Bus Stop at the Last Chance (Loni Wagner Western Mystery Book 2)

by Sue Hardesty

  “How come you look so sad?”

  “Daniel? Could I have a long hug?”

  With a smile Daniel stepped into Loni and held her until she sighed and stepped away. “Thanks.”

  She opened her mouth to explain when James drove into the hangar and parked next to them. He rubbed his temples and squinted his blue eyes at the bright light while he slowly climbed out of his truck. Loni and Daniel laughed at him.

  “Oh god, don't laugh. It hurts my head.”

  “What's wrong with your head?”

  “I celebrated too much.”

  “Well, I'm glad that's done because you and I are spending the next few nights at Minnie's Well,” Loni told him.

  “Huh?” James stared at her in disbelief. “What the hell, Loni!”

  Daniel laughed.

  James quickly grabbed his head again. “Ow, ow, ow. Don't laugh so loud.”

  “Got a couple of really sick coyotes using Minnie's Well to rob and dump undocumented travelers.”

  “What did Carl say? You sure he approved of this?”

  “Of course!” Loni was obdurate.

  James grabbed his head again. “Ow, ow, ow. I said not so loud, damnit.” Finally he looked at Loni through his fingers. “What about my wife? I just got home again.”

  “You got tonight.”

  “She's gotta work tonight.”

  “Well, now, that's a real pisser, huh James.” Loni shook her head. “Why don't I throw down an ice pack for your head while you figure out what to pack?” She sprinted up the stairs and tossed it down where it landed at James’s feet. He leaned over to pick it up and went to his knees groaning in pain as Loni bounced back down the stairs laughing.

  “You know what, cuz?” Daniel picked up the ice pack and placed it on James's head. “You better go on a stakeout. Otherwise living is going to kill you.” Loni and Daniel grabbed James by his arm, dragged him into the office, and shoved him into a chair.

  Loni retrieved the icepack and stuck it back on James's head. “Carl said we could only stake it out for three nights at the most. Can you pick me up here about eight tomorrow night?"

  "Well shit." James continued to rub his head as Daniel drummed on an old green barrel. Sometimes he was so greasy dirty that his mother wouldn’t let him sit on the other furniture. “Would you stop that noise?” James snapped.

  Grinning, Daniel picked up a big wrench and banged on the side of the drum.

  “Stop!” James yowled and grabbed his head.

  Daniel started giggling. “Cuz, I hope you had a good time last night because I hate like hell to see you feel this way for nothing.”

  “Do you have to make so much noise?”

  “What noise? You mean like this?” He banged once more. “That's not noise.” Daniel grabbed a pipe in his other hand and banged on both sides of the drum. “This is noise!”

  “You're about as quiet as a squalling elephant in heat. If you don't quit, I'm gonna have to hurt you.”

  “Way you're feeling you couldn't hurt a pissant.” Loni teased him. “When did you hear an elephant in heat, anyway?”

  “Never, but I can imagine it.” James shook a finger in Loni's face. “I could start with you,” James warned her.

  “In your next life.”

  James poked at her, just missing her nose. “Gee, Loni,” James grinned, grabbing at her nose again. “Where’d you get that hump on your nose?”

  “Which one?” Loni knew where James was going.

  “The biggest one.”

  “You’re such a shit, James. You know you broke my nose in high school when you shoved me into a locker.”

  “Oh my, oh my. Did it hurt much?”

  “Fuck you!”

  Nearly falling off his barrel, Daniel leaned against the wall behind him, giggling. Soon even James was laughing.

  James grabbed her chin in his large hands and turned her to the light. “Where’d you get the other hump?”

  “Domestic,” Loni squirmed. “I lost.”

  James smiled. “Sure wish I’d seen that one.”

  “Once is enough, James. That’s all you get.” Loni jerked her head out of his hands and stood. “I gotta go get a shower. Gotta get back to the ranch tonight.”

  Loni had started to dry herself when she heard Coco's excited barking. Throwing on a shirt and jeans, she poked her head out the door. James squatted at the foot of the stairs, growling at Coco who barked back from the top landing. Loni yelled, “Stop pestering my dog!”

