Thrill of the Hunt

  “Did your kids blame you?”

  “My daughter did, and still does. She doesn’t like Sandy at all. My son was older. I think he understood the situation better. He told me he didn’t hold anything against me for divorcing his mom.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “He went into the army right out of high school.” Tom shook his head. “I can’t describe for you in decent words, what it’s like to live with a woman who makes the money and doesn’t let you forget it. To Diane, I was a stupid cop, that’s it. Sandy, she just wants someone to love her, and I can handle that.”

  “You’ve never lived a boring life, have you, Tom?”

  “Not really. I have a wife that’s very understanding, and I enjoy life. But I never do anything to alienate her, like excessive drinking or running around on her. That just isn’t in the cards, no matter what the hand is.”

  “I might not be too far behind you, as far as divorce is concerned. But it has nothing to do with money.”

  “Denise Keegan?”

  “You’ve heard?”

  Tom nodded. “Sandy told me. You’re sure that’s what you want to do?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You better know before you get her knocked up!”

  “That’s the issue. Kelly’s having second thoughts about having family and living here but -.”

  “Because of you and Keegan or because she doesn’t like it out here?”

  “I don’t know. Both maybe, but… I like it here. And it doesn’t have anything to do with Denise. I told Kelly, there’s nothing going on between me and Denise, that I’ve been investigating these girl’s disappearances and -.”

  “Women aren’t that stupid, Glen.”

  Glen shrugged. “Yeah, well. Like I said, Kelly and I… We want different things these days.”

  “You and Denise Keegan want the same thing?”

  “Denise wants kids. She wants to get married and have kids.”

  “Well, just… think it through good before you do anything,” Tom said looking at his watch. “I have to go for a walk.”

  “A walk?”

  “Sandy’s been after me to do more walking and to be honest, it probably wouldn’t hurt. It’s not that I’m in bad shape. I keep up with her, but it’d probably make trouncing around the hills hunting easier. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “You’re on this evening?”

  “Yeah,” Tom answered. “Enjoy your evening off.”

  Fifteen

  Tom walked along the sidewalk holding Sandy’s hand. “You look really nice, honey.”

  “Thank you. I really like this dress,” Sandy said looking at the brilliant red dress she was wearing.”

  “I kind of thought it was a little bright, but it was the nicest dress I could find.”

  “I like it,” Sandy said, and kissed him.

  “I’m glad you do. We ought to get out of town and go somewhere for dinner this weekend.”

  “I doubt if Glen wants to work any this coming weekend.”

  “Probably not, but we can go out the following weekend.” Tom pulled her up to him. “You like living here?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “I’m just asking.”

  Sandy nodded, “You’re not thinking about leaving are you?”

  “No, it’s just, I’ve never asked you about how you feel living here. I just took it for granite that I liked it here, so you do too.” He looked around. “Small towns. Everyone knows everyone’s dog’s business.”

  “We don’t have a dog.”

  Tom smiled. “I’m glad you like it -.”

  “Officer, are you fraternizing with the citizens of this town?” Mildred asked, from the kitchen window of her house.

  Tom looked at her. “As a matter of fact, I am. But only one of its citizens.” Taking Sandy’s hand, they walked down the sidewalk. “One of those inconveniences of a small town.”

  “But its home.”

  “Yeah, it’s home,” Tom said, as they continued down the sidewalk toward the police station. “Before I forget, Glen said Mac Coppola stopped in yesterday.”

  “He should have come to the house.”

  “I was out hunting, remember?”

  Sandy shrugged. “I could have talked to him.”

  “You don’t need to be at the house alone with him.”

  Sandy smiled. “He may be good-looking, but he’s not as handsome as you.”

  “That’s not what I’m getting at. We don’t need gossip getting started. Hornbaker said enough yesterday to have the whole damn town talking for the next ten years.”

  “They aren’t talking about us, remember.” Sandy said, putting her arm around him, walking close to him.

  Tom put his arm around her, pulling her close. “I know and I don’t want them to start.”

  “So what does Mac want?”

