Farkus knew his life rested on the decision McCue would make. He wondered how-and if-he could influence that decision. While he searched for an angle-Farkus’s life was an endless procession of angle location-he craned his neck around farther and sneaked a look at the back of their vehicle and the horse trailer. Michigan plates. Vehicles and visitors from that state weren’t unusual in the mountains during hunting season. But this wasn’t hunting season.

“Damn,” he said. “You boys came a long way. Where you from in Michigan?”

They didn’t answer him.

But he had his angle. He said, “Boys, I don’t know what you’re doing here, but it’s obvious you’re about to head off into the mountains to find something or somebody. I know these mountains. I grew up here and I’ve guided hunters in this area every fall for twenty-five years, and let me tell you something: it’s easy to get lost up here.”

Farkus felt like whooping when McCue turned to him, actually listening and not looking at him as if measuring his body for a coffin.

Farkus said, “These mountains are a series of drainages. The canyons look amazingly similar to each other when you’re in them. People get lost all the time because they think they’re walking along Cottonwood Creek when it’s actually Bandit Creek or Elkhair Creek or No Name Creek.”

He nodded toward the piles of equipment in the camp, and the red-haired man followed his gaze. Farkus said, “Even with a GPS it’s easy to get rimrocked or turned around. You know what I’m saying here. I can help you find what it is you’re looking for. Trust me on this.”

McCue said, “He’s got a point.”

The red-haired man disagreed, said, “Mr. McCue, we have all the men and equipment we need. Taking along another guy will slow us down.”

McCue waved him off. “That sheriff over in Baggs had more men and more equipment, and they didn’t find them. Maybe having someone along who knows the mountains will help. Equipment fails sometimes.”

The red-haired man was obviously in no position to argue with McCue. But he was unhappy. He pointed to Farkus. “You can come along as long as you’re actually useful. But you need to keep your mouth shut otherwise. And when you turn into dead weight. ”

“I’m dead meat,” Farkus finished his sentence for him. “I understand.” He took his hands off the hood.

Farkus had no idea what was going on or what these men were after. But that didn’t matter now. What mattered was getting through the next ten minutes before McCue changed his mind.

He pointed toward a fat sorrel without a saddle. He said, “So, is that my horse?”

Joe said to Marybeth, “I chanted your name for two straight days. It helped me to keep going.”

It was nearly midnight. Sheridan, Lucy, and April were back in the motel. Marybeth had come to say goodnight before she left to join them. She looked at Joe with sympathy and curiosity.

“And I’m so sorry about your horses,” he said.

“After the girls are gone, all I’ll have are my horses,” she said. “But you seem determined to kill them all off.”

He winced.

“I’m sort of kidding,” she said.

He squeezed her hand. “We’ll get more horses. I know you’re always on the lookout for good ones.”

“In fact,” she said with a sly smile, “there are a couple of fine little quarter horses down on this ranch in Colorado between Boulder and Longmont. ”

He asked, “How is my dad? Have you heard?”

“He’s failing fast.”

“Have you talked to his doctors?”

She nodded.

“Any hope?”

She shook her head.

After years of estrangement, Joe had become reacquainted with his father, George, on a case three years before, when he’d been assigned to Yellowstone Park by Governor Rulon. Days after they’d made contact, George had been severely beaten, because he’d made the mistake of holing up in Joe’s room and men who’d come after Joe had found George instead. He’d never fully recovered and had been in a senior care facility in Billings since. Joe and Marybeth had paid for George’s care with money they didn’t have. In addition to the injuries he’d sustained, George had dementia and his body was rotted by alcoholism.

“Maybe I can see him,” Joe said. “He’s here somewhere in this hospital, right?”

“Yes. But I don’t know if that’s a great idea right now in your condition-or his,” she said.

“Still,” he said.

“You chanted my name?” she said, changing the subject.

“It was my mantra. You and the girls. I said your names over and over again to myself. Like this: ‘Marybeth-Sheridan-Lucy-April.’”

“I’m touched,” she said, but he knew from her furrowed brow she was holding something back.

“What?” he asked.

“Joe, I’ve got to ask you, is something wrong? You seem different somehow. I’m more than a little worried about you.”

“In what way?”

She rose, took his right hand, and squeezed it with both of hers. “This thing you went through with those brothers. It seems to have affected you very deeply. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine.”

She breathed deeply and looked longingly into his eyes. “Not really,” she said.

“I’m fine.”

Said Marybeth, “The girls noticed it. They asked me if you were going to be all right. Sheridan especially said she thought there was something different about you.”

He waved it off. “Look, I’m hurting. I have holes all over me. I’ve been through quite an experience and I’m trying to sort it all out. I hate it that my daughters-and you-are saying these things.”

“Is it because they hurt you, those brothers?”

“I’ve been hurt before.”

“Then what?” Marybeth kneaded his hand and pursed her lips.

Finally, he said, “I guess I feel like I left a piece of me up there on that mountain. I don’t feel completely whole.”

“You’ll heal up.”

“It’s not that.”

“Then what?”

Joe shook his head. “I’m still sorting it out. I feel like I missed something obvious. Something right in front of my eyes. But for the life of me, I can’t figure out what it was. I feel like I asked them all the wrong questions, and I couldn’t see what was in front of my eyes. Not that I can see it now, either. But those brothers-they beat me at every turn. They were faster, smarter, and meaner. I was outgunned and outmuscled.”

Marybeth frowned at him. “Don’t say that.”

“It’s true. Plus it doesn’t help that McLanahan and the sheriff in Baggs think I made it all up.”

“McLanahan’s an idiot.”

“There was a DCI agent here today,” Joe said. “Or someone claiming to be a DCI agent. He asked some pretty strange questions, and I felt he was trying to trip me up for some reason. And no one seems to have ever heard of this guy before.”

“That’s odd,” she said.

“To be honest, I heard some doubt in the governor’s voice, too.”

“Joe,” she said, “Rulon’s a lot of things, but he’s still a politician.”

He shrugged and winced.

“What did my mother say to you today? When the two of you were alone?”

Joe sighed. “She said it was time I put away childish things. Like my job.”

Marybeth’s eyes flared. “I knew it. I just knew she’d use this opportunity to try and get under your skin.”

Joe said, “I’m wondering if she wasn’t right.”

“That’s ridiculous. Why do you listen to her? I don’t.”

He tried to shrug, but his right shoulder screamed at him. “Ow,” he moaned.

“Don’t do that. Are you in pain? Do you want me to call a nurse?”

He shook his head no.

“Joe,” she said. “You’re tired. You need some sleep. We can talk about all of this tomorrow.”

He said, “How are we affording the motel? How much are you paying per night?”

“Don’t worry about that. We can afford it.”

“But. ”

“I said not to worry about it, Joe,” she said with authority. “You need to rest and not worry about things. You’ll be back at home in no time, rested and healed.”