  “Well, she started it. She won't let me by.”

  “I hope she finishes it by biting you. What do you want?

  “What he always wants,” Daniel answered walking up to the bottom of the stairs. “My beer.”

  “You drinking Daniel's beer again. What happened to your headache?”

  “A beer helps it feel better. And anyway, how do you know I didn't bring it?” James demanded to know.

  “Daniel, tell him to drink his own beer.” Loni said to Daniel.

  “What do you care what I drink?” James retorted.

  “Because you buy the cheapest piss smellingest crap there is and leave it in my refrigerator where it sits and I'm tired of looking at it. Not even the cockroaches will touch it.”

  James shrugged. “Can't help it if he makes me replace his beer. Didn't say I would drink that crap.”

  Shaking her head, Loni walked to her refrigerator and grabbed one of James's cheap beers. Walking back to her door, she shook it up good and tossed it down to James.

  “Loni! You shit! I can't open this now.”

  With a big grin, Loni grabbed a box of sopapillas her grandma had made for Uncle Herm. Leaving her door open, she hurried down the stairs, Coco following. As she passed James she said, “Sic him, Coco.”

  James leaped up the stairs two at a time and slammed her door behind him. After a minute, he carefully opened the door sticking his head out. “When are you leaving?” he asked Loni.

  “I'm waiting for you to come back down.”

  “So what is this? Pick on James day?”

  “What do you think, Daniel? Shall I tell him or should you?”

  “You can do it.”

  James started down the stairs. “Tell me what?”

  “I'll tell him later.” Loni opened the truck door for Coco and followed her in. She slowly drove by James who pounded on her door and yelled, “Tell me what?” Feeling much better, Loni drove to the ranch to finish evening chores.

  CHAPTER 18

  FOR THE THIRD NIGHT Loni and James parked on a slight rise to get a good view of Minnie's Well and the road coming into it. Except for the occasional panting from Coco, the desert silence was overwhelming. A bitter chill caused the frigid cold to hang around them, and they kept warming up the car to keep away the fog off the windshield. The two of them kept a running bet of scissors, paper, and rock to see who got the binoculars. Loni usually lost, but she couldn’t see through her side window because Coco’s breath turned it into a foggy mess.

  The car was Carl's favorite, a bright yellow 2004 Ferrari 612 Scaglietti he picked up in a drug bust. Someone had raised the chassis for off-road travel and modified the front with a large bull bar adding to its bumbling ugly shape. Carl said that the bar was there to push things, but Loni didn't know what he had planned to push. To add to the car's abuse, Carl had bolted a bar of four spotlights to the top.

  It was the bull bar that gave James the idea to ram the coyotes’ truck. Loni tried to talk him into throwing out tire spike strips or simply shoot out the tires. She finished her complaining by saying, “But nooo! You just got to cowboy it, James. What if it's a huge truck?”

  “So?” James's head was settled back against the headrest, his eyes closed and his bored voice rolling over Loni. “Why don't we talk about something else?”

  “Like what?”

  James opened his eyes and looked at Loni. “Heard once that people average 28 first kisses. How many have you had? Anybody I know?”

 
; “Move on, James.”

  “How come Lola's mad at you all the time?”

  Looking out into the pitch black night, Loni shrugged. “She thinks I'm not helping Manny enough.”

  “Harry told me he was cleared.”

  Loni snorted in disgust. “He is, but Lola won't believe it until Manny's home.”

  “Sorry about that. I thought you and Lola would make a cute couple.”

  “Time to change the subject again.”

  “Okay, then. How about war stories? Funny things perps did, who we shot, who shot at us.”

  Loni laughed. “You start.”

  “Okay. You remember our free enterprise teacher in high school? Dr. Tucker?”

  “Boy, that takes me back. He left town years ago.”

  “Only recently. He went broke farming.”

  “Farming? I thought he taught school?”

