Nowhere to Run

He could hear computer keys clicking in the background.

“Wow—this looks like a target-rich environment,” she said, already distracted.

“What have you found?”

“I’ll call later,” she said, hanging up.

As he slowed down to take Exit 187 off I-80 south toward Baggs, Joe checked to make sure he still had a strong phone signal. He didn’t want to miss Marybeth’s return call.

“OKAY,” NATE SAID after an hour of silence since they’d left Rawlins and the governor, “this new development about the Clines puts a whole new angle on the situation.”

Joe grunted, noncommittal.

Nate said, “From the standpoint of the Cline Brothers, they hunt, they fish, they go back to subsistence level. No doubt they even maintain some contacts with some of their kind around the country. And believe me, there’s more of them than you’d think and the numbers are growing by the week. Have you been into a sporting goods store the last two years? It’s impossible to find ammunition—it’s sold out. Folks are hoarding, getting ready for something bad to happen.”

Joe chose not to respond. He knew it was true. If he didn’t have channels through the department to buy bullets, he wasn’t sure where he would get them. Shelves in retail stores had been picked clean.

Said Nate, “Things are going on out here in the flyover states nobody wants to talk about.”

Joe shook his head. “You’ve been thinking about this for a while.”

Nate said, “Yes, I have. Hanging out in Hole in the Wall gives me plenty of time to think.”

“Maybe you should get out more,” Joe said.

“I don’t even think it was the lack of an license so much,” Nate said, ignoring Joe. “It was your threat about seeing them in court. You were telling them, in effect, that the jig was up. You just didn’t realize what buttons you were pushing.”

“No,” Joe said, “how could I know that?”

Said Nate, “You couldn’t. But you are stubborn.”

“Yup, when it comes to doing my job. Besides, they stole that guy’s elk, too.”

Nate shrugged. “From their point of view, those hunters were in their territory and they didn’t bother to ask permission. It’s all a matter of how you look at it.”

“This is going nowhere,” Joe said. “We can’t have the rule of law if people can choose which laws they want to obey based on their philosophy and point of view.”

“Agreed,” Nate said. “Which is why the big laws ought to be reasonable and fair and neither the people nor the government should breach their trust. But when the government decides to confiscate private property simply because they have the guns and judges on their side, the whole system starts to break down and all bets are off.”

“Do we really want to have this discussion?”

Said Nate, “It might lead us into dark places.”

“Yup.”

“Speaking of dark places, where are you going to spread the ashes?”

“I have no idea,” Joe said. “I hardly knew him. I don’t know of any special places he liked except for barstools.”

“You can’t just drive around with him back there,” Nate said.

“I’ll think of something.”

Nate nodded and changed the subject back.

“One thing, though,” he said, pushing his seat as far back as it would go so he could cock a boot heel on the dashboard, “These boys may be losers, but damn. This is what happens when the government gets too big for its britches. Some folks get pushed out and they get angry.”

“You sound sympathetic to them,” Joe said.

Nate said, “Damned straight.”

“Great,” Joe said.

“I’m sympathetic to outliers among us,” Nate said. “I’m kind of one myself.” Then he paused and looked over at Joe, and said, “Government man.”

Joe said, “Quit calling me that.”

THEY WERE ROLLING DOWN the hard-packed gravel road into the forest, racing a plume of dust that threatened to overtake the cab, when Marybeth called back. Joe snatched his phone from the seat between them and opened it. Nate looked on, interested.

“It wasn’t hard to find a connection between Caryl Cline and Diane Shober,” Marybeth said. “In fact, it was so easy I’m amazed others haven’t been there before us.”

Joe said, “We don’t know they haven’t been.”

“Agreed. But it might also be an instance where no one has thought to look.”

“Go on,” Joe said. “Are you saying the two of them were associated with each other?”

“I can’t confirm it,” Marybeth said, “but it looks like they had the opportunity to meet each other at least once.”