“My neighbors don’t lie,” Les said. Unlike some people I know, he almost added, but didn’t. He knew the less said the better. He needed to keep his mind focused and forget about his heart. If she was part of some drug-delivery scheme, he might need to arrest her before the night was over. He didn’t think he could do it if he allowed his feelings to show.

  The one streetlight in Dry Creek shone above them. Les could see how the cold had made Marla’s cheeks turn rosy. Her lips were chapped and it looked as if she might have been crying at some point tonight.

  “Would Sammy run away with these guys?” Les asked.

  “No!”

  Les looked at Marla. The one thing he knew for sure about her was that she cared for her children. “I’ll get my pickup and drive down the road a bit.”

  “I’m coming with you.”

  Les nodded. It did seem that, whether they wanted to be or not, they were tied together for tonight. Les heard his boots crunch on the frozen ground. Marla’s footsteps were more muffled, though. He looked down and saw that she was wearing some kind of thin dress shoes. Her feet must feel like blocks of ice.

  “We’ve got time to stop at your place so you can change shoes.”

  “I’m fine,” Marla said. “You don’t need to stop for me.”

  Les didn’t argue. He just walked past his pickup, which was parked in her driveway, and kept going until he reached Marla’s front door. “I can wait here while you get your shoes.”

  It wasn’t politeness that made Les wait. He knew if he went inside Marla’s house again he would be looking for places where she could hide illegal substances. Of course, he would be limited in that. He’d rather just wait until he had a search warrant.

  Marla nodded and took a key out of her pocket to open the door. The lights were on in every room. They had already looked into the rooms of the house earlier and had left the lights on. It was the first place they had gone after they left the café.

  Les watched Marla enter the living room and then he realized the guys could have circled back. “Wait. I’m coming.”

  Les cleared each room before he let Marla enter it. He’d have to protect her if he arrested her, anyway. He might as well start now. He watched as Marla reached into her closet and pulled out a pair of tennis shoes.

  He frowned. “Do you have some heavy socks to go with those?”

  Marla shook her head. “But my regular socks do fine.”

  Les shook his head. He never understood why people would move to Montana and not buy some thick socks. Those socks she was holding were meant for the summer.

  “Here. Sit on the bed,” Les said. He didn’t want to have someone trailing along behind him with a case of frostbite developing. He’d probably have to see to that, too, if he arrested her.

  Les took off Marla’s shoes and pulled off the thin socks she was wearing. Then he put his hands around her right foot. He kept his hands there until her skin had warmed and then he began to rub her feet gently, just enough to get the circulation going.

  He tried not to wonder why Marla was holding herself so stiff.

  Marla knew why women sometimes ran off with an unlikely man. He rubbed their feet. Ahhhh, that felt good even with the shooting tingle. She held herself steady, though. She didn’t want Les to know how she was feeling. His hands were warm and he cradled the one foot while he started rubbing the other one. It wasn’t right that a man who didn’t trust a woman could rub her feet.

  “We should be going,” Marla said.

  “We’re almost done.”

  In another minute, Les put her socks on and then he put her tennis shoes on and tied them. He even held her steady for the first couple of minutes while she stood in place. After that, it was quick work walking back through the house.

  “You should turn your furnace on before we go,” Les said as they walked through the living room. “It’ll be cold as ice in here by the time you get back.”

  Marla flushed. She didn’t want to admit that they had no gas in the tank for the furnace. She’d been using the fireplace. “We’ll be fine. You don’t need to worry about us.”

  Les grunted as he opened the door, but he didn’t say anything else.

  Marla wasn’t sure that Les was as worried about Sammy as she was. The way Les had questioned everyone in the houses around, it was clear he was looking for those two strangers more than he was looking for Sammy. How did he know that Sammy was even with those guys? Maybe he’d seen them and gone into hiding?

  Marla stepped onto the porch and turned to lock her door. She supposed locking it now was only habit. The only things of value in her house were her two children, and neither one was home.

