Chapter 12

An icy shiver trailed down Sam's back. Even Nevadan summer mornings could get down to thirty degrees. But that wasn't why Sam shivered. Someone was watching her. She tried to ignore it by thinking about the Phantom. That morning when she jumped out of bed and ran out of the door, she saw what she knew was going to be there. There was no trace that the Phantom had been there.

Turning Ace in a slow 90 degree angle, she about jumped a foot when she saw who was behind her. Jake Ely.

"Jeez, Jake!" exclaimed Sam, heart pounding. "Talk about giving someone a heart attack!"

Jake smiled his lazy tomcat grin. "Good mornin' to you too, Brat."

The sun wasn't coming up completely yet, but by the yellowish haze on the horizon, Sam figured this would be another stifling hot day.

"So where do we start?" Sam asked, looking down at the desert wasteland and wondered what Jake saw there that she never did.

"I already was lookin' by Three Ponies down to here, not that you expect the Phantom to be by my house. Jus' in case, you know."

Sam nodded. Ace pawed the ground in annoyance. "I don't know about you, Ely," Sam joked, "But my horse is itching to go!" with that, she tapped Ace, not that he needed any boost, and off they went.

"Remember down at Monument Lake and when we chased Star?" Jake asked sometime later. They were over by War Drum Flats, and Sam was getting a head ache from staring into the rising sun for so long.

"How could I forget?" Sam said.

"When I wasn't running, we rode double. I figure that if we're tracking a horse and a rustler, we can't mess up their tracks." Jake said logically.

Sam nodded. "So you're saying we have to ride double?"

"Yeah." Jake agreed. "So you need to dismount and get up here behind me."

Sam was irritated that poor Ace would have to be sent home. "I know how to dismount, Jake Ely." she retorted, climbing off the reluctant little bay.

Jake chuckled. "Don't git your pants in a twist."

Sam dramatically faced him, hands on her hips. "Is that suppost to mean something?"

"Come on, Brat. We're wastin' time." Jake grabbed her hand and helped her up behind him on Witch.

...

"Jake! What's that over there?" Sam gasped not five minutes later. There had always been tumbleweeds scatted everywhere. But the clump Sam saw was smashed down in the back and upright in front. Sam frowned.

Jake lowered his voice, not turning around to look at Sam while he spoke, "Looks like someone was spying on the Phantom behind those weeds."

Sam's eyes widened as Jake swiftly dismounted off of Witch and ground-tied her. Jake didn't go past five feet away from the evidence.

Sam sighed impatiently five minutes later. She didn't see why Jake could stare at something for so long and not go insane.

"'Kay," Jake said finally, ignoring Sam's intolerance. "I've found something."

He didn't say to come over by him, but Sam disregarded Witch when the mare snorted as she descended from her. Jake stopped her by him and pointed to a single standing tumbleweed. Sam had to look at it for awhile before she noticed it had tiny dots of brown.

"So, it's dying." Sam announced. "What's important about that?"

Jake sighed, but he looked at her in amusement. "Tobacco."

"It's tobacco?" Sam said excitedly. "You mean our bad guy is a tobacco chewer?"

Jake shook his head slowly. "Don't know for sure. But let's get back up on Witch and go farther."

Ten feet away smudged hoof prints were visible, and Sam excitedly opened her backpack and took out her camera. She snapped a picture of the prints.

Jake's mustang eyes looked excited, the way they got when he found something. "Pretty obvious." he muttered. "That's where he shot Blackie."

Sam's stomach turned when he said "shot Blackie".

The Shoshone cowboy looked up at her from the ground, and he noticed her discomfort. "Blackie's fine." he reassured Sam, climbing back up on his horse. He surprised her by letting her sit in front of him. Witch seemed to sigh with annoyance, but neither Jake or Sam acknowledged it.

When Sam and Jake used to always ride double Jake's arm around her stomach never used to feel like that. She was afraid that he would feel the butterflies in her stomach. Was it just her or was he holding onto her differently?

"Gee, Brat, wipe that weird expression off your face and let's go!" Jake peered into her face, looking like Gram did when she was taking Sam's temperature.

Sam nudged Witch forward, walking her, carefully avoiding the foot prints. Witch, thinking she was getting the permission to trot, began to make Sam and Jake bounce across the rocky terrain. Then Jake's hands slipped up on his grip around Sam's abdomen and Sam was acutely aware of her red face.

"Uh, um, well-" Sam stuttered dumbly, cringing. Sam's trademark quote was "I just missed a good chance to shut up." It certainly applied there.

The way Jake kind of uneasily loosened his grip told Sam that he was plenty embarrassed.

"Look!" Sam cried, louder than usual. "Someone took off in a hurry, look at those skid marks."

Witch stepped cautiously three steps further, and Jake sat back in the saddle observing the tire marks. "It was four-wheel drive. Looks like they parked it about a hundred feet from the road."

The road he was talking about was a one lane, unpaved road that meandered through War Drum Flats. Sam knew from experience that it was terrible to drive on and you could see the next person in front of you; even if they were ten miles away.

"Brat, I think I've found somethin'." Jake interrupted, and Sam followed his line of sight. There, standing against the skyline of the western desert playa was the Phantom. With a rope around his neck.