‘Of course we can, come in.’ Nina stood back as the diminutive blonde stepped over the threshold, and guessed her to be in her forties. She started at the sight of the man as he followed.
Older, perhaps in his fifties, his hair was clipped close to his head, silver in colour. He towered over Nina, and she realised he was taller than Ross. A small scar ran from his brow to his hairline above his left eye.
As he drew closer, his gaze met Nina’s, and his eyes narrowed before he seemed to catch himself. A split second later, his face transformed as he smiled, walked into the truck stop, and pushed the door shut.
‘Thanks,’ he said, and turned to them. ‘I wasn’t sure whether anyone was here.’ He glanced over at the woman. ‘Although I think we should’ve pushed on into town.’
Ross stepped forward next to Nina and made the introductions.
‘Sean,’ said the motorcyclist. ‘And this is Dani.’
The woman shook hands, then peeled off her leather jacket and draped it over a chair.
‘I still say that we’d be fine on the bike,’ said Sean, frowning at the gesture.
‘Is everything okay?’ asked Nina.
‘I’m trying to convince my wife that we should keep moving.’
A loud rumble of thunder rolled around the sky outside.
‘Listen,’ said Nina. ‘I know it might seem an inconvenience – it’s pretty basic after all – but trust me, stay here.’ She moved along the counter, gathered the tools, and placed them on the floor out of the way. ‘That storm sounds like it’s moving on, but from what we’ve been hearing on the weather reports, this is only the start of it. It’s going to get pretty rough out there.’
Sean held up his hand. ‘I’m sorry – I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful for your hospitality.’
‘No offence taken.’
‘It’s just that, well, we were hoping to be further along on our journey by now.’
‘Where have you been staying?’ asked Ross.
‘We tried sheltering at the Hudson property but decided to press on.’
Ross laughed. ‘I’d have been surprised if he’d let you stay there; he’s not known for his hospitality.’ He turned to Nina. ‘I got a new neighbour three years ago – he’s a bit strange and tends to keep to himself. He doesn’t even take part in any of the community events held in town.’
The motorcyclist nodded. ‘It was a bit awkward, so we made our excuses after half an hour and left.’
‘As long as it’s not putting you out of your way, us being here?’ Dani’s hopeful expression belied her words.
‘You’re better off waiting it out,’ said Phil. ‘It must be a bad weather front – all I had on the radio coming through the valley was static.’ He held up his mobile phone. ‘I can’t even get a signal on this.’
‘Which would make it impossible for anyone to help you if you did get into trouble,’ added Nina. She jerked her head towards the telephone fixed to the wall behind the counter. ‘Our landline’s out too.’
‘She’s right,’ said Ross. ‘Wait it out in the dry.’ He peered through the door at the motorbike parked next to the building. ‘I’d hate to see a beautiful machine like that ruined in this weather.’
Sean sighed. ‘True. And thanks again,’ he said to Nina.
‘Let’s move your bike now, before it gets worse out there,’ said Ross, putting his shirt back on. ‘We can put it in the barn – there’s plenty of room, and it’ll stay dry.’
Nina watched the two men push through the front door; then she turned to Dani, who had reached into her bag, pulled out a compact case, and was fussing with her hair and checking her mobile phone for a signal. She glanced up when she realised she was being watched.
‘I don’t want to sound rude,’ she said, ‘but I don’t suppose there’s any chance of a hot drink, is there? I’m freezing.’
‘Sure. We’d just finished boarding up the place when the storm hit, so I’ll make some coffee for everyone.’
Nina pushed through a gate in the counter and made her way towards the small kitchen built between the business end of the building and the accommodation.
The old fluorescent lights stuttered before flickering to life, and as she waited for the kettle to boil, Nina began to forage through the cupboards. By the time the hot water was ready, she’d made a small pile on the kitchen counter consisting of cookies, nuts, and dried fruit to sustain them through the night. To this, she added six more candles and a box of matches she’d overlooked while hunting through the cupboards earlier that afternoon.
