Tracking Game

by Margaret Mizushima

  * * *

  Cole placed his hand on the tiger’s chest, and its body felt warm and lax beneath his fingers. Its heartbeat thumped slow and steady, telling him the cat had been sedated, not killed. “Let’s roll him so that I can see that shoulder,” he murmured to Brody. “Be ready to jump back if he starts to come out of the sedative. Stay clear of those claws.”

  Glenna dumped her backpack behind the tiger and helped roll the heavy beast. “This tiger was so worked up before it went down, the sedation might not last as long.”

  Cole moved in beside her to examine the shoulder. “How long can we count on it with a cat?”

  “You can never count on it, but if we stay quiet and avoid stimulation, we might get up to four hours.” Glenna opened her pack and took out a long strip of torn cloth, which she started wrapping around the tiger’s eyes.

  Reducing visual stimulation. That’s a good idea, Cole thought. Blood oozed from the wound on the tiger’s shoulder. “Trying for a heart shot and missed. Looks like it missed major arteries, which is lucky as hell. But no telling what that bullet did to this shoulder.”

  Cole palpated the shoulder gently, feeling a huge amount of abnormal play from destroyed soft tissue as well as the crackling of shattered bone.

  He had to consider euthanasia, because he never wanted an animal to suffer unnecessarily. He rocked back on his heels to lock eyes with Glenna. “This is bad. Without an X-ray, I don’t even know if it can be repaired, but I do know that I’m not the vet who should tackle it. We need a wildlife specialist, and we’re certainly not in a situation where we can do anything for it out here.”

  “Ever since we determined this was a tiger, I’ve been thinking. Under the circumstances, this cat is never going to be released back into the wild anyway. It’s headed for a zoo. I’ve talked to the folks at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs already, and they’ll take it. I’ll have a team meet me down at my truck, and we can transport it from there. Maybe only have to sedate it one or two more times.”

  The job would be hard to carry out, but a zoo tiger that was fed and cared for could survive with a bum leg. He decided this cat deserved the opportunity. “I’ll stabilize the shoulder and stop the bleeding, and we’ll give it a try.”

  He reached into his pack for gauze and bandages and got to work.

  “I’ll go look for some limbs that are strong enough to build a damn travois,” Brody muttered, slinging his rifle strap over his shoulder as he turned to hurry away.

  TWENTY-SIX

  Mattie kept one eye on Flint while she watched the others work feverishly to save the beautiful cat. She admired Glenna’s dedication to the wild creature as well as the quiet and gentle skill Cole used when he handled injured animals. Or injured people, too, for that matter. He must have a large capacity for love in that heart of his.

  Flint looked like a whipped puppy.

  “Get down from the horse and sit on this log,” Mattie told him as she pointed to a fallen tree trunk.

  With his hands still cuffed in front, Flint swung down nimbly from the saddle, both hands on the horn. He sat where she’d told him to, looking down at the ground.

  Mattie figured the tiger hunt was not this hired man’s brainchild. She hadn’t been able to spend enough time to break him down earlier and make him talk, but they would all be better off if she could bring him over to their side. She felt the pressure of passing time, expecting the hunters to reach the clearing at any minute. If they saw what was happening here, they would scatter and the person responsible for a double homicide might avoid capture. She suspected Zach. He best matched their evidence, and he had connections with both Nate and Tyler.

  She wanted to work on Flint some more. The hard line hadn’t done it, so she decided to try the soft touch.

  “Did you see that tiger up on that rock fighting for its life?” she murmured as if to herself. “What a shame.”

  Flint’s Adam’s apple rose and lowered as he swallowed.

  “It’s a gorgeous creature. Now it will probably be maimed for the rest of its life. If it lives.”

  She could have been mistaken, but she thought she saw him wince.

  “I wonder what Nate Fletcher was thinking. This had to be all his idea, didn’t it?”

  Flint gave an almost imperceptible headshake, as if he wanted to say no but just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

  Mattie had been thinking of the information shared by Nate’s parents—the part about how Kasey was asking him to do things he didn’t want to. In light of what she knew now, she was certain these alleged “things” hadn’t involved Nate and Kasey’s private life, as his mother suspected. It must have involved this tiger hunt.

