Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 101501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Logan glanced at his watch. “Feel like taking a ride with me?”
“I’ve got time. I finished up Gordon’s truck late last night and don’t have another coming in until tomorrow.”
“Let’s roll then.”
_______________
I’m not sure how Logan trained Max The Wonder Dog to be on guard at all times, but from the moment I stepped foot outside of my bedroom he’d stuck close. Even when I opened the bar, he’d gone in ahead of me with his nose to the ground and didn’t stop until he sniffed out every corner of the building. The amount of training the army must have invested in Max had to be staggering, and I made a note to google the specifics.
Logan stopped by the bar on his way out of town with strict orders not to leave until he returned. Normally, I would have balked at the order. I was an independent woman who could take care of herself, but I was also intelligent enough to know that watching my back, until this business with Chance was sorted, was the smart thing to do. So I hadn’t argued and locked the door behind him.
He was headed to check out Chance’s alibi for yesterday afternoon and to stop by the coroner’s office in Virginia City to see if they’d run a tox screen on Butch Johnson yet. None of us saw anyone on the ridge with Johnson, so if Chance were involved, I couldn’t see how Logan could prove it. Any of it, if truth be told.
Justice was presumably cremated, and Duke was missing with no evidence to point us in the direction of his killer. Rip was the only body that could tell the tale of whether foul play was involved, and with no witnesses to put Chance and Rip together at the time he died, his death wouldn’t provide any evidence against Chance either. All in all, if my brother had done what Logan suspected, it was the perfect crime so far.
I had paperwork littering my desk when I finally sat down after receiving the morning deliveries and talking to Kenzie about the carnival. I held my tongue, but it was hard not to confess to her what Logan suspected. My brothers and I weren’t the only ones who would suffer if Logan were right. Chace most of all. My nephew didn’t deserve the backlash that was sure to come.
I scanned the invoices in front of me and wondered if Logan proved Chance was a killer, if my days as the owner of Big Sky Saloon were numbered. After the show of support we’d received this week, would the town still feel the same about us?
With that depressing thought, I began paying bills and filing the invoices. I had a couple of hours before Rachel and David arrived, since we opened later on Mondays, so I planned to use my time organizing my desk. A chrome cell phone caught my eye beneath some of the papers, so I picked it up. Jamie, or whoever had lost it, must have turned it off because the battery was still charged after two days when I turned it on. With no other way to contact the owner, I scanned the call log and noticed there were five missed calls from the same number. I hit redial, but no one answered. Refusing to spend more time hunting down the owner, I left a message asking the caller to let the owner know where they could find their missing phone, then got to work cleaning my office. I needed the distraction from dead bodies and possible ruin.
I was lost in thought an hour later when I heard Jamie cooing to Max in the outer hallway. “Skye! This dog is eyeing my muffin like he hasn’t eaten in a week. Are you hungry, boy?”
Oh crap! I forgot to feed Max before we left.
“I’m the worst mother ever,” I mumbled, rising from my chair. When I stepped into the hallway, I caught Jamie feeding Max part of her muffin. “He needs more sustenance than that.”
“Then feed him.”
“I don’t have any dog food here. Can you take him for a walk so he can pee and then stop by the feed store and buy a bag for the bar?”
“Sure thing. You got a leash?”
I retrieved his leash and a twenty from my purse, handing them both to Jamie. A few moments later, I heard Jamie arguing with Max. “Come on you stubborn dog.”
“What’s the problem?” I called out.
“He won’t budge. He’s dug his heels in.”
“Logan commanded him to stay by my side,” I explained. “I bet you need to tell him to heel. He’s on guard until he gets further orders.”
Jamie stuck her head through my office door with a funny look on her face. “Explain how and why a dog would follow orders?”