Nightfall Read Online Free PDF Page A

you mean. I’m with
ATF.”
    “ Alcohol Tobacco and
Firearms.” She studied him with interest now and remembered the gun
cabinet back at the cabin. But it wasn’t really unusual. Everyone
out here had guns. Montana had one of the highest rates of gun
ownership in the nation.
    “ And you’re right.” He gave
her a wary look and seemed to decide something. “The ranch gig is a
cover. I’ve been out here five months trying to line something
up.”
    A chill snaked down Holly’s
spine as she noted his grim expression. This man wasn’t here
because of his Chevy. He’d tracked her down because he thought she
was in some sort of danger.
    “ What, exactly, did I
stumble into last night?” she asked.
    He stared ahead at the
road.
    “ Colin?”
    “ A deal was supposed to go
down. A big one. And one of the vehicles involved is a white van.”
He glanced at her. “This was last night at the barbecue joint in
town.”
    “ You mean the one across
from Mae’s, where I stopped?”
    He didn’t say anything, but
his silence confirmed her niggling suspicion that her pit stop was
somehow related to the freak shooting. It had been gnawing at her
for hours. She’d been wondering why her tire was punctured, and if
someone had meant to strand her on the outskirts of town.
Yesterday, she’d thought she’d dozed off at the wheel, but that
explanation didn’t account for the tire. Or the gunshots. Since the
moment she’d woken up this morning, Holly had felt certain there
was nothing accidental about her accident.
    “ This area’s become a drug
route between Mexico and Canada,” he said. “And we have reason to
believe someone local is in on the action.”
    “ Dealing drugs?”
    “ Firearms. We believe one of
the cartels is getting supplied out of Branson County. The drugs
come north, the cash and guns go south. One of our locals gets a
sliver of the pie in exchange for heavy metal.”
    “ You mean like… machine
guns?”
    “ Handguns, machineguns,
whatever the client wants. The guy we’re looking at—he’s a big
collector around here. Only we’ve developed evidence that he not
only collects guns, he shaves off serial numbers and supes up the
weapons before sending them south. Makes a nice profit doing
it.”
    “ So, this guy… what does he
look like?”
    “ Why?” Colin gave her a
sharp look. “You think you might have seen him?”
    “ I don’t know.” She stared
blankly through the window and tried to recall the details from
yesterday evening.
    “ When you were at the truck
stop?”
    “ Someone approached me in
the parking lot,” she told him. “I was climbing out of the van and
had my back to him. He said something like, ‘Hey, you got the
wrong—’ and then I turned around and he looked
surprised.”
    Colin was watching her
intently.
    “ I was wearing my baseball
cap,” she added, “so I figured he had me confused with
someone.”
    “ Did you see what he was
driving?”
    “ An SUV. Maybe a Tahoe? It
was blue or gray, I think. I can’t really be sure.”
    “ What did he look
like?”
    She blew out a sigh, trying
to recall. “I don’t know. Kind of tall and bulky.”
    “ Was he bald? Did you notice
any tattoos on his neck?”
    She slid him a look.
Clearly, he was describing a specific suspect. “I don’t know about
tattoos. He was wearing a camouflage jacket, like yours. But he
wasn’t bald. He had a cap on and white hair peeking
out.”
    “ White hair?” He frowned at her. “Are you sure?”
    “ Yeah, why? Do you know who
it is?”
    He shook his
head.
    “ You know him, don’t you? I
can tell.”
    He shot her a look. “The
less you know about this, the better.”
    Holly shook her head and
looked out the window.
    “ And the sooner you get back
to Bozeman, the better. After this delivery, I’m taking you
straight back to Al’s to pick up your van.”
    Holly stared out the window
at the snowy landscape, and suddenly, it reminded her of cocaine.
It had never occurred to her that