of them. But I’ve got a bum leg—”
“Hold it. Killed? Killed who?”
“I’ll tell you when you get here.”
“Me? If you’re hurt we’ll get an ambulance—”
“No. Listen. This thing is breaking down around both of us. I don’t want anybody in Verner to know about this. I need to get to a doctor. I need to get to one in another town. I need you to take me there.”
“I’m due in court in ten minutes.”
“Whatever you’re doing, believe me it’s not more important than this. You have to trust me on this one. There’s going to be a hunting party out for me and the woman who helped me.”
“Woman?”
“Can you get out here?”
“Just take a—”
Silence.
Steve looked at the LCD. “You’re kidding me.” The juice was gone.
“Is he coming?” Bethany said.
“He didn’t sound excited about it. He may alert the sheriff.”
“Is that bad?”
“That’s bad.”
“What do we do?”
“We need to move,” Steve said. “Do you know a place we can hole up and still keep an eye on the highway?”
“Yes.”
“Do you still believe in God?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said.
“Then pray. We can use all the help we can get.”
68
Steve limped after Bethany, who went before him like a scout. She carried the rifle. She said she had three rounds left. The morning was just getting underway, and he was on the run with a woman with a rifle.
“Here,” Bethany said.
She’d found a jut of gray rock. It provided a sort of prow over which they could see the highway below. It was a sharp drop of about twenty feet to the road.
Better, it gave them a view of where they’d come and a place to hide. Like some old cowboy movie.
Bethany went before him, up the rocks, and helped him. It was easier than he expected that way. He wouldn’t mind having Bethany around in any sort of a pinch. She was doing the job.
Once ensconced in the rocks, Steve allowed himself a moment of rest.
“Now?” Bethany said.
“We wait,” Steve said. “If something doesn’t happen in the next twenty minutes or so, we take a chance and flag a car.”
“I don’t think that would be good,” she said. “They will be looking.”
“I don’t see any other choice. Keep praying.”
She closed her eyes. It was so childlike. He hoped she really had some connection to the supernatural going on. Anything at this point.
A car approached. Steve looked over the rocks in time to see a red pickup zip by. Several more cars, in both directions, passed during the ensuing minutes.
None slowed. No one looked like Mal Meyer.
“I think we’re going to have to chance it,” Steve said. “Let’s try to catch one going toward Verner. If anyone from Beth-El was coming they’d be headed the other way.”
“We don’t look too good.”
“We’re going to look even worse if we don’t get somewhere safe. You up for this?”
“I’ll do what we have to do.”
“You could start by leaving the rifle. That may not invite too many stops.”
Bethany smiled. It seemed like a relief to her.
He heard the sound of car horn. A laying-it-on-thick blast. Somebody angry. He looked over the rocks and saw a blue Mercedes burn past the curve, doing about fifty. Five seconds later a black Saturn came into view, going way to slow for the flow.
The driver’s side window was down and Steve saw the anxious face of Mal Meyer, scanning the hillside.
“Stand up and wave,” Steve said.
69
Meyer knew of a hospital in the next county, about a twenty minute drive, he said. That way they could buy a little time before deciding what to do in Verner.
At least part of Bethany’s prayer had been answered. Steve was in a Saturn with a prosecutor, a captive audience.
“Now,” Meyer said, “Tell me what this is about.”
“You’re going to be a star, Mal,” Steve said. “Are you ready for the TV cameras?”
“I have a face for radio,” Meyer said. “What’s this about killing a man? That’s a little fact that interests me.”
“He’s one of the guys from Beth-El. They decided to put me on the cooling rack. But I got out.”
“How?”
“That’s going to take a little more time. What I need to tell you right now is that you have the chance to bring down Eldon LaSalle and his whole little empire.”
Meyer’s mental gears clicked around. “Nothing would make me happier, but he’s been around a long time and has his act together, at least legally.”
“Does that include hits on lawyers?”
“How can you prove this?”
“Bethany will testify to it. That’s conspiracy to commit murder. She’ll