by Robert Boren
“Neither did I. This reminds me of friggin L.A.”
“Seriously,” Ted said. “Where should we stop for the night?”
“We need to get up to Route 36 in order to cross Big Muddy,” Malcolm said. “Maybe we ought to stop where I-35 runs into that road.”
“Looking on my GPS. That would be a city called Cameron,” Ted said.
“I’ll call Gabe. He’s got free hands, and he knows RV Parks. Maybe he can get a reservation.”
“Okay, talk to you later, Malcolm.”
Malcolm ended that call, then called Gabe.
“Hi, Gabe.”
“Hey, Malcolm. Traffic sucks.”
“Sure does. Just thinking about where we should stop for the night. How about Cameron? It’s right up by Route 36, so we could head straight for the Mississippi in the morning.”
“Yeah, that’s a good point to cross, from what I’ve been reading. I knew a guy who owned a nice park in Cameron. I’ll see if he’s still there.”
“Okay, let me know,” Malcolm said.
“Will do.”
Gabe looked over at Dobie.
“Malcolm?” Dobie asked.
“Yeah, they’re thinking about stopping up by Route 36 for the night.”
“You know anybody with an RV Park there?”
“Yeah, Steve Fowler had a park there. He was about my age, so he’s probably still there. Haven’t talked to him for a few years.”
“You have his number?”
“No, but I got the name of his place. It’s pretty goofy. Hard to forget. I’ll see if I can find it on the web.”
“We’ll still be on the road a couple hours,” Dobie said. “Can’t believe this traffic.”
“Well, there aren’t as many ways across the Mississippi anymore,” Gabe said. “Route 36 might be a nightmare because of that, but I’m not sure how to get around it.”
“Yeah,” Dobie said.
“How’s Duchess doing? Doesn’t she need to stop pretty soon?”
“Yeah, after we get away from Kansas City, we’ll need to stop,” Dobie said. “Be needing gas anyway. Pulling this fifth wheel takes a toll on my mileage.”
“Here it is. Uncle Jasper’s RV Park and Resort. I’ll call.” He tapped the phone number.
“Hello?” a woman’s voice answered.
“This Uncle Jasper’s?” Gabe asked.
“Yeah,” she said.
“Steve still running the place?”
There was a pause on the line. “Did you know Steve?”
“Yeah,” Gabe said. “From the RV Park Owner’s Association. He okay?”
“He passed about a year ago,” the woman said. “I’m his widow.”
“Oh, no,” Gabe said. “So sorry. What happened?”
“Heart attack,” she said. “Unexpected.”
“That’s too bad,” Gabe said. “He was a good guy.”
“Yes, he was.”
“Is the park still open?” Gabe asked.
“Yep,” she said. “You need a space?”
“Yeah, for a fifth wheel, and two other vehicles.”
“Sure, we can accommodate you. When are you coming?”
“A few hours,” Gabe said.
“Okay, I’ll pencil you in. What’s your name?”
“Gabe,” he said.
“Okay, Gabe, see you soon.”
“Thanks.” Gabe put his phone back in his pocket.
“Your friend’s dead?” Dobie asked.
“Yeah, heart attack,” Gabe said. “So sad. He was barely sixty.”
“Sorry to hear that,” Dobie said. “His widow is running the place?”
“Yeah,” Gabe said. “I think I met her once. She was younger. A looker as I remember.”
“Why don’t you call Malcolm and let him know that we need to stop after we clear the city?”
“Okay,” Gabe said. He pulled his phone out and punched Malcolm’s contact.
“Hi, Gabe, got a place?”
“Yeah, Uncle Jasper’s. I knew the owner. He’s passed now, but his widow is running the joint.”
“Okay,” Malcolm said.
“Dobie needs to stop for gas and dog duty after we clear Kansas City.”
“Good, I could use a break myself,” Malcolm said. “I’ll pull off when I see a truck stop.”
“Sounds good, see you soon.”
