She linked her arm in his. “We’ll forget about worrying about the bomber. Let’s talk birthing.” The sheriff had just said more to her right now than he’d said in a year.

LeRoy nodded. “I watched the birthing four times and listened to every detail of eleven more. I even had to drag my son-in-law out of the delivery room twice after he fainted. The nurse said no one had time to worry about him, so I took on the job.”

Jenny patted his arm. “Tell me all about it, Sheriff. We’ve got an hour to wait.”

Chapter 37 - Hank

Chapter 37

Hank

Hank and Ketch moved through the old abandoned train yard. Shacks and piles of forgotten track were scattered between rusting railroad cars and the river. At one time there had been a small depot and a train that stopped every day, but as roads improved, the freight was transferred to trucks. Long trains still ran through Clifton Bend, but they no longer slowed.

Hank felt alive as he moved in the night, and Ketch was right beside him. They were both cut from the same cloth. Men of action.

Once in the center of the yard, Ketch whispered, “Do we split up?”

Hank nodded once and blinked his flashlight at the three sheds on the right as he moved off to the left.

They searched, both men in sight of the other. Both traveled as silently as the breeze off the water.

Hank waited until Ketch’s flashlight blinked once, and then his shadow moved toward the next building on his side of the yard. Hank turned toward the little box of a building that had once been a depot.

The windows had been boarded up, but the door sagged open. Years of wind had swept a carpet of leaves and tumbleweeds inside.

Two blinks toward Ketch and the soldier was at his side. “Nothing here,” Hank said.

Neither man talked more than necessary as they moved to addresses LeRoy had given them. If Hank had been in Houston, he’d have experts with him and dogs to sniff out explosives.

They checked the homes of the two guys Bull had talked to in the pizza place. Nothing. No car at one house, and the other address had a van left unlocked. Again nothing. Either the men weren’t involved or they’d made a real effort to cover their tracks.

Just to make sure, they checked out the Wills boys’ unlocked garage. Again nothing.

If the pipe bombs were not in the work shed or the cars, Hank feared the worst. They were already in place. But where?

The stage that had been built on campus over the weekend was his first thought. Hank had checked it the past two nights, and he’d bet Ketch had also. The stage seemed the most likely place to put a bomb if you wanted to stir up trouble. Too obvious, Hank decided.