  “I talked to him a few days ago about Lucy Handling and bringing the dogs in. He probably wanted to know when I wanted him here.”

  “You don’t think it’s too… This is all we don’t need,” Sandy said, as the silver pickup pulled up along the curb.

  Tom pulled her to the other side of him, away from the street. “What do you want, Hornbaker?”

  “Just stopped to see what you’re doing?”

  “Minding our own damn business. You ought to try it.”

  “I got your message loud and clear, Moratelli.”

  “You better heed it.”

  Colton nodded. “I got to thinking about what I said yesterday. I owe you both an apology.”

  “I guess you do,” Tom said.

  “How about if you two come out for dinner this evening, say around six,” Colton suggested. “We can talk and smooth things out. After all, we all have to live in this town.”

  Tom shook his head. “We have other plans.”

  “It’s my way of apologizing, Tom. Pickup lenses are easier to fix than friendships and I still have a lot of grilled elk that’s begging for someone to eat it.”

  “I don’t know,” Tom looked at Sandy. “What do you think?”

  Sandy shrugged, not saying anything.

  Tom looked at him. “If we do, we’re not staying long.”

  “That’s fine. I understand. We can make it a short evening. I’ll see you around six.” Colton pulled away from the curb.

  “I don’t remember you telling him that we were coming for sure,” Sandy stated, looking after the pickup.

  “It’s that ego thing he has, that nobody tells him no. So when do you think that other job’s going to be available.”

  Sandy smiled. “You’re serious?”

  “I’m serious. You’re not working for that jerk one more day than you have too. But, don’t tell anyone.”

  “I won’t.” Sandy smiled. “I guess his tail lights being broke weren’t an accident?”

  Tom shrugged, “Kids probably.”

  “Yeah, probably.” Sandy smiled. “I knew you’d get even with him.”

  “I’m just getting started. He doesn’t know it yet. But when I do, he’s going to think all hell’s coming down on him at once.”

  “What about his dinner to make-up and be friends?”

  “If that’s what he thinks, then let him think it.”

  “You’re plotting, aren’t you?” Sandy said, leaning against her husband playfully as they walked on.

  “I don’t know that I have to plot anything, if what I’m thinking’s right.”

  “What’s that?”

  Tom shrugged, “I don’t know. We’ll see how the chips fall.”

  “It’s serious, isn’t it?”

  “You don’t know anything.”

  Sandy smiled. “You’re right, I don’t. Maybe this evening he’ll be on his best behavior and won’t make any rude comments.”

  “I had a little talk with him about that.”

  “He deny saying anything?”

  “He did
n’t deny it. But,” he rubbed her butt, “he doesn’t see anything wrong with what he said.”

  “Tom!” Sandy moved his hand up to her waist, looking around to see who was watching them. “Are you going home to change before we go out to Colton’s?”

  “I’m on tonight.”

  Sandy smiled. “I like you in your uniform.”

  “In it or out of it?”

  “Think I can get away with kissing the sheriff on main street?”

  “Lady, I think you can get away with anything you want.”

  Sandy kissed him, running her fingers up through his hair, she pressed her body against him, as a pickup went by honking and the passenger hooting out the window at them.

  Tom looked after the truck, then at Sandy. “You’re causing a disturbance out here, you know that.”

  “I don’t care.”

  Tom opened the door of the police station and pulled her inside.

  “If I can get away with anything, maybe I ought to open a strip club,” Sandy laughed, kissing him.

  “I don’t think so.”

  “They don’t seem to have any problems down there.”

  “That’s because they don’t want me to have to go down there, and they know it. I don’t have any use for that place in this town, and it wouldn’t take much of an excuse for me to close it down, mayor or not. If it wasn’t for that place, we wouldn’t be having all these women missing.”

  “That or whoever’s doing this would be picking on the local girls instead of Zingg’s,” Sandy replied, as they walked around the counter where the desks sat.

  “Don’t even mention it.” Tom looked at his watch. “I’ll lock the place up then we better get headed out to Colton’s if we’re going to make it by six.”

