The Highway ch-2

by C. J. Box

  She shook her head, but was both scared and a little thrilled to hear what he’d say.

  “Somebody’s got to defend innocent people,” he said. “They need a dark angel. The deck is stacked against them, too. All those good citizens out there just want to raise their families, go to work, go to church, and keep their heads down. They don’t give a shit about county politics or political correctness or who’s running for sheriff or the sheriff’s fucking diversity program. They just want to live their lives. Somebody’s got to step up and protect them, you know? And who is tougher on bad guys than me?

  “Look,” Cody said, “B. G. did it. The two of them are big-time growers fighting for market share. I know these people because I grew up with them. I went to school with B. G., and he’s been a dirtbag in training from the minute he was born. B. G. went to Tokely’s house on some pretext and shot Tokely with Tokely’s gun, then made it look like a suicide. He murdered a man. We’re supposed to be against that. And I don’t give a shit about Roger Tokely, either. He was a reprobate just like B. G. But if we leave B. G. out on the street, look what we’ve done. We’ve allowed him to continue to beat the shit out of his wife and kids for years and they’ll never turn against him because he’s got them under his thumb. Worst of all we’ve showed him he can beat us. So the next time he gets high, maybe it’s one of those innocents out there who gets it. Maybe it’s your mom, or your kid, or my son. B. G.’s a typical douche bag. He’s been getting away with crap for years. He’s human shit and I just want to flush him away.”

  She flinched when he suddenly reached back, but instead of the weapon he slapped his wallet on the table and opened it.

  “This is Justin,” he said, jabbing his finger on a photo of a strapping, smiling teenager in a football uniform. “He’s just a great kid. He’s smart, he’s kind. He’s empathetic in a way I just look at and wonder where the hell it came from. I still can’t believe he’s my son, because all that bad Hoyt blood must have ended with me somehow. But I look at this kid, Cassie, and I say to myself I will never let him get hurt by some dirtbag like B. G. So B. G. has to go, simple as that.”

  She looked up and was surprised to see the softness in his eyes.

  “All I was doing in that cabin,” Cody said, “was spreading some bread crumbs around that would lead to other evidence. Now the techs are motivated, they’ll find more and more to place B. G. in that house. By the time they’ve got enough to arrest B. G. we might not even need to use the trash I put in his garbage can. The stuff I did wasn’t enough to railroad B. G.-but it was enough to get everyone looking in his direction. That’s all I wanted, was to put the spotlight on him. And that’s sometimes how you have to work it so the right scumbags go to prison.”

  “But it isn’t ethical,” she said.

  He laughed. “No, it isn’t. Which is why I did it myself and didn’t try to involve you. You’ve still got ethics, or so you think.”

  “I didn’t want to believe you’d do something like that,” she said. “I felt if I followed you I’d be able to prove to Tubman you were clean.”

  “You felt wrong,” Cody said. “You,” he said, jabbing his finger toward her, “let yourself get used. He used you to get me. And you just happily went along with it until you realized what you’d done. Now you come in here for what? Forgiveness? You want me to pat you on the head and tell you what a good girl you are? You want me to tell you thanks for saving me from myself? Is that what you want?”

  She shook her head.

  “The problem with people your age,” he said, “is you never understood the difference between thinking and feeling, and to you feeling is more important, which is bullshit. You felt like you were doing the right thing, so you did it. You felt that it was probably okay to screw your partner because your boss told you to do it. You felt like all you needed to do was come in here tonight and I’d see how genuine your all-important feelings truly are and I’d say, ‘It’s okay, Cassie. You meant well. All is forgiven, Cassie.’”

  She felt like he’d slapped her repeatedly. She tried to blink away tears that were ready to burst behind her nose and inside her eyes.

  “Well,” Cody said, reaching out for the shot glass and then recoiling as if the glass of bourbon stung him, “you’re not forgiven. And I feel like I’m going to get hammered tonight. Care to join me?”

  “No,” she said.

