C. Box - Breaking Point

From above them in the dark timber, a voice said, “I need all of you to throw down your weapons and turn around. You on the horse-climb off now.”

Farkus recognized the voice.

It was Butch Roberson.

“This is where I saw him,” Joe said as the six horsemen entered the alcove. They’d ridden through the severed fence and into the burnished red forest of dead and dying trees. “Over there is where he paused to eat, and that’s the tree he leaned his pack against. Right next to it was his rifle.”

Underwood reined his horse to a stop, and his team followed suit. Underwood leaned forward in his saddle and took the pressure off his back by grasping the saddle horn. He looked around and said, “So he was coming off the mountain when you saw him?”

“No,” Joe said, dismounting and walking Toby around the perimeter of the camp. “Butch didn’t come down from the mountains. He was going up into them, from the east.”

“He walked across the Big Stream Ranch to get here, is what you’re saying?”

“That’s right,” Joe said. “He cut the fence back there and continued on.”

“Why’d he cut the fence?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Joe said, “but I think he was just frustrated. I think he was striking out at anything that reminded him of you guys.”

Underwood snorted and shook his head. Then: “Didn’t anyone on the ranch think it was unusual for a guy on foot to be just walking across their property? Doesn’t that Frank Zeller goof have cowboys or farmhands watching the place?”

“It’s a very big ranch,” Joe said. “Butch Roberson could have easily stayed concealed as he came across. There are some deep irrigation ditches on the meadows down there and plenty of hills to hide behind. Or he might have crossed it before daylight-I don’t know.”

“Or maybe he had some help?” Underwood asked, raising his eyebrows.

“I wouldn’t know,” Joe said, looking up at Underwood.

Underwood asked, “So if he was coming up from the ranch when you saw him, how did he get here in the first place?”

“I’d like to know that myself,” Joe said. “His truck isn’t parked anywhere down there, but he indicated he’d walked all the way.”

“So someone dropped him off,” Underwood said.

“Yup.”

“Which means someone else is involved in this whole thing. Do you have any theory on who that might be?”

Joe shrugged. It had been a question hounding him in the back of his mind since the day before. Was it one of Butch’s friends or employees? A stranger he’d commandeered on the road? Or maybe someone closer?

“I’d like to know who it was,” Underwood said.

“Me, too.”

“So maybe he had some help getting out here and some more help getting across the ranch.”

Joe asked, “How big is this conspiracy going to get before we’re through?”

“I don’t trust these people,” he said, squinting.

“And they don’t trust you,” Joe said.

“So give me your best guess,” Underwood said, his eyes probing Joe’s face. “Where do you think he went after you let him get away?”

“I told you,” Joe said with heat, “I didn’t let him. .”

“I know, I know. You didn’t know he was a murderer at the time,” Underwood said sarcastically. “But putting that aside, where do you think he went?”

Joe looked around, twisting at his waist. He studied the dry forest floor and the slope of the terrain.

He said, “Because he came from the highway down there to the east, I think his intention was to continue west toward the peaks of the mountains. There’s a lot of wild country up there, and plenty of places to hide out. He knows the mountains from hunting here. What I don’t know is whether he planned to go over the top and drop into the canyons on the west side, or hole up here on the eastern slope.”

“Why would he go over the top?” Underwood asked.

“To get farther away from you guys,” Joe said. “He knows the country over there like he does here. I know that because there are two elk areas that run adjacent to each other, Area Thirty-five is this side of the mountain and Area Forty-five is the other side, and both are general elk permit areas, so special permits wouldn’t be necessary. Area Thirty-five opens a week before, so I’d guess Butch hunts this side first, then moves west a week later if he wants to. It just makes sense that he’d be more comfortable hunting east to west. The terrain is easier on this side, more slope and forest broken up by natural meadows and parks. There’s more open feed on this side.”

Underwood said, “It’s like you’re speaking Greek to me.”

Joe sighed and said, “Once you go over the top, the country gets tougher. There are a few brutal canyons, including Savage Run. What tends to happen is the elk herds on this side get early pressure from hunters and move over the top to get away from them and hide out in the rough country. My guess is Butch is doing the same thing.”

“That’s all very interesting,” Underwood said. “But as you said, you’re guessing.”

“Yup.”

Underwood sat back and sighed, then raised the satellite phone that hung from his neck on a lanyard. “I’ve got to check in with FOB One,” he said, a hint of weariness in his voice.

“FOB One?” Joe asked, knowing the answer.

“Regional Director Batista,” Underwood said. “We need to know whether to proceed or go back. He’s calling all the shots.”

Joe noted the team of special agents behind Underwood exchanged cynical glances with one another that were not meant for his eyes. But he found it interesting.

While Underwood talked with Batista-listening much more than talking, Joe observed-Joe walked down the slope until the timber thinned and opened up and he could see the expanse of the Big Stream Ranch below. The FOB, at that distance, was a small dot on a sea of sagebrush and grass.

He’d found over the years that he thought best when he was in the open, without being closed in by a tree canopy, or a ceiling, or the roof of a pickup. Somehow, his mind needed the open space of a vista to focus.

Things had been moving at lightning speed since the afternoon before, when he’d encountered Butch. Hell had broken open, and hundreds of bureaucrats were gushing out. If there was a strategic plan behind the investigation, he didn’t know what it was. All he could see was a blizzard of actions and movement based on a predetermined conclusion. And now the governor was involved.

Usually, when confused by circumstances, Joe talked with Marybeth or Nate Romanowski. Rarely was their advice similar, but it helped frame the issue for him to decide. But with Marybeth understandably preoccupied and Nate who knows where, he felt unmoored and drifting out to sea.

For the second time that day, he felt empathy toward Butch Roberson, and could understand why the man had snapped.

“Okay,” Underwood said to Joe and his team, “gather up. We have the word.” He said “the word” with slightly disguised contempt.

One of the agents snickered, then looked away when he noticed Joe was looking at him.

Underwood said, “We’re to engage hot pursuit of Butch Roberson. Joe Pickett will stay with us and help navigate. The director says that every hour that goes by is an hour wasted, so we should plan on being out all night at the very least.”

One of the agents moaned but cut it off quickly after a hard glance from Underwood.

Underwood continued: “I have the coordinates of where, approximately, the drone went down. Before contact was lost, there is some video of a man-probably our subject-in a clearing of some kind. Our job is to move swiftly toward that spot and intercept him.