bobby had to maneuver around the old fart’s truck to get to the lake road.
He’d be in Canada twenty minutes later if he didn’t bleed out before then.
Willy lay on the floor of the fishing shack thinking he’d never walk again. The black dog had done so much damage to his legs. The only thing that saved his life was the boyfriend whistling for the dog and taking off.
“Where’s Tammy?”
Willy tried to get to his feet to look for her, but he was bleeding so badly, he didn’t have the strength to get up off the floor.
He tried to whistle for his dogs and didn’t have the breath.
Crawling on his belly, Willy headed for the back door. Not far. The entire shack was only about twelve feet square.
Lying on the floor at the open back door all he could see was a crumbling dock and a wide river.
The bite on his right leg was up higher in his thigh and he’d lost so much blood from that one he figured the dog’s fangs might have nicked an artery.
“I need to get to my medical bag in my truck.”
Lying right there at the back door of the shack, Willy had to make a decision. An important one.
If he crawled to the dock, he’d bleed out and have no chance to save Tammy.
If he turned around and crawled to his truck and reached his medical bag in time, he might be able to stop the bleeding and save himself.
One of them would be alive.
Hating himself for doing it, Willy turned away from the river and crawled the opposite way.
It took him too long to crawl to the truck and get himself inside. Then another few minutes to find the medical bag in the back and dig out the QuikClot.
Once he had what he needed, the bleeding began to ease up. It stopped up enough to keep him conscious. Without going this route there was no chance for him to get to Tammy.
He sat in the truck for ten minutes before trying any heroics. Then he took a couple of deep breaths, eased himself out of the truck and forced himself—sheer willpower alone—to stumble around the shack to the dock.
Willy peered into the dark river water and saw nothing. No body anywhere close to the dock. He collapsed onto the dock and sobbed. “She told me I’d get hurt if I came with her and I didn’t listen. She was trying to protect me from the first day I found her, and I didn’t believe what a bad girl she was.
People were after her and she wasn’t paranoid at all. She tried to tell me I was in danger.
Love is blind.
Great Falls Airport. Montana.
Virge slept the entire way home and I wasn’t that lucky. Dead tired as we walked to the parking lot to pick up Dad’s truck and then a long drive home to Coyote Creek, I was a zombie.
“My truck is still here,” said Travis. “That’s a gift.”
“Maybe the strobes scared them off, Dad.”
“Probably what it was, son.” He laughed. “You slept all the way home, Virgil. You get to drive.”
“I’m up for it, Dad. I’ll get you and Harlan home.”
“Thanks. Wake me up when we get there.”
“You got it, Dad. No worries.”
“I’ll worry for both of us, Virge. I hope I’m asleep when we crash.”
“Shut up, Harlan.”
Wild Stallion Ranch. Montana.
Max and Sarge went nuts when we jumped out of the truck with our suitcases. They were so excited they were jumping three feet off the ground and nearly knocked the three of us over.
Dad squatted down and hugged them until they settled down and stopped yipping and whining and doing that crazy jumping.
“Good boys. You were missing us a lot.”
Billy nodded. “They were big whining babies, that’s what they were.”
Dad laughed. “Next time we leave, y’all will be going with us.”
Billy had already fed the horses and bedded them down for the night by the time we got home from the airport, but me and Virge hung out in the barn for a while anyway.
We brushed our horses and told them about the new ranch and about moving to Texas. They seemed to be listening, but I couldn’t be sure.
One thing they wouldn’t like, was the long ride in the horse trailer to get from Montana to Texas. They’d kick up a fuss over that.
Guaranteed.