Outlaw Mountain

“I guess that means we should let him up?” the patrol-man asked.

“I guess so,” Joa

Furious and embarrassed both, Joa

“It’s all right,” Butch said to them impatiently. “I’m fine.”

“You only think you’re fine,” Joa

“What were you thinking of?” Butch returned. “You said you were going to the hospital, but when you left there, instead of going home you took off in the opposite direction. What was I supposed to think?”

“That I was doing my job.”

“And I suppose that includes laying a trap for me-having a whole squad of cops pull me over, handcuff me, and throw me on the ground?”

“I happen to have an endangered witness in my car,” Joa

“So who is he?” Butch grumbled. “Shouldn’t I at least get to meet the guy?”

Something in the way he said the words touched Joa

Holding her sides, Joa

Butch temporarily stifled his laughter. With dead-pan seriousness he shook Jonathan Becker’s hand. It was enough to make Joa

“We’d better get out of the road before someone does get hurt,” she said.

“Where to?” Butch asked.

“Let’s go to High Lonesome Ranch instead of my office,” Joa

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Friday dawned clear and cold. Joa

During the contentious discussions that followed their arrival at High Lonesome Ranch, Butch Dixon hadn’t been shy about voicing his opinions. With Becker and possibly Joa

The drug-selling activities of the rogue North Las Vegas cops were enough to justify calling in the DEA, and in the end it was Adam York, Joa

At one o’clock in the morning, when Butch and Jonathan Becker had left, the outlined game plan had seemed feasible enough. At seven-thirty that same morning and in the cold, harsh light of day, it didn’t seem like nearly such a good idea.

Stiff, sore, sluggish from lack of sleep, and with her two black eyes glowing like purple beacons despite a dusting of Coverup, Joa

“Whoa,” he said when he caught sight of Joa

“Thanks,” she said. “That’s not exactly what I wanted to hear.”

By the time Joa

“What’s this?” Frank asked when she set Gunderson’s message in front of him.

“The name and number of the lawyer who set up Junior Dowdle’s guardianship arrangement.”

“Junior Dowdle?” Frank repeated. “You mean we’ve figured out Junior’s last name? We know where he lives? How did you do that?”

“I didn’t,” Joa

“Would you like me to call him?” Frank asked.

“No,” Joa

“What about him? He’s still missing, isn’t he?”

“No, he’s not. I found him last night. Becker’s going to be at his wife’s funeral this afternoon, along with several other people.”

“What people?” Frank asked. “What all went on last night?”

“You’d be surprised,” Joa

By ten o’clock that morning, Joa

Listening to him, Joa

“I’ll have to make arrangements to go over to Rapid to see Ellen this weekend,” he continued. “I had other plans, but I’ll change them. Ellen and I will talk it over and try to decide what to do, although talking isn’t quite the right word. I talk and Ellen blinks-one for yes and two for no. I’m not sure what to do with Junior in the meantime. Is there someplace down there where you can send him to be cared for until I can make arrangements to have someone come get him?”