Walter was moving forward with Aztec. He had no idea what was up ahead, since Jason hadn’t told anyone. Most had turned to follow Jason, thinking he was temporary field master.
The boar had no desire to chase the horse or the people. His mission was to find the female whose perfume had reached him a half hour ago.
Sister, not dismounting, slid from Magellan to Aztec, who had calmed down next to Clemson, Walter’s bombproof older hunter.
“Where’s the field?”
“I don’t know,” Walter said.
“Jesus!” Sister’s face reddened. “Listen!”
Hearing Shaker’s horn, Sister said, “Tedi, kick on. Edward, too. Take the field. Don’t listen to Jason.”
Walter turned to the horn, but he waited a moment for Sister and Betty.
Sister reached over to Betty. “It’s not over.”
“I know.”
With that, both women left Walter in the lurch. Angry, he squeezed Clemson to catch up, but their horses were younger and faster, so he followed Tedi and Edward, also moving fast.
Sister reached the hilltoppers first as Betty pulled away to go to Shaker, who didn’t know anything had happened.
“Ben, he got away,” Sister said, voice low.
Ben reached into his pocket and plucked out his cell phone to call the deputies on the road.
“Bobby, you have one hell of a wife.” Sister then blew by the rest of them, calling out, “Tedi and Edward will lead you. They’re coming up behind. Wait for them.”
She rode up to Shaker and filled him in. Betty had not done so, feeling it was more important to take her position at ten o’clock from the hounds. She was right in this, as there was nothing any of them could do about Jason at the moment.
“Let’s pick them up. He’ll kill anyone or anything in his way, and we don’t know where he is.” Sister told her huntsman, “Hold hounds for a moment.”
Trudy sat on her haunches. “What was that ugly thing?”
“Big old fat wild pig, that’s what,” Asa informed her. “He would have cut us up like flank steak.”
“Quicker than you think, those pigs,” Cora commented.
“How come we haven’t smelled them before now?” Diddy asked a good question.
“They keep to themselves except during breeding season.” Ardent hated boar.
“And they’re in the mountains. Paradise runs into all that billy-goat land we hunted last week. You won’t find them at Tattenhall Station or Tedi or Edward’s.” Diana studied game just as Sister and Shaker did.
“Well, they’ll come down if food is scarce. They’ll trot fifty miles and not think a thing of it.” Ardent thought it odd that a wild pig will hurry along to a foraging spot, then, when close, slow way down.
“Hope I don’t see another one.” Trinity had been scared out of her wits.
“Gather round.” Sister waited as the field made a semicircle around her. “Ben, do I have permission to announce our suspicions, which I believe are now confirmed? Everyone’s safety is at stake.”
“Yes.”
The sheriff’s one-word answer riveted everyone’s attention.
“We believe that Dr. Jason Woods killed Iphigenia Demetrios.” She waited while that sunk in. “He is armed, extremely dangerous, and highly intelligent. I want everyone to stick together on the ride back. In those places where it’s tight and you go single file, look to the person in front, then back. If anyone falls out of your sight line, holler. Loud.”
“Why won’t he just ride back to his trailer and take off?” Henry Xavier asked.
“Since he now knows that we know, he’ll assume I have officers at the trailers and on the crossroads in every direction. He’s going to keep clear,” Ben replied. “I will ride tail for the hilltoppers. I’ll be the last person in the line. I think we’d better move along.”
“Shaker…” Sister meant to tell him to move on. Then she suddenly exclaimed, “Where’s Sybil?”
“Still on the left, I hope,” Shaker, worried, replied.
“Did you blow her in?” Sister asked crossly.
“Of course I did.”
“I’m sorry, Shaker. I know better. I’m on edge.”
“If I’d nearly been gored by a boar, I’d be on edge, too, and we don’t know where that bastard is—the human, I mean.” Shaker removed his cap to wipe his brow, the cold air sharp on his sweating head.
“Blow again.”
Shaker put the brass horn to his lips and blew the notes that sounded like “Whipper-in,” two medium notes followed by one shorter one.
Nothing.
“We need to move on, Sister,” Ben firmly told her.
“I can’t leave her there, Ben.” Sister’s voice was low, soft.
Shaker spoke up. “I’m going with you.”
Tedi and Edward came to them, realizing their daughter had not come back to the horn. Walter also rode up.
“Tedi, you stay with the field. I’ll go,” Edward gently ordered his wife.
“No. This is my fault. He was quicker and more ruthless than I thought. I should have known better.”
“He was lucky,” Shaker said.
“Yes, but smart. He used the boar.” Sister respected her foe. She had underestimated him and desperately prayed that Sybil wouldn’t pay for it.
“I’m going. I’m a doctor.” Walter spoke firmly. “Edward, please help with the field in case someone makes a mistake.”
“What if he comes back to snag a hostage?” Betty had ridden in, since hounds rested.
“Ben’s with them.” Edward wanted to go.
“We’ll have too many people. We can’t risk him shooting all of you. You, too, Shaker.”
“I’m not letting you go!” Shaker noticed Gray riding toward them.
“We can’t risk the pack because I was stupid. He’ll shoot my hounds. No. You, Betty, go back. Edward, get Gray, and get him turned around before he knows what’s happening. Go back. I can outfox this son-of-a-bitch.”
“I’m going with you.” Walter, accustomed to command when necessary, faced her.
“I’m an old woman. If I die, so what? Walter, you’re young. Go back with the others.”
As the others turned, Shaker called the pack, and Betty floated out to the side.
Walter said, “I’m going.”
“I’ll see you back at the trailer, Betty. I owe you.” Sister realized that Walter would not be dissuaded.
Betty, deeply distressed, fought back the tears and nodded.
“Walter, unbutton your coat. You’re wearing a shoulder harness. Make sure you can get to your gun fast.”
He did as he was told. They cantered to where the riders were pulled up and circled until they found Jason’s tracks.
“I’m worried sick,” Walter confessed as they followed the tracks.
Sister replied, “With good reason. This is my fault.”
Before he could protest that it could have happened to anyone, she picked up the pace.
The deer paths were wide. She slowed at one point where fox dens were near a thread of a creek.
She noticed a glob of frozen blood, footprints.
She pushed Aztec from a canter into a gallop, pointing at the blood with her crop.
Walter looked down as he passed. A grim determination filled him. Sister had been caught off guard. He’d been duped by a colleague. He wanted to strangle Jason for that as well as for the harm the other doctor had done.
Jason, moving south toward Chapel Cross, slowed after a half-mile gallop. A sense of direction wasn’t his strong point, so he carried a small global positioning device, which he checked from time to time.
He knew the closer he got to Chapel Cross the more wary he needed to be. There’d be cops everywhere, but he thought he could elude them by dismounting and smacking Kilowatt on his hindquarters. That might divert them long enough for him to cross the road. Once on the other side of Chapel Cross he knew he could steal a car or truck from a farm as the county became more populated.