Chapter Twenty-Seven
Five Days After
Joe leaned back in a lounge chair in the living room with the television on, toggling back and forth between Clarkson’s Farm and fly-fishing shows on the Outdoor Channel. He was wearing his robe, slippers, and flannel pajama pants. He was bored out of his mind.
It was midafternoon after an emotional morning.
Both Lucy and April had said tearful goodbyes.
April drove off north to Bozeman to resume her work at Dewell Investigations, and Lucy had driven south to Laramie and the University of Wyoming.
Marybeth had arranged for Lucy to see a UW trauma counselor about the shooting, and Lucy had reluctantly agreed, even though, she claimed, she’d already come to terms with it.
“I was protecting our family,” she’d said. “Isn’t that what we do?”
Joe told both girls how proud he was of them and that he was honored to be their father.
He also mentioned that he wouldn’t miss their gentle probing questions over the last few days in attempts to assess his mental acuity.
He was fine, he told them. He’d need more than two holes in his head to make a real difference.
And it appeared thus far to be true, he’d told Marybeth the night before. Although he did have sharp headaches from time to time and some of his dreams had been harrowing, he did feel almost normal again.
Or so he hoped.
—
Sheriff Sondergard’s SUV drove up outside, accompanied by Sheridan’s vehicle. Joe started to push himself up to answer the door when Marybeth came into the room from the kitchen.
“I’ll get it,” she said. “You sit down. That patch in your head needs to heal.”
He’d been told by Dr. Ralston when they left the Billings hospital to take at least two weeks to “relax and recover,” which were two traits he’d never mastered.
Joe grumbled and sat back down.
“John and Shelby Bucholz are in custody,” Sondergard said as he sat down on the couch opposite Joe with his hat in his hands. “We also rescued Henry Bucholz. It turns out that explosive collar was real. We’re detaining Uncle Hank until we can figure out what to do with him.”
Sheridan came in and greeted her dad with a kiss, then sat next to Sondergard. Marybeth crossed her arms and listened in while leaning against the bookcase.
“John Bucholz is a zombie,” Sondergard said. “He can’t believe that his entire future has come crashing down around him. He knows he’s never going to get it back.”
“Was Shelby involved?” Joe asked.
“She was involved with keeping Henry prisoner,” the sheriff said. “She knew about the mineral deposit. We don’t know how much she knew about the hit men John hired to kill you. But she’s turned on John to save herself. She explained it all to us.
“It was all about that discovery of rare earth minerals,” Sondergard said.
“John bet everything on it—everything. He couldn’t wait to be a billionaire.
He gambled that he’d be able to acquire the ranch from Uncle Hank, pay Global Exploration for finding and exploiting the mineral reserves, and pay off Bowkley, O’Bryan, and Peddy for doing his dirty work.
“But there were two problems with that scheme: you and Lorne Trumley.”
Joe arched his eyebrows. It was painful to do so.
“Global found that eighty-five percent of the mineral deposit was actually on the Crazy Z-Bar Ranch. The remaining fifteen percent was on John’s property on the other side of the boundary line.”
“Ah,” Joe said. “So that’s why John tried to make nice with Lorne recently.
He wanted to buy the Crazy Z-Bar for the mineral rights without tipping his hand.
Maybe he had a way to borrow money in secret, I don’t know.
But with that rare earth discovery in his back pocket, he might have figured he could pry loose some mysterious hedge fund money or something. ”
“We’re still trying to confirm that,” Sondergard said. “But I think we will.”
Sondergard said, “Luckily, my former deputy Bowkley is singing like a bird as well, especially after he found out that John never actually had the money to pay him. Bowkley feels betrayed, and he’s willing to testify against the Bucholzes and cooperate with us in nailing them.
I think a lot of what Bowkley is saying is bullshit, but it’ll be hard to prove. ”
“Like what?” Joe asked.
“He says it was all O’Bryan and Peddy, and that Bowkley tried over and over to rein them in.
He says O’Bryan and Peddy did the ambush, which I believe.
Then he says O’Bryan murdered the deer hunter and burned the trailer down, then offed Peddy.
He also claims that O’Bryan is responsible for a fentanyl overdose death on the Crow Indian Reservation, and in your old hospital room in Billings.
I’ve seen the security footage from the hospital and I think Bowkley isn’t lying about that last one, at least.”
“How did John get to know Bowkley?”
“Apparently, Bowkley picked up John for speeding through Gillette. Somehow, they got to talking. John told Bowkley he was a big shot and he was about to make a very big score. Bowkley asked how he could be a part of it, and John told him about the job here in the department. John wanted someone on the inside who could keep him in the loop, and Bowkley was all over that.”
Joe asked, “Where did they get the fentanyl? Did you figure that out?”
“They could have bought it anywhere, I’m sorry to say,” Sondergard said.
