Showing results by author "Dustin Stevens" in All Categories

Deep in the heart of winter, things are beginning to shift for the Zoo Crew. Drake Bell is wrapping up his last days in law school and preparing to take the bar exam. Kade Keuhl has finally relented and agreed to apply for his private investigator's license. The ski lift at the local Snow Plaza has grounded everybody from hitting the slopes. And Emily, Drake's former college flame, is back in town looking to make him an offer that could alter everything moving forward.

Two weeks ago, Lukas Webb was an Army sniper on the front lines in Afghanistan. Upon finding out his father has just days to live, he is granted a compassionate discharge and returns home to Hamilton, Montana to say goodbye and take over the family business. Just days into his tenure at the helm of the WB Ranch, he appears at the front door of an Agriculture Commission meeting carrying a rifle and fires two perfect shots before being taking three rounds himself. While Lukas sits in Hamilton Memorial Hospital in a medical-induced coma, a frenzy wages on outside.

Bargain Mart, long a fixture in the Missoula economic structure has fallen on hard times. Things are dire, and if a financial windfall doesn't arrive soon, their doors will close. Across town, a woman grieves her recently deceased husband. Sitting alone at her kitchen table trying to put her life back in order, a call arrives asking where his quarter million dollar life insurance policy should be sent. A quarter million dollar life insurance policy she never knew existed. Joined by his partner Ava, and his loyal friends the Zoo Crew, Drake must attempt to make sense of Alice's case.

“Six quarts is way more than necessary for something like that,” Reed said. “It’s not just overkill...” Letting his voice trail off, he blinked several times, bringing himself back into the moment with the realization that it was a statement. Of what, he had not a clue.

Roughly a month after going head-to-head with the copycat killer who had singled Detective Reed Mattox and his K-9 partner Billie out in an attempt to capitalize on their recent success, the duo is still reeling. Faced with uncertainty over where they are and what they are doing for the first time since partnering together years before, they retreat home to Oklahoma for the holidays to regroup.

Barely a year before, Le Fontainebleau opened to little fanfare in downtown Columbus. A lifetime passion project of an immigrant from the French countryside, it was meant to fill a glaring hole in the local dining scene. Simple peasant dishes offered in a modest setting. Clean cooking that soon developed an avid following, helping to elevate it to one of the must-eat locations in the city. And the site where, at just after noon on a dreary spring Wednesday, a hooded gunman entered, raised the automatic weapon hidden under his jacket, and opened fire.