by Rachel Lee
“Nuke it for three if it’s frozen,” Buck said and winked. “Otherwise, I’ll take it raw.”
That drew a laugh from her and she felt some inexplicable tension seeping away. Maybe it was just from the unusual burst of traffic. She was used to one level of activity, but tonight had been almost double. Then there was her face burning up and the allergy pill. Enough to make her just a bit irritable.
Hasty remembered how to make the broccoli, of course. She carried the plates to Buck’s table, refilled his coffee and went to take care of the remaining handful of drivers. In another half hour, the place had quieted almost to desolation, and, one by one, trucks started pulling out of the lot. She figured that might be the last of them for a while if they’d hurried to get here for the wake.
“Time for a smoke break,” Hasty announced. “You gals take some time, too.”
“I’m joining you,” Claire said.
“You don’t smoke,” Haley remarked.
“I used to. And right now I want one.”
Hasty eyed Haley. “You going to be okay?”
“Like I can’t hold the fort for ten minutes?”
So the two of them headed out back. Which left her alone in the restaurant with Buck Devlin, who was taking his time with his steak.
“Join me,” he suggested. “It wouldn’t hurt to rest your feet.”
She supposed it wouldn’t. “Are you going to Ray’s wake, too?” She glanced at her watch. If she remembered correctly, wakes ended at nine, and it was already past that.
“Tomorrow night,” he answered.
All of a sudden everything zipped into clear focus. The faint fog left by the allergy pill was gone. Her heart even remembered how to speed up. “You’re staying in town?”
“Over at the La-Z-Rest. I’m on vacation.”
She almost gaped at him.
He caught the expression and his eyes danced a little. “What?”
“Why in the world would someone on vacation stay here?”
“Where would you go?”
“Any place. Denver. New York. Paris. Miami. I don’t know. Some place with things to do.”
“So you want action?”
“I wouldn’t exactly put it like that,” she admitted. “There’s nothing wrong with this place. I like it. It just doesn’t strike me as a vacation spot.”
“That’s because you live here. You can’t see its charm.”
A little laugh escaped her. “We roll up the sidewalks at nine, except for here and the roadhouses. You’re going to get bored.”
“I doubt it. It’s quiet here. I like that. Plenty of nice places to walk. I like that, too, especially when I spend so much time driving.”
She supposed she could see that. Maybe. “Well, if you’re into hiking, there are some nice mountains.”
“They probably look different when you’re not behind the wheel of a heavy rig,” he allowed.
“Well, I’ll be interested to see how long you last. Most people who visit here wonder how we can stand it.”
“What makes this place work for you?”
She thought about it. “People. Great people. There’s something nice about knowing almost everyone. But that’s not going to work for you.”
“Maybe not. We’ll see. It’s sure some pretty countryside.”
She looked down at the table and realized she didn’t believe him. She was right, nobody picked this place for a vacation. Not even someone who was tired of driving. People who vacationed here—and there weren’t a ton of them—came to camp up in the mountains and hike.
“So, looks like you got sunburned.” He pushed his plate to one side.
Suddenly self-conscious, she put her hand to her cheek. “I wish. No, I had a dress rehearsal for a play I’m doing at school, and I discovered I’m allergic to the stage makeup.”
A smile crooked one corner of his mouth. “I bet that’s miserable. And you have to do it again? When’s the play?”
“Friday and Saturday night.”
“I ought to come to see you.”
“I’m on stage for less than five minutes. You won’t see much. But it is good play, a mystery. One of the students wrote it.”
“I’ll definitely come.”
She laughed. “See, you’re already looking for stuff to do around here. If you stay long enough, you’ll go crazy.” She started to get up as she saw another truck pulling in.
But Buck stopped her by reaching out and touching her hand. The contact felt almost like an electric spark, a zap that ran through her entire body. Before she could react, he’d withdrawn his touch. “I need to talk to you,” he said. “About what happened to Ray. Not here, though.”
For the first time, a real shiver of uneasiness ran through her. What was going on? And why should she trust this guy she didn’t know? Was he some kind of stalker?
All of a sudden, she had major doubts about the kind of person Buck Devlin might be. About the danger he could represent.
“I don’t think so,” she said briskly and stood. “I don’t see customers outside of work. Ever.”
Then another driver came through the door, ending the conversation. For the first time, she was relieved to get away from Buck Devlin.
* * *
Haley felt a little silly for asking Hasty to walk her to her car. She didn’t tell him why, but she also couldn’t forget that Buck was in the motel just across the way. At least Hasty didn’t ask any questions. Maybe he didn’t think it unusual for a woman to get a little nervous from time to time about crossing that huge parking lot where almost anything could lurk.
And maybe it really wasn’t. All kinds of strangers came through that lot, people with no roots and ties here. Maybe she should have been afraid all along of walking out there alone in the dark. She just wasn’t used to thinking that way.
But Buck had made her think that way, and ever since she’d told him off, she’d been wondering if she had overreacted. He wasn’t the first driver to make a suggestion and he wouldn’t be the last. So what had set her off? Disappointment that he was no better? Or his reference to Ray?
