"I'm surprised you didn't try and sew this yourself with fishing line." "I ran out." "Well, you're a lucky man." "The bullet just grazed you." "No serious damage." "Now you just need to go and buy some lottery tickets and take some time off work." "And, deputy moretti, if you, uh, still have a headache in 24 hours, come back and see me." "A grade two concussion is a really serious injury." "Ripped by mstoll" "It'll be all right." "A little needle and thread, it'll be back to normal." "Yeah." "Walter, where are you?" "Taking that trip to Denver that got interrupted." "Walter longmire, you just got shot." "Yeah." "Just once, though." "Yeah, hilarious." "Anyway, ferg called." "Denver will have to wait." "How you feeling?" "Fine." "Did you get any sleep last night?" "Mnh-mnh." "I was afraid you were gonna stop breathing." "We need to talk about what happened." "What's there to talk about?" "It's over." "Where are you going?" "To work." "What?" "!" "Is that your brain injury talking?" "I still have a job, Sean." "Yeah, and that's the problem." "I'll let you go into work if it's to put in your two weeks' notice." "One of the guys from the prison road crew found it." "The inmates I questioned say some serial killer is roaming the countryside, biting off body parts and eating them." "That's pretty farfetched, obviously." "But, uh, still, I had Ruby run the details through vicap, you know, just in case there is a serial killer with cannibalistic tendencies." "That's not necessary." "It's not?" "These teeth marks are from a small animal." "Something must've gnawed this foot off and dragged it out here, which means the rest of the body can't be too far away." "Good thing we got some extra help." "Oh, you have got to be shittin' me!" "Hey, did you quit yet?" "No." "I'm too busy wondering why my husband was snooping around on my laptop." "What are you talking about?" "You opened up a document that I started writing a week ago -- a private one called "dear Walt."" "That's a clever title." "It's for work, Sean!" "So you think I snuck into your computer and looked at it?" "It was at home " "It was at home, so you're the only one who could have." "You okay?" "I have been better." "I was wondering " "I mean, maybe it's not my place to ask about her..." "Cady's doing fine, Bob." "How about you?" "I haven't had a drink in months." "That's good." "You know, I built that thing." "Well, me and a couple other guys." "You worked construction?" "Yeah, I used to be a pretty good carpenter." "I used to be a lot of things." "Hey, Walt!" "Raccoons." "Give me a hand, ferg." "Easy." "Oh, no." "Oh, you know him, Bob?" "Yeah, that's George linder." "This is his farm." "He hired me to build the barn." "Hell of a nice guy." "Does he have a family?" "Back when I knew him, he did." "His wife's name is dawn." "Had a little girl named Cassie." "If they're not around, maybe they split up." "Tough marriage?" "Tough life." "Guys, Walt has a dead farmer out near shawnee road." "He could use some help." "Why don't you go ahead and go?" "You sure that's a good idea?" "Could be gruesome." "Might trigger feelings of..." "Acute distress that'll hinder my performance." "What did you say?" "That's what you think, isn't it?" "Maybe, but I never said it." "Get over here." "I wrote it in those exact words in a document on my computer." "Have you been on my laptop?" "You tell me." "Apparently, you know me better than I do." "That laptop was at my house, branch!" "Did you break into my home?" "!" "You were missing." "I was trying to find you." "And opening up a document on my computer is gonna help you do that?" "!" "Are you gonna rat me out like your friends Bobby donolato and ed gorski?" "How is that working out for you?" "This macho intimidation bullshit may work on drunk girls at frat parties, but it doesn't work on me, so get the hell out of my face!" "What have we got?" "A farmer named George linder." "Branch couldn't make it?" "He's not feeling 100%." "Right." "Okay." "So, Walt, if the raccoons had enough time to take off the foot, he must've been out here for awhile." "Three to four days, I'd guess." "I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume that he wasn't nibbled to death." "Uh, he was shot in the back." "He was probably trying to run away from someone, or somebody surprised him." "I haven't found any casings yet." "Does this, uh, George linder guy live here alone?" "No." "Apparently, he has a wife and a daughter." "And where are they?" "I don't know yet." "It's not clear if the family's still together." "Ferg." "Why don't you go ahead and call the hospital?" "Make arrangements for an autopsy." "Do you need the number?" "No." "I got it." "Still." "Can we talk?" "Why am I guessing this isn't a personal