  “I’m not worried about being late,” Sandy said, looking up at the picture of Lucy Handling.

  “Let me make a call, then we’ll get going.” Tom picked up the phone and pushed in a number. “Kelly, Sheriff Moratelli. Is Glen there?.. Thanks.” He pulled Sandy up to him and kissed her as he waited. “Glen, if you need me for anything, you’ll need to call out to Hornbaker’s… Yeah, I know. Sandy and I are going out to his place… Dinner… His so-called apology… You what?” Tom swallowed, looking down at the desk where Glen had been jotting down notes about the missing girls. “Yeah, I know. I’ve thought about it… Anything’s possible… We can talk about it in the morning. Have a good evening.” Tom hung up the phone thinking.

  “Everything all right?” Sandy asked.

  “Yeah, honey. Just something Glen said. Come on, let’s go.” Shutting off the lights, Tom walked Sandy out the door and locked it.

  “I guess Jason will be bringing Rocco?” Sandy said as they walked down the sidewalk.

  “I’m sure he will.” Tom shook his head. “You and that dog,” he said, as they stopped beside the police pickup. “You remember being in the back seat of my police car?”

  “Uh-huh. That was the third place we did it.”

  “How do you remember all that?” Tom asked, as he opened the door for her.

  “I remember someone calling it in, that your car was sitting along the edge of the road and there wasn’t any activity around it?”

  “As I recall, the activity was in the backseat of it.”

  “It wouldn’t be so inconspicuous in this,” Sandy said, getting in the truck.

  “I don’t think we’ll have to worry about anyone calling it in way out here,” Tom said and closed the door.

  * * * *

  “Something’s wrong, isn’t it?” Sandy asked looking at Tom as he drove.

  “Why’s that honey?”

  “Because you’re so quiet.”

  “I’m just thinking.” Tom reached over and he took her hand. Sandy slid over beside him. “If Colton says anything to you about those missing women, or the ones we found, tell him you don’t know anything about them.”

  Sandy nodded. “You think he has something to do with it?”

  Tom shrugged, “I don’t know, but it’s someone local who hunts with a 30-30, and he kind a fits the bill.”

  “That would explain why he was asking so many questions the morning you went up in Jerry’s plane. And why he was so interested when Mitch came in talking about you and Glen finding those two girls.”

  “What’d he say?”

  “Not a whole lot. But I thought he seemed rather anxious when he found out you and Glen went up in the plane to try and find Lucy.”

  “He asked a lot of questions?”

  “Enough I felt uncomfortable about it.”

  “Did he ask Ihnen if we’d found the Handling girl?”

  Sandy shook her head, “Mildred did. But I thought he made a real strange comment earlier that day, when it was just me and him there.”

  “Like what?”

  “He said he didn’t think that you were going to find Lucy Handling. When I asked him what he met by that, he shrugged it off and said that she’d probably left town.”

  “Really,” Tom said thinking.

  Sixteen

  “This would be a great place for Halloween,” Sandy stated looking down the chain link fence. “He never gets tired of hunting, does he?”

  Tom took Sandy’s hand as she slid out the driver’s side. “Careful what you say honey, we don’t need any problems out here.”

  “I’ll be careful.”

  “But you’re right. He never gets tired of hunting. I imagine a lot of the meat... served in his café, comes from what he hunts.”

  “I guess that’s cheaper than buying it. At least until he gets caught.”

  Tom nodded, “Yeah, I guess.” He walked Sandy up to the door and rang the bell, which sounded like a bull elk’s call.

  Colton opened the door. “Tom, Sandy, good to see ya. Come on in.” He stepped back from the door, “Dinner’s about ready. We’re going to be dining out back on the patio, if that’s all right?”

  “Sounds good,” Tom said. “So how many of those elk did you end up with?”

  “Two and quarter,” Colton answered, as they walked through the living room to the kitchen. “Garrett decided he and Nancy didn’t need that much meat, so he gave me half his.”

  “It’s a lot of meat for two people, but,” Tom looked at Sandy, “we don’t seem to have any trouble.”

  “No, I use -,” Sandy started.

