Chapter 16 - Plotting Murder
Chapter 16
Plotting Murder
Sunday
The always bossy deputy ushered Andi into the driver’s side of the pickup. She scrambled toward the passenger door and planned to escape, but Digger, smelling of fish, bounced into the passenger side of the truck’s bench seat. The butt of his shotgun made Andi jump back toward Danny.
Digger yelled, “Floor it, son. I’m riding shotgun on this run.”
“What about your guests at the lodge?” Danny hollered as if they weren’t right next to him.
Digger hugged his shotgun as the deputy flew down the dirt road by the river. The old man yelled, “Nobody here. Fishing ain’t no fun in the rain. Why’d you tell those outlaws to run for the river? It’s almost overflowing its banks and cold as a polar bear’s butt.”
The deputy smiled. “They will jump in thinking they’ll escape, but the water is freezing and rough tonight. They’ll be jumping out at the first bend. All the sheriff will have to do is pick them up downstream.”
Andi finally managed to get a word in. “Drop me at my car.” She figured with a full gas can stashed under Digger’s porch and four bullets in her 1911 she could take care of herself.
Danny didn’t slow as he flew past the lodge and her car. “The sheriff told me to take you somewhere safe. You’re going home with me.”
“What?” Andi squeaked.
Before he could explain, Digger jumped in. “I’m going along, too. This little lady needs help. I’ll stay on guard.”
Andi didn’t remind Digger that she was taller than he was, probably a better shot, and trained in several martial arts. All of which she planned to use on Danny as soon as she got the chance.
“You figure your mom got some of that double chocolate cake?” Digger yelled over the engine. “Guarding a lady makes a man hungry.”
Dan didn’t slow as he made the curves at full speed and Digger, and his shotgun, ended up almost in Andi’s lap. Before she could scream, he turned on a two-lane marked CR 45 and just kept talking. “Mom made one yesterday. I guess there are a few pieces . . .”
“Will you two stop talking about food?” Her words bounced around the cab. “We need to figure out who is shooting at us. I’ve got more than one guy who probably wants to talk to me while he’s torturing me.”
Digger raised his hand as if they were in a classroom. “There ain’t no one shooting at us, miss. I think they are shooting at you. Ain’t nobody been shooting at me since ’Nam. I remember nights when the sky lit up like the Fourth of July. There was one time . . .”
“Can we stay on point?” Andi said fairly calmly.
Digger didn’t give up. “Oh, we got time for a few stories about my war years. Danny’s family farm is the last one down 45.” Digger closed his eyes and began, “I was just a boy when I was drafted in ’66 . . .”
The deputy leaned close to Andi and said in a low voice, “Who do you think it was trying to kill you, honey?”
“Drop the ‘honey’ game we’ve been playing,” she said sharply.
Dan nodded. “Oh shucks, I was just getting used to our relationship. How about we talk about it when men aren’t chasing us?”
“Not us! Me, remember. I can think of a few drug lords south of the border and one mobster operating in Dallas, then there is a really mean suspect I can ID. Without me, the law can’t prove he was at the scene of a crime, so he might be hoping that I die before next week.”
“Wow, lady,” Digger said more to himself than Andi. “I was thinking that maybe you had a mad ex-boyfriend. I figured he collected a few drunk friends and came to get you back from some handsome Romeo in the sticks. Then during the ‘get her back’ raid, one of the drunks got off a shot.”
Danny swore. “I’m not a Romeo and I know I’m not handsome and this isn’t the sticks.”
“This could be about her work.” Digger jumped into reason two. “From what I’ve seen, women always have fights going at work. More women, more fights. I bet Andi is one of those workaholics. They need to just talk it out.”
Andi looked at Danny. “Can we eject him? His logic is wrong on so many levels.”
“No!” Danny said. “He just saved us, remember. The least I can do is feed him cake. If he hadn’t come over, there would be blood on the cabin porch and there is a good chance it would have been ours.”
Andi twisted to face him. “All right, but can I gag him?”
The deputy patted her leg touching his. “Settle down.”
“I’ll kill you next,” she said. “You are blowing up the danger we were in. Maybe they were shooting just to keep me from testifying.”
Digger butted in, “I ain’t no idiot, Andi. You’re in danger. Why else would Danny be guarding you?”
“Does Andi look like she can’t handle an old boyfriend?” Dan asked as if it mattered.
Digger snorted. “I’m surprised any old lovers of Andi’s are still alive. If the loving doesn’t give him a heart attack, the goodbye fight probably will.
“Wait a minute, you’re the new boyfriend, son.” Digger’s old finger pointed right at the deputy. “Everyone is talking about you two. Taking bets that you’ll be married by Christmas. After tonight they’ll have another pot going to see if you’re alive by New Year’s.”
“I’m not that easy to kill and I am not letting anyone shoot Andi.” Danny patted her leg again as if making a promise.
Andi didn’t want to talk to the two idiots she was riding with. She might not know exactly who was after her, but she did know that she was in danger and so were the two men beside her. She had to vanish. Whoever was tracking would keep at it and these two wouldn’t be safe. This valley was too little to hide out in.
Dan turned under a gate twenty feet high. “We’re home. Three more miles to the headquarters.”
“Three more miles? You have to be kidding.” All she could see ahead of them was empty pastureland. No houses, no buildings, nothing. It already felt like it had been miles since they’d passed the last farm. This might be secluded enough to work, maybe. At least for the night. Not even a rabbit could sneak up on a headquarters that far from a paved road.
Dan gunned the old pickup’s engine. He was finally on his land. She was safe. He could breathe.
Digger kept running on like a book-on-tape. He was reliving another adventure. He remembered every moment during the war. He’d almost died a few times overseas but he was a hundred percent alive when bullets flew.
“Are you angry?” Danny asked Andi.
“Just frustrated.”
“I get that.”
Dan smiled as he watched the fire light up those eyes of hers. He saw anger and fight in them but he thought he also saw a hunger. She was sitting so close they were touching from knee to shoulder.
“I have to watch over you even if I have to fight you to do my job.”
She thought for a few minutes, then she slowly hugged his arm as she had once before. “I get that.”
He couldn’t find an answer. Not with one of her breasts pressing his arm. And that was as much of a truce as he’d get tonight.
Dan leaned and kissed her head. To his surprise, she didn’t flare up again but she didn’t look at him.
Digger ended the moment they might have had by yelling, “Are you two listening? I was just getting to the exciting part. We were knee-deep in mud in ’Nam. I had two bullets left and the radio was dead.”
The old man kept talking but no one in the cab was listening.