Chapter Four #2
April said knowingly, “Dr. April was going to suggest that.”
“It’s good to see you,” Marybeth said, wiping at her eyes again. “But what are you doing here?”
“We just happened to be in town when your first text came up,” April said. “We were surveilling an asshole who is cheating on his wife and kids.”
“We?”
April turned and held the door open for an older woman in her midforties to enter. The woman was plain-looking and a bit overweight, but she had intelligent eyes, Marybeth thought. And she admired the tooled cowboy boots she wore over her jeans.
“This is Cassie Dewell, my boss,” April said.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Cassie said as she held out her hand to Marybeth.
“Likewise,” Marybeth said. “April has told us she loves her job.”
“I like nailing assholes,” April said to her mother. “You know that about me.”
Marybeth nodded. “April can be a little rough around the edges at times.”
“I’m aware of that, which is just one reason I like her. But she’s also a very hard worker and she’s like a dog with a bone when she gets an assignment,” Cassie said. “I’d say she was very well raised.”
“Thank you,” Marybeth said. Then: “April has told us so much about you, I feel like I know you. I thought you didn’t take on domestic cheating cases.”
“We rarely do,” Cassie said. “But when April heard about the story, she talked me into taking it on. That’s what brought us from Bozeman to Billings this week.”
“They have three young children and his wife is dying of brain cancer,” April said with a sneer. “And the jerk is practically living at a titty joint outside of town. But the second I saw your message, we got here as soon as we could.”
“I’m glad you did,” Marybeth said.
“So what happened?” April asked. “Tell me—tell us—everything.”
—
April had grown up some since Marybeth saw her the previous summer.
She’d gotten a little taller, and was now four inches taller than Marybeth.
April had always been slim and flinty, but it was obvious she’d been working out and was now harder and more fit than she’d ever been.
Marybeth could tell that immediately when she hugged her.
April had also changed her look. Her tawny hair was streaked with magenta and she’d shaved the right side of her head into a buzz cut and added a few more silver earrings and a thin septum ring that Marybeth instantly disapproved of.
She still dressed in flashy cowgirl clothing, including a big silver belt buckle.
That, and a new tattoo of the Wyoming bucking horse logo with the rider on a trout instead of a bronco on her forearm.
After the three of them sat down, Marybeth recounted all the details of the morning.
April listened intently and so did Cassie, who hung back in a faux-leather chair so as not to intrude on the family interaction.
As Marybeth talked, April reached up and removed the septum ring from her nose, dropping it into the breast pocket of her shirt.
“I could tell it was distracting you,” she said. “Go on.”
—
“…So we won’t know more about his condition until after the CT scan, apparently,” Marybeth concluded. “We’re waiting for Dr. Ralston to come out and let us know her verdict.”
“Shit,” April said. “This sucks. It sounds like it could go either way.”
“I choose to think the best,” Marybeth said. “I’ll adjust that if I have to.”
“So who is responsible?” April asked. “Who did this?”
Marybeth shook her head as she said, “I’ve been racking my brain all morning for obvious suspects, but I’m coming up empty.
As you know, your dad doesn’t talk a lot about the things he’s working on until they really heat up and he needs my help.
As far as I know, he was just doing regular game warden stuff. ”
“Do you know why he was out on Antler Creek Road?” April asked.
“No. I’m guessing it had something to do with McElwee Land and Cattle, since they’ve been implicated in a poaching ring in the past. But I simply don’t know. He wasn’t dispatched out there on a call, so whatever he was doing, he was doing it on his own.”
“Is that unusual?” Cassie asked. “I used to be a deputy sheriff, so I know what sheriff’s department employees do. But I’m not all that familiar with game wardens.”
“It’s not unusual at all,” Marybeth said. “Game wardens tend to keep their own counsel. They operate very freely out in the field. Not until they’re building a case or they need some backup do they reach out to headquarters or anyone else. Joe is typical that way.”
“He’s actually worse,” April said. “My dad tends to get involved in situations that most law enforcement types would try to avoid at all costs. You wouldn’t believe some of the things he’s been in the middle of over the years.”
“You’ve told me about some of them,” Cassie said. “He does sound like an extraordinary man.”
“He is,” Marybeth said. “Even when it puts him in danger or pulls his family into it at times.”
“And that’s why we need to figure out who did this,” April said. “We need to find the asshole who did this and go after him and put him down.”
“Whoa,” Cassie said, holding her hands palms-out in a show of caution. “Calm down, girl.”
April looked away.
As she did, Cassie produced a spiral pad from her shoulder bag and opened it to a fresh page. She handed it to Marybeth along with a pen and asked her to sketch the crime scene as if from above.
“This will help me visualize it,” Cassie said.
Marybeth started with a line through the middle of the page that ended about an inch from the right edge.
At that ending point, she drew straight lines going north, proceeding straight, and down to the left.
On the upper side of the horizontal line she wrote “sagebrush foothills,” and on the left she jotted “rolling hills.” She sketched an oblong shape just in front of the junction of the lines.
