“How would you like to help me borrow Coulter’s truck, Alice?” I ask. “We need to find Justin.”
Alice looks at me, but she doesn’t shrink into her jean jacket. Instead, she straightens her neck a little taller and nods. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Chapter Fifty-Two
BEFORE WE LEAVE, I go back to the empty stalls with Banner and Spider to talk. It’s a little more awkward for me than anyone else since the last time I was here I saw the Red-Spider reunion show.
I ask, “Are you two going to run away together, or is this just a visit?”
“Why? Are you going to rat us out?” says Banner. “You and Justin being horse thieves has created the perfect opportunity for us to leave.”
“Yes. Well, you’re welcome. But maybe you could cut Coulter a break and not run off while he’s in jail? It’s hitting a guy when he’s down. Plus, if you think your dad hates Spider now, he’s going to hate him a lot more if he feels like he kidnapped you.”
“She has a point,” says Spider, putting his colorful arm around her. His words rush rhythmically together. “We need to think this through if we’re going to do this.”
“That’s very responsible of you,” I say to Spider. I’m not being sarcastic.
“GAWD,” says Banner, glaring at me. “Do not encourage him.”
I turn to Banner. And it startles me. Suddenly, after months of looking at her and envying her and hating her, I see something I have never seen before. Myself with a better costume. Okay, not better, just different. “Banner. Don’t go, okay? Your parents, and the law, will take it out on Coulter and Spider. Not you.”
Banner steps back from me and throws her hands in the air. “Like you have room to talk? You’re the one sneaking around at night with Justin. You’re the biggest hypocrite I ever met besides my dad. And he’s a preacher. You’re not going to stop me with your do-good bullshit. You screw up everyone you think you’re helping because you’re so afraid.”
It takes a second to absorb all that, but I do. “I’m not afraid, Banner. Not right now, anyway. That’s the trick. Doing something for someone else is hard, but it’s easier than doing it for yourself.”
It gets quiet in the stall. Banner looks at Spider. He looks at her. Then she looks at me.
“I’ll see you around, Cassidy,” says Banner.
“I hope so, Banner. I really hope so. Nice meeting you, Spider.”
By the time I find Ethan and Charlie in the breezeway my brain is going a hundred miles an hour in two different directions. They look at me like I’m crazy or maimed or both.
“You okay?” Ethan asks, not smiling.
I try to act natural. I need him to trust me. “Yeah. I’m fine. But do you remember that day you told me you wanted to be a ranger?”
Ethan looks at me and then Charlie. “I was kidding, girl,” he says sharply. “Kid-ding.”
“She took a pretty big hit to the head,” says Charlie. “But I can see you saying that, Ethan.”
I look into Ethan’s dark eyes. He sure has beautiful eyes for a guy who wants to follow the rules all the time. And far be it from me to mess that up. I take a deep breath, wait for a few seconds, and start to squeeze little drops of water out of my eyes. “Hey.” I rub my face with the back of my hand. “Do you think you guys can handle the auction without me?”
Ethan puts his arm around me. Which feels so good I want to stay there. It makes me feel deeply rotten for fake crying. So bad I’m almost real crying.
“We got it covered, Colorado. You take Alice with you and get some rest.”
It sure feels awful to lie to Ethan. I cry a little more. “Charlie, in private? It’s kind of personal.”
Charlie looks concerned but also confused. “Of course.”
We walk around the corner. I stop crying.
“Alice and I are going after Justin. But you can’t tell Ethan. Or anyone else, for a few hours. But especially Ethan. I think they frown on officer candidates who associate with horse thieves.”
“You’re a horse thief, too? That’s a real thing?” Charlie looks at me wide-eyed.
“. . . Horse releaser. Say I’m having a meltdown in the bathroom with Alice. If you don’t hear from us by the time it gets dark, you can tell Kaya we’re at Riker’s trailer. The BLM holding pen out by the ranch. She’ll know where it is. She’ll also probably kill you on the spot, but the horses will be sold, right?”