She honestly wasn’t sure. Overreaction, she decided finally. She was still upset that someone she knew had died, her face was a mess because of an allergic reaction, she’d taken a pill that had left her feeling off-kilter all night and then Buck had wanted to talk to her away from work.
Well, it wasn’t the first time some driver had made that suggestion, but it was the first time she’d gone into hyperdrive over it.
Thinking back over it, she almost felt embarrassed. It wasn’t as if he was a total stranger, in the sense that he’d been coming into the place for many months now. People knew who he was and who he worked for.
Now if it had been some guy she’d never seen before, that might have been reason to get upset.
Or maybe she had reacted oddly because he said he was vacationing here. At the ends of the earth. At a truck stop surrounded by a small town and a lot of wide-open spaces and distant ranches. Most definitely not a place on most people’s vacation lists.
That, linked with Ray and Buck’s interest in what had happened in the parking lot before the accident, seemed odd.
But odd was not the same as evil. And maybe his company had asked him to check around. How would she know, since she hadn’t given him a chance to explain anything?
Standing before her mirror, washing her face yet again and feeling some relief that most of the redness and swelling had gone down, she decided she had probably overreacted.
She didn’t work tomorrow night, but she might run into him at Ray’s wake, and if she did, she promised herself she was going to ask some questions.
Because the simple truth was, she didn’t want to put Buck in the category he seemed to be sliding toward: just another creep. She didn’t want to put him there at all.
Especially when she finally crawled exhausted into bed and realized that his face was floating in her mind’s eye, and that all she could think about was w
hat it might be like to feel his arms around her.
Stupid, but private, she thought as she drifted away. No one would ever know.
And she was too smart to get herself into trouble over a rolling stone.
* * *
The wake the next night was surprisingly crowded. Or maybe not, Haley thought as she stood to one side and watched a swirl of local people she knew and truckers she recognized. All spoke in the subdued voices that seemed to go with the solemn situation. Her mother’s viewing had been less crowded.
People she had known at least by sight for most of her life. People who hadn’t forgotten her mother or her through all those terrible years of illness, even though the two of them had gradually withdrawn from most social contact.
Good people.
This was different, though, with those truckers coming and going in a fairly steady stream. She hadn’t realized that they formed such strong bonds just from being on the road. But they were all drivers who’d been coming through Hasty’s truck stop for a long time. Maybe they felt a link with this little town.
She was surprised, though, by how elaborate the funeral was. Her mother’s had been much less so, simply because after her illness there were few resources left. She would have thought Ray’s family would find it even harder. That looked like an awfully expensive casket, for one thing. And there was a ton of flowers. Plus, having a two-night viewing cost more. She’d had to shave it for her mother, having a relatively short wake right before the funeral.
“Hey,” said a familiar voice, and she turned to see one of her high school friends, a girl named Debbie. “Sad about Ray, huh?”
“Very. I have to admit I hadn’t seen him but once since high school, though.”
“I had.” Debbie shrugged. “He asked me out a few times in the last month.”
“Oh, Debbie, you must be devastated!” Haley at once reached for her hand.
Debbie shook her head. “Not really. I didn’t take him up on it. It was just kind of sad, though, because it sounded like things were really turning around for him. And for his family.”
“Trucking’s a good job.”
Debbie shook her head, and her dark mane of hair swirled a bit. “No, it wasn’t that. Apparently he was coming into some money from somewhere. I thought he was giving me a snow job so I’d go out with him. The Listons have never had two dimes.”
“I know.”
“So I didn’t believe him. I figured he was trying to make himself sound important, you know?”
“I know.”
“But maybe he wasn’t lying.” Debbie sighed. “I mean, look at this wake. You can’t do this when you’re broke. So maybe he got that money he was talking about.”
“I hope so.”
“Me, too.” Debbie’s smile was rather sad. “Well, I paid my respects, so I’ve got to get going. You need to poke your head up more often, Haley. It’s been too long.”
A couple more of her girlfriends stopped to chat with her, too, and a couple of guys who’d once wanted to date her but were now happily married to others of her friends.
Life seemed to have moved on during her mother’s illness and left her a little behind. But that was okay. She was going to catch up. She was already catching up by going to school, setting her sights on her LPN and then her RN. After that, she’d have time to catch up in any other way she wanted.
When things quieted a bit, she made her way over to offer her condolences to Mr. and Mrs. Liston. She didn’t know them well. Just as she hadn’t known Ray well. It occurred to her for the first time that the Listons might have kept to themselves simply because they were so poor. Look at the way Ray had been treated and ignored in school. Maybe the same had happened to his parents. Maybe they’d never quite fit in larger social circles around here. The thought saddened her.
She avoided looking into the open casket as she approached Ray’s parents. They appeared pinched and exhausted, almost worn to the bone by life. Dressed in their Sunday finest, which still looked outdated and threadbare, they seemed overwhelmed by the number of people who had showed up.
Haley offered her hand to Mrs. Liston. “I’m so sorry about Ray. He came into the truck stop that night, just before...well, I was glad to see he had such a good job.”