  “You could have taken time to go home and change,” Colton butted in. “I didn’t mean to rush you.”

  “You didn’t,” Tom said frowning, as he noticed the padlocked door beside him off the kitchen. He turned his attention back to Colton, glancing at Sandy. He didn’t like it that Colton had cut her off. “How’d that deal ever come around with that tanner?”

  “He said he’d take every hide I could come up with during the season.” Colton motioned to the sliding glass doors at the back of the kitchen. “I have everything out there. Come on out, make yourselves at home.”

  Walking out the door to the patio, Sandy noticed a dark blue pickup with a large box in the bed, sitting near the gate of the tall, pine wood fence that surrounded the back yard. The box had two inch slats cut for air in the sides. “What do you use that for?”

  Colton looked at the pickup. “I use to own Scottish Deer Hounds. I put them in there to take to the field.”

  “You ran deer with dogs?” Sandy asked, sitting at the table beside Tom.

  “It was the sport of European nobility. And hunters in early American history used deer hounds.”

  Tom frowned. “She just asked a question, Colton.”

  “And I just answered it,” Colton snapped. He smiled. “No reason for us to be on edge here. I’ll get us something to drink, maybe smooth the tension a little.” Turning he walked into the house.

  “Yeah, but he doesn’t have dogs now, so what’s he using it for?” Sandy asked lowly, looking at the pickup.

  “I don’t know,” Tom said. He put
his hand on hers. “Let’s just try and get through this evening.” He looked toward the glass doors as Colton walked through them with three glasses of red wine. “We were just talking about how nice it is back here.”

  “It is,” Sandy agreed.

  “Red’s all I have, so I hope it’s all right,” Colton said, as he handed one of the glasses to Tom and another one to Sandy. He sat at the table. “Potatoes are in the oven. They’ll be a few more minutes, so I thought we could enjoy a glass of wine while we’re waiting. This comes all the way from Iowa.”

  “Iowa?” Tom looked at the glass. “I didn’t know they made good wine in Iowa.”

  “Before prohibition, it was the largest wine producing state in the country. It’s not Californian but it’s not bad. Why don’t we make a toast to friendship?” Colton said, holding up his glass. “Good friends, till the end.”

  “Yeah,” Tom replied as he raised his glass.

  Colton watched as Tom and Sandy drank from the glasses. “So what do you think?”

  “It’s not bad,” Tom answered, sitting the glass on the table. He looked at Sandy. “You like it?”

  Sandy nodded. “It’s good.”

  “Why don’t we do one more toast to you, Tom,” Colton suggested.

  Tom shrugged, shaking his head. “I’m on duty this evening.”

  “One more drink isn’t going to hurt is it?” Colton asked. “I’m sure a big man like you can handle one glass of wine.”

  “Why me?”

  “For all the hard work you’re doing to figure out what’s happened to these girls that’s disappeared, and that you find the Handling girl and help put the community at ease.” Colton raised his glass. “Here’s to you.”

  Tom took a short drink from the glass and sat it on the table.

  “I better check the potatoes.” Colton walked into the house. “So why did Katie have to leave in such a hurry the other day?”

  Sandy looked at the glass as she put it on the table. Her head felt light. “Donny… he cut his hand… on a window pane.” She tried to clear her head. “Tom, I’m kind of… dizzy. I don’t, feel very good.” She started to stand, but her knees buckled and she fell to the ground passed out.

  “Sandy, are you all right?” As Tom bent over to help her up, Colton came out of the house with a rifle and hit him in back of the head with the rifle butt. Tom fell from the chair.

  Colton smiled as he looked at them lying on the ground. Walking out to the pickup, he backed it up to the patio, then putting the tailgate down and opened the steel door of the box. Looking at Tom, Colton shook his head. “You won’t be needing this anymore,” he said taking the gold watch from Tom’s wrist. He laid it on the table. Taking hold of Tom, Colton struggled to sit him up on the tailgate of the pickup. “You’re heavier than what I thought.” Laying Tom in the doorway of the box, Colton crawled inside and pulled him in.