She walked back to the front of the building with a tray of steaming mugs balanced in her hands and handed out the coffee to everyone as Ross and Sean returned.
As Dani took hers, she thanked Nina again. ‘You’re sure this isn’t too much hassle for you? I feel like we’re imposing.’
‘Stay with us,’ said Nina. ‘I’d only worry if you left now.’ She jumped as a loud crash of thunder shook the building.
‘Jesus, this is going to be rough,’ said Ross.
A look of relief passed across Dani’s face as the vibration subsided.
Nina walked towards the front door. ‘Well,’ she said, slipping the bolt across the door, ‘now that’s settled, I’d be a really bad hostess if I didn’t offer you some food, although I warn you, there’s not much…’
A loud hammering on the front door startled her, and she spun to face it.
The hammering continued, and she turned to Ross.
He moved across to her, and then shot the bolt back.
Nina cried out as a man collapsed across the threshold, soaked through to the skin, blood covering his face and shoulder. She crouched down, ignoring the rain driving in through the opening, and gently turned the man’s face towards her.
‘Help me,’ he said, and passed out.
3
Nina stared at the blood covering her hands and then up at Ross, her mouth open.
‘What do we do?’
‘Come on – we need to get him inside. Hurry.’ Ross coaxed her out of the way, slammed the door shut on the driving wind and rain, and then beckoned to Phil. ‘Help me carry him.’
Nina stood on shaking legs against the wall as the two men grabbed the injured stranger under his arms.
‘On three. Go!’ instructed Ross.
He and Phil lifted the man, both struggling with the dead weight, and carried him through the building.
The stink of mud, sweat, and dirty clothing hung in the air.
‘Which spare room is made up?’ Ross called over his shoulder.
‘They’re not,’ said Nina, her voice shaking. ‘You’ll have to put him in my room.’
Dani stood to one side to let the men pass, covering her nose with her sleeve as they staggered past her.
Nina saw that Ross’s face had drained of colour and realised he was as shocked as her. He appeared to be coping by taking charge of the situation though, and she tried to follow his lead.
She followed them, her mind racing. ‘Do you know who he is?’
Ross shook his head. ‘Doesn’t look like a local. What about you, Phil?’
‘No,’ said Phil. ‘I’ve never seen him before.’
‘I’ll grab some towels or something,’ said Nina. ‘I think there’s a first aid kit somewhere.’
‘We’re going to need it. Have you got some antiseptic or iodine – anything like that?’
‘I don’t know – I’ll take a look.’
She ignored the two men as they lurched through the door into her makeshift bedroom and instead pushed past Dani and Sean with a muttered apology and made her way to the kitchen.
Dani appeared in the doorway. ‘Is there anything we can do?’
‘I don’t think so, unless you know first aid?’
‘I’m not very good at dealing with blood.’
‘Best sit down, then,’ said Nina. ‘Last thing we need is for you to faint.’
Dani slipped away from the doorway, and Nina resumed
her frantic search.
She wrenched open cupboard doors, spilling their contents onto the floor in her haste to locate medical supplies. She pulled out some latex food preparation gloves on her first hunt, and then found a box of sticking plasters.
‘We’re going to need something bigger than that,’ she cursed, and threw the packet across the counter in disgust. ‘Christ, is there nothing in this place?’
She spun on her heel, hands on hips, trying to remember where her father kept his first aid kit, and then dashed towards the laundry. Pulling open a cupboard door, she pushed washing powder and fabric conditioner to one side until she located a plastic box.
‘Got you.’
She ran back to her room with it.
As she entered, the smell of blood and sweat made her instantly recoil. She groaned when she saw the two men had placed the stranger on her bed instead of the floor, before she shook her head to clear the thought. She handed a pair of the gloves to Ross.
‘Put these on. They’re better than nothing,’ she said. ‘And here’s the first aid kit. That’s everything.’
‘Towels?’