visit?" "Yeah." "So, um..." "Here's the deal." "My dad was gonna go to Denver with me to help with Henry's case, but, um, he got called away on this murder, so I have a backup plan." "Most professional private investigators cost about $75 an hour." "I'm looking to hire one to do 24 hours of investigation in Denver." "Covering expenses and travel, that will come to about $2,500." "So you want me to loan you more money to help Henry's case?" "And hopefully, um, give a p.I. Recommendation." "The trial's in six weeks, and I really need to track down this Darius guy." "He's my only alternate suspect." "What do you think?" "I think I'm a little offended." "I'm sorry." "I -- why are you asking me for money?" "Why not just ask me to help?" "You feeling okay?" "Yeah." "It's just a little frustrating looking for a bullet casing in an alfalfa stack." "Sheriff!" "That's close enough!" "Why were there convicts crawling all over my land today?" "'Cause I asked them to give me a hand." "Isn't this George linder's farm?" "George farms here." "The land's mine." "And you are?" "Nick holman." "Is there something wrong?" "I wouldn't be here if there wasn't." "Is that George?" "Yeah." "Someone shot him." "Well, I suppose that could've been anybody." "George was always sparring with suppliers and creditors just about every other day." "Money problems?" "George was pretty handy." "But he didn't have the business sense that God gave a 2x4." "He ever spar with you?" "No." "George paid his rent..." "Barely." "But he paid it." "What about his wife and his daughter?" "They live around here?" "Oh, yeah." "Dawn and Cassie, they live here with George." "Well, give them my condolences." "Well, either George's wife and daughter are out of town and don't know he's dead or they do know he's dead and they've already left." "Or maybe a psychopath is holding them hostage and blown their heads off." "You think you should take a break?" "After what you just went through?" "No." "But I do think people should stop acting like they can tell me what to do." "I'm not telling you what to do." "I'm offering you a break, if you want it." "The last thing I need is another deputy whose mind is only halfway on the job." "Who's that?" "What do they want?" "Are you George linder's wife?" "Yes, I'm dawn." "Are you here to evict us?" "No, ma'am." "No, I'm here because someone's been shot." "Who?" "Well, I'm afraid it was your husband." "Hey!" "Hey!" "Lock the doors and windows, Cassie, and get the rifle!" "Do you want me to get the colt, too?" "Here." "Ma'am, what are you doing?" "Getting ready!" "For what?" "Nick holman!" "We just talked to him." "He said to send his condolences." "Well, you give him a message from us!" "He may have gotten George, but there are still two more of us left, and he is not getting us off this land without a fight!" "George and I met while working for Nelson holman, Nick's dad." "Mr. holman leased us this house and all of this land so that we could start our own farm." "Mr. holman sounds like a good man." "He was." "And we thought Nick was, too, until Mr. holman died." "Cassie?" "!" "Where are you?" "!" "You know what?" "I'll go find her." "So, what happened when Nick took over from his dad?" "He decided that his dad's farm wasn't enough." "He wanted ours, too, but the will said that he had to honor the terms of our lease." "Of course, Nick found a loophole." "Our contract didn't say anything about guaranteed water rights, so he started charging us as much as he could for water." "We're paying double our rent just to water our crops." "That has to be tough." "Me and Cassie drive out twice a month to clean rich folks' homes from teton village down to Aspen." "We make ends meet." "Well..." "I'm sorry for your loss." "We're farmers." "Losing just becomes a way of life after a while." " Hey, Ruby." " Hey." "Hey, Ruby?" "Hmm?" "Where's branch?" "Oh, he went off to Denver with your daughter." "Said he was gonna help her out with Henry's case." "Oh." "That's surprising." "Oh, you got visitors." "Glad you finally showed up, sheriff." "Hello again, Nick." "Hey, Ty." "What are you doing here?" "I'm George linder's insurance agent, and Nick was insistent that I come by and make sure that George's life-insurance policy was being expedited." "George also just died, so maybe show some respect." "How about this -- you show some respect, and I'll conduct business over here in the real world." "What sort of business?" "The deadline for georges rent is midnight tonight." "Now, I'd like to direct the life-insurance payout to the rent rather than evict the family." "So, if you could inform me now what recommendation you'll be making on georges death certificate," "I can start the paperwork on the payout." "I haven't got any autopsy results