Chapter Twenty-Six
CORDELIA BURST OUT OF THE ALLEY JUST AS DAISY SCREECHED AROUND the corner with her car and skidded to a stop in front of the drugstore. Flinging open the passenger door, Cordelia jumped into the seat. “Go. Around back. We can still catch them.”
Daisy opened her mouth to ask something, when a black sedan peeled out from behind the row of businesses, tires smoking, as it careened around a sharp turn and barreled down the road that would lead them out of town.
Gripping the steering wheel, Daisy slammed her foot on the gas and sped after them.
Cordelia’s head smacked the back of the seat.
She grappled with the seat belt, securing it just as Daisy took a corner at a finger-numbing speed.
“Hold on,” Daisy said. “We’re about to go faster than a sneeze through a screen door.”
Cordelia clung to the door, grateful she wasn’t the one driving. She didn’t have the stomach for greater than five miles over the speed limit. “I saw them talking, Edna and Sean, and then he threw her into the trunk and took off.”
“What were they arguing about?” Daisy’s jaw was set as she kept her eyes laser focused on the sedan in front of them.
“I couldn’t hear him, but she was worried about messing with us because of Archer, and she confirmed they’re after whatever oil they think is on Chickadee land.”
“These rumors are going to be the death of someone someday,” Daisy said.
“Let’s hope it’s not ours.” Cordelia crossed her fingers. “Sean O’Leary has it in his head that Edna’s keeping information from him. He didn’t like that much.”
“I’ll just bet he didn’t.” Daisy’s tone was grim.
They reached a stoplight, and she slowed, but the sedan only hit the gas harder, zipping between two cars that had to veer onto the sidewalk to avoid a collision.
Thankfully, most of the town was at the park and the area was clear of pedestrians.
Instead of following the sedan once the light turned green, Daisy went right.
“Where are you going?” Cordelia asked.
“I don’t think they’re staying in town,” Daisy said. “But they’re weaving around different streets like they know we’re following them. So I’m going to head out to the highway and wait for them to pass.”
“Good thinking,” Cordelia said.
Daisy parked in front of the WELCOME TO SARSAPARILLA FALLS sign, hiding the car from anyone leaving town.
They sat for a good thirty minutes, just waiting.
Cordelia fidgeted in her seat. She normally had the patience of a saint, but the unknown of their situation made her antsy.
For all she knew, Sean could’ve already driven through here and they’d missed him altogether.
She was just about to suggest they turn around when a familiar Mercedes turned onto the highway, the crisp white exterior glinting in the early evening sun.
Daisy’s jaw dropped. “Isn’t that . . . ?”
“That’s Edna’s car, all right,” Cordelia said. “Let’s move.”
Daisy allowed two cars to pass, then turned onto the highway, keeping a good distance behind Edna’s car, not wanting to tip off Sean.
Rolling down the window, Daisy turned the radio up and let her arm surf the wind as she kept a breakneck pace on the road.
A driver going ninety in the left lane honked when she cut him off, but she wove in between the traffic with ease, ridiculously comfortable behind the wheel for someone who didn’t even own a car.
“Where’d you learn to drive like this?” Cordelia asked.
“I lost my virginity in high school to this guy who did amateur racing on a dirt track outside Marne.” Daisy pulled her visor down to block the sun. “I learned how to race to impress him, but he didn’t want a girlfriend who could compete. He wanted someone cheering for him on the side.”
“Did you like racing?” Cordelia asked.
“Yeah,” Daisy said quietly, a shadow from a passing cloud darkening her smile. “I did.”
Cordelia went as soft as cotton candy in the rain.
Here Daisy was, all these years later, a caretaker and cheerleader.
A role she’d been put in long before she ever had a chance to stretch her own wings.
The only place where she’d felt wanted. How many lives had been shaped by the flippant comments of careless men?
“I think you’re amazing, Daisy.” Cordelia squeezed her right hand, which rested between them on the console. “In case I don’t say it enough.”
“You say it plenty.” Daisy put her sunglasses on, but not before Cordelia caught the shimmer of tears in her eyes. “Let’s see where Sean’s taking us.”
Daisy hit the gas, catching up to the Mercedes and staying two cars behind it, until it made a sharp turn off an exit advertising a rest stop and not much else.
Staying stealthy became much harder when they were the only two cars in the middle of nowhere.
