Paradise Ranch (Jack and Ashley detective series Book 2)

by R. D. Sherrill

  “Yes it was,” Ashley agreed. “Who would do some-thing like that?”

  “You’re right,” Gary agreed. “How silly of me, huh, to think that an officer of the law like yourself would stoop to stealing furniture. You know, they docked me for that - my delivery pay - that is. It was on the manifest as loaded so I was responsible. They were really mad over one little dinette set. You’d think it was made of gold or something.”

  Despite their dire situation, Ashley felt a bit of shame wash over her as they raced through the night toward New Hope.

  “If we get out of this Gary, we’ll find out what happened to it, okay?” Ashley said as she found what she suspected was the key to the plane.

  “Deal,” Gary replied. “Because, you know, they took that out of my check and I don’t make …”

  “Yes, I know,” Ashley said. “We’ll get to the bottom of it. I promise.”

  “Are we there yet?” Jack slurred, sitting upright in the back with his eyes finally open.

  “Jack!” Ashley yelled, looking into her partner’s glassy eyes.

  “Yes. I’m Jack,” he agreed before falling backwards, again into unconsciousness.

  “I sure hope you know what you’re doing,” Earl said as he looked at Jack. “He isn’t flying nothin’ tonight.”

  “I sure hope I do, too,” Ashley mumbled under her breath.

  “What?” Earl leaned forward, not making out Ash-ley’s comment.

  “Nothing,” Ashley dismissed as she saw blue lights, this time in front of them.

  “What’s that?” Earl asked as he leaned up between the seats.

  “That’s a police car,” Ashley answered. “A police car in the middle of the road!”

  Unaware his boss was a murderous felon, Deputy Edwards was following orders radioed to him by the sheriff and had set up a one-man road block at the out-skirts of town. He stood by his patrol unit, nervously watching the headlights approach.

  “It’s one of the deputies,” Ashley declared as they raced toward the vehicle.

  “What do you want me to do?” Gary asked anxiously.

  “Can you go around it?” Ashley asked.

  “I’ll try,” Gary said as he gripped the wheel and grit-ted his teeth. “You better hold on, just in case.”

  Gary’s calculations didn’t take into account he was still doing over one hundred. Edwards dove out of the way just as the semi clipped the rear of his unit that was parked sideways in the road. The blue lights hurled into the night, knocked off the deputy’s vehicle as it went spinning, narrowly missing the young lawman as he laid on the ground.

  “Did we hit something?” Jack called out, still lying on his back with his eyes closed.

  “I think he’s coming to,” Earl offered as he lightly shook Jack, trying to urge him into full consciousness.

  Gary finally hit his brakes after the impact with the deputy’s vehicle, just as they blew past the Halfway Inn. Gary looked nervously at Ashley.

  “He got out of the way in time,” Ashley answered his silent concern, assuring him the deputy was okay although another part of the Liberty County patrol fleet had bit the dust.

  Gary’s damaged truck, with parts now dragging on the pavement and throwing sparks, sliced through the deserted streets of downtown New Hope with all the quietness of a marching band.

  “I don’t think she’s going to take us much further,” Gary admitted as the truck limped on. “She wasn’t de-signed for a demolition derby.”

  “Just get us to the airport,” Ashley urged. “You can fly out with us.”

  “Not me,” Gary protested. “No offense, but I’m not getting on a plane with you. I’ll take my chances right here on the ground.”

  The clanging of the engine became more pronounced as they emerged on the other side of New Hope and came in sight of the airport lights. Those, however, weren’t the only lights she could see. The pulsing of the sheriff’s blue lights could still be seen behind them.

  “When we get there, you get Jack on the plane,” Ashley ordered Earl. “I’m going to fire up the plane or at least I hope I am. Gary, you get as far away from here as you can once you drop us off. I’m sure the sheriff isn’t going to be happy with you, helping us like you did.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be long gone,” Gary said as he shifted down through the gears and pulled into the deserted air field.

  “We’ve got to be quick. We’ve only got a few minutes,” Ashley declared as she pointed to Jack’s plane, tied down on the tarmac. “Jack. Can you walk?”