Gabe put his phone away. “We’re all set. He’ll pull off when he sees a truck stop.”
“Good,” Dobie said.
“You want me to take the wheel for a while after that?”
“Nah, I’m okay,” Dobie said. “I’m enjoying this, actually. I could get used to the RV lifestyle.”
“People seem to like it,” Gabe said.
“You’ve never been an RV’er yourself, have you?”
“Nah,” he said. “Funny, really, since I owned the park for all those years.”
“You never got the itch at all?” Dobie asked.
“Yeah, from time to time, but I ran that park by myself for a lot of years. Ever since dad passed. It was hard for me to get a vacation.”
“Well, when this settles, maybe I can spell you every once in a while, and you could take this thing out.”
Gabe laughed. “I’ll be surprised if there’s anything left of my place, but even if there is, you’d be the person I’d want to travel with.”
Dobie laughed. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe you’ll find yourself a woman again.”
“Maybe,” he said, a faraway look in his eyes. “Haven’t found one like Judy.”
“How many years has it been?”
“Fifteen,” Gabe said. “Still miss her.”
They rode along silently for a little while, and the traffic let up. They were back up to full speed, the countryside whizzing by them.
“Finally,” Dobie said.
“Yeah, that was bad,” Gabe said.
Gets sparse out here real fast when you get out of the city,” Dobie said.
They rode along silently for a while.
“Look, Malcolm’s found a place,” Gabe said. “He’s getting on that off-ramp.”
“I see it,” Dobie said, smiling. “Good.”
They followed Malcolm’s Jeep and Ted’s rental car to the truck stop. Dobie carefully pulled up to the pumps. “I got to remember not to cut it too hard when we leave,” Dobie said.
“Yeah,” Gabe said. They both got out of the car. “Why don’t I fill it up while you take Duchess out?”
“That’d be great, thanks,” he said, pulling out his wallet.
“I’ll pay for this round,” Gabe said. “Go tend to your pooch.”
“Thanks, Gabe.”
Dobie opened the door, and Duchess bounded out, tail wagging, nuzzling Dobie. “C’mon, girl,” he said as he put on the leash.
Malcolm and Ted were both filling their cars with gas, at pumps next to each other.
“Maybe we should grab a quick bite,” Ted said. “They got a diner, and plenty of parking in the back.”
“I’m good with it,” Malcolm said. “I’ll check with Gabe and Dobie. Mine’s about done fueling.”
The pump nozzle shut off, and Malcolm put it back on the holder, then drove to a parking stall by the diner and walked over to Gabe.
“Hey, Gabe, we were thinking about getting a quick bite at the diner. You guys okay with that? There’s rig parking in the back.”
“I’d like to do that,” Gabe said.
“Me too,” Dobie said, walking up with Duchess.
“Okay, we’ll meet you in there,” Malcolm said. He walked back over to Ted, who was finishing his fueling, and then walked back to his Jeep.
Dobie let Duchess back into the trailer and locked it. He met Gabe at the cab and got behind the wheel.
“She enjoy getting out?” Gabe asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Dobie said. “That was a long ride for her.” He pulled away from the pumps, heading for the back, parking in a long spot under a light pole. They walked into the di
ner and saw Ted and Malcolm sitting in a large booth. They joined them.
“Hey, guys,” Dobie said. “That traffic sucked, didn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Ted said, looking at his phone. “I got a few messages.”
“Any from the FBI?” Malcolm asked.
“Yeah, and two from home. I’ll listen to them after we’ve ordered.”
“Okay,” Malcolm said. The waitress walked over to them. She was in her mid-forties, dark haired with tanned skin. There were tattoos peeking out from under the sleeves of her white blouse.
“What can I get for you gents? Coffee all around?”
“I’ll take coffee, water, and a burger,” Malcolm said.
“Same with me,” Ted said.
“Tamales any good?” Gabe asked.
The waitress laughed. “Well, this is the Midwest. They ain’t bad considering.”
