by Julie Miller
“Damn her,” he muttered yet again.
It was too early to make any phone calls, but it wasn’t too early to go home and pack a bag. He left a note on the board for his brothers and took off for his own cabin. A half hour after that, dressed in the clothes he’d worked in all day, he tucked the handgun and a rifle into a locked case behind the seat of the oldest vehicle on the ranch, a thirty-year-old Ford pickup. He wanted to look inconspicuous. He wanted to be able to change his story whenever he needed to, be invisible or all over the map.
The cattle guard rumbled a goodbye as he drove off Hastings land and headed south. It was time to be someone else for a while, time to go undercover.
CHAPTER FIVE
Chance had debated how to present himself. Unkempt, drunk, angry? Somehow he doubted any one of those alone would work on Block. But crafty and sneaky wouldn’t work, either. He decided on a mix of characteristics and knew he would depend mostly on luck.
He parked the truck on the other end of the path he and Lily had used to escape and locked his wallet in the box with the guns. He wasn’t sure what he would find at the Block house and he didn’t want any ties to the Hastings name. What he knew was that going off to northern Idaho without knowing what Jeremy Block had already set in motion was too dangerous. Chance didn’t want to get blindsided but even more than that, he didn’t want Charlie caught in the middle of a situation where everyone around was armed to the teeth.
Maybe Block wouldn’t be home. Maybe he’d gone after his kid. That would be good to know, as well, because if Lily got in Block’s way, she was toast.
McCord didn’t show up at the gate so Chance marched up to the front door, punched the doorbell three times fast in a row with his knuckle and banged his fist against the dark wood. No prints in knuckles and fists. This guy was a DA with law enforcement ties and Chance did not want to leave any tangible proof of his identity behind.
The door was opened by the woman Chance had seen come to the kitchen door to tell McCord that Charlie had disappeared.
He took a deep breath. Showtime.
Before she could utter a word, he pushed the door open with his shoulder and barged past her. “Where is she?” he demanded. He strode to the stairs and started to climb them, hollering, “Lily?” at the top of his lungs. Hopefully Jeremy Block was somewhere in the house and would hear him.
A door behind him opened and Chance turned to see the man he’d glimpsed through the window “What in the hell is going on?” he demanded.
“Where is she?” Chance said, coming back down the stairs. “I know she’s here.”
“Where is who?”
“Lily Kirk. She talked about you sometimes. Is she here?”
Block cut him off with a barking laugh. “That woman is poison.”
“Amen.”
“And I should know, I’m married to her.”
Chance allowed his expression to register surprise. He made a big deal of looking around the opulent surroundings and whistling low in his throat. “I knew she’d lived with you and all but she never said a word about being married. Brother, I can’t believe she ran out on all this. I didn’t know she was that stupid.”
Block seemed to suddenly notice that the woman who had opened the door was still standing nearby. “For heaven’s sake, Janet, close the door and get lost,” he commanded. She did as he asked and hurried up the stairs, giving Chance a wide berth.
“Just tell me. Is the bitch here or not?” Chance demanded.
“Come into my office,” Block said. “Let’s have a civilized drink and discuss this.” Chance preceded him into the den. He paused to stare at the closet door he’d splintered two nights before. “What happened?”
“Nothing important,” Block said but his teeth stretched tight over his teeth as though tasting something bitter. “What’s your name?”
“Pete Reed,” Chance said, digging up the moniker of an old school pal. “At least that’s the name I’m using right now. My real name is none of your business.”
“Why are you so angry with Lily?”
“She stole two thousand three hundred bucks from me, money I had to get from a guy who is twice as mean as anybody I ever served with in the army. The dude almost killed me but I got what he owed me, I always do. And then that bitch stole it.”
“You’re really mad,” Block said.
“Hell, yes, I’m mad.”
Block narrowed his eyes as though assessing what he was seeing. “How mad?”
“Mad enough to make her wish she’d never met me.”
“She has that effect on men,” Block said. “Have you ever done any time?”
“Twice. Trumped-up assault charges. I was a little out of sorts after my discharge from the army. I’ve got a temper, I admit it.”
“Where do you work now?”
Chance emphasized an impatient sigh. “I was a bouncer at a strip club until I blew town to find Lily. How is this getting me any closer to that goal and why the third degree?”
“You a good shot?”
“Give me a gun and a knothole a hundred yards away and I’ll show you.”
Block poured two small glasses of amber liquor out of a crystal decanter he kept on the desk and handed one to Chance. “Cheers,” he said, hoisting his glass to his lips. Chance did the same and downed it in one gulp, trying to get a handle on where Block was coming from. He sure didn’t act like a guy whose kid had been taken.
Block sat behind his desk and motioned for Chance to take a seat opposite him. “If I know Lily, and I do, she’s trying to get our son back.”
“Charlie?”
“You know the boy?”
“Sure, I saw him around now and again. Lily didn’t encourage us to be friendly if you know what I mean.” He grinned and added, “Maybe she thought I’d be a bad influence. Who is she trying to get him back from? You?”