  Jack forced his eyes open and labored to focus on the source of the question. He still spoke with a slur as he rubbed the now massive knot on his forehead. “Of course I can walk. Where am I walking to?”

  “We’ve got to get you on the plane,” Ashley replied as Gary pulled up to the aircraft. “We’re flying out of here.”

  Her statement actually seemed to snap Jack out of his haze as he leaned forward in between the seats and stared at Ashley intently.

  “Do you understand what I’m saying, Jack,” Ashley said slowly, the look in his eyes telling her that he still wasn’t all there.

  Jack sat gazing at Ashley as the truck came to a stop, looking at her as if it were the first time they had ever met.

  “What happened to your eyebrows?” Jack asked plainly as he forced his eyes wide open, still unable to focus.

  Ashley growled as she opened her door and yelled back over her shoulder to Earl. “Help Jack to the plane, I’ll untie us.”

  Ashley immediately looked back toward the town, dreading that blue lights would soon be entering the airfield behind them. However, much to her relief, the lights seemed to be pulsing deeper into downtown.

  “They don’t know we’re at the airport,” Ashley noted to Earl as he helped the wobbly-legged Jack from the cab of the truck.

  “They’ll figure it out soon enough,” Earl warned with Jack slumped against his shoulder. “New Hope isn’t a big town. They’ll find us in a few minutes through the process of elimination.”

  “Maybe I can lead them on a wild goose chase,” Gary volunteered as he gunned his truck to head back through town.

  “Don’t do anything crazy, Gary,” Ashley yelled over the clanging of the semi’s engine.

  Gary drove away, giving her a thumbs up out the window in answer to her command.

  Ashley rushed to the airplane and began untying it from its moorings. Growing up she occasionally helped her older brother who flew for an air delivery service, which gave her a bit of experience on how to prepare a plane to fly.

  “Put him in the front passenger seat,” she directed as she removed the last of the straps and jumped into the cockpit.

  She sat with her mouth agape as she looked at the instrument panel of Jack’s plane; it was much different than her brother’s smaller aircraft. As a passenger in Jack’s plane, she hadn’t taken much note of the instrumentation. She hadn’t thought, in her wildest dreams, that she would be forced to fly the machine. The fact that each of the instruments were a blur to her did not help matters as she had to lean inches away from the panel to even see what they were without her glasses.

  “You better come help,” Earl yelled from outside the passenger seat as Ashley tried to get her bearings on the control panel. “He’s passed out again.”

  Ashley jumped from the cockpit and ran around the plane to find Jack lying unconscious on the tarmac by the door. She and Earl combined to pick him up and hoist him into the passenger seat. A quick look back to town revealed the blue lights were getting closer. They were heading toward the airport!

  “Okay, we don’t have time for a pre-flight check and … I’d fasten my seatbelt if I were you,” Ashley announced as Earl settled in to the back seat. Jack moaned as his head bounced against the passenger seat.

  Ashley paused, looking for the switch to start the plane.

  “You don’t even know how to turn it on?” Earl asked, noticing her quandary. “Maybe we should just run
for it.”

  “There,” Ashley said as she flipped the blue switch, fired the engines and immediately took off the brake. “See. We’re moving.”

  “Whoa,” Jack’s eyes flashed open. “What are you doing, sweetness?”

  “What’s it look like?” Ashley replied as she worked the yoke. “I’m about to take off.”

  Jack winced as he pushed himself up in the passenger seat. “I know I got a hit in the head but as I remember it, I’m the pilot and you’re the one afraid of flying.”

  “Afraid of YOUR flying,” she shot back without missing a beat as she started twisting the yoke in panic. “Why won’t this work?”

  “We’re all going to die,” Earl lamented from the back seat.

  “You just keep look out,” Ashley narrowed her eyes. “Tell me where they are. I’ll get us in the air.”

  “Your feet,” Jack said, sitting back, clutching his head. “You’re on the ground, you drive the plane with your feet while you’re on the ground. The pedals. Left to go left, right to go right and the tops to brake.”

