Page 92 of Midnight Ride

“I think so. It’s not far from here if I heard the guy right.”

“Great,” said Virge. “I’m beat.”

Fontana Residence. Sicamous. B.C.

Repeating the directions to Virge as we went, we followed the mountain road and turned to the left when we got to the black mailbox with FONTANA painted on the side.

A secluded driveway wound through the trees steadily upward, and when we came out at the end, we saw a beautiful log cabin with a black Freightliner parked out front.

And a dead guy lying on the driveway with vultures picking at him. They screamed at us when we scared them away.

Travis got out of the truck and scanned the scene. Quick analysis by a veteran Texas Ranger. “Big pool of blood over here, not far from the dead guy. Gun in the hand of the corpse.”

Annie knelt down and took the paper out of the dead guy’s other hand. “Bounty hunter.” She took a closer look at the picture of the fugitive the retriever was after, and she trigged in instantly to who Eldon Fontana really was. It wasn’t the time or the place to lay any more bad news on Travis.

“Search the cabin, boys,” said Travis. “Find me something that belongs to Tammy. We don’t know for certain that she came here with this truck driver.”

Virge and I went over every inch of the cabin and didn’t recognize a single thing that belonged to our sister. We did find a phone in the master bedroom.

I scrolled through the contacts and there were lots of them for trucking companies, and warehouses, and like that. The breath left my body when I saw one that just saidTammy.

I ran outside and showed it to Annie. “This is the trucker’s phone and Tammy’s number is in there. Not the number I have for her. It’s a different number.”

“Let me try the number, sugar.” Annie took the phone out of my hand and pressed the call icon. The phone rang a couple of times before anybody answered.

“Hello. Who is this?”

Annie put the phone on speaker so I could hear.

“It’s me, Tammy. It’s Mama. I’m at the cabin. Where are you and Eldon?”

Tammy burst into sobs and yelled into the phone, “That man came and shot Eldon, Mama. He might die, Mama, and I love him so much. If Eldon dies, I’m gonna die too. I know it.”

“Where are you, sweetheart? Mama will come and help you. Tell me where you are.”

“Enderby Hospital. I’m in a waiting room.”

“Don’t move from there, sugar pop. I’m on my way.”

“Hurry, Mama. I need you. I love you, Mama.”

“Got her?” asked Travis.

“We have her, sugar.”

Dad held onto Annie, and he couldn’t hold back the tears.