My 6-year-old granddaughter phoned me in panic just after midnight. “Mommy says the baby is coming! Help!” I asked, “Where’s daddy?” She answered, “He k!cked mommy’s tummy and left.”…..

Dave Gar is taking money to look the other way. And they’re expecting the new sheriff to either join the program or get run out of town. What’s the move? First, we isolate him, make him paranoid, turn his own people against him. Harry pulled out a scrap of paper with notes he’d made during the night. You still got that tow truck, old Bertha? She runs like a dream.

Why? I want you to disable trench truck, but make it look like mechanical failure. Nothing obvious, nothing that screams sabotage. Can you do that? Delmare wiped his hands on a rag, grinning. Harry, I can make a truck break down in ways that would take a team of engineers to figure out when and where.

He drives to the casino in Billings every Tuesday night. Takes Highway 89 through Miller Canyon. That’s 20 m of empty road with no cell service. Consider it done. What else? I need you to spread a rumor. Trent’s bookie in Billings is skimming money from his operation. Make it sound like you heard it from someone reliable, someone with connections to the gambling world. That’s easy enough.

Half the guys who come through here have gambling debts. I’ll drop the rumor with Bobby Martinez. He owes money to three different bookies and has a mouth like a broken faucet. Harry’s next stop was the copper mine in where June was preparing for the lunch rush. The bar was empty except for one old-timer nursing a beer and reading a newspaper that was probably 3 days old. Morning June.