“Then you’ve got to squeeze the information out of both of them. One way or another, Shel. Don’t you want to stop AstroGene?” Why was he questioning her commitment, she wondered. I’ve been to a lot of demonstrations, even been arrested, and I’m here looking and asking questions all the time. What does he think there is to find? It’s not like the ant farm is a science lab.

  “Nobody at the ranch seems to know anything,” she told him for what seemed to be the umpteenth time, “not even the ranch manager. The ant farm is completely separate, run by PAS”

  She went ahead and gave Colin her report of activity for the past week. Again, there wasn’t much concrete. She was aware of work going on inside the ant farm building but only because of comments by Matt that he and his guys were helping out once in a while. Colin had some very specific questions about the building’s interior. Christ, she thought, he knows more about that building than I do, like he’s been there.

  Colin then proceeded to question her about her last two weekly reports in great detail. She was impressed by his memory of them, and she did her best to answer him calmly despite the way he was talking down to her. It was like being cross-examined, having to justify every statement or conclusion she came to. She had to admit that he was able to draw out observations or facts she had not put in the reports. Was he that good at deducing what was going on or did he have another source of knowledge about the ranch, its facilities and personnel, she wondered.

  They were approaching the stairs that would take them back up to the parking area. Shel was relieved that the meeting was almost over. At the top of the stairs they were out in the strong wind again, although the rain had stopped for the moment. As they approached her car, Colin’s tone and mood lightened. About a hundred yards from the car he stopped her, and they faced each other.

  “Look, Shel, I’m sorry if I was hard on you, I know I can be that way sometimes. This is important, and I’m depending on you to help me out. I gave you the third degree so you could see what sort of information we can get when you are observant, disciplined, and analytic. The more you can give me, the more likely I can figure out what AstroGene is doing and put a stop to it. I know that’s important to you, and I appreciate what you’re doing here and the fact that you moved across the country to do it. Thank you.” He reached out to shake her hand, and she responded after a split second of hesitation. The handshake he gave her was warm, sincere, and he smiled generously through it.

  “Don’t forget,” he said, when they released their hands. “The car might be bugged, so don’t say anything.”

  He was Cousin Colin again, and they talked about the river and the falls as she drove him to the airport to take his flight to . . . wherever. She assumed it was Boston, but she realized she had no idea where he came from or where he was going. He was all smiles as she dropped him off. He wished her well and told her to say hello to her mother—“Auntie Brooke”—for him.

  Back in her apartment she poured herself a tall, stiff drink. The day had been disconcerting and stressful. Partly it was Colin’s mood changes, which she imagined could have been part of an act to mislead anyone watching, but there was something she couldn’t quite identify. Sure he was pushy, brow-beating her about the reports and details of the ranch, but he often seemed to know the answers in advance. He seemed to know an awful lot more about the workings of the ranch than she did after being there two months. He’s strange, the whole thing feels strange. I don’t know what it is. I will keep at it, she told herself. Colin may be a jerk, but he’s committed. He’s taking action, and so am I.

  Chapter 6

  Matt parked his truck on the north side of Highway 89 at Stockett Road a few minutes early on Friday afternoon and waited. The meeting time was supposed to be at five, and he had messaged Jackie’s friend Doris before leaving the ranch to confirm that they were on time. She replied that they were five or ten minutes either way, but close. It was easily a five and a half hour drive from their home in Billings to Great Falls, and Matt hoped Charlie had not been a burden for them because they were doing Matt, Jackie, and Charlie an enormous favor. His thoughts flickered back and forth between the video-link call with Charlie two weeks before when he had told Charlie about the trip and Charlie had been so excited, and his own planning and imagining of their outing.

  It was a warm dry afternoon with light wind from the west and a fair amount of cloud cover. He got out and stood beside his truck, leaning on the fender, watching the westbound lane as traffic approached across the flat prairie. Which one would it be? Finally a car approached with its turn signal blinking, and he stood up, his heart beating faster as the car slowed and turned off the highway.