  “Flint, did you have an ax to grind with Nate?”

  His eyes widened, startled. “No, ma’am. I worked for Nate the past couple years, and I learned a lot from him. I have nothing but respect for him.”

  “All right. But the way I figure it, someone tied up with this tiger hunt must have killed Nate.” She figured a bit of deception might help in this instance. “I still wonder if it could’ve been you.”

  A look of pain that had to have also been physical consumed Flint’s face. “I didn’t kill Nate. I’ve never killed anyone.”

  “Not even Wilson? I think he got wrapped up in this fiasco somehow and suffered the consequences for it. What do you think?”

  Flint was wagging his head as he avoided eye contact and studied the ground.

  “Flint, I’m gonna be honest with you. I believe you’re not the ringleader of this circus, but you’re the one I have sitting here in cuffs. Now, I plan to go after the other players in a few minutes, so I don’t have much time to sit and chat. But you’ve got to realize that when it comes to the law, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. We’ve definitely got you for the wildlife charges, and we’ll be looking at you hard for the murder of two men. Is that the way you want this to go down?”

  Flint raised his face and stared at her with haunted eyes.

  “If you truly respect Nate, you’ll help us catch his killer.” As Flint continued to stare at her, Mattie sensed he was on the edge of spilling something. Cole had mentioned his father before, and she decided to play that card again. “If you help us out here, I’ll make sure your dad knows you did the right thing.”

  His eyes welled. “I was just trying to help Miss Lillian and Mr. Doyle.”

  Help Lillian and Doyle? What did he mean? How were Lillian and Doyle involved? “How would this tiger hunt help the Redmans?”

  “It’s not right, them losing their home. The bank shouldn’t have the right to take it from them.” He shrugged and lowered his face, as if embarrassed about his tears, or perhaps about sharing what he knew.

  “What’s this about a bank?”

  “The Redman Ranch is in foreclosure.”

  They’d known about Nate and Kasey’s debt, and the strain on Lillian and Doyle, but this was the first they’d heard of foreclosure. No one had mentioned it before, not even Kasey. And of course she would know about it.

  Mattie began putting the pieces together. Nate and Kasey had borrowed money from Lillian and Doyle to set up Nate’s outfitting business, and according to Tom and Helen Fletcher, Nate needed to pay that back now. Kasey seemed eager to collect Nate’s insurance money, even though she denied being pressured by her parents. Her deceptiveness during that part of the interview made sense now.

  Nate’s death benefit would probably save the Redman Ranch and more. Was Kasey responsible for his murder instead of Zach? Or did this new piece to the puzzle give Lillian a motive for killing her son-in-law?

  Mattie had figured the killer was on the loose here in the mountains. But maybe that person was waiting back home on the Redman Ranch. “Tell me what you know about how Nate was killed. Quick. We don’t have much time.”

  Flint raised his head to look her in the eye. “I don’t know anything about Nate’s death or who killed him. And that’s the God’s honest truth.
”

  “How about Wilson Nichol?”

  “Same. I was setting up supplies for this trip when Wilson was killed. I don’t know anything.”

  Well, she would bet her next paycheck that Flint knew something about Nate’s trafficking business. “Then tell me what you know about this tiger. Who planned the hunt?”

  Flint looked sincere. “Nate did. He brought it in the van. In a cage.”

  She’d already guessed that. “How did he get lined up with a tiger?”

  “Nate said a guy out of California sold it to him, brought in from Mexico.”

  Glenna’s theory was checking out, but how would Nate ever make this kind of contact in the first place? “I don’t get it. How did Nate connect with someone selling a tiger?”

  Flint’s shoulders hitched forward. “Some guy he met in Vegas at a casino.”

  “You have a name?”

  “No. Nate only told me about it last week, because he was bringing the tiger in. I guess it all started a few months ago, moving drugs and animal parts from California to Nebraska, where another guy picked them up. That guy would drive the stuff out east to sell. Nate said he was trying to make money to pay back the Redmans, and he had to do it. He didn’t want to.”

