Free Fire - C. J. Box [101]
Joe shook his head. “If you found it that easily it’s probably a throw-down. My guess is it’ll turn out clean and untraceable.”
Layborn and Ashby exchanged looks. Ashby said, “That’s what I’d guess too.”
“Man oh man,” Joe said, running his fingers through his hair, then angrily rubbing his face. To Ashby, “Have you alerted everyone at the exit gates so the son of a bitch can’t get out?”
Ashby’s face fell. “We don’t man the gates after dark this late in the season. There’s no one there to stop them.”
Joe turned away in frustration.
A few moments later an emergency room doctor wearing jeans, Teva sandals, and a sweatshirt reading WILDERNESS, SCHMILDERNESS opened the door and addressed the rangers.
“She’s in critical condition,” he said, glancing down at his clipboard. “We’re trying to stabilize her but it doesn’t look good. I called off the Life-Flight chopper to Billings for now because I’m concerned about moving her at all. If we see some progress, I’ll call them back.”
Layborn asked, “Is she going to make it?”
“Didn’t you just hear what I said?”
“But if you were to guess . . .”
The doctor shook his head, said, “I’ll keep you posted.”
Joe found Ashby staring at him. “What?”
Ashby stepped close to Joe so he could speak in a whisper. “I just keep thinking that Judy would be okay now if you hadn’t showed up,” he said.
“Can we see her?” Jake asked Joe. Erin stood behind her brother in the living room of their house, her face drained, her hair stringy.
“I don’t think so,” Joe said. “The doctor wouldn’t allow anyonein.”
Jake said, “I’d like to get one of my dad’s guns and find whoever did this.” He said it with such controlled fury that Joe reached out and put his hand on the boy’s shoulder.
“We’d all like to do that,” Joe said. “But we don’t know who did it yet. All we know is that he was driving a black SUV.”
“Will they find him?” Jake asked, challenge in his voice.
“Yes,” Joe lied.
He made sure they had food in the house and promised to call them the minute he knew something and to come get them if they would be allowed to see their mother.
“Can you get in touch with your dad?” Joe asked. “Does he know what’s going on?”
“We tried to get him on his cell phone,” Erin said. Her eyes were vacant, wounded. “He didn’t answer.”
“Keep trying,” Joe said. “He needs to get back here.”
Joe wrote down Lars’s cell phone number and put the slip in his pocket, thinking he would try later himself. Maybe it would be best if Lars heard the news from him instead of his children, he thought.
As he left, he looked hard at Jake. “Keep the guns in the closet, okay?”
Jake said, “They’re in a gun safe in my dad’s bedroom.” “That’s good.”
“It would be if I didn’t know the combination,” Jake said.
“But you won’t let him open it, will you, Erin?” Joe said.
“No.”
Jake turned on his heel, punched the air, and strode angrily to his room, where he slammed the door shut.
“You’re in charge,” Joe said to Erin.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “Just help my mom.”
One by one, the rangers left the clinic throughout the night. Several to go out on patrol, searching for the black SUV, several to simply go home and get some sleep so they could take over the search in the morning. Ashby left around midnight, after sending a message to the doctor through the receptionist that he was to be called at any hour if there was progress or “any kind of news.” He left with Layborn, who lingered at the door longer than necessary. When Joe looked up, he got Layborn’s coldest cop glare.
“You going back to the hotel soon?” Layborn asked.
“In a few minutes,” Joe said.
Layborn nodded, left. Joe wondered why the ranger cared where he spent the night.
Joe sat on a worn faux-leather couch, trying to read a Field & Stream magazine but finding himself reading the same page over and over without absorbing it. He called Jake and Erin to tell them there was no news.
“Have you gotten ahold of your dad?” he asked.
“Nope,” Jake said. “But we