‘Over in the wardrobe. I’ll grab some clean water from the bathroom, hang on.’
When she returned, Phil had moved so he was standing beside the door, arms folded across his chest, his face grey.
Sean stood next to Ross, his jaw clenched as he watched him roll the man onto his side.
‘You might want to go and check on Dani,’ said Nina to him. ‘She looked a bit pale.’
‘Thanks, will do.’
He hurried in the direction of the front room.
Ross glanced up when Nina joined him, slipping gloves over her hands.
‘His shoulder’s a mess. Help me get this shirt off him and we’ll clean him up a bit – see if we can find out what he’s done.’
‘Okay.’
Phil blew out his cheeks, tugged at his ear lobe, and moved towards Ross, his voice low.
‘Hate to say it, but that sure looks like a knife wound to me.’
Nina stared at him. ‘How can you tell?’
‘Seen something like it before,’ he said, then shrugged. ‘A long time ago.’
‘Well, the sooner we get him cleaned up, the better,’ said Ross. ‘Phil, do you want to go and keep our other guests company?’
‘Sure.’
Ross winked at Nina as the other man drifted off along the passageway. ‘I think he was going to faint if we’d made him stay any longer.’
‘I thought I was going to for a moment there,’ admitted Nina. She pulled away the jacket they’d cut from him and threw it onto one of the chairs next to the bed. She cast a wary gaze over the stranger as she began to cut away at his torn shirt with the scissors. ‘Who do you think he is?’
‘I don’t know.’ Ross frowned. ‘He looks like he’s been living rough, by the state of his clothes. Lots of dirt under his fingernails – hasn’t shaved in a while.’
‘Do you think Phil’s right, that this is a knife wound?’
‘Hard to tell – the skin’s torn up pretty badly, but if he’s had a fall, he might’ve ripped it open that way.’
‘Help me here – I need to peel this material back.’ Nina made room for Ross next to the injured man and carefully lifted the shirt cloth away from the man’s shoulder. She shuddered as the material peeled back with a wet, tearing noise.
‘Gently,’ murmured Ross, and helped her lift the man’s arm. ‘Can you cut this back section away? It might be easier than trying to lift him out of it.’
Nina bent over and cut away the fabric, slipping the loose ends away from the man’s body. ‘There.’
They both leaned back in shock. Nina flinched at the sight of the wound and looked away.
‘Jesus,’ swore Ross.
Nina swallowed hard, fighting down the urge to leave the room, and stepped away, closing her eyes to regain her composure.
‘You alright?’
She nodded and turned back to Ross. He had his arm across his nose and mouth, his eyes wide.
‘I’ll be okay. We need to help him, right?’
He nodded and took a deep breath before speaking. ‘Okay, warm water first. Let’s try to get the dirt off.’
Nina grabbed one of the towels and snipped it into sections before dropping the scissors on the bedside table and soaking the sections of material in clean water.
‘How do we know this isn’t hurting him?’
Ross’s gaze flickered over the man. ‘He’s out for the count, Nina. Better to do this now than wait for him to wake up, don’t you think?’
She nodded, bit her lip, and began work. As she swabbed away the dirt and grit, she couldn’t help but sneak the occasional look at the man’s face.
His torso and arms were muscular, so he either spent time in the gym or had a job where hard physical labour was a major part of his role.
Nina wiped the dirty water away from his body, ignoring the fact that her sheets and mattress would be ruined by the time they finished.
She looked over her shoulder to see Ross rummaging through the plastic box of medical supplies.
He caught her looking as he held up a small bottle to the light and grimaced. ‘I don’t think some of this stuff has been opened for years.’
‘Do you think it’ll be okay to use?’
He shrugged. ‘It’s going to be better than nothing.’ He put the box down and approached the bed, an assortment of bottles in his hand. ‘Okay, we’ve got a choice of an antiseptic cream or iodine.’
‘Iodine.’
‘You think?’