yet." "Until then, I won't be recommending anything." "Vic, could you show Ty out?" "Nick and I need to talk." "So..." "You think you might find the decency to give dawn linder a grace period on the rent until all this is figured out?" ""Decency."" "My father used that word a lot." "He died a broken, decent man at the age of 59 with $200 in his bank account and tens of thousands of dollars in debt." "I sure as hell don't plan on doing the same." "Farming's changed." "20 years from now, there will be 20 farmers in all of Wyoming." "I aim to be one of 'em." "Are you willing to kill a man and take his farm to make sure that happens?" "Dawn linder certainly thinks so." "Well, I'm sure she does." "Did it ever occur to you that maybe dawn got tired of being on the losing end of things and finally took matters into her own hands?" "Excuse us." "Sorry." "So, this is where Henry found the guy who killed your mom?" "Yeah, Miller Beck." "So, here's the plan -- we have to try and prove a connection between him and Darius, prove that maybe Darius hired Miller Beck and then killed him to cover his tracks." "Where do you want to start?" "Management." "Hey, you know this guy?" "Yeah, Miller Beck, right?" "But, uh, isn't he dead?" "He is." "Did he come in here a lot?" "Yeah." "Miller and his pals would come through, mostly try to score junk in the men's room." "I'll show you." "We've got a lot of our old regulars up here." "Uh, here he is." "Who's that guy with him?" "That's tug renton!" "He's dead, too!" "Not the greatest life expectancy with these guys." "You ever see this guy with Miller Beck?" "Uh, I don't know." "Uh, it's been a while now, and I sort of, uh, donated most of my memory when I was in my 20s." "Can I get your info and anybody else who may have known Miller Beck?" "No, actually, that's -- that's fine, yeah." "Just follow me." "Okay." "Hey." "Are you, uh, looking for that guy?" "Yeah, you know him?" "Well, I'll only tell you under one condition." "What's that?" "You let me take your photo." "I've never seen a real cowboy before." "So, you know him?" "Nope." "George linder was insured for... $220,000." "That's a lot of rakes and shovels." "Hey." "Hey." "So, Dr. weston estimates that the victim died three days ago -- as I thought." "And he found a single .38-caliber slug lodged about a half inch from George linder's spine." "Half inch away?" "Yeah." "So the spinal cord wasn't severed." "You thought it was?" "If the spine was severed, that would explain why the victim didn't move after he was shot, and he didn't move because there was no blood trail." "I really need those alibis for dawn and Cassie linder." "And Nick holman." "Okay." "$220,000." "People have shot their spouse for less." "Yeah, well, sometimes the way your husband chews his oatmeal is motive enough." "Vic..." "You and your husband have been through a lot." "Yeah, we have." "He's also demanding that I give you my two weeks' notice and, uh, quit my job." "Okay." ""Okay."" "I just tell you that Sean is demanding that I quit." "And that's all you have to say?" "Well, I recall you're not someone who likes to be told what to do." "I also don't like being treated like a replaceable part." "I understand this is a -- this is a big decision for you." "And what is it for you?" "Uh..." "Well, this department has lost and hired deputies before." "I'm so glad that we could have this little heart-to-heart." "George linder's daughter, Cassie, just called." "Something's going on over at their farm." "Hey, you ever seen this guy?" "I smell" "Bacon." "Ridges." "No." "No." "No!" "What the hell?" "!" "Have you seen a native guy with long hair?" "!" "Get off of me!" "Has anyone seen an Indian with long hair?" "!" "Hey, hey!" "What's happening?" "!" "Did you see Darius?" "No." "David ridges -- he was here!" "This girl, she -- she took my picture, sent it to my phone!" "He was standing right behind me!" "Okay." "Can I see the picture?" "It disappeared." "It's my mom." "I think she might kill him." "Kill who?" "Nick holman." "She grabbed our rifle and went after him!" "Get in the car!" "Hey!" "Stop right there!" "Hey!" "Dawn!" "Dawn!" "You almost killed her!" "She almost killed me!" "He's trying to steal our equipment!" "No, it's mine!" "I'm not stealing anything." "Like hell!" "It's ours!" "No, it is not!" "God, I've been trying to tell her!" "George sold it to me so he could pay his rent last month." "I agreed to lease it back to him on a monthly basis." "Okay, it's now past midnight, so rent is overdue!" "I'll write you a damn check!" "It'll bounce." "I got tired of the late payments, so I told George to set up an automatic payment plan." "If you had any money, it would've been deposited yesterday." "That's impossible." "According to the bank, you're