  Ashley immediately worked the pedals, taxiing the plane to the edge of the runway before coming to a stop, eyeing the airstrip.

  “Okay, you need to push up the throttle and let off the brakes,” Jack said, trying to clear his eyes and bring them into focus.

  “Maybe you ought to do this,” Ashley offered. “I haven’t taken off in years and I just did it once.”

  “You must have done it right then. You’re here, aren’t ya?” Jack replied. “It’s like riding a bike except this bike flies.”

  “And crashes,” Earl chimed in from the back. “I hate to interrupt your flight lesson but, we’ve got company.”

  Earl had no more than uttered his warning than blue lights splashed on the cockpit. The sheriff had entered the airport grounds and he wasn’t alone. A flatbed truck was behind him, four or five armed men in the back. They headed on down the runway while the sheriff’s vehicle came alongside the plane.

  “Hit it!” Jack yelled as he reached over and pushed up the throttle levers.

  The plane lurched forward down the runway.

  “Jack, I think you need to take over,” Ashley suggested as the plane picked up speed.

  “I can’t focus,” Jack revealed. “I can’t see what I’m looking at. It’s like the worst-ever migraine with things floating in and out. I’m seeing three of everything and it sounds like I’m in an echo chamber. Plus, I think I’m about to …”

  Jack’s statement cut off as he sat forward and vomited in the passenger floorboard.

  “Oh, that’s disgusting,” Earl said in a throaty tone as Jack continued heaving. “Couldn’t you aim that out the window or something?”

  Earl’s wisecrack was interrupted by a metallic sound pinging the airplane. They were being shot at.

  “No turning back now!” Ashley announced as she looked over to see the sheriff’s vehicle draw even with them, his gun raised and ready to take another shot.

  “Jack, you better duck!” she warned as she pressed hard on the foot pedal, weaving the plane toward Tubbs as they drag raced side by side on the tarmac.

  Tubbs’ round fired aimlessly in the air as he had to swerve in the midst of taking his shot to avoid being struck by the aircraft. The move broke his momentum, allowing the plane to get its nose ahead as it continued picking up speed. Tubbs fired another shot from behind, the round passing through the plane fuselage but missing its occupants.

  “I feel better,” Jack announced as he sat up from his hurling, wiping his mouth.

  “Ashley!” Earl called out from the backseat. “Look!”

  In all of the excitement of racing town the tarmac, they hadn’t noticed the flatbed truck had taken a direct route up the runway and was now heading to cut them off.

  “That’s not good,” Ashley’s eyes widened.

  “Don’t slow down, whatever you do,” Jack ordered as he tried to focus his eyes on the oncoming truck. “We’re past the point of no return.”

  “They’re going to cut us off!” Ashley cried out. “We’re going to hit!”

  FLYING HIGH AGAIN

  Just at that moment, Ashley saw a flash in her peripheral vision. A second later the flat bed went flying, its human cargo scattering like toy soldiers as the truck rolled. It was Gary! His semi had appeared out of no-where, clipping the flat bed on its back end, toppling it only yards before it would have been in the plane’s path.

  “Gary!” Ashley exclaimed as the semi veered off and headed away from the runway. “He saved us!”

  “Gary?” Jack rubbed his head. “Who’s Gary?”

  “I’ll tell you later,” Ashley smiled.

  “Um, Ashley,” Earl grabbed her by the shoulder. “You may want to …”

  “Pull up!” Jack finished his sentence as they ran off the end of the runway, the uneven desert land at the end of the tarmac rattling their teeth.

  Ashley pulled back on the yoke and held her breath. It was now or never as they raced toward a rocky out-crop. She felt her stomach clench as the plane jumped skyward. She looked over to see Jack’s fingernails dug into the dash. The trio sat in silence as the plane climbed into the clear frontier sky.

  “See, like riding a bike,” Jack broke the silence as he reached over to the controls and raised the landing gear. “Everything else is a piece of cake.”

  “Piece of cake?” Ashley furled her brow. “How do you propose we land this thing when we get where we’re going?”

  Jack stared at Ashley with a look of confusion.

  “You know, your eyebrows are …” Jack began.