“But I have my suspicions. That vaccine dosing gun was analyzed by the lab and it contained enough pure fentanyl to kill everyone in Twelve Sleep County. But we do know that the gun itself belonged to the Bucholz Cattle Company.”
Sondergard held forth for several minutes while Joe, Marybeth, and Sheridan listened. Joe was impressed with the new sheriff and his attention to detail.
“They tried to kill my entire family,” Marybeth said after the sheriff paused. “I still can’t wrap my mind around that.”
—
“So why Joe?” Marybeth asked. “Why was Joe John’s other problem?”
Sondergard said, “John thought you were about to talk with Lorne and blow the whistle on the discovery, since you’d seen Global Exploration on the ranch.
If you spilled the beans on what they were doing out there, the whole scheme might collapse.
So he decided to hire a couple of guys to take you out before you told anyone.
John had already taken Uncle Hank’s phone away from him, so he used it to call you and set up the ambush. ”
“So Henry wasn’t involved in any way?” Marybeth asked.
Sondergard shook his head. “Uncle Hank doesn’t know what the hell is going on. In fact, he keeps begging us to take him back out to that cabin so he can finish his masterpiece.”
“Poor man,” Sheridan said. “Perverted, but kind of sad at the same time.”
Joe said, “To be honest, I wasn’t sure what was going on out there on the Bucholz Ranch. I was just bumbling around. But I was beginning to suspect it was something big, especially when I found that helicopter in the hangar. But I didn’t put everything together at the time.”
Sondergard said, “The execs at Global have confirmed that the helicopter was equipped with a really sophisticated piece of equipment. Apparently that goofy thing on the front of the aircraft is a kind of high-tech metal detector that can locate rare earth minerals in the ground. It can also penetrate the soil to see how big the deposit might be. And from what they told us, this discovery is just massive. It’s no wonder John Bucholz got a little crazy when he found out. ”
Sondergard turned to Sheridan. “Oh, and the helicopter is sometimes flown at night. That explains the ‘spacecraft’ that nearly landed on Earl Wright.”
“So he wasn’t completely crazy after all,” Sheridan said.
“Nope,” the sheriff said. “But you’d think he would have known the difference between a flying saucer and a helicopter.”
“We really thought it was the McElwee sisters,” Marybeth said.
“For good reason,” Sondergard said. “The feds raided their ranch two days ago and uncovered a large-scale fentanyl distribution network. They also arrested three suspected members of the Sinaloa cartel. The sisters had a pretty good motive, I agree.
“Oh, and one other thing,” he said to Joe.
“One of the cartel guys admitted to the feds that they sometimes tested their fentanyl on livestock to see how potent it was. The way they did it was to sprinkle some on salt blocks and watch how the animal behaved. But in one case, a bull elk came down from the mountain and licked the salt block before they could stop it. That’s probably what the archery hunter saw. ”
“I’m glad you got them,” Joe said. “I hope the feds put those guys away for a long time.”
“And the Thompsons?” Marybeth asked.
“Michael has lawyered up, so we really can’t talk with him,” Sondergard said.
“We’ve heard he’s hired Global to prospect on his ranch.
Thompson’s probably hoping they discover more rare earth deposits so he can buy his way out of all of his troubles.
And knowing how that guy operates, he’ll probably pull it off. ”
“Probably,” Joe agreed. Then: “Congratulations on all of your hard work on this. You and my daughters cracked it.”
“We did,” Sondergard said. “I just wish I wouldn’t have hired one of the bad guys. That’s on me.”
—
Then Sondergard paused for a long while and stared at the top of his boots. Joe assumed the sheriff had something to say, but was reluctant to do so.
Finally, Sondergard said, “Your friend Nate Romanowski.”
“Yes?” Joe said. He noticed that both Marybeth and Sheridan had tensed up.
“Well, he did some real damage to Deputy Bowkley. He literally tortured him for information. They had to sew an ear back on the guy at the hospital. There’s no other way to look at what happened than first-degree assault, attempted murder, and maybe even kidnapping. Even if the guy had it coming to him.”
“What are you asking?” Marybeth said in an arch tone.
Sondergard looked up and sighed. “I guess I’m asking that you tell him not to do that kind of thing anymore.”
Joe smiled. “I’ve been telling him that for years. It’s never worked.”
—
After Joe and Marybeth shook Sondergard’s hand and thanked him again for his hard work, the sheriff and Sheridan left the house together. When they did, Marybeth and Joe exchanged a look.
When Sheridan came back to retrieve the phone she’d accidentally left on the couch, Joe said, “So, are you two an item?”
Sheridan smiled and narrowed her eyes. “I’ll get back to you on that. But for now, you need to relax and recover.”
“I’m getting a little sick of hearing that,” Joe grumbled.