  “Was Wilson Nichol involved in this business?”

  “Not that I know of. And I bet he wasn’t.” Flint winced and rubbed the back of his neck. “Nate didn’t care too much for Wilson, him having history with Kasey and all.”

  In Timber Creek, everyone seemed to know everyone else’s business, and Mattie wanted to mine what Flint knew about the Redmans. “What about Tyler? Was he involved?”

  “No, ma’am. Tyler came on this hunt because Kasey asked him to. But he was pressuring Nate for the money to pay back his mom and dad, I do know that.” Flint dropped his chin to his chest. “I shoulda done something about this hunt. I shoulda told somebody. I knew this wasn’t right.”

  “You’re telling me now, and I appreciate it. I’ll make sure your dad knows you did the right thing and told the truth.” Mattie eyed Flint, wondering how much further she could push him. “Do you have a way to get in touch with Tyler?”

  Flint straightened. “If you’ll give me back my phone, I can find out where he is and tell him to come on down to get this tiger.”

  “But he didn’t answer when I called him earlier.”

  “He’s not carrying the cell phone with that number. They’re all carrying throwaways.”

  Mattie pulled his phone from her pocket and swiped to his contact list. “Do you have their numbers programmed here?”

  “Yeah. Under Z. ZT, ZZ, and ZB. For Tyler, Zach, and Ben.”

  He reached his cuffed hands toward her to take the phone, but she held it and swiped down the list herself. She opened the details under each listing to check the phone numbers, looking for the number she’d memorized from that last incoming call made to Wilson Nichol.

  And there it was under ZZ. Wilson’s last call came from the phone assigned to Zach Irving.

  * * *

  Carrying Cole’s rifle slung across her back, Mattie ran through the forest, Robo setting the pace in front of her. She’d struck a course uphill and stayed away from game trails, keeping within the shelter of evergreens whenever she could. She watched her footing, working hard to step between the ankle-turning stones, while keeping an eye on Robo’s back.

  “Let’s find the bad guy,” she murmured to Robo, knowing he would smell the riders coming long before she would hear them.

  The rain had ceased and blue sky appeared in patches, the afternoon sun peeking through clouds to create shafts of light that stretched from the heavens to the earth. The twittering birds had fallen silent, as if they knew people with malicious intent were passing through. When the hair on Robo’s back bristled, she felt gooseflesh prickle her shoulders.

  She spoke quietly to her dog. “Robo, here. Heel.”

  She crouched behind a ponderosa pine, one arm around Robo, while she waited. His tongue lolled in a pant, and her dog studied the uphill terrain, making her follow his gaze. She strained to see through the trees.

  Robo’s ears pricked, and he ceased panting for several seconds while he cocked his head to locate the sound. Mattie tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear and listened with all her might. Then she heard the distant sounds as they approached—the click of shod hooves against stone, the jingle of curb chain on bridles, someone whistling a tune. Whistling!

  She unslung the rifle from her back and held it across her knees as she hunkered behind the heavy pine boughs. She exchanged several deep breaths, drawing out the exhalation while she worked to slow her heartbeat and fill her chest with oxygen to feed her muscles for when she needed to run again.

  Robo tensed under her arm, and she glimpsed the movement of riders flashing in and out of the trees as they made their way downhill. “Easy. Wait,” she whispered, moving one hand to her dog’s collar.

  Within a few more minutes, she could make out features and faces. No surprises here. Tyler Redman led the way on a stout red gelding, while Ben Underwood and Zach Irving followed behind on their own mounts.

  She spotted the whistler. Irving rode with his lips puckered, emitting the light tune “A-hunting We Will Go.”

  Mattie whispered to Robo to stay quiet and then held her breath as the horses inched past about fifty feet from her position, their hind legs tucked under to keep their footing as they half slid and half stumbled down the steep slope. Though the shot had probably come from about a half mile away as the crow flies, there had been much more ground territory to cover to reach the tiger’s last stand.

