LITMIR.BIZ

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back to work.”

      “Yes, sir.” Nate stood. “Are you going to talk to Bryan Torrent tonight? He must know the two guys we’re looking for.”

      “Maybe not,” Lily said slowly.

      Nate turned to her, a quicksilver flash of suspicion squirming in his gut. “Why do you say that?” What did she know and what was she hiding?

      “I’ve only been working there a few weeks. Part-time. But I’ve never seen Mr. Torrent in the office. He doesn’t come around much.” She crossed her arms and let out a small, deflated laugh. “I thought working there would be a great opportunity.”

      She glanced down for a minute, then looked directly into Nate’s eyes. “Torrent Trucking doesn’t just dispatch trucks and drivers. There are warehouses on the property. Sometimes truckload deliveries are brought in, the pallets are broken down and the items are delivered locally. Sometimes semis bring in an entire trailer full of freight that’s kept in storage until it’s picked up by another driver, who will complete the delivery.

      “There are all kinds of drivers in and out of there. Most of them aren’t Torrent Trucking employees. Drivers are welcome to take a break in the break room, where there’s hot coffee and some vending machines. The men I overheard talking, the ones who chased me here to the Starlight Mart, were in that break room.” She pressed her lips together and shook her head. “If they actually worked for Torrent Trucking, I would have seen them before.”

      “I’ll call Mr. Torrent in a few minutes and find out what he knows,” Wolfsinger said. “We’ll go to his business and talk to as many people as we can.” He got to his feet and turned to Nate. “If the men we’re looking for are not employees, then we’ll get a list of all the drivers who’ve been in and out of there in the last month.”

      Someone knocked on the office door and called out to the sheriff.

      “I need to get back out there.” Wolfsinger turned to Lily. “I’ll have a deputy drive you home.”

      “I can drive you home,” Nate said to Lily a couple of minutes later as they walked out of the store and into the parking lot.

      “No thanks, I can drive myself.”

      “I can bring you back tomorrow to get your car.” Despite her brave front, her nerves had to be shattered after what she’d just been through. This wasn’t a good time for her to be driving. And maybe Nate felt a little bit of a personal connection to her now because she had known Joseph.

      Growing up, Joseph was the only friend Nate had who didn’t make jokes about how drunk Nate’s mom got or how crazy she acted. Joseph and his family were always warm and welcoming. Maybe it was a stretch, but it felt as if seeing Lily safely home would be a way of doing something for him.

      Nate was heading toward Copper Mesa to get to the ranch, anyway. He was also looking forward to sleeping late for the first time in weeks, but he would get up early in the morning and drive into Copper Mesa to get Lily and take her back to the Starlight Mart to fetch her car if that’s what she wanted. And that would be the end of it. No further personal involvement or obligation.

      “You’ve been through a lot,” Nate said. “I think it would be wise for you to let me take you home. I’m heading in that direction anyway.”

      She looked as if she was going to argue, but then blew out a breath. “Maybe you’re right. Let me go move my car so it’s out of the way.”

      Nate held out his hand. “Give me your keys. I’ll move it for you.”

      Inside Nate’s truck, Lily sat pressed so close to the passenger-side door that he was afraid she might try to jump out. The apparent shock that had helped her keep herself composed after that one brief crying jag earlier was starting to wear off. He could tell by her slumped shoulders and the pinched expression on her face.

      Thank You, Lord, for getting us through this. Nate couldn’t always pray in the midst of trouble, but he always prayed eventually. For help. For healing. For guidance or to give thanks. He couldn’t do his job without it.

      Before turning left out of the parking lot and heading toward Copper Mesa, Nate glanced right toward the intersecting highway that led to Painted Rock. His apartment was in Painted Rock. He’d been exiled to the substation up there several months ago. By the time he left for his assignment in Phoenix, he’d managed to make a few friends and develop a fondness for the little town. But he still wasn’t anxious to return to his empty apartment there.

      “So, you’re a cop now,” Lily said after they’d pulled out onto the highway and driven a few miles in silence. “From what I remember in high school, I would have expected you to end up on the other side of the law.”

      “Yeah, there was a time when I would have expected that, too.”

      The highway they followed passed through a stretch of scrubby flatland. In the wash of headlights, it looked like the bottom of an empty sea.

      Nate’s life had felt empty from the time he was a kid. He’d had one picture of his dad, a United States marine who was killed protecting an embassy in South America. Nate’s mother, Brenda, had turned to alcohol to deal with her grief. Oftentimes she went on benders and Nate wouldn’t see her for days at a time.

      In his midteens he finally moved in with his Uncle Bud and Aunt Ellen at their ranch, the Blue Spruce. Bud and Nate’s mom were brother and sister. Bud offered multiple times to help Brenda sober up and get her life together, but she wasn’t interested. She didn’t want him involved in her son’s life, either. Eventually, against Brenda’s will but with the insistence of the state of Arizona, Bud got custody of his nephew.

      At first it was hard living by Bud and Ellen’s rules. Nate was a kid back then, and nearly everybody acts like a jerk when they’re a teenager, but it was still embarrassing to think about how he’d behaved.

      Nate cleared his throat. “It took a while, but I finally got my head on straight. I enlisted in the army and served as a military policeman. When my enlistment ended, I knew I wanted to come home and work as a cop.” It was the only way he knew to pay back the people who’d helped him over the years.

      The highway rose in elevation and pine trees began to appear on the sides of the road. They rounded a bend and the town of Copper Mesa came into view. Streetlights gave it the appearance of a blazing crown in the darkness.

      “All right, which way?” Nate asked as they got closer to town. He glanced in his mirrors. There’d been a couple of vehicles behind them for a while. Not much he could do but keep an eye on them. It could be nothing. If they followed his turns once he got into town, he’d know they meant trouble.

      “Head toward Cottonwood High,” Lily said. “I’m living in the old neighborhood. I had to move back into my mom’s house.”

      “Do you want to borrow my phone and call her?” Nate asked. He’d offered her the use of his phone earlier, but she’d turned him down.

      “I don’t want to wake her up if she’s asleep,” Lily said. “She’s been battling bronchitis for a few days. She has asthma, so it’s kind of a big deal.”

      Nate kept his eyes on the road, but he picked up his phone from where it was sitting on the bench seat and held it out to her. If the bad guys really were connected to the place where she worked, they might have access to her home address. He didn’t want to mention that possibility because he didn’t want to send her into a panic without reason. “I think you should call your mom.”

      She hesitated, then took the phone and punched in a few digits. Soon she was talking to her mom and giving Nate hand gestures showing him where to turn. Hearing her mom’s voice seemed to relax her a little. It sounded as if everything was okay. She didn’t mention what had happened at the Starlight Mart, but he didn’t blame her. Some things were better shared in person.

      Nate kept checking his mirrors. One car stayed on his tail, which worried him. But then Lily directed him to make a turn and

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