  Charlie was already waving to him from the back seat when the car stopped in the cloud of dust it had raised. Matt stepped toward the car as Charlie fumbled with his safety belt then had it off, opened the door, and ran to Matt. “Daddy! We made it!” He threw his arms around Matt’s neck as Matt bent down, arms wide open, to pick his son up for a hug. At seven years old, he was just a little more than four feet tall and sixty pounds, not a skinny kid but not much fat on him either.

  “I’m so glad t’ see you,” Matt told him. They hugged for a few seconds, then Matt walked to the car and set the grinning child back down as Doris lowered her window. She was fortyish and had brown hair, a tanned face, and a friendly, smiling expression.

  “It’s good to see you again, Matt. How are you?”

  “I was fine before, and I’m better now, thanks.” Still holding Charlie’s hand, Matt bent down so he could see Chad in the driver’s seat. “Hello, Chad. Thanks t’ you both for givin Charlie a lift.”

  “Not a problem, Matt.”

  “Jackie says hi and hopes you two have a good weekend,” Doris told him.

  “That’s great. How’s she doin?”

  “All fine. That baby Joan is two and a half now, can you believe it? They’re going to see Pete’s family in Broadview for the weekend.” She turned to Chad. “Pop the trunk, will you, so Matt can get Charlie’s bag.” She turned back to Matt. “There’s one in the back seat, too, with all the games and books and such.” Matt took the overnight bag and a sleeping bag out of the trunk, and Charlie retrieved his travel bag from the back seat. Matt had him check that he had all his belongings and smiled to Doris as Charlie looked again to make sure nothing was left on the seat.

  “Don’t throw anythin y’find back there away till after you pick Charlie up,” he told her as Charlie closed the back door and ran back to Matt. “Bye, guys. See you Tuesday mornin,” he said, and Charlie added a goodbye too as Chad put the car in gear and pulled forward to wait for a break in the traffic so they could continue on to Great Falls.

  Matt put Charlie’s bags in the bed of his truck and opened the door so Charlie could get in and slide across. Charlie struggled with the safety belt, so Matt helped him fasten it and checked that it was properly adjusted. Charlie was excited as much by the prospect of sitting in the front seat as anything else. “I’m ready,” he said, stretching himself up tall to see through the windshield. A break in the traffic came and Matt gunned the truck across the highway and along the county road south toward the ranch.

  The questions began almost immediately.

  “Are we going camping?” Charlie asked. Matt nodded. “Can we catch fish and cook them ourselves?”

  “We’re goin t’ my house tonight and tomorrow mornin we’ll go t’ a place I know over by Smith River and try our luck.” Looks like he’s grown a few inches since Christmas, Matt thought. And he’s glad to see me too.

  “Can we explore? Are there caves?”

  “We’ll definitely take a look around,” Matt told him with a smile. Caves—there’s always got to be caves for boys. So it continued for a few more minutes until Charlie ran out of questions and pulled out his game tab. Matt watched the road, stealing an occasional glance. It felt so good to see him again. This is going to be a great weekend.

  Once they arrived at Matt’s prefab on the ranch, Charlie carried his bags in and put them by the couch while Matt called Eric Taylor, who lived next door with his wife, Evelyn, and their two children. Robert was about Charlie’s age and Claudia two years younger. The three had played well together on previous visits, so Matt had invited them all to dinner, a simple barbecue on his deck. There were few younger children in the neighborhood, so this was as much a treat for Eric’s kids as it was for Charlie.

  The “neighborhood,” as the ranch employees referred to it, was an assemblage of twenty prefab homes strung along a few hundred yards of a side road where many of the ranch employees lived. It began about a quarter mile from the ranch headquarters and had been built when Jimmy Bell took over the ranch nine years before. They were either singles or double-wides, one to three bedrooms, and each had a twenty-foot-square garage. Improvements had been made depending on the desires and ambitions of the occupants: Matt, who had his own one-bedroom place due to his supervisor status, had added a wooden deck on the wind-protected side of his home. Eric had planted some trees and a garden as well as put in a swing set for the kids. Others had gardens or patios. Some of the places that had only been occupied by two or three single ranch hands were still very plain.