Nina shrugged. ‘We might need the antiseptic cream elsewhere,’ she said. ‘Some of those scratches on his face and hands are quite deep.’
‘True. Okay. Iodine it is.’
Nina poured the dark orange liquid onto a wad of gauze dressing, handed Ross the bottle, and leaned over the stranger.
As she applied the iodine to his bare skin, a curse escaped through Ross’s lips, and he moved away from her.
‘You’re not helping,’ she said through gritted teeth.
‘Sorry.’ He handed her the bottle and watched as she applied more of the liquid to the wound. ‘He must be in a worse state than he looks if he didn’t react to that.’
‘Do you want to put some of that antiseptic cream on his face while I finish this?’
‘Okay. We’ll need to elevate his arm to stop the bleeding too. Put the other pillow under it.’
The sound of the radio playing music in between bursts of static at the front of the truck stop reached Nina’s ears. For the past three hours, they’d heard the weather warnings increasing in urgency as the storm powered closer. After years of drought, it seemed the weather was finally going to bring some respite for the local farmers – if they and their crops could survive the incoming assault.
High winds and flash flooding had swept across much of the county, and a sense of foreboding permeated Nina’s thoughts as she worked.
‘Will your dogs be alright?’ she asked, recapping the bottle of iodine.
Ross nodded. ‘Tim would’ve put them in the barn for shelter,’ he said. ‘We haven’t seen one of them for a week. God knows where she’s gone.’
Nina noted his troubled tone. ‘Does she usually wander off?’
‘Yes. Misty’s only three and treats the property like it’s her own. She usually comes back after a couple of days, though, when she realises how bad she is at hunting.’
‘Hopefully someone will give her shelter.’
‘Or she’ll have already run home at the start of this.’
They finished their task in silence, each lost in their own thoughts.
Nina grabbed more gauze from the first aid kit, packed it against the wound, and then wrapped a bandage round the man’s arm.
Her gaze fell to the stranger’s face as Ross applied the last of the antiseptic cream, and she wondered if the man had been involved in some sort of car accident – the area was too remote
to walk from place to place – and who did that anyway?
But a car accident didn’t explain the wound to his shoulder, or the dirt that had covered his fingernails.
She sighed, frustrated, and began to bundle up the dirty linen before dropping it into a plastic bag and dropping it on the floor out of the way. She tore the gloves from her fingers and placed a new towel under the man’s shoulder.
‘Nina?’
‘What’s wrong?’
‘I don’t think we should mention Phil’s theory about this being a knife wound to the others, do you?’
‘I wish we could find out who he is,’ she said. ‘There must be someone worried about him.’
‘Never mind who he is, Nina,’ said Ross. ‘More to the point – who did this to him?’
4
Ross tore off his gloves, threw them in the trash can, and closed his eyes, desperate for a few seconds where he could avoid Nina’s gaze.
He ran his hand over his face.
The fact that a complete stranger had turned up at the truck stop with a knife wound could only mean that something had gone very, very wrong with John’s operation. And the only reason going round in circles in Ross’s mind at that moment was that John’s cover had been blown.
Wide open.
He’d had no idea they were going to make a move today, of all days – not with the storm’s approach. His thoughts were jumbled, veering between wanting to jump in his truck to make sure his father and brother were out of danger, and wanting to stay put.
His heart beat painfully as he forced himself not to panic. Not until he could work out a way to ensure Nina was safe.
‘Ross?’
He exhaled, opened his eyes, and massaged his temples. ‘Sorry, what?’
‘I said, do you think we should take turns looking after him?’ A worried frown creased Nina’s brow, and he realised he’d do anything to keep her safe.
He glanced at the man who lay passed out on the bed, then back to her, and nodded. ‘Good idea. I don’t think he’s going anywhere, so I’ll stay with him for a bit. If he doesn’t wake up we can probably take turns checking on him every fifteen minutes or so.’
Two FBI thrillers: Before Nightfall and Mistake Creek Page 23