“No. I had him for a day or two but then someone stole him away in the night.”
“So that’s why she left Reno? Because someone took Charlie from her?”
“Yes. Me.”
Chance looked around again. “The kid will be better off here than in that dump in Reno.”
“Of course he will. But a third party decided they wanted to hurt me so they took Charlie.”
Chance shook his head. “I don’t get it. Why isn’t this place swarming with cops? What kind of ransom do they want?”
“No ransom demand has been made and I didn’t call the police. I don’t want them involved. Too dangerous. What I want to do is steal him back.”
“Then go do it. If he were my kid I wouldn’t be sitting here yapping about it.”
Block’s lip curled in anger but he quickly covered it with a self-deprecating smile. “I can’t. If I show up, who knows what they’ll do to the boy. I need someone else to take care of it. Maybe someone like you.”
“Me?” Chance scoffed. “Ha.” He paused as though thinking and added. “If they don’t want money for the kid, then why did they take him?”
“I have no idea,” Block said. Like hell you don’t, Chance thought. “The only thing I have to go on is a note they left. That’s why I’m pretty sure where he is.”
“And where’s the note?”
“Lily took it with her when she left,” he said. No trace of the lie he’d just told surfaced in his eyes. “But like I said, she’ll charge in and mess up everything.”
“A specialty of hers,” Chance said. “But I still don’t see how any of this gets me closer to my money.”
“I’m going to be honest with you,” Block said. “I need help. I need someone I can trust—”
Chance shot to his feet and laughed. “Trust? Hell, you don’t even know me.”
“Sit down, Pete, please. I’m an excellent judge of char
acter.”
Chance grabbed his glass and gestured at the decanter. The glass he could break before he left, but he didn’t want his prints on the liquor bottle. Block took the hint and poured him a shot that Chance knocked back as he reclaimed the chair. “You want me to go get him, is that it?”
“Yes.”
Chance stared at Block, who didn’t flinch. After a long pause, he shook his head again. “Excuse me, but looking around it’s hard not to notice you must be loaded. Hell, hire yourself a private detective.”
“Listen to me, Pete, it isn’t that simple. These aren’t ordinary people. It’s going to take someone with finesse and cunning and you strike me as a man with both those qualities.”
“Flattery won’t get you anywhere,” Chance said. “Use one of your own people.”
“I had to fire the only man I would trust with a job like this.”
“Why’d you fire him?”
“He failed to protect my son and I do not tolerate failure. Listen, just come up with a convincing story, fit in for a few days and then when the time is right, do what needs to be done and extract my kid without getting him hurt.”
“Lily will know I’m ready to do whatever I have to in order to get my money back. If she’s there, she’ll turn me in as a liar the moment she sets eyes on me.”
“Not if you take care of her first thing,” Block said softly.
Chance had come here hoping to get a lead on finding Charlie and by default, Lily. But he wasn’t prepared for what he thought he’d just heard. “Are you talking about killing her?” he said.
Block shrugged. “I have a bottle of her barbiturates. Assuming she’s there, all you have to do is get the pills down her throat. It will appear she committed suicide. But if something goes wrong and she does finger you, off you go, no harm, no foul.” He cleared his throat. “I don’t expect you to risk yourself for nothing. I’ll give you what she stole from you and a bonus, too. If she still has your cash on her it might be best to leave it with her so no one gets suspicious. When you bring Charlie back to me, I’ll add another twenty grand.”
Chance whistled. “Murder, though. I haven’t killed anyone since the army.”
“And you did it then because you were fighting a war. This is war, too. The victory is freeing a child. Do you have a gun?”
“Not on me, but I can get one. Where do I find Lily and all the rest of these people?”
“An area called White Cliff.”
Bingo, Chance thought. Confirmation. Lily was right. Hell, she often was which was just another irritating thing about her. “Where’s that?”
“Up in Idaho’s panhandle, almost to the border. It’s one of those commune things. The leader is a guy named Roberts. He’s a fast talker and a hard hitter but I heard he’s not around the place as much as he used to be. There’s a woman up there who runs a small store located outside the walls of the community. She calls herself Maria Eastern. If Charlie is living there, she’ll know about it. You can’t ask her straight out, though, and you can’t mention my name or she’ll put a bullet through your brain.”
“The price just went up ten thousand,” Chance said. Block opened his mouth to speak but closed it without saying anything. “And I’m going to need more cash up front,” Chance added. “I have to buy the gun I told you about and my truck needs a tire. I don’t plan on spending my own money.”
“I’ll add another thousand,” Block said.
“Two thousand,” Chance countered.
Block gritted his teeth. “Be warned that these people are heavily armed and know how to handle themselves.”
“Sure.”
“Wait for me in the entry.”