Charlie’s back to being concerned. “You are surprising, Cassidy. Will you two be all right? Based on his behavior at the rodeo, Justin’s father seems capable of violence.”
“We’ll be incredibly careful,” I say. “I’m not going to go barging in there. I don’t even know if that’s where Justin is.”
Charlie takes off his bolo tie. He was wearing it when he won his class. He puts it over my head like I’m being knighted by Sir Charlie. I kind of am. “For luck and courage.”
I touch the clasp. “Thank you, Charlie. You’re a great friend.”
Charlie nods gracefully. He looks so different from when I met him the first day. It’s not that he’s that much thinner; he probably isn’t. He just looks happier. Even right now, when he’s worrying about me.
“Do you know what’s wrong with you, Charlie?”
“I overcompensate with theatrical dressing?”
“Nothing is wrong with you. Your parents are idiots.”
Charlie tips his head side to side. “Yes. They are. Thanks.”
Chapter Fifty-Three
THE KEYS ARE right where Coulter left them in the wheel guard this morning. The part that worries me is driving out of the fairgrounds without being noticed. We don’t exactly look inconspicuous as we fumble around pulling the gooseneck horse trailer off the hitch.
“Can I drive?” asks Alice. “You don’t look like you feel very good.”
“Can you handle this big truck?”
“I drive the vans for my parents’ business sometimes. In San Francisco.”
“Clearly I have not asked enough questions this summer. You drive.”
When we inch out of the fairgrounds we’re both so short we look like ten-year-olds stealing our dad’s truck. Luckily, everyone seems to be preoccupied with getting into the auction, and the one guy who really looks at us just smiles and waves. I guess kids driving giant trucks in Wyoming isn’t that unusual.
The truck has a gigantic tank, so we have enough gas to get back out to the holding pen. Or I think we do anyway, if we don’t get lost trying to find the right road in. That’s a lot of time to worry either way. So we talk a little, and then we worry a little.
“You think his dad hits him?” Alice asks.
“Somebody has. I’ve tried to get him to talk to me about it and he won’t. But it’s clear that Justin doesn’t live with Riker or even acknowledge him in public. All Justin’s ever said about his dad to me is that he’s an alcoholic. So I’m making some assumptions that his dad is the one who broke his nose, for sure. The thing is, this summer I’ve learned I’m wrong all the time about people. I mean, all the time. Like, I thought you couldn’t handle, you know, things that are dangerous.”
“Everyone thinks that.” She pauses thoughtfully.
I was right about one thing at least. Alice does think a lot. She says, “Anxiety is different from fear. It’s being afraid of things that haven’t happened, things that are unknown.”
I look out over the two-lane highway and consider this. “Everything ahead of you is unknown.”
“Exactly,” she says.
“I’m sorry, Alice. I haven’t been a very good friend.”
“Don’t feel bad about this, Cassidy, but you can be a little unfocused sometimes. You don’t always notice what’s going on around you.”
“Yeah. Wow. I’m sorry.” Alice’s shiny hair bounces along with the motion of the truck. Her
knuckles are white from gripping the steering wheel. She has a scar on her arm I’ve never seen before. “I’m a terrible friend. What else haven’t I noticed?”
She looks over and laughs gently. “You aren’t a terrible friend. You’re the very best kind of friend. You made me want to try things, do things, and be brave. And look what I’m doing right now.”
“I don’t know if this is being brave or stupid. But we can’t just call the police and say that Justin is with his dad so they should go get him. We don’t even know if he’s with his dad. The list of things I don’t know is pretty long, really.”
“That’s what I mean.”
“What?”
“You just run at stuff and figure it out. Even if you have no idea how. But then you usually do figure it out.”
“I hope we can figure this one out with nobody getting hurt.”
“What are we going to do when we get there?”
“It depends on what’s happening.”