“Okay, I’ll try one,” Gabe said. “With a coke. No coffee.”
“I’ll take coffee and a tuna melt,” Dobie said. “And a water too.”
“Okay, be right back with the java,” she said, smiling.
“Excuse me, guys, while go take these calls,” Ted said, as Malcolm slid out of the booth.
“Might as well trade places,” Malcolm said. “He’s liable to have more calls.”
Ted finished with the phone calls and then disappeared into the rest room for a few minutes. He came back and slid in next to Malcolm as the coffee arrived.
“Well?” Malcolm asked.
Ted had a grim look on his face. “Nothing on Agent Keith yet. He hasn’t surfaced. They put an all-points bulletin out on him. For arrest.”
“Why?” Malcolm said.
“The DNA came through already. His DNA was in the coed.”
“No, the FBI agent raped the victim?” Dobie asked.
“I’m not surprised,” Malcolm said. “Agent Keith is a bad character. Or maybe he was a bad character.”
“If he’s still alive, he’s setting up a trap for us,” Ted said. “I’d bet money on it.”
“We could send Duchess into the house first,” Dobie said.
“Maybe,” Ted said.
“What about Bailey?”
“Yeah, DNA came in on her, too. Same as the earlier victims. Got to be Howard and Scott.”
“Geez, Howard was doing a college girl?” Dobie asked. “That guy was older than me by at least fifteen years.”
“We got more about Bailey,” Ted said. “She was a basket case. Been bounced from one college to another. Parent’s pretty much disowned her. Strange, because she was good in high school. Got straight A grades, never in much trouble. Somewhere along the line she just snapped.”
“Met somebody in college who was a bad influence, I’m guessing,” Gabe said. “It happens.”
“Bonnie Parker was a good student in high school,” Dobie said.
“Yeah, that’s true,” Malcolm said. “Anything more about the coed?”
“She was an innocent,” Ted said, face grim again. “This is so sick. She’s almost kidnapped by serial killers, and then somebody who’s supposed to be safe rapes her and uses her for bait. She gets killed in the process. It’s times like this that I hate my job.”
“This change our plans any?” Gabe asked.
“No,” Malcolm said. “But we aren’t going to find anybody alive at the house.”
“You sound pretty sure about that,” Dobie said.
“Yeah, Malcolm,” Ted said. “You know something I don’t?”
“Think about it,” Malcolm said. “Agent Keith attempts to hide the fact that he’s involved in the incident at the jogging path. Who do you think he was trying to hide that from?”
“FBI, obviously,” Ted said, his mind working. “I get it. You think he wouldn’t be hiding from the bureau after doing the setup. He did a bad job, though, remember.”
“I didn’t say he was smart, I said he was dead,” Malcolm said, chuckling.
“We’d still better be careful when we get to the house,” Dobie said. “Maybe Agent Keith is dead, or maybe he’s being held captive. Scott and Howard might be the ones laying the trap.”
“True,” Malcolm said. “That’s possible, but I still doubt it.”
“Why do you doubt it?” Dobie asked.
“Scott is after his RV Park in Kansas,” Malcolm said. “He’s not after us specifically. I suppose he might want revenge for Sherry.”
“He doesn’t know, unless Sherry called him during the battle,” Ted said.
“Why do you say that?” Dobie said. “Wouldn’t it be all over the news?”
“We made a deal with the local PD and the local news folks, to protect this operation,” Ted said.
“How’d you pull that off?” Gabe asked.
“With great difficulty,” Ted said. “The FBI helped.”
“Would have been worse if Sherry was famous,” Malcolm said. “Right now this just looks like a small town incident. People in town probably think there was a meth lab in the building.”
“There was,” Ted said. “That’s why there were so many people there. Sherry wasn’t focused on the game much anymore. She’d line something up from time to time, but there’s only been a few in the last year and a half. Probably targets of convenience. All of them were customers of the drug business, from what we can tell. Could have owed her money.”