  Something was not right about Sammy’s departure, though. Just because two guys from his old gang had shown up, it didn’t mean that Sammy would choose to go off with them. She thought he’d learned a lot since they had come to Dry Creek. He’d even gone to Sunday school.

  Marla followed Les to his pickup.

  Why would a boy Sammy’s age go off with a couple of…Marla hesitated. She didn’t really know what to call the two young men. Linda had said they were both Hispanic and wore bandannas around their heads. They seemed to be around sixteen or seventeen years old and Linda had thought she saw a couple of big motorcycles on the other side of the street.

  Sammy loved motorcycles, she remembered with a sinking heart. And he’d been forced to go to Sunday school, so anything he learned there he probably considered meaningless. And he missed his amigos. Still, he knew better than to go off with two strangers, anyway, didn’t he?

  Les walked to the passenger side of the pickup and opened the door for Marla.

  Marla was not used to anyone opening doors for her. “Thank you.”

  Les grunted.

  Even being in the cab of the pickup was warmer than being outside. Marla was glad they were driving for the next part of the search. She assumed the truck had a heater that worked and that Les was not hesitant to use it.

  She wondered if Sammy was cold, wherever he was. She wondered if those two strangers would think to keep him warm. Then she wondered if the two strangers weren’t really strangers after all. Maybe Sammy considered them his best amigos. Maybe Sammy had even invited them to come here before he left Los Angeles.

  Maybe Les was right about her son after all, Marla thought. She looked over when she heard the latch on the other door click.

  Les opened the door on the driver side and started to step up into the cab. He was halfway in when he stopped and stared at something behind Marla’s head.

  “My rifle’s gone.”

  Marla had never been in Les’s pickup before, but she’d seen where men around here put their rifles. They had a gun rack on the inside of the rear window. She turned and looked, and he was right. There was no rifle.

  “Maybe you forgot it at home.”

  Les shook his head. “The only time the rifle leaves its place there is when I’ve pulled it out to clean it or use it.”

  Marla drew in her breath. She knew what he was thinking. “Sammy wouldn’t have taken it.”

  “He sure has asked about it often enough.”

  “But that’s just natural young boy curiosity. You know how young boys are.”

  Les turned to look at her. She thought he might even feel sorry for her. “He took the rifle, Marla. That’s not some prank like the shepherd, even. That’s theft of a firearm. I’ll have to call it in to the county sheriff.”

  “But you are the sheriff.”

  “I can’t just ignore this, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  “No, I know,” Marla said softly. “But maybe it’s not the way you think. Maybe the other guys took the rifle.”

  Les snorted. “They wouldn’t have even known it was there. I doubt they happened to just be looking in old pickups.”

  “They could have been,” Marla insisted stubbornly.

  Les didn’t say anything for a minute.

  “You said it wasn’t loaded, anyway,” Marla added. “I’m surprised they didn’t just leave it here.”

  Les nodded. “They must have thought they knew where they could get the bullets for it.”

  “It’s the middle of the night. Even if they went into Miles City, there wouldn’t be a store that would be open.”

  Les shook his head. “They’re not heading for a store. They’re heading for my place.”

  Marla’s protest died on her lips. Could Les be right?

  “Sammy already knows the way. He’s been there twice.” Les hesitated. “Besides, he put his mark on my place.”

  Marla looked up.

  “The XIX sign. He painted it on my worktable out in the barn. I saw it last night after you’d left. Maybe he already had my place picked out.”

  Marla bowed her head. She had no protests left. Les believed her son was guilty.

  “He could be hurt,” Marla finally said. “He’s not very big for his age. I think that’s why…”

  She didn’t bother to finish. What did it matter why Sammy had gotten involved with the 19th Street gang?

  “I just hope—” Marla continued, then stopped.

  “Mothers are supposed to hope,” Les finally said gruffly. “And with God, all things are possible, so I’m not one to deny anyone the right to hope.”