“Right,” says Alice. She shakes her head. “Right.”
* * *
I recognize the view the second we pull onto the plateau. “Damn.”
“Are we lost?” says Alice.
“I know where I am. It’s just not where I wanted to go. We should have taken that other turnoff we passed. I think that’s the other road in. But don’t turn around just yet. From here we can see the outside of the trailer and maybe get an idea of what’s going on.”
In the dark those few weeks forever ago, I didn’t see the dirt road we’re now parked on. When the engine turns off we’re suddenly alone with how nuts this is. We both sit silently in Coulter’s truck. Birds chirp. I close my eyes.
Alice says, “Cassidy? Are you praying?”
I’m actually panicking. I whisper, “Just clearing my head. Now we have to be super quiet; every sound carries. And watch out for the poison ivy.”
“What does that look like exactly?” she whispers.
“Leaves of three. Let it be.”
Alice tips her eyes down to my hands. “I guess you learned that the hard way.”
“That’s how I learn everything.”
She nods sadly.
We walk to the edge of the cliff, and in the evening light we see the grubby trailer and the holding pen with the BLM flag waving from the fencing. The holding pen is empty, but the trailer isn’t. Within a minute of us getting to the ridge, the trailer door flies open. We both drop to a crouch. Riker Sweet walks out.
“I want this whole thing packed up when I get back from town,” he yells back into the trailer. “The whole thing. You got it?”
There is a pause but no sound.
“You got it?” he yells.
If there is a response, it isn’t loud enough to carry up the ridge.
Alice grabs my arm hard. I nod and try to look calm.
Below, Riker shuts the trailer door and climbs into his old truck. He’s wearing his BLM jacket, even though it’s still warm outside. He turns on the engine and lets it rattle to life. He adjusts his two-way radio, and we can hear him getting dispatches through his open window. Much to my relief, he speeds away, leaving a cloud of dust and the other occupant of the trailer behind him.
When he’s gone Alice grabs my arm again. “How do we get down there with the truck?”
I smile as optimistically as I can. “We don’t. I need you to watch and make sure that Mr. Sweet doesn’t come back while I talk to Justin. And it’s going to take a while to get around and back down there with the truck. If you stand on this rock here you can see all the way up the road. Then Justin and I can just scoot up the trail. We won’t even leave a tire track.”
“What do I do if Justin’s dad comes back?”
“Can you whistle?”
Alice nods. Of course Alice can whistle.
* * *
It’s slower but a lot easier to get down the cliff trail to Riker’s trailer on foot in the light than on a horse in the dark. Something about being able to see just makes all kinds of things easier. I scurry as fast as I can and am down and crossing the open ground in no time.
I don’t know what else to do but knock. No one answers.
“Justin, it’s Cassidy.”
Nothing. I hope my instincts are right. I can see Alice’s silhouette on the ridge. I wave, and she waves back. She’s so short she looks like a little kid up there on the ridge, but she’s the little kid that just drove Coulter’s truck like a boss. At least if I’m going to have a problem she can notify my next of kin.
I squeeze open the door to the trailer. No sound but the squeaking hinges. The trailer smells like sour milk. There is no light but the sun coming through the small, dingy windows. “Justin? It’s Cassidy. Are you in here?”
I step into the room and wait for my eyes to adjust.
They can’t adjust to what I see. Justin is lying lengthwise on a narrow couch with his head back. Beer cans and other garbage litter the floor. One leg is on the couch and the other is sprawled next to it, like he was thrown there by a sudden blast. An arm is draped over his face like he’s trying to keep the sun away, but he isn’t moving, and there is a foul gray light in the room. “Justin?”
Justin’s arm moves, and he turns to me. His eyes are sunken and outlined in dark red and gray. His mouth looks swollen. Same beautiful, terrible nose. No blood. No bruises. Justin. But when he sees me he lets out this gasp. I don’t even know. It’s like it’s the last bit of strength escaping from his mouth.
