Chapter Eighteen #2
April sat forward in her seat and tucked her jacket over the grip of the Glock in her belt.
She waited for the dogs to be called off before reaching for the door handle.
She could feel her heart race, but she didn’t want to betray her anxiety.
She also didn’t want to be overly assertive, which was her default mechanism that often caused problems.
As the dogs padded back to the porch at the command of the woman with the shotgun, April turned off her engine and slipped out of the Tundra. She kept the door open in case she needed to dive back inside.
“What in the hell do you want?” the woman asked.
Before April could reply, the woman’s face reddened and she shouted, “You do not come here to pick up product. That is not how we do business. Who in the fuck sent you down here, anyway?”
At first, April was confused. Then she realized that the woman on the porch had taken the measure of April’s unfamiliar vehicle, the Montana plates, and her unconventional appearance—and assumed she was someone else.
“Who do you think I am?” April asked.
“Whoever you are, you need to get back inside your vehicle and get the hell off our property. This isn’t the way we do things. We set up meets outside of our property. I don’t know who told you otherwise.”
“Forget about the Montana tags,” April said. “I’m April Pickett.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed. “Pickett? As in…?”
“My dad’s the game warden here.” Then, remembering Cassie’s advice, April softened her tone. “He was ambushed a couple of days ago up the road. I’m sure you heard about it. I’m wondering if you could help me out, since you know the people out here on these ranches better than I do.”
The woman seemed confused, but she lowered the muzzle of the shotgun. She was thinking.
“I’m not accusing you of anything,” April said. “We’re trying to find out who might have wanted to hurt him.”
“So he’s still alive? I heard that, but I wasn’t sure it was true.”
“He’s in a coma. But we’re all hoping he pulls out of it.”
“Well, son of a bitch,” the woman said. “I hope if he pulls through, he won’t be such a do-gooder around here. That guy needs to lighten up.”
April nodded her head. Not agreeing, but not arguing, either.
“I’m Lisa McElwee,” the woman said. “I own this place with my sister. I was kind of expecting someone else…”
“I get that,” April said. “I’m just glad I’m not the person you were expecting.”
Lisa chuckled at that. She obviously didn’t want to talk about the misunderstanding anymore. April thought back to the word Lisa had used: “product.” She had a pretty good idea what that meant. Lisa had assumed April was a dealer from Montana. And Lisa was selling, not buying. But selling what?
“Your dad was out here a few weeks ago,” Lisa said. “I haven’t seen him since. I’m not sure I can help you out much. All I know is that you’re barking up the wrong tree.”
“Why was he here?”
“Something about a hunter who claimed he saw a drunk elk on our ranch. It didn’t make any sense. And he didn’t cite us for anything.”
“A drunk elk?”
“That’s what he claimed. But we set him straight and he went on his way. There weren’t any problems or fireworks. I even offered him a cinnamon roll.”
“I’m glad there weren’t any issues,” April said, again remembering Cassie’s advice, even though it pained her inside. She knew when she was being told half a story.
April said, “I was wondering what you can tell me about your neighbors. Did any of them have a problem with my dad that you’re aware of?”
Lisa snorted. “They all did, I would guess. They’re not exactly neighbors in, like, a neighborly way. We don’t exactly get along with any of ’em. It goes back generations.”
“See, that’s why I’m glad I met you,” April said, swallowing something bitter. “I knew you’d be able to shed some light on the situation.”
“The sheriff’s already been out here,” Lisa said. “He’s a good-looking dude, but he’s absolutely clueless. Just like all our county sheriffs.”
April nodded her head in agreement. She didn’t have to misrepresent her own feelings this time.
Lisa McElwee said, “If that new sheriff would have asked me, which he didn’t, I would have told him to concentrate on the shitheads that surround our place, not on us.
But he just didn’t get it. All he asked about was where we were that day, and if we owned identical rifles.
