Storm Damage - C.P. Smith Page 0,108

Highway 287 just outside of Virginia City. The landscape rolled into the base of rocky mountaintops around the multiple buildings. Snow covered everything, but there were no other buildings or homes close by. Just like Ennis, Virginia City was a small town. One with no police force, so they depended on the sheriff for protection.

Logan glanced around the parking lot and found a single vehicle with the sheriff’s logo on the side. Ty had said they have a small force policing all of Madison County, and it looked like they were all gone but one.

“Duke said Justice Bear owned most of the law enforcement and judges in this county. What are the chances we’ll get a straight answer out of anyone in there?”

Ty didn’t blink an eye at the allegation, which told Logan everyone knew Justice Bear had the county in his hip pocket. “Less than one percent.”

“Then I’ll change tactics. I’m looking for Bear to give notification. Maybe they’ve seen him around or know where he is. Friendly like, rather than accusatory. Just one of the boys like they are.”

Ty studied Logan a moment before answering. “Turns you stomach, doesn’t it? After putting your life on the line for ten years to have those in authority bought and paid for by filth.”

Yeah it turned Logan’s stomach to have to play games. He used to be on a team that helped overthrow corrupt governments. He was proud of his time in the military. Proud of the work he’d done. Proud to have put his life on the line for the people of this country, so having no power to take down corrupt officers and politicians burned hot through his veins.

“Yeah,” Logan bit out through clenched teeth.

Both men turned and headed to the front entrance of the sheriff’s department as the county coroner pulled out with a wave to them both. The log building looked more like a vacation rental than the heart of law enforcement for Madison County. Once inside, they found a mostly bald man in his middle fifties on the phone. He barely looked at them as he raked a hand through his hair looking agitated and on alert, so Logan scanned the area until his attention caught on a bulletin board. There were several alerts posted to the corkboard. Stolen vehicles, missing animals, but the one that caught his attention was a double homicide in Twin Bridges. A mother and daughter who lived together in the small town had died by blunt force trauma on the same day Justice Bear had died. According to the bulletin there was no motive found for the murders. Time of death was between 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. An itch began to worm its way down his spine, just like it had when Logan had stared at the burned out mortuary. There were fewer than nine thousand people in Madison County and in less than a week’s time there had been seven murders.

Eleanor and Eloise Carter had lived together in a small nondescript house in Twin Bridges. Eleanor appeared to be in her seventies and Eloise, mid-fifties. They were the picture of innocence with wide smiles and attractive yet plain faces. They looked like they attended church twice weekly and knitted sweaters on their front porch, waving at their neighbors as they walked past.

Logan looked at the date again and tried to remember the order of events for that day. He’d met Skylar on the side of the road around seven in the morning. He helped her open the bar at noon then Kenzie arrived an hour later. They were holed up in Skylar’s office a good two hours before Chance made his entrance. That put Chance in Ennis between three and four in the afternoon. Skylar reported that Chance paid Kenzie a visit that night, standing in her front yard to scare her for trying to stop his bid to destroy the James siblings. Logan needed to talk with Kenzie. If Chance showed up during the window of death, then he’d know whether this case was related.

Logan reached for his phone in his hip pocket and found it missing. He’d turned it off while speaking with the coroner and must have laid it down while inside.

“Do me a favor and take a picture of this bulletin, I left my phone in the coroner’s office.”

Ty glanced at the alert and his brows pulled together as he took a picture. “I think I know that woman.”

Logan had been heading for the door to