  Marla nodded. She wondered if Mrs. Hargrove would pray for Sammy tonight as she had when he was on top of that woodpile. Of course, when the older woman prayed the first time, she had not known Sammy was suspected of any wrongdoing. Marla doubted very many church women would pray for a gang member who was loose in the community around them.

  “I’ll go to the café and call it in for backup,” Les said. “Then I’ll decide what to do.”

  “Please don’t hurt Sammy.”

  “I never hurt anyone if I can help it.”

  Marla sat quiet. She had to know. “You’re going to get another gun to take, aren’t you?”

  Les was silent for a moment. “I need to assume they’re armed and dangerous. I will need a gun if I hope to control the situation.”

  Marla felt colder inside than she had felt all evening, even when she was outside. She thought she’d been worried when it looked as if Sammy was guilty. But it was nothing to the worry she felt now that he might be shot.

  This is exactly why she had moved to Dry Creek. This little town was supposed to protect her son. What had she done wrong?

  Les drove over to the café. The lights in the window were still off, and he had to knock loudly on the door and identify himself before anyone came to let them in.

  Linda opened the door. A stream of light came from the kitchen doorway. Marla noticed that the plates were still on the table from when she and Les had started to have dinner. Only a few bites had been taken from each meal. The Christmas lights were dark and now the black wires connecting them all to the center looked like spider legs. The evening had gone from a fantasy to a nightmare in just over an hour.

  “We’re all back in the kitchen,” Linda said as she shut and locked the door behind them.

  “Becky?” Marla asked as she let Les walk ahead of them.

  “She’s taking a nap on Elmer’s coat.” Linda smiled at her.

  “Thank you.” Marla reminded herself that everyone didn’t know what was going on. She was sure Linda wouldn’t still be smiling at her when she discovered Les thought Sammy had stolen a gun.

  Marla heard Les on the telephone when she followed Linda into the kitchen. He was trying to muffle his words some, but the kitchen wasn’t that big and everyone could hear what he was saying. Marla was hesitant to look anyone in the eye, but she had to.

  She turned to Mrs. Hargrove. “Would it be okay for Becky to spend the night with you? I can’t leave her alone in the house and—”

  “Of course,” Mrs. Hargrove said as she stood up from the small table where she’d been sitting. She put her hand on Marla’s arm. “My daughter’s old room is always ready for a guest. It will be my pleasure.”

  “Sammy’s in trouble,” Marla blurted out as she looked up into the older woman’s eyes. “I don’t know how to pray, but…”

  “We’ll pray together,” Mrs. Hargrove said as she opened her arms.

  Marla went into the hug.

  “Our Father who art in heaven,” Mrs. Hargrove began to murmur into Marla’s ear. Each word calmed Marla’s fears more. She didn’t even notice when Les finished his phone call and came over to stand beside her.

  Marla wondered if Mrs. Hargrove had a wooden cross hanging somewhere. The older woman seemed to expect more of God than anyone Marla had ever known.

  “Thank you,” Marla said when the prayer was finished and she had stepped away from the hug.

  Mrs. Hargrove nodded. “Don’t you worry about Becky. I’ll take good care of her.”

  “I know.”

  There was a moment’s silence.

  Then Linda spoke. She was looking at the floor and her voice was muted. “I feel so bad. It’s all my fault. I should have had sense enough to realize those two guys were bad news. I just didn’t want to interrupt and—”

  “It’s all right.” Les put his hand on the young woman’s arm. “We’ve all made mistakes tonight. We can’t go around putting the blame on anyone.”

  Except for me, Marla thought. She knew Les blamed her. It didn’t help any that she blamed herself, too. She must have missed some clue that Sammy was corresponding with his old amigos. She remembered the letter about the baseball, but Sammy had said it was nothing. He hadn’t even answered it. She doubted he had a stamp to mail a letter, and there was no place to buy a stamp in Dry Creek. She hadn’t even had any stamps most of the time since they’d been here. The few times she’d had a letter she’d waited until she needed to drive to Miles City and then mailed it at the post office there.