  “Then goodbye, and don’t let the door hit you on the ass on your way out.”

  “Please, Cody,” she said, “Don’t do this. Don’t hurt yourself. Think of Jenny and Justin and all you’ve built up.”

  “This is it for me,” he said. “I had a nice run but this is the end of the trail. When I got kicked out of Denver I thought I’d never get another gig in law enforcement. The only reason I wound up back here where I grew up was because Tubman thought I had the goods on him. Now he’s got worse on me. And he’ll make damned sure I never get another law enforcement job in Montana or anywhere else.”

  With that, he suddenly tossed back the shot and chased it with half the pint of beer. She watched with fascination and horror as his eyes glistened and he smiled manically.

  “Damn,” he said, “that was good. I miss this. And I want another one.”

  “Cody…” she said.

  He dismissed her and signaled for another round. Then he arched his eyebrows and said, “Leave or stay, I don’t care. But if you stay, things might get ugly.”

  She watched as he downed the rest of the beer in time for the bartender to deliver another round. A second glass of wine appeared as well. Cody took the shot glass from the bartender’s hand before he could set it on the table-and downed it.

  “Keep ’em coming,” Cody ordered.

  Then to her: “Don’t get me wrong. I admire your guts coming here tonight. That shows me something. But I’ve got a question for you.”

  “What?”

  “Who is going to protect these people now?” he asked. “You?” He said it with incredulity.

  She felt her face flush hot again, and she sipped the glass of wine for something to do.

  “Cody,” she said, reaching out and putting her hand on his arm. He looked down at it suspiciously. “What do you have on Tubman?”

  Cody froze for a moment. Then, that evil grin she both loved and hated stretched slowly across his face.

  12

  6:32 P.M., Tuesday, November 20

  It was only minutes but it felt much longer as the headlights of the black truck retreated behind them. As they reached the top of the hill, Danielle kept the pedal floored, prepared to shoot down the other side. They’d played enough mountain yo-yo with big trucks on the drive north that day Gracie didn’t mind that her sister wouldn’t slow down and let the momentum of the black truck catch up with them.

  Gracie’s stomach hurt. Seeing that truck grille so close to the car had unhinged her. Passing the truck with her sister screaming insults had unhinged her in a way she couldn’t explain.

  She hated her sister for putting them in this situation and hated herself even more for going along with it. Cars, trucks, big lonely highways at night were serious. Steel and speed and pavement and weather didn’t give a couple of teenagers a pass. This was the real world and Gracie wasn’t sure she liked it. Danielle didn’t seem to notice because she lived, as she claimed, on “Planet Danielle.” But Gracie couldn’t live there, even though it was probably more fun.

  Danielle was texting furiously on her phone. “I told Justin what happened,” she said. “He said to me, ‘Good driving back there.’”

  “Great,” Gracie said sullenly.

  “Yeah,” Danielle said. “I let that guy have it. I guess you should thank me for saving our lives, I guess.”

  “Gee, you think?”

  Danielle shrugged and flipped her hair back. The close call and hearing back from Justin seemed to have filled her sister with confidence and arrogance, which was her normal state.

  Gracie said, “Did you text him about
the engine light?”

  “No way. I don’t want to worry him.”

  Gracie covered her face in her hands.

  After a few moments, Danielle’s phone chirped. She looked at the display. “Oh, no,” she said. “Shit!”

  “What?” Gracie was suddenly buoyed: It was their mom. She talked to their dad. They were busted. They would have to turn back or drive to Omaha.

  “Justin says he looked on the Internet and there’s a big wreck or something on the highway. It’s closed up ahead of us. Shit!”

  Gracie didn’t have the same reaction. She thought, We can turn around and forget this whole thing. We can drive straight through the night to Omaha to Dad. We can get ourselves out of this! Relief flooded through her.

  Danielle said, “He says not to worry. There’s another way to Helena but we’ll need to get off I-90.”

