Part 4: In This Land of Strangers, There are Dangers

The next day, Walt calls Echo while she was at the cabin drinking her first cup of coffee for the day. "I was going to ride up and speak to Mrs. Ours today, do you wanna ride with me?"

"Sure, let me get ready and I'll meet you in town." she laid her cellphone down and walked into the bathroom to wash her face and throw her jeans and work shirt on.

"Longmire, I knew you said he was wealthy, but I didn't even know there were houses this big here." Echo said while staring at the massive mansion in front of her. It took 35 minutes to drive here from town, and she was grateful Walt is a pretty silent person.

"Yeah, made all his money in oil. He wasn't the nicest man there ever was, so I'm sure it's going to be hard narrowing down his list of enemies." Echo nodded at him as he made it to the front of the house and put the bronco in park.

Linda Ours was a super short and frail looking old woman. Short white hair that was perfectly curled, and you could tell the clothes and jewelry were worth more than anything Echo would ever own. "Sheriff, what a surprise to see you here." she exclaimed from the front door.

Walt took his hat off and held it in between his hands, "Mrs. Ours, I'm sorry to bother you, but do you mind if we come in? It's about Clarence."

A look crossed Linda's face very briefly, and then it was to a look of concern as she ushered her and Walt into the sitting room.

"Can I offer either of you something to drink, tea, water, or coffee?"

Echo and Walt shook their head no, while Walt spoke up. "Mrs. Ours when was the last time you saw Clarence?"

She dropped her eyes to the floor real quick, and then started wringing her hands. "Oh, probably a few days ago. He said he was going to the Casino with some of his associates. He's supposed to come home tomorrow, why? Is everything ok?"

"Mrs. Ours, I'm sorry to inform you. We found Clarence's body yesterday on the Cheyenne Reservation."

Linda covered her face with her hands and started crying. "Linda, I know this is not the best time, but I need to know if Clarence has had any problems with anyone lately. Any one come to mind that he might have recently upset?"

Linda uncovered her face and looked at Walt, "I would really like for you two to get out of my house, now."

Walt stood and put his hat back on, Echo followed him out the front door and back to the car. As soon as they shut the doors, Echo looked at Walt. "She knows something, Longmire."

Walt grinned at her, "Oh yeah she does, it's just finding out what. Call Ferg, tell him to pull her phone records. We're going to take a drive to the casino and have a chat with Nighthorse to see if he'll give us any information."

"I thought Nighthorse hates you?" Echo said, raising her eyebrow at him.

"You're right, and the head of his security I have put in jail before. So...Why don't you ride up there and see if he'll give us anything."

"Yessir."

He dropped Echo off at her truck and headed out to look into the leads that Ferg had found while she headed towards the casino.

Mathias was standing there waiting to speak to Nighthorse when he looked up to see Deputy Aven walk into the casino. "Deputy, funny seeing you here."

Echo turned her sharp green eyes on him, "Officer, what are the odds? How's Buck?"

"He'll make it, I'm sure." Echo just turned up the corner of her mouth and nodded her head at him once.

About that time, Malachi and Jacob Nighthorse appeared. "Well well well, Mathias are we now working with Longmire's goons?" Malachi said as he stuck his thumbs through his belt loops and pushed his belly out to laugh.

"Oh no, I'm not with him. I'm Deputy Aven, I would just like to speak with you for a moment Mr. Nighthorse if you would't mind." She reached her hand out to shake his, but before he could, Mathias spoke up.

"If you're here over the same case I'm here for, then you are here with me. I have my own questions, and the body was found on my reservation, not your land."

Nighthorse looked at both of them for a moment, and then laughed. "Well, I guess both of you can come into my office then. Malachi, come with us as well. I may need you to keep these two apart."

Echo shot Mathias a dirty look and started off behind Nighthorse and Malachi. Mathias grinned once she turned her back, proud that he was able to actually piss her off.

Once they were all in Nighthorse's office, Echo spoke up first. "Sir, Clarence Our's wife said he was supposed to be staying here for a few days with some of his associates, I just need to know if he was here, and if you knew who these associates were."

Malachi started laughing, "Oh, we know who his 'associates' are alright."

"I don't think I'm following why you're laughing."

"Ahem," Nighthorse interrupted, "what my head of security is trying to say, Deputy Aven, is that our dearly departed Clarence did frequent this establishment. However, it was with a woman, never the same. I don't know the women, never seen them before. He would have a car pick them up from the airport and bring them here. You can use your imagination on what they were here doing for the week."

"Yeah, I can show you around a hotel room too, if you know what I mean." Malachi said, rubbing his belly and blowing a kiss at her.

Mathias and Nighthorse yelled, "Malachi!" at the same time.

Echo ignored the whole thing, "Thank you so much for your help, Nighthorse. If you can think of anything else that could be useful, you know how to get ahold of us. Have a good day." she turned and headed out of the office door.

Nighthorse looked at Mathias, "Well she looks like shes going to be a lot of fun."

Mathias smirked, "She looks like shes going to be a major pain in my ass. I don't have any further questions, you already answered them. Have a good one."

Mathias hurried from the office, he wanted to see if he could catch the deputy before she got in her car.

Rushing out into the parking lot, he looked side to side to see if he could catch a glimpse of her.

"Looking for me, Officer? A little creepy don't you think?"

Mathias turned around to see her standing there up against the wall, right beside the door he just rushed out of.

"Yeah, I am. I want to know why you're investagating my case and keeping what you're finding to yourself? This is MY case, the body was found on MY reservation and you're just walking around like you own the place, but you don't. You need to remember that."

Echo pushed herself from the wall and walked towards him, her red hair loose and blowing around in the wind. "If you're mad at me cause you can't do your job, Officer, you need to take that out on yourself. I can't help it I'm doing better than you. Please do not hesitate to reachout to Longmire if you need answers."

"You're a stubborn ol' bitch, aren't you?" he yelled at her as she had walked past him and was heading towards her truck.

"It's kept me alive this long, Officer. I'm not about to stop now."

Mathias turned and punched the hood of his car as she pulled away. He'd never met someone so aggravating.