bodies to get rid of evidence then pulled out the bones, and what? Buried them somewhere?”
Logan nodded. “From everything I’ve heard about Frank, he was meticulous. I can’t see him leaving a single bone in the cremator, let alone a dozen. And one of them still had burnt flesh on it as if the process hadn’t been fully completed. Rushed for time.”
“If Rip and Butch Johnson saw him burying the bones, that would explain why he went after them.”
“It all fits,” Logan agreed. “But proving it and getting it to stick is a different matter.”
“What about Skylar and the boys? Are they in danger?”
That was the million-dollar question.
“If he killed the others to cover his tracks then I doubt he poses a threat to anyone else, but I’m not taking any chances until I’m certain it’s him and what his motives are.”
Ty leaned forward and braced his arms on his knees. “What’s your next move?”
“I need evidence to present to the mayor before I tip my hand. Mac Macey told me Chance was headed to Twin Bridges yesterday afternoon before I was attacked. He said he had business but would be staying the night since he has a woman there. You got any idea who that might be?”
Ty blinked, surprised by the information. “News to me. He’s got business interests in a few ranches over by Twin Bridges and Virginia City, so he could have had a meeting. As for the woman, I bet someone in the Madison County Sheriff’s Department would know. You’re carrying a badge now, so you could make an inquiry.”
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