  Shortly after Matt finished his call to Eric and started to prepare dinner, Eric’s two kids knocked on the door to invite Charlie to come play with them on their swing set, and he was out and off with them. Once Matt had the meat prepped and potatoes in the oven, he set about arranging chairs on the deck and getting the grill ready. Evelyn came over and asked if their neighbors Hunter and Crystal Jackson could come join them for dinner. Matt had planned the dinner with Eric’s family as a pitch-in dinner for which he would provide only the main meat course, and he was happy to agree even before Evelyn said the others would be bringing food as well. He asked her if she and Eric could bring an extra folding table and a few chairs.

  “He’s grown since last fall,” Evelyn told Matt as they arranged plates and serving dishes in the kitchen.

  “They do that.” Matt grinned. Then he remembered something and turned toward the open sliding door to the deck and called, “Charlie, come here a minute. We have t’ measure!” A moment later Charlie came running with the other two children close behind. Matt had already found a pencil and a tape measure in one of the kitchen drawers. “OK, shoes off and up against the wall.”

  Matt’s mile-wide grin matched his son’s as Charlie stood with his back to the wall beside the sliding door. Matt laid the pencil across the top of Charlie’s head, sighted along it to be sure it was level, and just before he marked the wall, Charlie inhaled and straightened a bit more so the pencil was up another eighth inch when Matt made the mark. “Got it,” Matt said. He heard Evelyn chuckle behind him as Charlie slid out from under the pencil and turned to look at the mark.

  “How much?” he asked, bouncing up and down and almost shouting with glee at their ritual. The other two children were watching wide eyed, caught up in the excitement.

  Matt gave the mark a couple more strokes of the pencil to darken it, wrote the date beside it, and measured to the floor. “Forty-eight and a half,” he called out. “One and a quarter more than last fall! You’ll be up t’ the sky in no time.” The adults laughed, including Eric, who had just arrived and poked his head in to see what the excitement was. Charlie examined the marks on the wall closely, showed them to Robert and Claudia, grinned at Matt, and was back outside as fast as he could put his shoes on again. Matt was filled with a mixture of pride and joy, and as the kids went out the door he took another long look at the marks, six of them now.

  On Matt’s deck there were eight, which was a bit crowded, but the food was good and the beer cold. They talked about the long weekend coming—one of the anticipated highlights being that the owner of the ranch, Jimmy Bell himself, was expected at the big Memorial Day barbecue on Monday.

  **

  Matt and Charlie were up early Saturday for their camping trip. It was chilly as Matt walked almost half a mile to the main storage shed to get the off-road ranch truck he had reserved for the weekend. After breakfast and packing the truck, they headed down to the main road and south into the central area of the ranch. Matt had in mind a place on the Smith River to the southwest where a creek came in from the Little Belt Mountains. There was a good-size flat next to the river on one side and cliffs on the other, and the creek came out of the rising forestland behind the flat. They parked at the back of the flat near the creek, twenty feet from the first trees. Matt stretched after getting out—the drive had taken over an hour and been rough. The quiet of the place— a little wind in the trees and the sounds of the creek and river flowing by—took him by surprise. Charlie was ready to go. He ran over to the rocky bank of the creek, walked along a few yards, and shouted, “There’s fish, Dad. Can we catch some?”

  Matt came to take a look. They were mainly six-inch or so trout, not keepers. “They’re too small, Charlie. We’ll walk along the crick and take a look in the river t’ find some good spots and fish this afternoon when it’s warmer. Let’s walk up into the woods and see what’s there.” They hiked up the creek for an hour trying to keep to sunny spots along the banks as the day warmed up. The creek itself was as wide as a one-lane road. The banks were rocky, and occasionally Matt and Charlie would pass a pool or a large boulder that created a burbling rapids. They saw some larger fish and talked about fishing. It was midday when they returned to the truck and dug out enough of their supplies to have lunch. Clouds were scattered in the sky, and the day warm enough after lunch to explore along the river, which made a broad curve around the flat with gray stone cliffs rising on the far side. The river was more like highway width. It ran at a jogging pace and was shallow, sandy, and gravelly on their side. The other side was rocky at the cliff base. The wet rock and gravel smell of the river blended with the pine scent of the forest as the splashing sound of the moving water mingled with bird calls. They walked a mile or so north, downriver, to a point where the cliffs were lower and stepped back on the other side. On their side the forest receded up the hill, leaving wide grassland before them.

