C Box - Below Zero

Corey said, “The only one who likes this nature shit is Leo. We call him ‘Hoss’ behind his back because no matter how he dresses or acts like a cowboy, he’s still just a little jerk-off accountant to us. He’s the farthest guy you can think of for a Hoss.”

Nathanial said, “There’s nothing around here but trees and cows. There are no women unless you get really hot for fat divorcees, snuff queens, and barrel racers.”

Chase reached back and this time drew the pistol. He racked the slide and said to Stenko, “Let’s go see that son of a bitch Leo.”

THE TALICH BROTHERS and Stenko walked across a shorn hay meadow toward the side of the old house. They walked shoulder to shoulder, spaced evenly apart. Chase held his pistol loosely at his side. Nathanial had strapped on his shoulder holsters, and he held a gun in each hand.

Corey said, “Gunfight at the OK Corral.”

Chase said, “Tombstone.”

Nathanial said, “Fucking Young Guns, man.”

She stayed a few feet behind Stenko. When she looked over her shoulder, she couldn’t see Robert anywhere in the trees. She wasn’t surprised. She guessed he was back at the car hoping he wouldn’t hear any shots from the tennis court.

Stenko spoke softly to all three brothers, “Look, what I need most from Leo is information. Starting with where he keeps my cash hidden. Then account numbers, passwords, personal identification numbers. When I get all that info and check it out, then I don’t care what you do with him.”

Stenko scared her because he spoke with a coldness she wasn’t familiar with. She considered turning and running herself. But what if Robert had left in the car? Or if he was so jumpy he might start firing at her from the trees when she got close?

Corey said to Stenko, “Leo just doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to do this, you know? I mean, he never said a bad thing about you until the end. He was the most loyal guy I ever seen all those years, you know?”

Stenko grunted, “That’s the kind you need to keep an eye on.”

“That son of a bitch Leo,” Nathanial said, echoing what Chase had said. “Son of a bitch Leo.”

Stenko turned his head as he walked, said, “April, I don’t want you here right now. I want you to go back with Robert.”

“Robert is hiding,” she said.

“Then go hide with him.”

“I’m staying with you.”

Nathanial kept talking, his words sounding like a mantra. “Son of a bitch Leo. A month out of my life, playing cowboy for no good reason. Son of a bitch Leo.”

They were nearly to the porch when the screen door opened. A small man clomped onto the wood in high-heeled cowboy boots. He was looking off in the distance toward the road, away from the Talich Brothers and Stenko, who approached him from the side. He was slight and bald with a large nose, and he held a cowboy hat in his hands.

“Leo,” Stenko said.

She could see Leo stiffen, his hands at his side. The cowboy hat dropped to the porch. Leo’s threw his shoulders back and raised his face to the sky in a reaction that was not unlike someone who’d just had an ice cube dropped down the back of his pants. Leo slowly looked over his shoulder at the four men who were now just ten feet away from him.

“Stenko, it’s good to see you,” Leo lied.

Stenko said, “Let’s go inside, Hoss.”

Hole in the Wall

“I KNOW THAT NAME, ROBERT STENSON,” NATE ROMANOWSKI said as the three of them hiked up out of the canyon. “If it’s the same guy you’re talking about, then he’s familiar to me.”

Sheridan had listened to her dad as he led the way up the trail, which was so narrow they had to climb single file. He’d been filling Nate in on the events that had taken place and what they’d learned since they’d last met. Her dad had ended his briefing with “and now we’re stumped. All we can do is hope that Stenko, Robert, and April slip up and get caught somewhere and whoever catches them has the presence of mind to hold them in place. Either that, or April decides to start texting Sheridan again from a new phone.

“The wild card,” her dad continued, “is whether or not Agent Coon will be available quickly and back on the case. He should be cleared-along with Portenson-but I don’t know how long FBI shooting inquiries take before the agents under investigation are cut loose. Even if it’s quick and Coon’s back on the job, he’ll have to start all over with April’s new cell phone number-going to the judge again, getting cooperation from the cell phone companies. There might be complications this time if the judge or phone company lawyers think the FBI will swoop down and smoke innocent citizens who just happen to pick up the wrong cell phone and use it like Bo Skelton and Cyndi Rae Mote did…”

But that’s when Nate interjected and said he knew Robert Stenson, which made her dad stop, turn, and glare at his friend. He asked Nate incredulously, “ How do you know him?”

“It’s not like I know him personally,” Nate said, “I know of him.”

“And how do you know of him?” her dad asked, his irritation showing.

“I know of his work. He’s the owner of ClimateSavior.net, one of the flashier carbon-offset companies. Based in Madison, Wisconsin, just like you said your Robert Stenson came from, so it’s probably one and the same guy. We’ve exchanged e-mails.”

“What?”

Nate looked over his shoulder and winked at her. They both knew Nate was tweaking Joe by slowly doling out information her dad was desperate to hear.

“I sent him some money once,” Nate said. “It was Alicia’s idea. She’s trying to save the planet. Me, I just want to hedge my bets.”

Her dad briefly closed his eyes and breathed deeply to keep his impatience in check.

Sheridan looked from her dad to Nate and back.

“I have a different angle on him than you do,” Nate said. “To you, he’s just Stenko’s crazy son along for the ride. I know of him in a different way.”

“Not just that,” her dad said. “He’s a murderer. He shot and killed a pharmacist in Rawlins. It’s on tape.”

Nate whistled. “Then he’s really stepping out. I never would have guessed he’d cross the line. I mean, he’s very passionate and strident, but murder? Nah-that doesn’t fit.”

Her dad looked to Sheridan with exasperation, as if hoping she could translate Nate’s language into something a game warden could understand. Sheridan shrugged and mouthed, “Sorry.”

“Let’s say they’re the same Robert Stenson,” her dad said to Nate. “How does that shed any light on what’s going on? How does that get us closer to finding April?”

Said Nate, “I’m not sure it does.”

“And if Robert’s company has something to do with Stenko and the murders, why hasn’t the FBI been working that angle?”

Nate said, “You give them too much credit.”

“How do you always seem to have an angle I don’t have?”

“Because,” Nate said patiently as if explaining it to a child, “you think in a linear way and I don’t. You’ve got that law enforcement thing going. I never have. But give yourself some credit, Joe. You’re smart enough to reach out when you need help. That’s an unusual trait and a rare one with men of your ilk. Now if you’ll turn around and start climbing, we can eventually get out of this canyon and maybe we can put our heads together and find April Keeley.”

Her dad sighed and turned and began striding up the trail. Nate started talking.

SHERIDAN WAS THRILLED but tried not to show it. In the last hour while Nate packed a daypack with clothes and equipment, she admired not only the recovering eagle but also Nate’s other hunting birds-a male and female peregrine falcon and a red-tailed hawk. She was fascinated by the cave where Nate now lived and awed that her dad had brought her there. She wanted to believe she was being thought of as part of the team, and she knew that as long as she had her cell phone she was integral in the search for her foster sister.