C Box - Blue Heaven

“Mine, too.”

They were deep in the timber, the mare picking her way over downed logs and between crowded stands of dripping trees. More than once, Jess had to duck and caution Villatoro to do the same as they passed under overhanging branches. They were on his ranch now, he could feel the comfort of it. His passenger clutched him so tightly around his ribs that at times he had trouble breathing and had to ask Villatoro to ease up. The Winchester lay across the pommel of the saddle. Although the moon was still behind clouds, the sky was clearing, and muted shafts of moonlight shone through the branches and blued the barrel of the rifle.

Villatoro whispered, “Will your horse carry both of us all the way back?”

“Hope so.”

“I still can’t believe I’m on a horse.”

“Kind of uncomfortable, isn’t it?”

“I hope I don’t fall off.”

“Me too.”

Villatoro sighed, as if everything that had happened was settling in, exhausting him suddenly. “Jesus,” he moaned. “What a night. All those years in the department, and nothing ever happened like that. I feel foolish for not fighting back, but what could I have done?”

“Not much,” Jess said over his shoulder. “I’ve been thinking. Hearne’s right. As soon as we get back let’s pack everybody into his car and my truck and get the hell to Kootenai Bay. We’ll get through this. We’ll go straight to the sheriff and the media and try to make our case. I’d rather those kids were there than here tonight.”

Villatoro took a cautious breath before asking, “What kids?”

Jess explained.

All Villatoro could say was, “My God.”

JESS COULD feel Chile getting tired, slowing down, stumbling where earlier she was surefooted. But she didn’t protest with a crow-hop, or try to shrug them off. She’s a gamer , he thought. He admired her character.

“Let’s dismount and lead her for a while so she can catch her breath,” Jess said, pulling her to a stop.

“I’d guess the both of us are pretty heavy.”

Jess agreed and nodded in the dark and felt Villatoro slide clumsily off Chile’s back. When he was clear, Jess swung out of the saddle and shoved his hand between the horse’s flank and the saddle blanket, where it was hot and moist with sweat.

“Soon as she cools down, we can ride her in,” Jess said in a low whisper, leading her by the reins. Villatoro walked alongside with a hand on the saddle because Chile and Jess knew where they were headed, and he didn’t.

Above them, in the trees, was a sweep of light.

“What was that?” Villatoro asked.

Jess put a gloved finger against his lips and shushed him. “Headlights,” Jess whispered.

They stopped and listened. Far above them and to the east, Jess could hear a motor and the crunching of gravel under tires. There was the squeak of brakes being applied, a surge of the engine, then another squeak before the motor was killed.

“They blocked the gate,” Jess said.

In a swath of moonlight, he could see Villatoro bury his face in his hands in despair.

VILLATORO AND HEARNE sat at the kitchen table drinking coffee. The shotgun was on the table as well, along with a box of shells. In hushed tones, Villatoro was telling Hearne about the encounter in the trees at Swann’s place, and Hearne kept shooting glances at Jess while he did it. Jess sipped his coffee with his back to the kitchen counter and half listened.

Annie and William were asleep on the couch in the living room under the same blanket. Monica rifled through Jess’s refrigerator and cupboards looking for ingredients so she could make lasagna, but she couldn’t find noodles or cheese and gave up. She said she wanted to cook something because she was too nervous to sleep.

“So it’s all coming together,” Hearne said, sitting back as if he were in a loan officers’ meeting. “They robbed Santa Anita, all five of them, and moved up here. Then Rodale screwed up, and they executed him for it, but Annie and William happened to be witnesses. That set everything in motion.”

Monica had settled on baking a cake, and Jess watched her as she looked again and again at the directions on the back of the cake mix box. He could tell she was distracted, that she was doing something just to be doing it. Who would want to eat cake?

Villatoro turned to Jess. “What are we going to do? Those men are killers.”

Hearne said, “The sheriff told me he called the FBI. They’ll be here tomorrow morning. Like Jess said, all we can do is wait it out until we can tell our story. But the ex-cops have probably figured out where you are and who is here,” he said, gesturing with his head toward the sleeping children. “They’ll want to silence them-and us-before we talk.”

Villatoro looked at his wristwatch. “I wish there was someone we could call.” Celeste should be home and could get the ball rolling urging local law enforcement to contact the FBI or Idaho authorities. Then he thought of Donna, waking her up, telling her what was going on. She would go hysterical. Plus, there was nothing she could do to help. But it was important, he thought, to tell her he loved her. That he always had.

Jess said, “I wish I knew the names of those ex-cops, the ones who got turned away when they tried to volunteer. I would guess they’d want to help us out. There are plenty of good ones up here, I think. They’d be pretty pissed off if they knew what these guys were doing.”

While they talked, Jess noticed that Monica kept looking at him as well as Hearne, as if measuring something besides cake mix.

“Do you have an idea?” Jess asked her.

She shook her head. “Not about that.” Then she looked hard at him. “Jess, I’d like to talk with you.”

Jess felt uncomfortable that she was calling him away from Villatoro and Hearne.

Hearne felt it, too, and said, “Excuse me, I’m going to call my wife. I want her to know I’m safe.”

“That’s a good idea,” Villatoro said, rising from the table. “You call, then I’ll call Celeste and then my wife.” He said it with a tone that barely disguised what he meant, which was, in case we never see them again.

“We can step outside,” Jess said to Monica.

As she started for the mudroom and the door, Hearne turned around with the receiver in his hand. “There’s no dial tone.”

Jess froze. He knew what that meant.

Villatoro said, “They’ve cut the line.”

Jess said to Hearne, “Try your cell phone.”

“It’s gone,” Hearne said, gesturing with empty hands. “I lost it at Swann’s.”

“What about you?” Jess asked Villatoro.

He shrugged. “Mine never worked up here in the first place. Wrong company.”

“So we’re blocked in, and we can’t communicate,” Jess said flatly. “I’ve had better days.”

In midsentence, the lights went out. From the living room, Jess heard Annie scream.

CARRYING TWO HISSING Coleman lanterns, Jess entered the house from the barn. He put one lantern on the table and held the other up at shoulder height, so he could see the faces of everyone shining back at him. Monica held both William and Annie in front of her. Hearne sat at the table. Villatoro was behind him, holding the shotgun.

To Hearne, Jess said, “Can you still ride?”

“I haven’t forgotten how.”

Jess nodded outside. “Then take Chile into town. She’s still saddled, and that way you can avoid the road. You might be able to get to Sheriff Carey before daylight. Maybe you can convince him to get his men together and get out here.”