Page 234 of Rangers Last Promise

“No.”

“Where is it?”

Kane goes quiet.

Doc grips the edge of the desk.

“You heard Grant’s message,” he says.

Another pause.

Too long.

Kane is listening to us.

Or watching us.

“I heard it fifteen years ago,” he says.

Cold moves through the room.

“You had the phone,” Doc says.

“Yes.”

“You took it off Grant’s body.”

“Yes.”

Doc’s voice becomes deadly.

“Why?”

“To keep the Colonel from finding it.”

“And then you hid it in Vance’s cellar?”

“No.”

Kane’s answer comes fast.

“Vance took it from me.”

Outside, a rifle cracks.

The front window explodes.

Doc throws me to the floor.

Glass rains over us.

Rangers move.

Weapons clear holsters.

Sheriff Tate shouts into his radio.

I’m beneath Doc, his body covering mine.