Slay Bells - Hildie McQueen Page 0,14

haste to get to the bedroom. Best to back up as quickly and quietly as possible. This was definitely none of her business.

When Gabriela turned around to leave, she caught sight of a foot. Someone was on the floor in front of the couch. Did they actually hide like that?

Once again, none of her business. Except, what if the person was passed out, or it could be Henry, taking a nap.

Giving in to curiosity, Gabriela called out again, “Hello?”

She took a couple steps toward the couch and then another few until she was able to look at the person who lay on the floor.

The man had salt and pepper hair. He was middle-aged with a round stomach. And he was most definitely dead.

Chapter Six

Henry burst through the door after a couple of rapid-fire knocks. He was breathless leaning forward at the waist. “That lady, the writer, she’s…. she’s…” He stopped talking and began to cough.

“What’s going on?” Jeremy’s mother called from the kitchen.

Jeremy raced past the still breathless Henry to the snowmobile. “Where is she?” From the direction of the cabins, Gabriela hurried toward the house, her arms and legs fighting to cut through the ankle-deep snow. In her hurry, she stumbled several times.

On the snowmobile, Jeremy made quick time reaching her. When he jumped from the vehicle, Gabriela rushed to him and fell against him sobbing. He hugged her clumsily patting her back as she dug her face into his jacket, her entire body trembling.

“What happened?” he asked into her ear. “Calm down and tell me what just happened.”

She lifted her reddened face and looked past him toward the cabins. “There’s a dead man in cabin number six.”

“Are you sure?” Jeremy looked in the direction of the cabin. “What exactly did you see?”

Gabriela sniffed loudly, as he guided her to get on the passenger seat. “The door was open… I went in and saw him. There’s a man on the floor by the couch, eyes open, looking straight up. There’s a lot of blood.”

Turning the vehicle around, he went to the house where his mother and Henry waited on the porch. Jeremy pulled up and motioned for Henry. “Help her inside. Mom would you please call the police and have them send someone out. Gabriela thinks she saw a dead body in cabin six.”

“Oh my God,” his mother exclaimed.

Jeremy raced to his truck, which was parked on the side of the house next to his parent’s garage. It was best to drive a vehicle he’d not be a moving target on. Besides, his service piece along with his rifle were in it.

He drove with caution, ensuring to avoid the center of the road and instead drove on the left side. He parked a short distance away to keep from erasing whatever tracks were already there.

Williams, his partner, called, and he instructed him to tell the others to park their vehicles where he did.

Moments later, Jeremy entered the cabin. The smell of blood was thick, and he knew it would not be pretty before walking just past the couch to find the body, on the floor, just as Gabriela had described it.

It would take at least thirty minutes for the forensics team and investigators to arrive from Missoula, so he looked around ensuring not to touch anything. In his rush to get there he’d not asked Gabriela if she’d seen or heard anything or anyone. He’d have to go back and ask her more questions.

The man was not a complete stranger. He was a local politician of sorts. The dead man had served on the town council and was a long-time resident of the area.

By the indentation on the back of the man’s head and blood pool around it, he’d guess it was a blow to the head that had killed him. What was definitely apparent was that the murderer wanted him dead.

He went back outside and stood on the porch studying footprints. There were his, and there were smaller ones, which he figured had to be Gabriela’s. A third set was clearly marked in the snow, the footprints making a path from the porch to the side of the cabin. From there, tire tracks formed in the formation of a vehicle pulling backward and then forward to the right and away from the building.

The tracks went away from the main ranch as well, probably down the side of the corrals and on to the nearby road that went east and west. If whoever it was had turned to the