  Marla mentally shook herself. She couldn’t be worried about a stamp. Not when Les was quietly talking to Elmer in the other room and she thought she heard the word tonight.

  Chapter Twelve

  “They’ll back us up,” Les said to Elmer. The two men were leaning on the side counter in the café. Neither had bothered to turn the main light on. They were content with the soft rectangle of light spilling out from the kitchen. “There’s just no way for them to get in close enough without being seen.”

  For the first time ever, Les was grateful that his home was built in a dip in the landscape. His backup from the sheriff’s department in Miles City should be able to come within a mile of his place before they had to shut off their car lights. It was that last mile or so, though, that was making it difficult to come up with a plan.

  “No one can see to drive down that road at night, not if they turn their headlights off. There’s too many ruts. And it’s too far to walk in the dark,” Les continued. There was some moonlight tonight, but the moon wasn’t full. If it hadn’t been for the street-light, he and Marla would have had a hard time walking around Dry Creek in the darkness.

  Elmer nodded. The older man had ranched in the area all his life and Les respected his opinion on how to get around at any time of year, but particularly in the winter months.

  “I’d say it’ll snow before long out there,” Elmer added. “And even without snow, that slope leading into your place is slippery in the middle of the night. Don’t know of many men who could do it without even a flashlight to help them.”

  Les was almost sure Sammy had taken the two strangers to his place. It was the only place Sammy knew how to find, and he also knew Les wasn’t going to be home in the early part of the evening. It made an ideal hiding place.

  Les felt he had let the people of Dry Creek down. He should have questioned Sammy earlier today about his relationship with the 19th Street gang. He should have asked him if anyone was coming who would pose a threat to the people of this town. Although Sammy could easily have lied, so maybe it wouldn’t have made any difference.

  “I don’t think they’ll stay long at my place. They’re probably just interested in finding some bullets for that rifle.”

  Elmer nodded. “But they’ll stay the night. They probably think no one checks their barns at night. The boy doesn’t know any other place to take them, anyway. Not in the dark.”

  “His name’s Sammy.” Les didn’t like the thought of Sammy being reduced to first “the boy” and then just a number in some juvenile center.

  “Huh?” Elmer flushed.

  “Never mind,” Les muttered. It wasn’t his choice, or Elmer’s, either, that would put Sammy in detention. Sammy had made his own choices; if he lost his name that was his doing.

  Besides, he had more people to think about than Sammy. He knew that the black of night would probably stop the trio from exploring too much until the sun rose. But tomorrow would be a different story. All they would have to do would be to find a gravel road and follow it a mile or two to until they reached someone’s home.

  “Someone’s got to stop them tonight,” Elmer said as if he wasn’t sure Les agreed. “Tomorrow they’ll be able to head over to the Redfern place. You know Chrissy Redfern is alone in the house with her new baby these days. I heard Reno is driving that truck route for his sister. Their place isn’t far from yours. It wouldn’t take them guys long to find it if they just head out from your place tomorrow and make that left turn. I don’t see them driving up to the Elkton ranch because of its size. But if they go the other direction, there’s Mrs. Nolan alone on that place of hers. Now that her son’s gone, she’d be an easy target.”

  Les held up his hand. He’d already thought of each of his neighbors. “Believe me, I know.”

  The theft of his rifle had changed everything.

  The sheriff in Miles City had agreed with him that something had to be done tonight. They were both responsible for the well-being of the people in this part of the state and there was no limit to the damage two—or maybe three—armed gang members could do if they went around to the smaller ranches. A lot of people still didn’t even lock their doors during the day.

  “There’s no question that we’re going,” Les said. They had to. “We just need to figure out what the best way is to get a few men into my place tonight without them being seen.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18