completely dry." "Which reminds me -- your water bill is due in 10 days." "This is not the time." "Oh, yeah, that's right, sheriff." "Yeah, we must be decent." "Right?" "Okay, how about this?" "I won't press charges for the threat on my life!" "Hell, I won't bill dawn for the hole in my windshield!" "Maybe I'm a decent guy after all!" "Huh?" "How about that?" "Did you find David ridges?" "No." "I couldn't find the girl either." "The girl who sent you the disappearing picture?" "Yeah, it must've been one of those apps that lets you send texts and photos that erase themselves." "Like snapchat or something." "You don't believe me." "I hope that you can see why it might be a little difficult for me to believe that a dead man photo-bombed you in a self-erasing picture." "So, then, I'm hallucinating?" "Wouldn't be the first time." "Branch, you see David ridges everywhere." "This is the bar where the guy who murdered my mother used to hang out." "We're supposed to be figuring out who else could've been involved." "Your mother's dead, cady." "I'm still alive." "Okay." "I hope you find what you're looking for." "What are you gonna do now?" "You heard Nick." "The water bill's due in 10 days, and our checking account's empty." "That means I have to harvest as much as I can." "It's gonna be pretty hard to keep this farm running if Nick keeps taking your best equipment." "The starter's not kicking in." "Maybe you could, uh, jump the posts on the solenoid." "All we have to do is sell enough of the crop to pay this month's bills." "And then once dad's life insurance kicks in, we should be okay." "So you know about the life-insurance policy." "Yeah." "Everybody's got life insurance, right?" "Right." "When you and your mother first heard about your father getting shot, you went for a rifle and a colt." "Now, this is the rifle." "I was hoping I could also take a look at that colt." "What caliber was it again -- .45?" "Um, no." "Uh, a .38." "Your father was shot with a .38." "Did you ever find that colt?" "I've been a little busy." "If you know about the insurance, your mom does, too." "You think she knows where that colt is?" "Thank you for all your help, sheriff, but I've got work to do." "I got in late last night, and I didn't want to wake you." "Okay." "I'm sorry that I accused you of going through my computer." "It was a mistake, and I overreacted." "But..." "But what?" "But..." "Today is a new day." "How come you always get to be on top?" "How come you always let me?" "Let you?" "You have to fight your way to be on top." "So, is this how our marriage is gonna work?" "I have to pretend to be weaker than I am?" "No." "I think we're both done pretending." "Hello?" "Hey, Vic." "I was trying to get ahold of my dad." "Um, is he with you?" "No." "Is something wrong?" "When we found George, you weren't sure if he and dawn were still married." "Old George, he was a gentle soul." "Dawn's a bit on the harsh side." "Sort of a natural-born judge." "How about executioner?" "What do you mean?" "Could dawn kill someone?" "Yeah." "Sure." "If they were coming after George and Cassie, she might get angry enough to do it." "You ever see this anger?" "When George, um..." "George..." "When George what?" "Old George tried to kill himself a few years back." "Dawn was pissed off." "At him, at the doctors -- everything." "George was suicidal." "That damn Nick holman was squeezing him for more money." "George came to me and the other boys and said," ""I can't afford to keep you on any longer."" "Then he swallowed a bunch of sleeping pills." "Dawn found him, called the ambulance." "She just couldn't imagine what George was thinking, trying to off himself like that there." "She should've just asked me, I guess." "Bob..." "You've got just a few weeks before you get out." "don't you even think about giving up." "I appreciate the sentiment, Walt." "But what do I have to look forward to?" "It's not the worst idea, you know?" "Cutting your losses and..." "Sailing out into the great unknown." "Now you listen to me, Bob." "You're not the first man that's thought that way." "Plenty others have stared over the edge of that particular cliff." "But if you do something stupid..." "I promise you, I will dig you up myself and kick your ass up and down durant square." "Okay." "Thanks for picking me up at the train station." "So, you left your car in Denver?" "Yeah, I was kind of in a rush." "Did you find out anything about this Darius guy?" "Nope." "But branch thinks he found someone else." "Let me guess -- David ridges?" "Ding, ding, ding." "We were at a bar, and -- and he starts suddenly going on about how some person texted him a picture of himself with David ridges in the background at the bar." "Was there a picture?" "No." "Has he hallucinated