  Gracie didn’t want to reveal her true thoughts, and said, “We shouldn’t leave the interstate. I don’t want to go out there”-she gestured with her chin toward the black mountains to the south-“we don’t want to be on crappy little country roads.”

  “Don’t be such a baby,” Danielle said, dismissing her. “He says it’s not a bad drive but we’ll need to go back through a corner of Yellowstone Park. He’s going to e-mail me a map.”

  “No way,” Gracie said.

  “That’s what we’ll do,” Danielle said flatly. “It’s time we got over that Yellowstone trip. This is our opportunity to put it behind us.”

  “No way,” Gracie said.

  “We’re looking for the exit to Laurel,” Danielle said, “Highway 212.”

  As she said it the headlights lit up a green highway sign that read: LAUREL 4 MILES.

  “We’re in luck!” Danielle sang.

  “Let me talk to him myself,” Gracie said. “Call him and hand over your phone or I swear to God I’ll make you turn around at the next exit and drive to Nebraska.”

  Danielle huffed and rolled her eyes. She said, “Don’t you trust me?”

  “Ha!”

  Danielle punched the speed dial, held the phone up to her ear, and said to Justin, “J-Man, Gracie needs to hear from you directly. She’s getting cold feet and she’s making squeaky noises about not coming. So just give her the directions and she can navigate us there.”

  Gracie couldn’t hear what Justin replied because her sister kept the phone close to her face, but whatever it was made her smile. But she held out the phone.

  “Justin,” Gracie said. “I’m nervous about going off the interstate. Are you sure we should do this?”

  His voice was deep and calm but resigned. He said, “Hey, Gracie. It sounds like you guys are coming to visit. I wish I would have known about it.”

  “Me, too.”

  “I can’t believe your mom let you.”

  “She didn’t.” Gracie turned away from her sister, who was glaring. “So Danielle didn’t tell you?”

  “Tell me what?” There was panic in his voice.

  “She thinks we’re driving to Omaha to be with our dad right now.”

  “Shit, Gracie,” Danielle said. “You’re such a narc.”

  Gracie ignored her. “She did talk our dad into it, but you know how he is. But Mom doesn’t know.”

  Justin sighed. “There’s probably no talking Danielle out of it, is there?”

  The question confirmed Gracie’s suspicions. She shot a quick glance at her sister, who looked back anxiously. Gracie felt a sudden and unexpected pang of sympathy for her sister. Justin wasn’t enthusiastic about seeing her after all. He might have given her signals-the texts and calls that weren’t returned certainly should have conveyed something-but Danielle had blissfully chosen not to notice. Danielle was rarely denied anything by anybody.

  “Maybe you could do it,” Gracie said. She held the phone tight to her face so Danielle couldn’t overhear Justin’s side of the conversation and realize what they were talking about.

  “Do what?” Danielle asked.

  Gracie ignored her.

  Justin said, “I can’t just tell her not to come now. You guys are close and it’s dark. It might be dangerous to drive back all that way tonight.”

  “That would be okay with me,” Gracie said.

  “But would she do it?”

  Gracie looked over at her sister, at the determination in her face. At the way she gripped the wheel.

  “Probably not,” she said.

  “Maybe you guys can stay here tonight and I can talk with her and you can go see your dad in the morning. I can talk to my mom about making up the spare bedroom. But telling her … man, that won’t be fun. You know how she gets when she’s mad…”

  “You’re telling me?” Gracie said.

  Justin laughed.

  “What are you two talking about?” Danielle spat. “Are you talking about me?”

  “Okay, so what we’ll do is make sure you get here in one piece.” Justin sighed, “Then we’ll worry about the rest later.”

  “Okay,” Gracie said. She anticipated Danielle trying to wrest the phone from her and dodged her sister’s outstretched and grasping hand.

  “Let me look at the computer,” Justin said, and she could hear keystrokes. While he found the site he wanted, he said, “So you bumped heads with a trucker, huh? Some of those truckers think they own the road, don’t they?”