The food arrived, and the men ate silently.
***
“The fridge is cold now, Scotty,” Kerry said. “Didn’t take too long.”
“Not bad for a gas fridge,” Scott said. “Ice still hard?”
“Mostly,” Kerry said, touching the bags.
“Good, put them in the freezer section, okay?”
“Okay, Scotty,” he said. “Does the TV work?”
“No generator,” Scott said. “We’ll go to an RV Park in a few days, and we’ll have electricity there. You can watch movies on my iPad when I’m gone tonight.”
“You going away tonight?” he asked, looking concerned.
“Yeah, for a few hours. You can stay here. Don’t worry. If anything bad happens, you can call me.”
“We gonna cook something?” Kerry asked.
“You remember how to make Kraft Dinner?”
“Yeah, Scotty, I can make that. We have milk and butter in the fridge.”
“Good, why don’t you find a pan and start working on that? The stove should work.”
“Okay, Scotty,” Kerry said. He went to work. Soon the motor home was filled with the smell of cooking.
As Kerry was cooking, Scott took his phone out of his pocket and looked at the history. He found Cindy’s number and called.
“Hello?”
“Cindy?” Scott asked.
“Is this Scott?” she asked.
“Sure is, honey,” Scott said. “Still free tonight?”
“Yes,” she said. He could hear her smacking her gum. “What do you have in mind?”
“Dinner, perhaps?” he asked.
“Love it,” she said. “What time are you coming over?”
“Soon,” Scott said. “Just want to make sure Kerry has his supper.”
“You leaving him in the motor home?”
“Yeah, it’ll be no problem,” Scott said. “We got permission to stay in the storage yard for a few nights.”
Cindy laughed. “Drew. He always was a softie.”
“Yes, he’s a nice guy. See you in a while, Cindy.”
“Looking forward to it,” she said. Scotty put his phone back in his pocket.
“It’s done, Scotty,” Kerry said.
“Great. You turn off the burner?”
“Oh! Not yet,” Kerry said. He turned it off, and got down bowls.
“None for me, Kerry,” Scott said. “I’m going out to dinner with Cindy. Put the leftovers in the fridge when you’re done.”
“Okay,” Kerry said.
Scott climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine.
“We going somewhere?�
�� Kerry asked.
“No, I’m just charging up the house batteries for a while,” he said. “So you’ll have light after it gets dark.” He walked over to kitchen counter, switching off all the lights but one.
“What are you doing?” Kerry asked.
“See this light?” he said, pointing to a small dome light over the middle of the room.
“Yeah,” he said.
“You leave this one on while I’m gone, but don’t turn on any of the others. There should be enough battery to run this light the whole time.”
“Okay, Scotty,” he said, going back to eating.
Scott let the engine run for about twenty minutes and checked the house battery level. Not all the way charged, but close enough. He went into the bathroom to shave and brush his teeth and hair.
“I’m leaving now,” Scott said to Kerry. “Remember what I said - call me if you need me. I’ll have my cellphone on. You remember how to use the iPad?”
“Yeah, Scotty, I remember.”
“Good, then you can watch a movie or read one of the books I downloaded for you, okay?”
“Okay,” he said.
“When you get tired, just climb into your bunk.”
“Can I take the iPad up there?”
“That’s a good idea,” Scott said. “I’ll put it up there for you.” He tossed it up there.
Kerry nodded and watched as Scott opened the coach door.
“Be good,” he said as he left. He locked the door, and went over to the station wagon, grinning to himself. Time to have some fun.
Continued in Bug Out! Part 12, available now in the Kindle Store!
Copyright
Bug Out! Part 11 copyright © 2015 by Robert G Boren. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any format without permission in writing from the copyright holder.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Thanks to Laura Thomas for editing this book!
About the Author
Robert G Boren is a writer from the South Bay section of Southern California. He writes Short Stories, Novels, and Serialized Fiction. Most of his work is about people from the South Bay.