C. Box - The Highway

This time, it was to try to find his son’s ex-girlfriend. There was a huge difference in degree and motivation, but he welcomed the diversion the situation presented-and the timing. Otherwise, he’d have been back in Helena, probably drunk and shooting out streetlights or shouting and waving his pistol on Sheriff Tubman’s front lawn. That’s the way things progressed when he went on a bender, which was the path he’d been on before Justin showed up at the bar. In a strange way, Danielle and Gracie Sullivan had probably prevented him from completely going off the rails.

But despite the ability to focus on something besides his own predicament, he couldn’t help but speculate about his future while he drove. What would he possibly do next? Where would he get a job that paid enough to maintain his house payments? Another job in law enforcement was probably out of the question because he had two strikes against him and a reputation the size of a truck. Private security jobs paid crap in and around Helena. As he passed through Townsend he recalled working on a ranch there as a teenager and knew he was too old and lazy and inept at physical labor to even consider it again.

Provided Jenny chose to stay with him, she might have to try and find something to help make ends meet. She worked part time at the hospital as an administrator, and her current salary allowed them a few extras. Now, though, she might have to look for a second or different job. That would be a fun conversation to have with her, he thought sourly.

He’d once kicked around the idea of becoming a private investigator after he’d been fired from the Denver Metro PD but he discarded it at the time. Now, though, he might actually have to look into it seriously, but he wondered if there was enough work out there to make it pay. The PIs he’d crossed paths with in Montana were all ex-LEOs, and lived hand-to-mouth because there wasn’t enough work to go around in a rural mountain state. And he knew that even if he could figure out a way to make a living-doubtful-the work would be unsatisfying. Cody’s primary motivation, the thing that made him stay sober up to now and get up in the morning, was to crush bad guys. It was the only reason he kept going. He had a special knack for it because he was bad himself and always had been, therefore he had special insight. He doubted he could transfer his blinding passion to photographing cheating spouses or tripping up insurance claimants. And deep within himself, he always knew that if he couldn’t smash bad guys the only career he could imagine that could provide the same rush and intensity was to become one of them. Rob banks, maybe. Kill for hire. Those were things he could do. The possibility was inside him like a sleeping viper. Deep down, he always knew he could out-bad any bad guy. And outthink any run-of-the-mill cop.

Criminals he put away were incredibly stupid-like B. G. He wouldn’t be like that. He knew not only how criminals thought, but how cops thought, too.

He took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes. Not now, he thought. He refused to take this train of thought any farther down the track. The viper would have to remain in its nest for now.

* * *

After cruising through Livingston on dark and silent streets, seeing no sign of a red Ford Focus downtown or in any of the motel lots, he took Highway 89 south toward Gardiner. He drove peering both ways for the Sullivan car. There were few houses or lights, and the moon was the only source of illumination.

He saw no cars on the side of the road matching the description, and none passed him coming from the south.

The highway was a lonely place after midnight in southern Montana.

* * *

Emigrant was one of those towns that was more a location on the map than a real town, since the only building was, in fact, the First National Bar, established in 1902, or so the hand-painted sign read outside. The bar sat just off Highway 89, thirty miles south to Gardiner and twenty-three miles from Livingston to the north. Across the highway, down a two-track asphalt road and out of sight from Emigrant, was Chico Hot Springs, an ancient sanitarium turned resort. It was a shambling, funky place with a big thermal hot pool, rooms, a restaurant, and a bar where Cody had once taken Jenny and gotten in a bar fight with two fake cowboys from Bozeman. He remembered it well. Jenny left him the first time after that.

It was known as Paradise Valley. The Gallatin Range was west, the Absarokas east. To the north behind him were the Crazy Mountains. And straight south on Highway 89 through Gardiner and the northern entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Hollywood stars and hedge fund managers played rancher on small spreads throughout the valley and the Yellowstone River flowed through it. This time of year, though, the hobby ranchers were usually decamped for the winter and the valley was dark, silent, and cold. Espresso stands were closed for the winter, and the upscale eateries stopped selling The New York Times. Meanwhile, herds of elk and buffalo drifted northward from Yellowstone Park to reclaim the grass, with wolves and grizzlies shadowing the flanks of the herds, looking for opportunities. Ranchers fed cattle hay from flatbed sleighs and snow machines replaced horses and four-wheelers. If one didn’t know better, a visitor might think every human being in the area during the winter was named “Carhartt” because of the label on most of their clothing. During the winter, the Paradise Valley became western again.

Cody checked his phone before opening his door. On the three-hour drive south from Helena, he’d checked in frequently with Justin, Jenny, and Cassie. Justin hadn’t heard a thing from the Sullivan girls, and he was starting to panic. Jenny had talked to Ted Sullivan and their mother, who was, as Jenny put it, “going back and forth from hysterical to murderous.” She wanted to kill Ted first, and Danielle second. Jenny said she talked her down and promised to stay in touch with any news.

Cassie had opened the e-mail sent to Cody and had done some additional research on her own from her home computer. As she came across more information she’d e-mail the link to his phone with her own comments. Because he’d been driving, Cody hadn’t had a chance to read anything yet. But she’d called with one particular item that piqued both their interest, and Cody planned to ask Legerski about it if the opportunity presented itself. But first he wanted to hear Legerski’s thoughts. Local cops-especially longtime locals in small communities-were generally in touch with the mores and culture of their constituents. Too often, Cody thought, investigators from outside the community didn’t pay enough attention to the theories of the locals. It was a lesson he’d like to pass along to Cassie Dewell.

Cody was impressed with Cassie since they had talked in the bar. Her guilt fueled her investigation, and he didn’t want to let her off the hook until the Sullivan girls were found. The situation-him in the field, Cassie working the phones and databases at home-reminded him of the successful arrangement he’d had with his former partner, Larry Olson. They’d been a great team. The two of them had the highest percentage of solved homicides in Montana.

When they were working, Larry punctured holes in Cody’s enthusiasms and filled the vacuum with research and evidence. Cody kept Larry operating at a high level by challenging him and threatening to go off on his own tangents. Every case, it seemed, was a race between Larry’s brains and desire to contain Cody and Cody’s kick-the-door-in fieldwork. Maybe Cassie could be his new Larry, he thought. At least for tonight, as long as he needed her. After that, he thought, he’d cut her loose for what she’d done to him.

He got out and took a deep breath of the cold night air. The moon was bright and lit up the snowcapped, eleven-thousand-foot Emigrant Peak. The Absarokas dominated the eastern night horizon like a buzz saw that was switched off. At the foot of the mountains the river serpentined through the valley floor flanked by twin columns by massive skeletal river cottonwoods, their leaves gone. The river reflected the moon on treeless stretches. It was always ten degrees colder near Yellowstone than in Helena, and Cody noticed the difference.