Chapter Twenty-Five #2
It didn’t take long for Sheridan to research the letters and symbols on the helicopter cockpit printout that her dad had taken a photo of. As she did it, she could feel her heart racing.
Nd was the scientific symbol for neodymium, a mineral that was essential for high-strength magnets in electric cars and wind turbines.
Dy was dysprosium, a mineral that increased magnetic performance in extreme temperatures.
Tb was terbium, used for enhancing lighting on screens and displays. It was also used for studio lighting on film and television sets.
And Pr was for praseodymium, a key element in magnets and alloys.
Together, they were considered to be rare earth minerals. And although rare earths weren’t exactly rare, as the name implied, high concentrations of the elements in one place was extremely unusual—and valuable.
Neodymium found at 2.4 percent, dysprosium discovered at .08 percent, praseodymium found at 2.4 percent, and terbium at .07 percent was a major find.
Although it was impossible to determine the value of this rare earths deposit, the value of other recent discoveries in Wyoming alone was mind-boggling.
A find near a coal mine in the north-central part of the state might hold $34 billion in elements.
Another near Upton was worth over $20 billion.
And the Halleck Creek site near Wheatland was estimated to contain over $37 billion in rare earth minerals.
Previously, she read, most rare earth minerals came from China, but those supplies were threatened due to the tension with that country.
Over ninety percent of all rare earth minerals were refined in China as well.
And she found it interesting that rare earth deposits weren’t all that rare.
The minerals could be found all across the globe, with the biggest recent domestic finds occurring in Wyoming.
Hence, there was a modern-day gold rush and it was happening around them.
Sheridan keyed the coordinates 43°97′58″ N, 106°88′70″ W into the onX Hunt app on her phone.
She generally used the app to search for falcon nest locations.
The app pinpointed the coordinate locations on a 3D map and she zoomed out.
The app also indicated the property lines on all of the private ranches in the county.
The coordinates revealed a location on the western boundary of the Crazy Z-Bar Ranch. And right on the other side of that property line…
Then two things hit her at once.
She quickly opened up another window and furiously keyed the phone number Steve had given her into the search engine. The 272 area code was from northeastern Pennsylvania, all right. But specifically it covered Williamsport, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and Monroe County.
Scranton.
“And who is from Scranton?” Sheridan asked herself out loud.
Sheridan pushed back quickly from the table and stood up. The enormity of what she’d found hit her hard. She quickly texted Marybeth:
I think I’ve figured it out. Call ASAP.
After pressing Send, she paced around the kitchen. Her mind was reeling. Should she wake her sisters and blurt out her theory? Or wait to bounce it off her mother first?
Then Sheridan’s phone lit up with an incoming text. She anticipated that the message was either from her mom or Sheriff Sondergard.
It was from neither. It was from an unknown number, but not an unknown person.
Sorry for the late hour. This is Deputy Bowkley from the Twelve Sleep County Sheriff’s Department. We may have a break in the case, but I need to discuss it with you in person. I can come by in the next hour. Please kennel your dogs so they won’t wake everybody up when I get there.
—
In the Billings hospital room, Marybeth heard her phone chime with an incoming text at the same moment that Joe moaned and turned his head toward her. She froze in place while he opened his eyes. It took him a few seconds to focus on her face. His expression was slack.
“Joe?” she whispered.
His lips pursed, and he continued to simply stare at her.
Then he frowned and croaked, “Who in the hell are you and why are you sitting there?”
“Joe,” she said softly, “it’s me. Marybeth.”
“Marybeth who?” he asked with a snarl.
Horrified, she dropped her head into her hands. For a moment, she couldn’t breathe.
Then she felt a soft grip on her knee. She opened her fingers to peer through them to see that Joe had reached out from beneath the sheets to touch her. He was grinning.
“You are a sight for sore eyes,” he said. “How long have I been out of it, sweetie?”
“Joe,” she hissed through gritted teeth. “That was not funny.”
“Probably not,” he conceded as he reached up and touched his bandaged head. Then: “Boy, I’ve got a bit of a headache.”
“You were shot in the head, so no wonder,” she snapped. “Do you remember anything about it?”
“Yup,” he said. “A couple of guys ambushed me. I saw the first couple of rounds hit the truck. I stopped and was trying to get out of there when everything went black.”
“But you’re feeling normal now?” she asked.
“Under the circumstances, I’d say I’m feeling pretty good.”
She reached out to him with tears in her eyes. A great weight had suddenly lifted.
—
“It’s been really strange, the last couple of days,” he said. “I could actually hear some of your conversations, but I couldn’t react. I felt like I was trapped inside my own body.
“I heard the doc say my personality might be changed,” he said. “So I thought I’d lighten the mood with a joke, you know?”
“It was not funny,” she said again. Then she leaned in close to him. “Joe, what were you doing that morning? Who were you going out to see on Antler Creek Road?”
Joe said, “I was going out to the Bucholz Cattle Company ranch to see a guy named Henry Bucholz. He claimed that he’d been kidnapped, and he was being held against his will.
It was such a crazy story that I thought I needed to check it out.
He called me the night before and said to come out first thing the next morning. It was a setup.”
Marybeth nodded along. It all made some sense now, and she wondered if her daughters had come to the same conclusion.
“There was a really strange thing about that call,” Joe said.
“I thought the voice on the other end sounded a lot like John, even though it was a Pennsylvania phone number. Like John was trying to disguise his voice. That’s why I called back the next morning as I was going out there. But it went straight to voicemail.”
Before Marybeth could react, she sensed a presence behind her and she turned her head. Dr. Ralston was framed within the doorway, watching it all. She was beaming.