Bitterroot (Billy Bob Holland 3)

"Maybe it was a crank," I said.

"Sure. Anyway, I had the number changed."

"Doc, I don't want to overstay my welcome. Maybe I'm not much help to you here."

He picked at a callus on his hand, then looked away at the river where it was in shadow between the trees. "Everything I do with Maisey is all thumbs. She sees pity in my face and hides her head under a pillow. How bad can one guy screw up?"

I helped him and Maisey gather rocks, and we laid them out on the sunny side of a spruce tree and spread bagged topsoil between them and planted moss roses and petunias and pansies in the soil.

That evening, at sunset, I walked deep into the woods and squatted by the river's edge and tossed pine cones into a long ribbon of green water flowing between two large round boulders. I glanced up at the ponderosa above me and saw L.Q. Navarro sitting on a thick limb, his face in shadow, a gold toothpick catching the sun's last light.

"You wanted Doc to tell you to go home?" he asked.

"Maybe," I said.

"You scared you're falling for that Lonnigan woman? "

"Did I say that? Did I even think that?" I said.

"She's an angry person."

"Her child was murdered."

"If you ask me, she's working on more than one thorn."

"I'd just like a little peace, L.Q."

"Interesting word choice. What do them big round boulders out there in the river remind you of?"

"I'm going into town. You're not coming, either."

"Tell her hello for me," he said.

Early the next morning Doc and Maisey drove into Bonner to get the mail, and I washed the breakfast dishes and watered the rock garden with a sprinkler can. The phone rang inside.

When I answered it, a voice said, "Oh, it's the Lone Ranger again."

"Who gave you this number?" I said.

"What do you care? Put the pill roller on."

"He's not here."

He paused, then said, "I made her come."

"If this is Ellison…"

"That little twist is lying to you, bubba. She knows it was consensual. That's why she didn't identify nobody from the mug shots. Ask her what she whispered in my ear when I…"

I hung up on him and punched in "Star 69" on the phone, then I called the sheriff.

"Ellison or one of the other rapists is harassing the victim," I said.

"How do you know it's them?"

"I'm not even going to answer that question."

"You can ID the call by-"