Chance had already folded the tiny shot glass in his fist and took it with him when he left the office. Block soon appeared and handed over an open envelope stuffed with cash Chance assumed he’d retrieved from a hidden safe inside the office. There was also a slip of paper with a crude map naming roads and estimated distances. In the end he was supposed to look for a red no-trespassing sign.
“There are going to be a million of those,” Chance said without touching the note.
“Look at the spelling.”
Trespassing had been spelled tresspassing. “That’s intentional,” Block added. “That’s the sign that points out the right road or so I’m told.”
“Is this place some kind of secret?”
“Not at all. It’s located close to a town called Greenville but the less you show your face or ask directions, the better for you if things go wrong.”
Chance stuffed the envelope of money in his pocket. “You must really love that kid,” he said.
“He is my son. Once I have him back, I won’t lose him again even if I have to send him out of the country to school.”
“Then nobody better get caught,” Chance said, implying, he hoped, that this meant him, too.
“You’d be smart to keep something in mind,” Block said. “I’m an important man in this state. If it comes to whose word will be believed, it will be mine, not yours. If you double-cross me, I’ll find you.”
So much for all that baloney about trust. On the other hand, Chance didn’t have to pretend to feel the chill in Block’s icy gaze. His fear did not originate from concerns for himself. It was Lily and Charlie he worried about. The fact the tough older guy wasn’t at the house was troublesome, too, as was the quick way Block had bought and enhanced Chance’s original scheme, almost as though he’d read the script beforehand.
Was it possible he knew who Chance really was? Could this be a trap? Was he being played by the guy he was playing?
And where was McCord?
Block opened the front door. At the last second, he caught Chance’s arm and Chance turned. “Don’t forget this,” he said, pressing a prescription bottle into Chance’s hand. “And be sure to give Lily my best.”
Chance took the crystal shot glass out of his pocket where he’d wiped it clean on a bandana. “Thanks for the drinks,” he said and walked away.
* * *
THE DRIVE WAS long and lonely and it was dark by the time Chance finally found the misspelled sign along with an arrow pointing down a dark tunnel of unpaved road and huge trees. After a mile or two, he came across a small community of very old houses where only a few looked inhabited. The rest were falling apart with sunken porch roofs and moss-covered fences. There was a small store on the other side of the road that looked downright festive in comparison, seeing as it had a neon soda sign in the window and a big old ice machine out front. It appeared to still be open.
Chance itched to stop there, for perhaps that was Maria Eastern’s store. But first he wanted a glimpse of White Cliff. All the internet had had to offer were artists’ drawings of walls and buildings. He had no idea how much if anything actually existed. If it was in the same state of disrepair as this little settlement, then everyone was barking up the wrong tree.
A half mile farther along the road, he came upon a wide spot backed by a nine-foot-high rock wall. He got out of the truck but left the headlights burning. That old moon he was so fond of shone enough that he could tell a huge area of land had been cleared beyond the wall. Other than that, all he could see was fence. There was no sign announcing that this was White Cliff but what else could it be? Well, the gate in the wall was firmly closed so there was no use standing there staring at it. Tomorrow he’d have to find a way inside.
Back in the truck, he retraced his route to the store, this time noticing another sign pointing out a place called Freedom Lake. The road was an offshoot of the one he was on, consisting of heavily rutted dirt and ghostly looking trees.
The parking lot at the store was empty but an open sign hung in the door so he went inside. A gangly young man with dark hair cut very short stood behind the counter, flipping through the pages of a catalo
g. He wore a camouflage long-sleeved shirt.
“Howdy,” Chance said.
The kid nodded once and went back to his catalog. Chance grabbed a can of juice from the refrigerator section and a package of chips off a rack. When he got to the counter, the kid registered his purchases with a disinterested flicker of his eyes, punched in some numbers and gave Chance a total.
“It’s pretty country up here,” Chance said as he counted out the money. “Real peaceful.” He glanced at the catalog, which was open to a page dedicated to shotguns. “I bet you do a lot of hunting up this way.”
“Yeah,” the kid said. He didn’t look much over seventeen, maybe not even that old.
Chance gestured at the catalog. “When I was about your age, my dad got me a BB gun.”
“That’s for little kids,” the boy scoffed.
“I guess. I had fun with it though. Until I killed my first songbird. Didn’t feel too macho over that.”
“Killing animals for sport is wrong,” the boy said. He picked up the catalog and turned to an earmarked page. “This is my next gun. I’ve almost saved enough to buy it.” The item he pointed to was an assault rifle.
“That’s not really a hunting gun,” Chance murmured.
“No siree, but if you have trouble with people, this is the weapon you want.”
“And your parents will let you buy it?”
“It’s just Mom, my brother and me. And sure, she doesn’t care. I’ve been proficient with automatic rifles since I was twelve. In fact, I can shoot a human-size target nine out of ten shots.”
“I’m impressed,” Chance said.
The kid smiled. “It’s no big deal. Everyone in White Cliff over the age of thirteen has to be able to do that. And you have to qualify with a handgun, too. You know, in case.”