  “Yes, you told me already,” Ashley said with irritation. “Now, about how to land this thing …”

  Jack sat back in his seat and tried to clear his head.

  “You know, the first thing you’re supposed to learn in flight lessons is how to land,” Jack declared with his eyes closed, his hand pressed against his temple.

  “Come on, my brother taught me everything I know and he wasn’t exactly a great teacher,” Ashley shot back. “Maybe you can land us. Are you feeling any better?”

  “Do I look any better?” Jack looked at Ashley, his eyes crossed. The knot on his forehead was about the size of a baby’s fist.

  “Not really,” Ashley replied, tearing her eyes away from the heinous-looking bump that filled most of his forehead.

  “Besides, I could pass out at any moment,” Jack ad-mitted. “My head is swimming and it feels like I’m talkin’ in a drum.”

  “Might be a concussion?” Earl offered.

  “Ya think?” Jack rubbed the knot, reaching over to pull back the fuel mixture levers as they continued their ascent. “If, for some reason, I’m not conscious when we land …”

  “Don’t say that,” Ashley’s voice shook.

  “Make sure the mixture is all the way in and that you cut the throttle so you don’t over-rev,” Jack continued. “But not too much, you don’t want to stall the engine.”

  “You’re going to stay with us,” Ashley demanded. “No passing out. You can do that when we’re on the ground.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” Jack shook his head. “Any-way, I have plenty of time to talk you through it. By the time we get to Phoenix, you’ll be an expert. Now, what’s our heading?”

  Ashley strained her eyes in the dim light of the cockpit controls. “I can’t tell. I lost my glasses.”

  Jack looked at Ashley in disbelief. “Earl, right over the yoke there’s a dial, it says heading indicator. What does it say?”

  “What’s a yoke?” Earl wondered, his question sending a bolt of pain through Jack’s head.

  “The steering wheel,” Jack clarified. “It’s right over the steering wheel. It has numbers on it. Please, tell me you didn’t lose your glasses too.”

  “I was blessed with twenty-twenty vision,” Earl bragged. “I’ve got eyes like an eagle.”

  “Then use those eagle eyes to tell me what the heading indicator says,”
Jack directed. “Three people and we got just one set of eyes.”

  Earl leaned between them and looked at the dial. “It says zero, or right at zero.”

  “Perfect,” Jack said. “We’re heading north. That’s the way we want to go. Now, there’s a GPS on the yoke, um, steering wheel. I need you to reach over and plot our course for Phoenix. It’s just like the one on your car. Do that and then we can correct our heading to take us right to Phoenix.”

  Earl raised up, leaned over Ashley and began working with the GPS. However, a moment later he looked at Jack with a question.

  “Hey, does this mean anything?” Earl wondered as he pointed to a red light that was flashing on the dash. In all the excitement, no one had noticed it.

  “What are you talking about?” Jack asked.

  “It says fuel low and it’s flashing,” Earl replied. The plane fell silent. “Um, Jack? Is it something to be concerned about?”

  Jack and Ashley looked at one another.

  “You never fueled up the plane, did you Mister Penny Pincher?” Ashley asked, already knowing the answer.

  Jack looked blankly at her and shook his head.

  “WHY DIDN’T YOU FUEL UP THE PLANE, Jack?” Ashley yelled. “You said we were low when we landed.”

  Jack shrugged. “ I figured we’d be here for a week, working the case and all, and I heard fuel was going to drop a dime a gallon, just thought I’d just top off when we left.”

  All Ashley could do was look at Jack in disbelief.

  “So, I save you from burning up in that fire, not to mention solving the case for you, and you bring me up here to die in a fiery crash?” Earl wondered. “That’s just great.”

  Jack gave Earl a cross look. “Nobody is gonna die. We’re going to have to go back.”

  “Back? To New Hope? Where the people with guns are at?” Earl fell back to his seat, his head in his hands. “We can’t go back.”

  “We don’t have a choice,” Jack declared. “We only have a few minutes of fuel left.”

  “No,” Ashley mouthed, realizing she would have to land the plane on the small airstrip.