  Charlie spotted them first. “Look, Dad, are those caves? Can we go see?” Matt looked to where Charlie was pointing and saw what appeared to be a couple of openings in the rock faces across the river. More like holes than caves, he thought. If we can cross here, it’ll be easy enough to climb up. Hope they’re empty. Bees or wasps would be bad.

  “Tell you what, we’ll look at those tomorrow. This afternoon we have t’ pitch our camp and walk back up the crick t’ catch some fish. Let’s go back now and put up our tent, then we can collect firewood and be ready t’ cook dinner.” It was all adventure for Charlie, so back to the truck they went. It took over an hour to organize camp, mainly because Matt let Charlie help with everything. The work included setting up the tent, unpacking their food and sleeping bags and clothes, bringing rocks from the creek to make a safe campfire, and giving some consideration to where to store their food out of the reach of bears. Somehow Charlie held on through another long walk up the creek, catching a couple of decent-size trout, walking back, and finally making dinner, which included cooking the trout over their campfire. Matt had to wake him up during dinner so he could finish chewing the bite of fish in his mouth. All in all, thought Matt as the sun set and the sky darkened, a good day.

  Sunday was much the same, except Matt contrived for them to take an afternoon nap so they could stay up late enough to see the dark night sky with so many more stars in it than even a small town, much less Billings, could ever hope to have. Monday they packed early in the chill of morning, made one last foray up the creek into the woods, and drove back to Matt’s prefab, arriving before one.

  They joined the Memorial Day barbecue on the patio behind the admin building about two o’clock. Everyone was expected to be at this barbecue to help; it was almost like a work day. Matt had put time in on Thursday and Friday setting up and expected to work Tuesday with cleanup. Some friends and relatives were invited, but mainly this was a kickoff for the busy summer season of work on the ranch. When Matt and Charlie arrived, at least sixty people were already on the patio, and more were expected.

  Matt sought out Eric and Evelyn to find where their kids were so Charlie could play with them. He and Eric spoke for a couple of minutes before Matt moved on through the crowd. He greeted Eddy and Alan, his maintenance and construction crew, then said hello to Hunter and Crystal. In the distance he saw Jimmy Bell walking and talking with Tom, the assistant ranch manager, but he decided to steer clear for now. He knew at some point his turn would come. He saw Shel talking with Bridget, Tom’s wife, and a few other women. She looked good, he thought. He decided to head over to tell her about his camping trip with Charlie.

  He stopped, or was stopped, to talk to a few people as he made his way toward Shel. When he finally got to her, he was disappointed to find that Tom and Jimmy Bell had joined the group of women. Tom was making the introductions.

  “Jimmy, this is Shel Perry, our new bookkeeper. She’s doing a fine job.”

  “I’m happy to meet you, Shel. That’s short for Michelle?” She nodded and smiled at Jimmy as he extended a hand in greeting. “How do you like it here? You came from back east? Boston, is that right?” His voice was loud and gravelly.

  “I am really happy to be here, Mr. Bell—”

  “Call me Jimmy, everybody does.”

  “OK, Jimmy,” she said it hesitantly. “I like working here. Everyone has been really friendly and helpful to me.”

  “After Boston it must seem kind of slow. You aren’t bored are you?”

  “No, not at all. I live in Great Falls, where there is plenty to do and see. Matt here”—she gestured to Matt who had been listening—“is helping me remember how to ride horses and has shown me around the ranch.” Before Shel even finished her sentence, Jimmy turned, smiled, and started to greet Matt, talking over her.