Breaking Point

back by grasping the saddle horn. He looked around and said, “So he was coming off the mountain when you saw him?”
    “No,” Joe said, dismounting and walking Toby around the perimeter of the camp. “Butch didn’t come down from the mountains. He was going up into them, from the east.”
    “He walked across the Big Stream Ranch to get here, is what you’re saying?”
    “That’s right,” Joe said. “He cut the fence back there and continued on.”
    “Why’d he cut the fence?”
    “Your guess is as good as mine,” Joe said, “but I think he was just frustrated. I think he was striking out at anything that reminded him of you guys.”
    Underwood snorted and shook his head. Then: “Didn’t anyone on the ranch think it was unusual for a guy on foot to be just walking across their property? Doesn’t that Frank Zeller goof have cowboys or farmhands watching the place?”
    “It’s a very big ranch,” Joe said. “Butch Roberson could have easily stayed concealed as he came across. There are some deep irrigation ditches on the meadows down there and plenty of hills to hide behind. Or he might have crossed it before daylight—I don’t know.”
    “Or maybe he had some help?” Underwood asked, raising his eyebrows.
    “I wouldn’t know,” Joe said, looking up at Underwood.
    Underwood asked, “So if he was coming up from the ranch when you saw him, how did he get here in the first place?”
    “I’d like to know that myself,” Joe said. “His truck isn’t parked anywhere down there, but he indicated he’d walked all the way.”
    “So someone dropped him off,” Underwood said.
    “Yup.”
    “Which means someone else is involved in this whole thing. Do you have any theory on who that might be?”
    Joe shrugged. It had been a question hounding him in the back of his mind since the day before. Was it one of Butch’s friends or employees? A stranger he’d commandeered on the road? Or maybe someone closer?
    “I’d like to know who it was,” Underwood said.
    “Me, too.”
    “So maybe he had some help getting out here and some more help getting across the ranch.”
    Joe asked, “How big is this conspiracy going to get before we’re through?”
    “I don’t trust these people,” he said, squinting.
    “And they don’t trust you,” Joe said.
    —
    “S O GIVE ME your best guess,” Underwood said, his eyes probing Joe’s face. “Where do you think he went after you let him get away?”
    “I told you,” Joe said with heat, “I didn’t let him . . .”
    “I know, I know. You didn’t know he was a murderer at the time,” Underwood said sarcastically. “But putting that aside, where do you think he went?”
    Joe looked around, twisting at his waist. He studied the dry forest floor and the slope of the terrain.
    He said, “Because he came from the highway down there to the east, I think his intention was to continue west toward the peaks of the mountains. There’s a lot of wild country up there, and plenty of places to hide out. He knows the mountains from hunting here. What I don’t know is whether he planned to go over the top and drop into the canyons on the west side, or hole up here on the eastern slope.”
    “Why would he go over the top?” Underwood asked.
    “To get farther away from you guys,” Joe said. “He knows the country over there like he does here. I know that because there are two elk areas that run adjacent to each other, Area Thirty-five is this side of the mountain and Area Forty-five is the other side, and both are general elk permit areas, so special permits wouldn’t be necessary. Area Thirty-five opens a week before, so I’d guess Butch hunts this side first, then moves west a week later if he wants to. It just makes sense that he’d be more comfortable hunting east to west. The terrain is easier on this side, more slope and forest broken up by natural meadows and parks. There’s more open feed on this side.”
    Underwood said, “It’s like you’re speaking Greek to me.”
    Joe sighed and said, “Once you go over the top, the country gets tougher. There are a few brutal canyons, including Savage Run. What tends to happen is the elk herds on this side get early pressure from hunters and move over the top to get away from them and hide out in the rough country. My guess is Butch is doing the same thing.”
    “That’s all very interesting,” Underwood said. “But as you said, you’re guessing.”
    “Yup.”
    Underwood sat back and sighed,