  These men were armed with powerful rifles that had scopes, and one of them, namely Zach Irving, was a murderer. After they passed, she waited until they’d gone another fifty feet downhill, and then she and Robo fell in behind them. She crept from tree to tree, keeping Robo at heel and following the group at a distance.

  She knew they’d reached the checkpoint when she heard Brody’s shout. “Halt! Don’t move! Timber Creek County Sheriff. Don’t move!”

  With a burst of speed, Mattie sprang forward, carrying the rifle as she ran. She reached the game trail in a few strides, her feet churning down the steep, rocky slope. She scanned the hillside, looking for cover. Spotting a boulder off to her right, she headed for it, telling Robo to come with her.

  The three riders bunched. Zach reined his horse hard, pivoted into a turn, and headed back uphill.

  “Halt!” Mattie shouted and stepped out to show herself. “We’ve got you covered. Hands up where I can see them!”

  Robo stood beside her, his muscles quivering, his toenails digging into the ground. Ready.

  She aimed her rifle at Zach Irving. “Halt! Zach! I’ve got you in my sights!”

  He pulled his horse to a sliding stop and bailed off. Landing on his feet, he tugged hard on his mount’s reins and positioned it between him and Mattie. He swatted it on the rump, sending it in her direction while he used the cover to take off into the trees. He dodged around a boulder and disappeared.

  “Robo, take him!”

  Robo shot forward, vanishing behind the cover of the evergreens.

  Mattie flew after her dog. When she rounded the boulder, she glimpsed Robo, a black shadow streaking through the forest, silent and lethal. She pushed herself hard, her boots smacking against rocks and fallen tree branches. Robo, growling and snarling, disappeared into a draw.

  Mattie reached the top of it and spilled down the side, losing her footing and her rifle as she tumbled on the loose stones. She slid to the bottom, where Robo had Zach pinned by one leg. Zach hollered and roared, kicking Robo in the head with his other boot.

  Her dog refused to let go. Zach struggled to sit while lifting a short limb like a club. Mattie shouted for him to stop, got to her feet, and launched herself at the man at the same time that Robo released his leg and went for his arm. Robo had been trained to always go for the arm that held a weapon, and that’s exactly what
he was doing.

  Just as Mattie landed on the man’s chest, Robo’s mighty jaws clamped down on Zach’s forearm, making him scream and drop the limb. He’d released his foul breath in a loud humph when Mattie dive-bombed him, and the odor of alcohol made her stomach lurch.

  Robo tugged backward, dragging Zach out as much as he could, since Mattie’s weight anchored him to the ground. Still the man fought. Knowing that Brody would be busy with the others and this takedown was up to her and her partner alone, Mattie drove her knee into his crotch and went for his other fist at the same time.

  When she landed the knee strike, Zach groaned and drew up his legs in the classical pose of groin protection. Mattie threw her entire weight on his free arm and pinned it to the ground. Robo’s growls filled the draw as he took advantage of the fact that Mattie no longer weighed down their captive. He dragged him along the rocky ground, bouncing the man’s head off a rock as they went.

  Zach lay stunned, faceup, Robo on one arm and Mattie on the other. She pressed her advantage and shouted into his face. “Don’t move! Stay still and the dog will let go!”

  She felt the fight go out of him and swiftly reached for the cuffs she’d taken off Flint earlier. She clicked one onto the wrist she was holding. “Robo, out! Guard!”

  Robo dropped Zach’s arm, saliva dripping from his mouth onto Zach as he backed away maybe one whole inch. He loomed over their captive, his black lip elevated in a snarl, exposing his sharp canines.

  “On your stomach! Don’t reach for me or this dog will bite your face!”

  Zach rolled to his stomach, turning his face away from Robo, while Mattie grabbed his free wrist and snapped the other cuff on it. She stood, her legs shaking with the adrenaline rush. “Robo, out!”

  After Robo backed off, keeping his eyes pinned on their captive, she forced herself to settle. She took a few deep breaths and found a voice that sounded much more calm than she felt. “Do you have anything sharp in your pockets? Weapons? Needles?”