Author/Uploaded by C. J. Box
ALSO BY C. J. BOX The Joe Pickett Novels Shadows Reel Dark Sky Long Range Wolf Pack The Disappeared Vicious Circle Off the Grid Endangered Stone Cold Breaking Point Force of Nature Cold Wind Nowhere to Run Below Zero Blood Trail Free Fire In Plain Sight Out of Range Tro...
ALSO BY C. J. BOX The Joe Pickett Novels Shadows Reel Dark Sky Long Range Wolf Pack The Disappeared Vicious Circle Off the Grid Endangered Stone Cold Breaking Point Force of Nature Cold Wind Nowhere to Run Below Zero Blood Trail Free Fire In Plain Sight Out of Range Trophy Hunt Winterkill Savage Run Open Season The Hoyt/Dewell Novels Treasure State The Bitterroots Paradise Valley Badlands The Highway Back of Beyond The Stand-Alone Novels and Other Works Shots Fired: Stories from Joe Pickett Country Three Weeks to Say Goodbye Blue Heaven G. P. Putnam’s Sons Publishers Since 1838 An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC penguinrandomhouse.com Copyright © 2023 by C. J. Box Penguin Random House supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Box, C. J., author. Title: Storm watch / C. J. Box. Description: New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2023. | Series: A Joe Pickett novel; [23] | Identifiers: LCCN 2022055510 (print) | LCCN 2022055511 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593331309 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780593331316 (ebook) Subjects: LCGFT: Detective and mystery fiction. | Novels. Classification: LCC PS3552.O87658 S786 2023 (print) | LCC PS3552.O87658 (ebook) | DDC 813/.54—dc23/eng/20221115 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022055510 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022055511 Cover design: Eric Fuentecilla Cover images: (man on horse) Simonkr / Getty Images; (background) John D Sirlin / Shutterstock Book design by Katy Riegel, adapted for ebook by Maggie Hunt This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. pid_prh_6.0_142549203_c0_r0 In memory of Toby, our first horse, and for Laurie, always Wednesday, March 29 Doctor, doctor, I’m going mad This is the worst day I’ve ever had I can’t remember ever feeling this bad Under fifteen feet of pure white snow —Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, “Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow” CHAPTER ONE Late March in the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains wasn’t yet spring by any means, but there were a growing number of days when spring could be dreamt of. For Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett, this wasn’t one of those days. This was a day that would both start and end with blood on the snow. At midday, he climbed out of the cab of his replacement green Ford F-150 pickup and pulled on coveralls and a winter parka over his red uniform shirt and wool Filson vest. He’d had the foresight to layer up that morning before leaving his house, and he was also wearing merino wool long johns and thick wool socks. He buckled knee-high nylon gaiters over his lace-up Sorel pack boots, then placed his hat crown-down on the dashboard and replaced it with a thick wool rancher’s cap with the earflaps down. On the open tailgate of his vehicle, he filled a light daypack with gear: water, snowshoes, camera, necropsy kit, extra ammo, ticket book, binoculars, sat phone. While he did so, he shot a glance at the storm cloud shrouding the mountains and muting the sun. A significant “weather event” had been predicted by the National Weather Service for southern Montana and northern Wyoming. Joe didn’t question it. It felt like snow was coming, maybe a lot of it, and he needed to find an injured elk cow and put her out of her misery before the storm roared down from those mountains and engulfed him. The interstate highway had closed an hour before, as it so often did because of heavy snowfall, high winds, and vehicle crashes. The winter, thus far, had been brutal. Storm after storm since Christmas, and very little melting. The snowpack in the mountains was one hundred and fifty percent of normal, which was a relief after several years of drought, but getting through it had been cruel. During his lifetime in the Rocky Mountains, Joe had rarely been bothered by long winters, but this year was different. He was getting tired of constant snow making everything he did more difficult. He was located fifteen miles from Saddlestring on a paved but potholed county road that ran east to west, parallel to the foothills. It was on that road that morning that a young male driver en route to a Montana ski resort for spring break had taken a shortcut from the interstate highway. He’d apparently been looking at the navigation app on his smartphone screen when he plowed into a small herd of elk crossing the road. The driver’s car was totaled and had been towed away. The driver himself was under observation at the Twelve Sleep County Medical Center for an injury sustained when he bounced his forehead off his steering wheel upon impact. Two elk had been killed in the collision. A third elk, the cow Joe was after, had been seen by a state trooper who had responded to the accident call. On three good legs, the elk had somehow leapt over the fence beside the road and had last been seen limping away toward the mountains. Joe had heard about the incident over his radio while he’d been in another corner of his district looking for another problematic animal: a one-hundred-and-twenty-pound wolf that had gutted two yearling calves within sight of a rancher’s home. By the time Joe had responded, the wolf had gone and the rancher was furious. Joe had photographed the dead
Author: Lainey Davis; Liz Alden; Danika Bloom; Karen Grey; Tinia Montford; Alexa Rivers; S.E. Rose; Marie Tuhart; Kathy L Wheeler; Sara Whitney
Year: 2023
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