before?" "When I went to visit him in the hospital after he was shot, he thought that I was David ridges." "Okay, and what'd he do?" "He attacked me." "Did you tell Walt?" "No." "I was hoping that it was just the medication, but then this happened." "I don't know." "I -- when I look him in the eyes, all I see is this dark, mean, unstable man." "Okay." "Please just have him call the sheriff's office." "Thanks." "Where's Vic?" "Not here." "How'd those alibis check out?" "Well dawn linder refused to give us the numbers to any of her clients." "She was afraid that she'd get fired if a sheriff's deputy called, asking about a murder alibi." "And Nick holman?" "He said he was too busy to talk nonsense." "So we've got three murder suspects without alibis." "Actually, there's a fourth suspect we haven't been talking about." "Who?" "George linder." "The dead guy?" "Turns out, he tried to kill himself a few years ago." "Maybe he tried again and succeeded." "Someone found him." "Shot him in the back to make it look like murder." "I get why someone would try and make a murder look like a suicide, but the other way around?" "Well, suicide would cancel George's life-insurance payout." "An unsolved murder wouldn't." "So, which one of them do you think found and shot him?" "I don't know." "But both the victim's family and Nick holman had their eyes on that insurance money." "We need to get a warrant and search both of their properties for a colt .38." "Yeah." "Thanks for coming out on such short notice." "I'll take any excuse to get out of the office." "Have you determined the nature of George's death yet?" "Not yet." "But there's bound to be good news for you either way." "Appears George was shot with his own gun." "Suicide would invalidate his policy, so your company wouldn't have to pay out the $220,000." "It can't be suicide." "How could George shoot himself in the back?" "So you read the confidential autopsy report." "It's a small town." "People talk." "Uh-huh." "Well, um..." "That must mean that George was actually killed by a family member." "Now, dawn is the main beneficiary of the policy." "When she's arrested, that should save you a lot of money." "Dawn didn't kill George." "How do you know that?" "Dawn and Cassie were out of town." "That means it must've been your friend..." "Nick holman." "He's always had his eye on taking over this farm." "He seems pretty comfortable taking George's property." "Maybe he took George's colt, as well..." "And shot him with it." "Maybe George had an accident?" "Maybe he dropped the gun." "See, if it was an accident, the colt would be here." "It wasn't." "It's not at his house either." "I'll tell you what I did find at his house." "George's cellphone." "You were the last person he called." "Phone records say the call lasted for 12 minutes." "Were you trying to talk him out of another suicide attempt?" "He swallowed sleeping pills the first time." "We haven't run a tox screen yet to see what it was this time, but I could call the hospital right away and ask for one, and -- no." "don't." "It was the sleeping pills again." "George, wake up!" "I'm calling the ambulance!" "Too late." "I took all of them." "You're a good friend, Ty." "You were right." "I did it all wrong the last time." "What did he mean?" "When he first tried to kill himself," "I tried to talk some sense into him." "What'd you tell him?" "That if he killed himself, dawn and Cassie would never collect on the insurance policy." "What I meant was that suicide wouldn't solve anything." "But he heard something different." "I want you to shoot me." "What?" "!" "After I'm dead, so it looks like a murder and my girls can get that money " "just like you said." "Get rid of the pills and the gun when you're done." "I'm asking you as my friend." "This is the only way I..." "This is the only way I can save the farm." "Please." "George." "George!" "Do you know how often my company has denied claims because of some loophole?" "Do you know how many times I've taken from people so much more than I've given back?" "George linder was one of the most decent, honorable men I knew." "And now..." "His family was gonna lose everything he stood for." "I decided I was gonna be the friend I always claimed to be and help him save his farm." "That's some kind of story." "But a little farfetched for my taste." "You can tell dawn and Cassie all about it if you want." "But I think I'm just gonna declare this an unsolved homicide." "I don't want to read this." "I didn't want to write it, but..." "I did." "So now you have to open it." "This is about branch?" "You need to read it all the way through." "There's no way he should be carrying a badge and a gun right now." "He's a time bomb just waiting to go off." "Ripped by mstoll"