  “Did. He quit and bought a small farm down in the alkali flats on the bank of the Salt River. Didn't know it was too salty to grow anything. Didn't bother to ask. His son-in-law had saved seeds from his pot smoking, so they planted the seeds down in the river bed among the salt cedars. That was the year we had the bad floods, and they lost their whole crop. Just washed right on down the river. He complained to anyone who would listen about the five-thousand dollar crop they lost so I had to arrest them for planting it in the first place.”

  Loni laughed until she hurt. “That's a good one. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.”

  “You are so right. I'll never forget the time I was late for his class and he grabbed me by the front of my shirt, shoved me up against the wall, and called me every name he could think of. Then he threatened to beat the shit out of me. I was never late again.”

  “Did I ever tell you about the bank robber in L.A. Maria and I arrested?”

  “Maybe. Tell me again.”

  “He walked up to the teller and shoved a gun in her face asking for her money. She said she needed to see his ID first. So he gave her his driver's license, and she gave him the money. When he got home, we were waiting.”

  “Good one! You remember that bartender that shot herself in the leg?”

  “Oh, god.” Loni groaned. “I had to interview her at the clinic.”

  “Really? Did she tell you why?”

  Loni shrugged. “Said before she shot herself in the head she wanted to see if it would hurt.”

  James grinned. “That's so sad it's funny. Anyway. She was in the other day to fill out a complaint against her boss. In the middle of it she called me over and said, 'I can't find any place where this form has a box for marking asshole.'” Grinning, James turned his head as his expression turned quizzical. “So? How many people you shot?”

  Head down, Loni answered quietly. “I almost shot somebody once.”

  “Almost? Almost doesn't count.”

  “It does when somebody grabs you and has to take you down to stop you from shooting them.”

  “What happened?”

  “A rookie cop thought my partner was the perp and shot her in the back. I never wanted to kill anyone so bad.”

  “How'd that work having a partner be your girlfriend?” James asked with just a touch of sarcasm.

  Loni looked at James and shook her head. “None of your business.”

  “Is that what brought you home? Getting your girlfriend killed?”

  Tearing, Loni nodded. “Sometimes I wonder what I could have done to change it. Anyway, it was part of the reason. Partly Shiichoo was sick. And partly I couldn't be a cop in LA anymore.”

  It was quiet for awhile before James spoke again in a soft voice. “You know? I always wondered why Daniel hung out at your ranch so much.”

  Loni grinned. “I bet you did. He never told you, did he?”

  “Come on,” James begged. “Tell.”

  “Why not,” Loni decided, liking James better. “Our old barn was the perfect place to rebuild his old cars to sell before you had a chance to wreck them,” Loni said, making fun of him. “Kept him in pocket money. Just the other day I ran across one of his old cars he never finished.”

  “Anything else?” James asked.

  “Between Russell, me, and his mom, he had the best tutors around.” Loni grinned at James. “You know how much he hated school!”

  “Yeah. I remember when he graduated. They handed him his diploma. He left the stage, found his mom in the audience, handed her his diploma, and said, ‘Here, Mom. You earned it.’ The school was really pissed that he didn't stay with his procession Almost took his diploma back away.” James grinned at Loni. “Did you know he was up on that stage drunk on his ass? Then he was gone the next year, and you didn't have anybody to protect you anymore. Guess I was a little hard on you.”

  Loni shrugged. “Everybody has to have somebody to look down on. I was your somebody.”

  “I guess.” He grinned as he poked her in the ribs. “So what's it like to be raised by wild Indians?”

  Loni snorted. “I wish I had been more like my grandparents.”

  “What! A wild Injin?”

  “No, of course not. I just wish I’d followed the old ways better.”

  “Such as?”

  “Such as getting along with others. The success of the group instead of the success of the individual. Stuff like that.”

  “You mean like it's not what you know that gets you by in this world, it's who you know?”

  Loni laughed. “Close.”

  “What else?”

  “Always be polite and never argue. Treat everything with great respect. Be good to everything, especially animals.” Loni looked at James and grinned. “They have supernatural powers, you know. You mistreat them and they can make you sick.”