  “This one did.” She glanced up and there were no headlights in her rearview mirror. “He’s way behind us now.”

  “Cool,” Justin said. She could hear voices of other boys in the background. Someone whooped, and Justin shushed him. “Okay, I’m sitting at my friend Eric’s computer and I’ve got Google Maps up. Where are you exactly?”

  “Just a few miles from Laurel,” Gracie said. “Maybe three.”

  “Great. I see where you’re at. The Montana Department of Transportation site says the road is closed between Park City and Columbus. But you’ll hit Laurel before you get there and that’s the place where you can get off the interstate and go around. It says they might keep the road closed all night so this is the smart thing to do. Now let me talk you through this. I’ve gone on this road before with my dad, and it’s a really cool drive. It goes right on top of the mountains and drops down and cuts the corner of Yellowstone Park and comes back up into Montana.”

  “Yellowstone,” she repeated. “That place doesn’t have a lot of good memories.”

  Danielle had stopped grabbing at the phone now that she was assured they were talking about the route to Helena.

  “Believe me, I know,” he said. “But you won’t even be close to where we were on that pack trip. Not even close. And you won’t need to get off the paved road. You’ll barely be in the park and if you keep going you’ll come up through Mammoth Hot Springs and be back on track.”

  He outlined the route on 212 from Laurel south through Rockvale to Red Lodge, and from there to Cooke City and Silver Gate via the Beartooth Highway and into the northeast corner of the park. Then they should exit the park at Gardiner, Montana, and drive north on Highway 89 to Livingston through the Yellowstone River canyon back up to I-90 and on to Helena via Bozeman.

  “It sounds complicated,” she said.

  “Yeah, but it isn’t,” he said. “There are only a few roads and I’d guess there won’t be much traffic at all except for other people who know how to go around the closed road. I’m looking and it doesn’t seem to be snowing on top of the mountains. That could be a big problem. But right now it looks like a clear drive and I’ll be right here the whole time tracking you on the screen. If you get confused, just call and talk to me.”

  She took a deep breath but said nothing.

  He said, “It’s too bad you guys don’t have a GPS.”

  “Oh, but we do have a GPS,” Gracie said, shooting a look toward Danielle who looked back as if wounded. “It’s in the trunk of the car.”

  “The trunk?”

  “She’s your girlfriend.”

  Justin laughed wearily, and s
aid under his breath, “Not for long.”

  “Hey,” Danielle protested. “Quit talking about me, you two. I’m right here. And if you want to pull over somewhere, I’ll get the GPS out and try to figure out how it works. Geez…”

  “You heard?” Gracie asked Justin.

  “Tell her it’s a good idea. That way we’ll both know exactly where you are.”

  “One more thing,” Gracie said, “The check engine light is on. I don’t know what that means and neither does Danielle.”

  Justin sighed and asked how long.

  “Forever,” Gracie said.

  “Is the car getting hot or doing anything strange?”

  “Not yet.”

  There was a long pause and she could hear him asking one of his friends about it.

  “Eric says it could be a short or it could be serious.”

  “Great.”

  “He can look at it tomorrow morning,” Justin said. “I mean, if you get here.”

  Gracie sighed.

  “But, Gracie,” he said, “keep in touch with me. There are some cell phone dead spots, but if I know where you’re at and something happens I can call my dad. He’ll know what to do.”

  Gracie recalled meeting Justin’s dad Cody. He scared her at first, but she ended up liking him. And he seemed to like her.

  “I don’t know where he is right now,” Justin said. “He didn’t make it home for dinner. But he’s got a cell phone and I’ll give him a call if we need to.”

  She found herself smiling and felt her shoulders relax. Justin’s voice was soothing, and he was saying all the right things. Danielle, she thought, never did deserve him.

  Gracie felt a pang and lowered the phone to her lap and covered the receiver with her hand.

  “Danielle,” she said, “maybe this is a really bad idea. It’s not too late to turn around and go back.”