Heck of a kiss

Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty- one

Josh sat at his battered desk, staring at the computer in front of him. His hair was sticking up in crazy spikes from where he had run his hands through it and his good coat still lay slung haphazardly on the back of his chair where he had thrown it. It had been six weeks since the last bull attack and so far there had been no other activity.

In an effort to make a suspect list, Josh had been spending many hours laboriously going over lists of names trying to figure out who might have been at both rodeos both nights with access to the pens. After almost driving himself crazy from the strain, he had managed to narrow the list down to eight names.

Tucker Walsh

Jabe Carter

Eva Leedy

Gabriel Barton

Drew Artho

Reese Bennet

Bethany Richmen

And Amy Canterwood.

Obviously Amy and Jabe were out, both of them had no motive or opportunity to strike. Bethany and Eva were ruled out because neither of them were strong enough to cut the lock through the whole way cleanly. They would have had to work the cutters back and forth and that would have left different marks.

So that left Drew, Reese, Tucker, and Gabriel.

Before doing anything else, Josh felt like he should probably see Amy and Jabe, to see if they had uncovered anything. The only problem was timing, he didn't want to make it obvious that they were meeting to discuss business but he didn't know if Amy had confided in Lesley so he didn't want to meet at Amy's. Liddy and the kids were busy on the ranch so Josh didn't even have an oppurtunity to bring them over and visit.

However they were all volunteering at a local junior rodeo on Friday, perhaps they could discuss things afterwards.

Despite the fact that none of them were being paid, Josh was looking forward to the junior rodeo. It was going to be young kids, probably from elementary to high school, all competing for bragging rights and buckles. Mostly for fun. It would be a nice change from the hectic and stressful professional rodeos he was used to.

In the back of his mind he was also hoping that this rodeo would help releive some of the stress he was feeling. The flashbacks had been more and more frequent as he had been delving more and more into the investigation and his body as beginning to feel the lack of sleep.

Buzzing from underneath a stack of papers alerted him to the fact that his phone was ringing, digging through the papers until he unearthed the phone. Quickly glancing at the screen, he pressed it against his ear and answered.

"Hey, I got your message."

It was Drew, Josh had called him after the last bull incident to see if he knew anything more than anyone else.

"Listen, I didn't see anything wierd that night, but I've been asking around and everyone I've talked to has a different theory, some of the guys think it's someone trying to frame the bull farm where the bulls are from, others think it was just a prank of some kind."

Silently Josh nodded rubbing his knotted forehead with his free hand. "So no one thinks it's an accident?"

"No, apparently someone found the lock that's kept on the gate cut clean through, and one of the stock handlers got hit on the head that night. I don't know what to think. In either case the person that let the bull out is a sick son of a gun."

"I'll drink to that. Thanks Drew."

Hanging up the phone Josh leaned back resting his arms behind his head. He was no closer to finding the killer than he had been, but at least now he knew that he wasn't alone in thinking that something was off. He knew that the police could brush off Amy's theories as residual scarring from Chad's death but Drew was a third party with no connection to either of them.

The shrill scream of his phone startled him out of his reverie and he snatched up the phone placing it against his ear.

"Hello?"

"I know what you're trying to do. It didn't really work out for the last guy who asked too many questions, so if you know what's good for you. You'll leave this stupid vendetta of yours and walk away."

The connections was cut, and Josh slowly lowered the phone onto the desk, his mind running in a million directions at once. The voice on the other side was a woman, but he didn't recognize it. Which meant that he might have been quick to rule out the women. When he had been profiling the killer he had convinced himself that it was a man. Statistically speaking men were more likely to kill, unless the kill was personl.

That thought stopped him dead. In order for Chad's death to be personal, he had to know the killer, at least a little. Had Chad been having an affair?