“That’s his truck,” she said. “The road to the north goes to the Double Diamond Ranch, the middle one proceeds on to the Bucholz place, and the southern route goes to the Mac Ranch.”
Cassie studied the drawing.
“So there’s no way to determine which way he was headed?” she asked.
“Not from what I could tell,” Marybeth said. “He could have taken any one of those three roads.”
Cassie paused for a long time, obviously sorting out what she’d just seen and heard from Marybeth. Then she asked, “What happened to the RP? Sorry, the reporting party. You didn’t mention him again.”
“He was gone when the EMTs arrived,” Marybeth said. “They said it was strange that no one was around when they got to Joe’s truck.”
“Don’t you find that odd?”
“I asked about it a couple of times, but no one knows who called or where he went afterward.”
“How many bullet holes were in his pickup?” Cassie asked. “Not that I expect you to have counted them, but I wonder if any of the first responders brought that up?”
“There were a lot of bullet holes,” Marybeth said. “Several in the windshield, but also a few in the hood and in the front fenders. I’d guess at least ten, maybe more.”
Cassie nodded, then said, “That may suggest more than one shooter. Especially if the shots came from different angles. And if there was more than one shooter, it suggests—”
“An ambush,” April said, finishing the sentence.
“Possibly,” Cassie said.
April warmed to the theory. “If Dad bumbled upon a couple of poachers in the act or something like that, it’s possible that the bad guys reacted by firing their rifles at the Game and Fish pickup.
It’s possible. But that’s a crazy overreaction.
Most violations are misdemeanors. Game violators rarely get the book thrown at them and they know it.
So why would they react like that? It makes no sense. ”
Marybeth agreed with April. But…
“No, this sounds more like an ambush,” April said. “Like they knew he was coming and they were waiting for him. And I’ll bet that whoever did this was from one of those three ranches out there. I’d say that’s where we start.”
“We need a lot more information before making that assumption,” Cassie said. She said it in a tone that suggested to Marybeth that Cassie was used to dialing April down.
Cassie said, “There are a lot of facts we need to find out before we can go much further. Otherwise, it’s all speculation.
We need to know if any spent casings were found in the area, or any other clues that would indicate where the shots came from.
We need to know if there is a telltale blood trail or gut pile out in the field where poachers might have been.
We need to know who the reporting party was and where he is now.
And we need to know why Joe was out there on that particular road this morning.
Marybeth, did the doctor say when Joe might be able to talk to us? ”
“She doesn’t know yet,” Marybeth said. “And we don’t know if he’ll ever be able…” She couldn’t finish.
“We’re hoping for the best, right?” April said, moving close to Marybeth and dangling an arm around her. “Isn’t that what you said?”
—
“Who is in charge of the investigation?” Cassie asked after Marybeth had recovered and looked up.
“I assume it’ll be our new sheriff,” Marybeth said. “His name is Steve Sondergard and he just got elected. I don’t know if he’s even moved into his office yet.”
“Great,” April said with derision. “Another new sheriff of Twelve Sleep County.”
“He seems to be okay,” Marybeth said. “I met him once and he came across as honest and dedicated.”
April rolled her eyes, then fixed them on Cassie. “Most of our sheriffs have been fuckups. You know the type.”
Cassie nodded. “I worked for several of them. But I also worked with some really good men.”
“How can we trust a guy who hasn’t even found his desk yet?” April asked. “No, this is something we need to investigate ourselves.”
“April,” Cassie said, “you know I’m tied up here right now. As much as I wish I could, I can’t drop everything and go to Wyoming.”
“That’s fine.”
“Then what are you saying?” Cassie asked.
April said, “I’m saying I need to take that vacation time I’ve built up that you keep bugging me about. And I need to get my sisters in on this.”
“Hold it, April,” Marybeth said. “You shouldn’t involve them, unless—”
“They’ve already agreed to it,” April said, holding up her phone and cutting off her mother. “I’ve been texting them. They’re gonna meet me in Saddlestring.”
April’s eyes blazed when she said, “We have three ranch families to investigate. We’re going to find out which one of them did this to Dad.”
—
As April made her vow, Marybeth’s phone lit up with a call from Wyoming governor Spencer Rulon.
“Yes, Governor?”
“What in the hell happened up there?” Rulon asked. “I just heard. Is he okay?”
“It looks like he was ambushed, but we don’t know much more than that. Right now, he’s being examined in the Billings hospital. That’s where I am.”
“Well, goddamnit,” Rulon roared. “They better take good care of him in Montana, or there will be hell to pay.”
“The doctors are supposed to be good out here.”
“What can I do?” Rulon asked. “Is there anything I can do? Do you want me to send up the state plane and fly him down here to Cheyenne?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea right now,” she said. “We were lucky he survived the trip north.”
“Keep me on speed dial,” Rulon said. “If there’s anything…”
“Thank you.”
“We can’t let anything happen to Joe,” the governor said. “He’s stubborn as hell at times, but I need him. He’s one of the good ones.”
“I agree.”
“I’ll pray for him. We all will.”
“Thank you, sir.”