  “What a bunch of crap!”

  “What's your problem, James? You're part Indian too.”

  “Yada, yada, yada.” James looked uncomfortable and changed the subject. “Sure wished I'd known about his cars.”

  “I'm glad you didn't. You'd have been dead by now. How many cars did you total growing up?”

  “That's a need to know, and you don't need to know.”

  Loni giggled before a memory turned her momentarily somber. “Daniel told me about one wreck you escaped, thank god.” Uncomfortable with the conversation, she asked anyway, “Tell me about Harvey Herring. Did he really kill himself?”

  “I’m pretty sure he did.” James seemed to search for words. “We always drove around after school for awhile, picking up girls. This one day he said he didn't feel good so he took me straight home. Funny thing. He got out of the car, hugged me, and said goodbye to me.” James paused before he spoke again, even more quietly. “He'd never done that before. Then he spun out of my driveway and jumped to a hundred miles an hour in seconds. Quarter mile down the road he hit that canal abutment, and I watched his car shatter into pieces." James stopped a minute and sighed. "The crash threw him so high in the air I could see him above the tamarack trees. The fall crushed his chest.” James turned and looked at Loni. “I never saw it coming.” James shook his head and said in an angry voice, “I remember his funeral, the preacher ranting about people committing suicide burning in hell. I hated that man for trashing Harvey's memory.”

  “I understand,” Loni said softly.

  “Harvey used to rag on me about my behavior. I'm really sorry for the way I acted in those days. So much I didn't see.”

  “You already apologized before, James. I still accept it.”

  “I don't mean I'm sorry for what I did to you. You deserved it.” Loni punched him on his arm and James laughed at her as Coco gave a hushed woof. “On the other hand, everybody needs somebody they can look up to. Who do you look up to, Loni? Besides me, of course.”

  Loni laughed. “Listen you simple shit...”

  “Shhhh!” James interrupted Coco's woofing, whispering. “They're coming.” Coco apparently had spotted the jiggling light in the distance.

  “Why are you whispering?” Loni whispered back. Then she hollered at
him. “They're still two miles away.”

  “Oh, yeah.” James giggled. “Freaky.”

  They watched the bouncing lights grow larger. “You remember the plan, right?” James asked.

  “Yes, James.” Loni sighed. “We wait until they drop off their passengers. When they leave and get far enough away we ram the side of their car. Coco and I get out, run around to the passenger side, and arrest anyone there while you arrest the driver.”

  “Good girl,” James patted her on the head. “I'll make a fine cop out of you yet.”

  The lights slowly danced in front of them as the vehicle dipped and bumped along the old desert road. Thick dust obliterated the taillights so that they couldn't tell if it was a car or truck. “Head for the front tire, James. The headlights look pretty high for a car.”

  “Maybe we can tell more on its way back.”

  Twenty minutes later the lights raced away from the tank, catching James unawares. He quickly shoved the car in gear and spun down the hill, the car slipping and sliding as it fought for traction. Loni held on to Coco so hard the dog yelped. James hit the brakes just before the crash, and Loni's head slammed back. She barely kept her grip on Coco as the car pushed the truck against a saguaro cactus and settled back down in the dust and debris. Loni managed to open the door at the same time James did, and they both fell out.

  Scrambling to her feet, Loni hollered “Hunt!” at Coco and followed her to the other side where the passenger sprawled on the ground was trying to crawl away. Coco growled as she bit down and shook the coyote's wrist until he dropped his gun. Loni climbed into the cab of a delivery truck and held her gun on the driver while James waved his gun through the window on the other side of the truck. The driver slowly followed Loni out of the truck. In minutes, both men were cuffed and in the back of the police car. Looking self-satisfied, Coco sat beside Loni and James. “Lucky for you your plan worked, James,” Loni said. “Don't know how you're going to get that truck out of here though. You did a number on that tire.”

  “Not my problem.” Then he grinned and poked at Loni. “See how much fun cowboying is?”