Wolf Pack by C. J. Box

Author:C. J. Box [Box, C. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9780525538196
Google: TLmHDwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B07FLZYJD8
Barnesnoble: B07FLZYJD8
Goodreads: 40873345
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Published: 2019-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

RYLE HAMM ANSWERED the telephone when Joe called Katelyn’s house in Shell. It was after dinner and Joe had repaired to his garage.

“Hey, Ryle. This is Joe Pickett. Sorry to call you at home, but could I talk to your wife?”

“Hey, Joe. How are things on the other side of the mountain?”

“Odd,” he said, still stinging from the encounter he’d had with Bill Hill. “That’s what I wanted to talk to Katelyn about. I’ve been trying to get in touch with her all day.”

“Just a second.”

Because Joe was calling the Hamm landline, the reception was much clearer than when he and Katelyn conversed via cell phones from bouncing pickups in the mountains. Therefore, he could distinctly hear her whisper, “Tell him I’m not home.”

Joe frowned and wondered for a moment what he’d interrupted.

It took twenty seconds for Ryle to come back on the line. He cleared his throat, and said, “I guess she’s not back yet. When I see her, I’ll give her the message to call you.”

“I thought I just heard her.”

Ryle paused a long time, and Joe could envision him imploring Katelyn to take the handset from him or at least give him more direction.

Finally, Ryle said, “You must have heard one of the boys from the back rooms. Or maybe the TV. Anyway, I’ll let her know you called.”

Joe was certain the voice he’d heard was Katelyn’s.

Joe said, “I’ve left a bunch of messages on her phone. Do you know if her phone is working?”

“I think it is.”

Another long pause. Then: “She might have been out of cell range. You know how that goes sometimes. But I’ll let her know.”

Joe said, “Tell her it’s about that POI we’ve been investigating. She said she wanted in on that.”

“POI?”

“Person of interest.”

There was more whispering in the background, but it was muffled. Joe guessed that Ryle had covered the handset microphone with his hand.

But why? Joe got an odd sense of déjà vu that harkened back to his college years, when he was pursuing a girl for a date to the football game who’d decided she didn’t want to go with him but couldn’t make herself tell him outright. Instead, she made herself unavailable and had a roommate run interference.

In this scenario, Ryle was the roommate. The girl had been Marybeth. Fortunately for Joe, he’d been too dense and determined at the time to pick up on the nuance.

“I’ll pass that along when I see her,” Ryle finally said. Then: “Gotta go.”

Ryle couldn’t have sounded any more uncomfortable with being put in the middle, Joe thought.

He placed his phone on the workbench and stared at it for a moment as if it might give him an explanation for why Katelyn Hamm was suddenly avoiding him.

Had something happened Joe didn’t know about? Had he interrupted an argument between the Hamms, or date night? Was she flaky all along and he just hadn’t picked up on it?

Or had somebody scared her off?

He vowed to drive over the Bighorns the next day and find out for himself.

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