Lainie and I told him we had been meeting with our banker in Winchester that morning, which we were. The banker confirmed that.”
“I see,” April said.
“He never asked about our shithead neighbors, as I call them,” Lisa said.
“Would you tell me about your shithead neighbors?”
“Would you like a warm cinnamon roll?”
“Sure.”
—
Still a little stunned by Eduardo’s painting of a much younger Lisa in the great room, April absently peeled off a strip of the cinnamon roll at the table in the breakfast nook. Meanwhile, Lisa held court.
“It’s a damned shame that you can’t pick your neighbors,” she said.
“We’ve had difficulties with them for generations.
They steal our water, knock down our fences, and call us in the middle of the night to come get the cows that wander across our property line.
And they’re always poking their noses into our business. ”
“Who are you talking about?” April asked.
Lisa chinned toward the north. “The Bucholz clan. Don’t let them fool you. John is a diabolical man, and his wife is even worse. They’ll smile while they screw you out of a nickel, then act all innocent when you call them on it.
“John plays like he’s a big shot, but he isn’t. Him and Shelby connived their way into owning that ranch by screwing all of their relatives. I hear they owe everybody in town money these days, but John acts like he’s about to win the lottery. He’s got something going on over there, I tell you.”
“Like what?” April asked.
“Some kind of big secret, is all I know,” Lisa said. “There’s been heavy machinery over there, and we’ve seen small airplanes and helicopters flying over their ranch. I have no idea how the guy can afford all that activity based on what I’ve heard.”
“Did my dad know what was going on?”
Lisa shrugged. “I have no idea, but your dad likes to keep things close to his vest when it comes to dealing with us landowners. I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew what was going on over there. And maybe,” Lisa said while leaning across the table, “it got him shot up.”
—
“Then you’ve got the Double D Ranch,” Lisa said while gesturing to the north again. “We call it the ‘Double Douchebag’ because that’s what he is. Him and his trophy wife. You’ve never met such a pompous windbag in your life, I tell you.”
Lisa pressed an index finger against the tip of her nose and pushed it up.
“He looks at my sister and me like we’re low-rent scum of the earth.
Like we’re second-class citizens. That guy thinks he can buy and sell everything in the county, and he’s got too many people convinced that he can. Did you know he called the feds on us?”
“I hadn’t heard that,” April said.
“Well, he did. He went to the U.S. attorney and claimed we were dealing narcotics from our ranch. DEA agents showed up in SWAT gear, pointing guns in every direction, and tearing up the house looking for drugs. But they didn’t find any, did they?”
“I guess not?” April said.
“You bet your ass they didn’t,” Lisa said. Then: “Thompson may own a fancy ranch here, but he doesn’t understand this state at all. He doesn’t realize we all know each other, but we mind our own business. He doesn’t get it that we’re all connected.”
It took a moment for April to realize what Lisa was telling her. “Are you saying someone tipped you off about the raid?”
Lisa grinned coquettishly. “I’m just saying Thompson is just another rich out-of-stater who thinks he’s got it all figured out. But he doesn’t, and he never will. And neither will his brain-dead plastic Botox Barbie of a wife.”
April said, “I know my dad went out to the Double D on occasion. Are you aware of any issues he might have had with Mr. Thompson? Or the other way around?”
“Not particularly,” Lisa said. “But here’s something to think about: Thompson doesn’t like it when he can’t own people.
He thinks it’s his right. He owns cops, politicians, regulators, and anyone he thinks he needs to get his way.
I could see Thompson butting heads with your dad the do-gooder. Can’t you?”
“My dad can be stubborn,” April said. “He takes his job very seriously.”
“So there you go,” Lisa said. “Maybe Thompson asked your dad to do something he didn’t want to do? Or to look the other way while Thompson launched another one of his little schemes?”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” April conceded.
“Thompson is used to getting what he wants,” Lisa McElwee declared. “He’s not used to dealing with men like Joe Pickett who can’t be bought.”
