Chapter Eleven #2
“We need to know who he talked to that morning,” April said. “And what he wrote down.”
—
The sisters talked for a half hour about possible ways of finding out what their dad had done the morning he was shot.
Lucy asked if the sheriff’s department had the capability to use cell tower records to identify the location of the last incoming calls to their dad.
“Possibly,” April said. “We’ve worked with law enforcement in Montana to track lowlifes that way before.
But it all depends on the circumstances.
If someone is calling from a landline or a phone booth, that won’t help us.
But I suppose,” April said with an evil grin, “Sheridan can use her feminine wiles to ask Sondergard to run that check.”
“No, I can’t,” Sheridan said. “I’m on really thin ice with him right now. I’m not sure he trusts me since I broke into the county garage, and I really don’t blame him.”
“Maybe he’ll figure to do that on his own,” April said. “If he’s competent, he might be sending a request to the phone companies as we speak.”
“He’s competent,” Sheridan said defensively.
“We’ll see,” April countered. “After all, he just let you go…”
Lucy said, “Even if there’s nothing helpful on Dad’s phone, we really need to see his notebook. He probably jotted down his destination that morning, and even if he didn’t, there might be something in there that could steer us in the right direction.”
Finally, April said, “We’re just throwing shit at the wall now to see if it sticks. This is getting us nowhere.”
—
Although they knew that Deputies Carroll and Bowkley were in the process of interviewing the three ranch families, Sheridan said they needed to follow up in their own way. April and Lucy concurred.
“Do the three of us just show up at each ranch?” Lucy asked. “That might seem kind of overwhelming.”
“I agree,” Sheridan said. “I’ve been thinking about this while I was in jail. I think we interview them individually and then compare notes.”
“Who talks to who?” April asked.
Sheridan said she thought April should interview the people at the McElwee Ranch and Lucy should go to the Double D. She’d take the Bucholz Ranch.
“What’s your thinking?” Lucy asked.
“The McElwee Ranch is full of rough-and-tumble rowdies,” Sheridan said. “April would fit right in with them.”
April snorted at that.
Sheridan said, “The Double D owners are high-class individuals, or so they think. They’d welcome a young woman who just came back from Europe. They won’t feel threatened by someone young and sweet.”
“Makes sense,” April said. “Plus Lucy is closest in age to Brandy than the two of us.”
“Good point,” Sheridan said.
“I guess,” Lucy offered with an eye roll.
“Besides,” Sheridan said, “I can’t go to the Double D. Things are a little weird between Clay Junior’s dad and me since Clay was killed. He kind of thinks of me as the daughter-in-law he never had, and I don’t think he’d be very forthcoming.
“I’ll go back to the Bucholz place. Maybe I’ll use the pretense of trying to collect my fee. I think they’d buy that.”
“When do we start?” April asked.
“Tomorrow.”
—
Sheridan drove her SUV toward their parents’ house on the river, with April following behind in her Toyota Tundra. Lucy had opted to join Sheridan and she sat in the passenger seat. She said she didn’t like traveling with April. “April drives like a madwoman,” she said.
They were discussing the questions Lucy should ask Clay Hutmacher when Sheridan’s phone lit up. It was from the Twelve Sleep County Sheriff’s Department.
“Ah,” Sheridan said with a smile. “He kept my number.”
“Of course he did,” Lucy said.
“This is Sheriff Sondergard,” he said through the Bluetooth speaker in Sheridan’s car. Not Steve, or even Steve Sondergard. Sheriff. His tone was official, and both sisters exchanged a glance.
“I need you to bring the items back that you took,” he said. “And I mean right now.”
“What are you talking about?” Sheridan asked.
Sondergard’s voice rose as he spoke. “Don’t bullshit me, Sheridan. I need them back, and I mean immediately.”
“You need what back?”
“The notebook and the phone. I need them back.”
Sheridan said, “Steve, I didn’t take anything. I swear to God. I got arrested before I could find them.”
“Then why aren’t they there?”
“I honestly don’t know. Are you sure they’re gone?”
“One hundred percent,” Sondergard said. “Don’t play more games with me.”
“I’m not playing games, I swear it.”
“They aren’t there now,” Sondergard said. “How do you explain that?”
“I can’t. But tell me this, Steve. I had to surrender everything in my pockets when I was booked this morning. I even had to leave my own phone after I called my sisters. There wasn’t another phone or a notebook taken from me. Check your records.”
There was a long pause. Finally, Sondergard said, “Then who took them?”
“I don’t know. But it wasn’t me.”
Again, Sheridan and Lucy exchanged a long look. They could hear a muffled exchange from Sondergard’s side, and Sheridan guessed he’d covered the mouthpiece with his hand. When he came back, he said, “I’ll have to call you back.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“We got a report that there’s been an incident near Antler Creek Road. Something about a camper trailer. There may be a fatality.”
“Is it related to what happened to my dad?” Sheridan asked.
“I don’t know until I get out there,” Sondergard said. “But in the meantime, keep your phone close.”
With that, he terminated the call.
“You’ve got my number,” Sheridan said to the dead line.
“What’s that all about?” Lucy asked her.
“Your guess is as good as mine. Something about an incident.”
“What about Dad’s notebook and phone?”
“I just don’t know,” Sheridan said as she dialed April, who was still behind her, and filled her in.
“I’ve got to say it,” April said after a beat. “How much do you trust your man ‘Steve’?”
—
On the county road that led to the game warden station and state-owned home, Sheridan frowned when she looked into the rearview mirror. April was back there, all right. But a quarter of a mile behind April was a dark-colored GMC pickup.
Sheridan punched up April’s number.
April answered by saying, “It’s been with me since town.”
“Do you know who it is?”
“No, but there are two men inside.”