Dark Sky (Joe Pickett #21)(31)

“What does that even mean?”

Earl raised the carbine out of the crook of his arm and swung it toward Price. Price’s eyes got large and he sat farther back on the log as if that would make him harder to hit.

“Your crime is enabling this asshole. This guy here,” Earl said. “Mr. Bigshot San Francisco Tech Mogul. He’s going to finally get what’s coming to him. It’s high time.”

“High fucking time,” Brad said in an echo.

“Shut up, Brad,” Kirby whispered from behind Joe, as if embarrassed by his brother.

Earl stepped forward and lowered the rifle so that the muzzle was inches away from Price’s nose. He said, “You killed my Sophia.”

Price flinched and shook his head. “Who?”

“My Sophia,” Earl said. “My Sophia.”

“I killed her?” Price asked, obviously confused. “I don’t even know her. I don’t know anyone named Sophia. Jesus—this is insane.”

Earl’s face got dark and Joe took in a breath, anticipating the rifle fire. He could see Earl’s index finger whitening on the trigger.

“No,” Earl said to Price, “you don’t even know her. She’s nothing to you. Nothing. And that, you little prick, is a big part of our problem here.”

Price looked to Joe and pleaded with his eyes for him to intervene.

“Sophia,” Joe said to Earl as calmly as he could. “She was your daughter, right? Brad and Kirby’s sister?”

“She was.”

“He always liked her best,” Brad said without malice.

Price looked from Earl to Joe to Brad, as if watching the most confusing tennis match he’d ever seen.

“I’m sorry to hear that, I really am,” Price said. “But what about her? How could I hurt someone I don’t even know?”

“Because that’s what you fucking do,” Earl said to him. “That’s how you make millions of dollars.”

Joe wanted to talk Earl down, but he wasn’t sure what to say. He remembered Marybeth looking up from her laptop the year before and saying how sad it was that a beautiful local girl named Sophia Thomas had taken her own life. It was such a tragedy, Marybeth had said. Sophia had been in Lucy’s class at Saddlestring High School. Joe hadn’t known her, but he was aware of the Thomas family, especially Kirby.

Earl said to Price, “You let them torture her until it became unbearable. You allowed that to happen.”

“I still don’t know what you’re talking about,” Price said.

“You’re a liar,” Earl said. “I called you. I called your company thirty times to complain. I left messages every time, but I never talked to one living person and no one ever called me back. All I got was automated voicemail. You just sat there in your fucking headquarters and minted money while my Sophia was being hounded to death.”

Price slumped forward and placed his head in his hands. “I have no idea what’s happening here!” he cried.

Joannides broke in for the first time. “It’s company policy to disregard individual user complaints,” he said calmly to Earl. “We don’t react until there’s a groundswell or unless an important influencer has a reaction online. Steve-2 thinks there are too many users to respond to each and every time there’s a complaint.”

“I wasn’t a user,” Earl said. “I was Sophia’s father and I had to watch her spiral. So fuck your company policy.”

Joannides didn’t argue, but he looked away furtively. Joe noted that he didn’t seem scared or frightened by the Thomases, and he wasn’t bound. That didn’t quite fit with the scenario. Just like the fact that Boedecker still had his weapon.

Just then, Earl gestured to Boedecker in the tent. “You can go now,” he said. “Just don’t tell anyone what you saw here today.”

“I won’t,” Boedecker replied. “Will you let Joe go with me? That was part of the deal.”

“What deal?” Joe asked, stunned.

Boedecker wouldn’t meet his gaze. Joe realized the rancher had been in on it from the beginning. That’s what his early warnings and his antipathy toward the hunting party had been about.

Joe felt sick to his stomach.

“For a year I tried to figure out how to get at this guy,” Earl said to Joe about Price. “But God works in mysterious ways. I never could have imagined he’d be delivered to me. So for that I have to thank you, Joe Pickett.”

“Yeah, thank you, Joe Pickett,” Brad echoed.

Joe looked to Price and saw absolute fear in his eyes.

“I had nothing to do with this,” he said to him.

“Thank the governor, too,” Boedecker said as he stepped out of the tent. “That bastard finally did something right.”

Joe sensed Kirby relax behind him. The knife point was withdrawn, but he still stood there, ready. Kirby lowered Joe’s pack to the ground at their feet. It seemed as if he were about to be released. He doubted Price and Rumy would get the same deal. He wasn’t sure yet about Joannides.

Boedecker grasped his personal gear bag and started to walk in the direction of the horses.

“No,” Earl called to him. “You need to hoof it yourself.”

Boedecker turned. “They’re my horses.”