—
April sensed a presence behind her in the kitchen, then heard a shrill “Lisa, what in the hell are you going on about?”
“Meet April Pickett,” Lisa said. Then she rolled her eyes. “And this is my sister, Lainie.”
April turned around in her chair to find Lainie standing in the threshold. Lainie was a younger, slimmer, and flintier version of her older sister. April hadn’t heard her coming down the hall.
Lainie looked over April’s head as if she wasn’t there and said, “Lisa, I think you need to quit talking. You never seem to know when to shut up.” And to April, “You need to leave our place now.”
“She’s trying to figure out what happened to her dad,” Lisa said. “I was just filling her in on our shithead neighbors.”
“We’ve got projects to get done this morning,” Lainie said to Lisa. “Things that can’t wait. And you’re just in here gossiping the day away.”
“I’m trying to help,” Lisa said.
April glanced from sister to sister. They glared at each other and there was tension in the air. There was obviously an understanding between them that something—probably their “projects”—should be left unsaid.
April wasn’t sure what she should do.
“Get up,” Lainie said to April. “I’ll show you out.”
“Lisa has been a big help.”
“I’m sure she has,” Lainie said, reaching out and grasping April’s upper arm. “We’re done here. Let’s go.”
“I still have questions,” April said while jerking her arm away. She didn’t like to be touched without an invitation—by anyone.
“Lisa’s done talking for now,” Lainie said with finality.
April rose and glanced back at Lisa, hoping the sister would come to her rescue. Instead, Lisa glowered and looked away.
As she ushered April through the great room toward the door, Lainie said, “One of my sister’s big-ass flaws is that she talks too much.”
“She was just filling me in on the Bucholzes and the Thompsons.”
“How do we know you’re not working with them?” Lainie asked.
“I’m not. Why the hell would I be?”
“So you say.”
Lainie pushed open the door with one hand and guided April outside firmly with her other hand on her back. April bristled, and the polite veneer she’d adopted upon meeting Lisa melted away.
Once outside, April wheeled around and faced Lainie. “Did you have anything to do with my dad getting shot?”
“Maybe he deserved it,” Lainie said with a shrug. “Did you ever think of that? He has a habit of poking his nose in places it doesn’t belong.”
April felt her cheeks flush hot. “What are you hiding out here, anyway?” she asked. “What is it you didn’t want him to know about?”
Lainie’s face set in a mask.
“Is it the ‘product’ you two sell to dealers? Or does it have to do with the three gangbangers I saw who look real out of place? Clearly they’re doing something on your ranch that has nothing to do with beef.”
Lainie’s eyes flared. A second later, Lisa pushed through the door behind her. Lisa once again held the shotgun. She stood shoulder to shoulder with her sister, facing April down.
Lisa had chosen Lainie over April. April knew she would have done the same thing when it came to her own sisters.
“I know when it’s time to leave,” April said as she backed away.
Several pickup doors slammed shut behind her and she turned around. The three men she’d seen on the mountain had entered the ranch yard and they now stood near April’s Tundra. All three were obviously still armed.
“You’re dead meat,” Lainie said.
April didn’t dare reach for her weapon. She was trapped on both sides.
Instead, she brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes and said, “My sisters know exactly where I am today. So does my mom, and so does the sheriff. If I don’t come back, they’ll know where to come and who to come for.
And this time, you might not have time to hide all of your product before the cops show up. ”
Lisa and Lainie exchanged a glance. Then Lainie said, “Fuck off, April Pickett. Now get in your truck and drive away. And don’t look back.”
The three men stepped aside so she could climb into the cab of her Tundra. One of them, the one who had stared at her earlier, now leered to reveal a mouthful of gold teeth.
April was halfway to Antler Creek Junction before her heart stopped whumping in her chest.
She used the dictation feature on her phone to send her sisters a text. I had a close call, but I’m out of there. Then: I think the McElwees are people of interest. They def know more than they let on.