I cross the cluttered floor and kneel beside the couch. When I touch his arm it bumps his side, and he flinches so hard his whole body lifts into the air, like something popping on a burning-hot skillet. “Aaa,” he cries.
I jump back. “Justin? What happened?”
He stays down, like he’s flattened with pain. His hands have a slight tremor. One of them is clinched in a fist and bright red. His other hand lifts to me. “You shouldn’t have come out here, Cass. Hanks has me on video.” Talking seems to hurt him. “You could get in trouble just being with me.”
I stand still, staring at the way he’s holding himself. “What happened?” I ask again. “Are you hurt?” The last phrase echoes in my head, resonating with stupidity.
He takes in a breath that doesn’t sound right. Shallow. Forced. “At least I get to say good-bye this way. Looks like we’re moving to Canada. My dad knows somebody with a cattle ranch.”
“You can’t even move across the room. Is this from last night . . . or today?”
He laughs, but it comes out high and sad, like broken bits of something flying loose. He looks down at his body like it belongs to someone else. He covers his ribs with his hand but doesn’t actually touch them. “No. I’ll be fine. Just a little stiff.”
“Why are you lying?”
“Who says I’m lying?”
I lean forward like I’m going to touch his rib cage, and he flinches again before I’m even close.
I run outside and stand on the step into the trailer. “Alice!”
She whistles back.
“Bring. The. Truck.”
She waves her arm. “Okay!”
Justin lifts his head. “Alice? Damn, Cassidy. You brought Alice out here, too?” Then he looks out toward the door. “Wait, Alice can drive a truck?” He laughs again and then winces. “I’m sorry I missed that.”
“You can see it for yourself when you come with us.”
Justin shakes his head. “Look. I’m not coming with you. Hanks will throw me in juvy, or even jail, maybe. And I can’t do that again. I can’t do jail. The jail fence kills me.”
“Because you’re looking so awesome right now. This was your dad, right? Why didn’t you tell me Riker was your dad? What is wrong with you? What is wrong with everyone? Don’t cowboys know how to talk?” I look around the room. There is nothing to use as a crutch. I can
be a crutch, but he’s going to have to walk on his own. “No one is going to jail but your dad, Justin. He broke your ribs.” I let that float out there for a second, the naked version of what we’re not talking about. “We can fix the rest of it.”
I’m not totally sure how we fix it, but I know I can’t let Justin go off with Riker. People care about him around here. They seem to care about his dad, too. They haven’t cared enough to stop this, but they care. Justin needs help. Real help. Even if it means he has to go somewhere else to get it. Everybody, but especially him, has to stop pretending this isn’t happening.
There’s a strange pause. Like just for a moment Justin thinks about what I’ve said. Then he says, “You don’t get it.” He pushes himself up to sitting, then he arcs with pain and has to shove his hands behind his back to keep from keeling over. His voice cracks all to pieces. “I can’t stay here. I blew it. Like I always do. I had a shot with Coulter, and I blew it.”
I don’t understand why Justin would go with his dad, but I know how hurt can feel like failure. I know I have to get him away from here. This isn’t a philosophical decision. Cracked ribs trump any discussion, except how best to get him to the truck. “You go in. You make a deal with Hanks. Whatever. But you don’t go with someone who hurts you.”
“Stop it, Cassidy.” He can’t breathe, his ribs hurt so bad, but he can yell. “Stop trying to fix this. You can’t fix everything.”
I slide back next to him. More gently than last time. Not touching him.
He jerks away. “Get out of here. Leave me alone. It’s not safe.”
“Like I care about safe. You’re coming with us.” I reach my hand behind him to help him stand up.
He pushes me away. “I mean it. Get out of here!”
I stumble to get my balance.
“Sounds like a good idea to me.”
I hear the twinge of hinges behind me. I whirl around.
Thief of Happy Endings Page 26