AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Rowley exchanged a meaningful look with Rio. “Are his things in the room? I mean he hasn’t packed up and left town or anything?”
“No, his stuff is there.” The young man blinked a few times. “He doesn’t own a vehicle and walks to work and back. Maybe he fell or had an accident. Have you tried the hospital?”
“If he went to the ER yesterday afternoon, wouldn’t you have seen him?” Rio stared at him. “You did mention working there last night.”
“He might have, but we’ve been so busy, with all the ice on the roads and the fender benders, we had people lining up for treatment.” He sighed. “I could easily have missed him.”
Rowley pulled out a card and handed it to him. “If he shows, tell him to call or drop by the sheriff’s office to collect his phone and backpack.”
“Okay.” The young man showed them to the door.
Rowley headed for the truck, moving down the slippery steps with caution. Once inside he fired up the engine and cranked up the heater. “What did Jenna say?”
“She’s following up with the ER and will call us if he’s there, but she suggested searching the side of the road from here to the school just in case he’s slipped over on the ice. It’s a wooded area. He could be lying somewhere.” Rio waited until they left the driveway. “I couldn’t see him anywhere alongside the driveway. Drop me here and drive up fifty yards or so. If we head toward each other, we’ll cover the ground faster.”
After one long freezing hour, it was obvious Billy Stevens wasn’t anywhere alongside the highway between his home and the school. Rowley’s nose was cold enough to shatter as he climbed back into his truck and turned to Rio. “Two people vanish into thin air in the same week. Only in Black Rock Falls.”
ELEVEN
Snakeskin Gully
Agent Ty Carter strolled along the main street of Snakeskin Gully with Zorro on his heels. The cold wind pushed him along, lifting the back of his Stetson and whipping up dust and swirling it away. The main road stretched some forty yards wide, and the vehicles all parked nose in on an angle to the curb. It was a busy town. The stores lining the sidewalk sold everything a rancher could possibly need. He’d found Guns and Ammo had a surprising display of weapons and ordering anything wasn’t a problem. He’d fit into the town with ease and had been accepted as the ex-military man in need of solace. The local minister and the sheriff had checked on him during his darkest days, bringing food for him and Zorro. The local sheriff had married a woman from Helena and moved recently. The new man, Dallas Knox, and ex-army major had won the election in a landslide.
After his partner, Special Agent Jo Wells, had spouted the poetic about him, Carter figured it was about time he met the man. Jo wasn’t easily impressed and she’d returned from town flushed and obviously taken by Knox. He reached the sheriff’s office. Outside, three department vehicles sat in a line, their once pristine paintwork now covered in dust and patches of frost. The front steps had a liberal coating of salt and what could be ash, which crunched under his boots as he climbed the steps. He went to the front counter, where a deputy sat staring at a computer screen, and took out his cred pack. He hadn’t met the deputy before and cleared his throat. When the deputy finally dragged his eyes away from the screen, he held out his creds. “Is the sheriff in?”
“Yeah.” The deputy reached for the phone. “Sheriff there’s an FBI agent out front.”
Carter looked at the young deputy, who must have been twenty-one and no doubt a rookie. “And you are?”
“Flint Boone, sir.” Boone tipped his hat and smiled. “It’s nice to meet you. How good is it to work with Agent Wells? She’s a behavioral analysis person, isn’t she?”
Carter was about to answer when a man of his size and build, with fair hair and laughter lines around his brown eyes, emerged from behind an office door. “Sheriff Knox?”
“Yeah, you must be Ty Carter.” Knox held out his hand. “Jo told me all about you.”
Carter moved the toothpick across his lips and smiled. Knox was around forty, a twenty-year career army man, without doubt. “Not everything, I hope?” He followed him into a pristine office. The man was army all the way and Carter assumed his bedsheets would be tucked with military precision. He took the offered chair. “I’m dropping by to introduce myself. As you know, we run the field office for the FBI in the West.”
“Yeah, I’m aware.” Knox leaned back in his chair. It was an old captain’s chair crafted with seasoned wood, rounded back with comfortable arms. “I’ve hired two deputies, so I won’t be calling in no FBI to interfere with the law in my town.”
The rebuff was there but delivered so smoothly that Carter didn’t take offense. “We haven’t been needed in Snakeskin Gully. Our work is usually farther afield. What made you decide to make this your home?”
“Born and raised here.” Knox smiled. “My folks have been raising beef cattle here for generations, but it wasn’t for me. I wanted to travel, so joined the army. Now I’m home. I figure it’s not too late to find a wife and settle down.” He lifted his chin toward Carter. “I hear you’re a Seal. You’re too young to be pensioned out of the service. What happened?”
As it was none of his darn business, Carter waved a hand dismissively. “I had a hankering to join the FBI, is all.”
“Really? I heard tell you went AWOL and hid yourself off the grid in the forest.” Knox towered his fingers. “You’re bomb squad, right? Was that dog part of the team? He must be a valuable military asset.” He stood and, leaning on the desk, glared at Carter. “Maybe you should take him back where he belongs. Stealing military property is an offense.” He waved a hand toward the street and then slapped it back down on the desk. “I don’t see no bombs around these parts.”
Hackles raising, Carter sucked in a deep breath. What was this man’s game? He’d come to be neighborly, is all. He barked a laugh. “The gossip must have been hot in town when you arrived. For the record, I was an agent when I took a year to recuperate after an on-the-job injury.” He laid one hand on Zorro’s head and to his surprise the dog’s eyes fixed on Knox and his lips drew back to reveal sharp canines. “Zorro here, I raised from a pup. Yeah, he is an explosives detection canine. He’s the only Doberman in the team. All the others are Labradors. He goes where I go, same as all the other handlers.”
“The K-9 dogs are supposed to be friendly.” Knox eyed Zorro critically. “He doesn’t look too friendly to me.”
Carter rubbed Zorro’s ears. “He’s a pussycat but he picks up on hostility.” He stood. “I’d better get at it. It was nice to meet you.” He turned as he opened the door. “If you need any assistance, you know where to find us. He fished a card from his pocket and tossed it on Knox’s desk. “Keep it close by. Seems to me, Black Rock Falls was a sleepy little town before the serial killers made it their playground. You never know what might happen and Agent Wells is a specialist in criminal behavior.”
Carter escaped out of the door shaking his head. He looked down at Zorro as they went back to the office. “What a jerk.” When Zorro barked it was as if he were giving his two cents’ worth. He laughed. “You can say that again.”
With arms filled with takeout, Carter walked back into the FBI field office. They’d been working there for a time and it still resembled a bank, although Jo had added a few rugs to make it more hospitable. Jo was working at her desk and Kalo, surrounded by screens, was doing his thing running names through databanks. “I have food.”
He dumped everything on the table in the small kitchenette, removed his gloves and refilled the coffee machine. “I met the sheriff.”