Daisy pulled in to the rest stop and parked as Edna’s car continued to fly down a dirt road that looked as though it headed to nowhere.
“We’re not going to lose them, are we?” Cordelia stretched her neck to get a better view, but all that remained of the Mercedes was a fading cloud of dust.
“There’s only one way that road goes, and I don’t think it has an exit.
” Daisy zoomed out on the GPS attached to the dashboard to show that the road indeed dead-ended in about three miles.
If Sean wanted back on the highway, he’d have to pass them again.
“I figured if we wait fifteen minutes, we’d have a better chance of sneaking up on him. ”
Cordelia couldn’t deny it was a solid plan. It’s not like they could pull up right behind Sean and wave at him like they were old friends. That was a good way to end their evening dodging bullets instead of rescuing Edna. If she even needed rescuing.
While they waited, Daisy hummed along to a Dolly Parton song on the radio.
A Mack truck pulled up beside them, despite there being several open spots in the parking lot.
Daisy took that as her cue to leave. Before the beefy, bearded man could exit his rig, they were speeding down the dirt road where Edna’s car had disappeared.
“What if Edna staged this whole thing to lure us out here and finish us off?” Cordelia asked. “I wouldn’t put it past her.”
“Nah.” Daisy swerved, just missing a possum, whose glowing eyes lit with ire at the intrusion. “No way would she have expected us to come for her.”
“Why are we doing this?”
It hadn’t occurred to Cordelia to question this earlier; adrenaline had thrown her into action mode.
But why were they trying to help Edna? If the roles were reversed, she wouldn’t have lifted a finger to help them.
In fact, she was likely in cahoots with a dangerous criminal to wipe them off the map entirely.
And the only reason she’d wound up in Sean’s trunk was because she’d made the choice to do business with him in the first place.
“We’re doing this because we’re good people,” Daisy said. “We do for others, even if they probably wouldn’t do the same for us.”
“Speak for yourself.” Cordelia wasn’t feeling nearly as generous now that the thrill of the chase had worn off. But that was why Daisy had twice the generosity of those who sat in pews on Sunday mornings and called it good enough.
And while Cordelia wasn’t feeling much love toward Edna, they were too far into this now to turn back.
About halfway down the road, they spotted the Mercedes parked alongside the gravel road beside a structure that looked more like an oversize oil drum than a building.
Daisy shut off the headlights and rolled the car to a stop beside a thicket of dry brush on the other side of the road.
It didn’t do much to conceal the car, but the sun had set, offering them a little more cover.
Daisy opened the car door, swearing as the overhead light came on, and quickly got out, adjusting her tube top. “I knew I should’ve worn the three-inch heels today.”
She still moved fast enough to catch up to yesterday in her six-inchers, but they made a distinct picking sound against the hard-packed gravel as they snuck up on the rounded building.
Clouds gathered in a thick, hazy blanket, blocking out the moon and most of the stars overheard, throwing them into near pitch black.
Once Cordelia’s eyes adjusted to the lack of light, she spotted a rusty ladder that clung to the side of the structure, one strong storm away from collapsing.
A dim light bulb hanging from a crooked metal hood illuminated the single door at the back.
There were no windows, but echoes reverberated against the metal and drifted out of the space between the roof and the wall.
Cordelia pressed her ear against the door. Sean’s thick accent mixed with a lower-pitched Texas drawl, one she didn’t recognize. She could’ve sworn she heard Edna weeping, but that might’ve been the creak of the building settling. They’d never actually seen her in the car.
“There are at least two men in there,” Cordelia whispered.
“Should we bust in there, guns blazing, like they do in the movies?” Daisy asked.
“That’s a terrible idea, seeing as we don’t have any guns.” And they’d likely shoot themselves before they’d hit anything they were aiming at. Cordelia pointed to an outbuilding thirty feet away. “I have an idea.”
She motioned for Daisy to follow her, creeping toward the metal structure that looked small enough to be a garden shed.
One window crusted over with spiderwebs and about a century of dust revealed that the inside held a bunch of old farming tools.
Cordelia shuddered at the sight of the rusting hooks attached to the wall. The stuff of horror movies.
“There’s a door back here.” Daisy pulled on the latch, and it screeched like a tank hitting a guardrail. The voices in the other building fell silent. Daisy glanced at Cordelia with wide-eyed panic. “What do we do now?”