Mrs. Liston nodded. Mr. Liston, however, said, “He was a good boy, no matter what anyone thought.”
“He was,” Haley agreed. He’d never caused any trouble in school, and whatever scrape he’d gotten into right after graduation, she’d never learned the details.
“The cops don’t think he was good,” Mr. Liston said. “You saw him right before?”
Haley hesitated, wondering what he was seeking. “Yes, I did.”
“They kept asking did he do drugs. My boy didn’t do no drugs. Not ever.”
“I believe you,” Haley said quickly, although she had no way to know anything about what Ray might have done. “He seemed just fine right before his accident.”
“You tell them cops that?”
“I did,” she assured him. “I promise. He was just fine.”
That seemed to ease Mr. Liston’s mind a bit. She gave Mrs. Liston a brief hug then moved away, determined to get out of here.
Enough, she thought, her eyes starting to prickle unwontedly. The smell of flowers, the peculiar odor of this funeral home, was starting to get to her. The last time...no, she didn’t want to think about the last time, when she’d been the one standing there in Mrs. Liston’s place, accepting condolences from kind people, few of whom would ever understand, not really, how much her mother’s death hurt, or what a relief it was after all that suffering.
Of course, she heard all the platitudes, and they were all true, but none of them could possibly ease the pain and confusion. Not one.
She had become motherless at twenty-three, after a descent into hell that had lasted more than five years. Inside she’d felt hollowed out, except for the grief. No platitude for that.
She was almost at the door when she heard her name. “Haley.”
She froze a moment, then turned reluctantly. Buck Devlin stood there, clad in a tan work shirt and jeans. He’d have looked out of place among all the locals dressed in their Sunday best if it hadn’t been for the few remaining truckers.
“Buck,” she said cautiously.
“I wanted to apologize. Can you give me a minute? Just a minute out front. Plenty of people, so you don’t have to be scared.”
He looked earnest enough, but that wasn’t what grabbed her. Scared? She didn’t like that. Maybe she had felt a momentary fear the night before, but she wasn’t feeling it now. She wasn’t a naturally scared sort of person, and it irritated her that he might think she was.
“Sure. Just a few minutes, though.”
Outside, they stepped off the sidewalk a few paces so they wouldn’t block the people who were coming and going. Dusk was just settling over the world.
She just looked at him, waiting, reluctant to give him an inch.
“I’m sorry I made you uneasy,” he said. “So maybe I should explain a few things.”
“That might help.”
“For starters, I’m not exactly on vacation.”
She folded her arms tightly beneath her breasts, her guard slamming into place. “So you’re a liar?”
“No.” He sighed and ran his fingers through his dark hair, cut high and tight, almost military style. “I’m on vacation in one sense. Legitimately. That’s how my company has me listed right now.”
“So what’s the not exactly part?”
“My company also asked me to look into what happened to Ray and what might have been going on in your parking lot that night. We’re having problems with shipments.”
She looked at him, her jaw dropping. “I’m supposed to believe that? You’re a truck driver, Buck Devlin. Why would they ask you?”
He glanced over his shoulder. “Could you hold it down? I don’t want the whole world to know.”
“That you’re a storytel
ler? Got any more tall tales for me?”
“It’s not a tall tale. Yes, I’m a driver now. But before that, I was a military cop. That’s why the company asked me to look into this. They don’t want to bring the feds in because it could kill business.”
“Prove it,” she said shortly. What kind of idiot did he take her for? Angry about being lied to, she stormed toward her car. Damn, he wasn’t even a good liar.
“Haley.”
She didn’t stop. Not that it made any difference. He was beside her before she reached her car.
“Just listen,” he said. “Please.”
“I may be a small-town girl, but I’m not stupid. I think I’ve heard enough.”
He caught her arm, and when she tried to pull free, he didn’t let go. That made her even madder. “I’ll scream.”
“Dammit, Haley, just let me finish. My company’s been having problems with our shipments. You saw something happening with Ray’s truck that night. You recognized him in the diner. You talked to him. Less than an hour later he’s dead. If Ray’s death wasn’t an accident, then you’re the proverbial loose end.”
That froze her. Her ears buzzed and the world seemed to rock beneath her. Haley leaned against her car, waiting for it to settle down again. What the hell was going on?
“I’m sorry,” he said. “But there’s no easy way to tell you. Is there some place we can talk where you’ll feel safe but half the town won’t hear me?”
She might have laughed if she wasn’t still feeling so shaken. Anger had turned to shock in an instant, and her brain was having trouble making the adjustment. “Around here? Anybody who wants a private conversation here has it at home.” And that was the truth.
He let go of her arm. “Are you okay?”
“I will be. I always am.” She knew that for a fact. Still leaning against her car, she closed her eyes and tried to take it all in. What if he wasn’t lying? And what if what she had seen, or thought she had seen, had something to do with Ray’s death? How many people knew? Two cops. Claire and Hasty. And that other driver she had never seen before, the one who had come in for coffee with Ray. The one who, now that she thought about it, had probably been driving the other truck when the cargo had been transferred. God!