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It took three hours for the tow truck to arrive, and all the while, Walker sat frustrated and fuming about his plans to get to Sonny, while Nubby emptied a fifth of whiskey and passed out.

By the time the driver hooked them up and pulled them the rest of the way into Boise City, all of the local garages were closing. He dropped them off at the closest one, and as soon as he was paid, he was gone, leaving Walker and Nubby on their own.

After some haggling, the mechanic on duty promised to look at the truck first thing tomorrow to see what was wrong, and what it would take to fix it, then got Walker’s name and a contact number, and locked up the broken-down truck inside his garage.

“Hey, where’s the cheapest motel?” Walker asked.

“The Longhorn Motel up on Main Street. I’m going past it on my way home. Want a ride?” the mechanic asked.

“Much appreciated,” Walker said, and then they were gone.

An hour later, they were checked in with the suitcases they’d brought with them, and a credit card so nearly maxed that when Walker pulled it out at check-in, he might have heard it whispering uncle.

Nubby was nursing a hangover and cursing Walker at the same time.

“I don’t know why I even bother with you and your wild schemes,” Nubby muttered. “I could be home eating my sister’s posole and fry bread about now.”

“You can have your damn hominy stew any day. This is a big payoff for the both of us,” Walker muttered.

“No, it’s your big payday, but only if I pull the trigger,” Nubby said.

Walker frowned. “You’ll get your money.”

Nubby shrugged. “I will, or you won’t live to collect yours,” he said, then kicked back on one of the beds. “I’m hungry. Where are we going to eat?”

Walker pulled a sack out of his suitcase and dumped the contents onto his bed. Cans of Vienna sausage and sleeves of saltine crackers fell out, along with bags of chips and candy bars.

“Well, shit. I’m gonna need a beer to wash down that crap,” Nubby muttered.

“Then go out and buy your own,” Walker said. “I’m not your concierge.”

Nubby glared, rolled off the bed, picked up his key card and stomped out of the room.

Walker got the ice bucket from the room, went down the hall to fill it up, then went back to the room and pulled a can of Coke out of his bag. He divided up the cans and crackers and left the rest of the snacks in a pile in the middle of the table, got a clean glass from a shelf and iced down his drink.

***

Nubby asked the clerk at the front desk where the nearest grocery store was, then started walking. It was seven blocks down from the motel before he got there, but once inside, he grabbed a shopping cart and started looking for the cooler with six-packs. He was still half-drunk from all the whiskey he drank, and needed something to smooth out the edges.

He was mad at himself for ever getting in the truck with Walker, and worried about getting stranded out here in the middle of nowhere. He didn’t think Walker had any extra cash, so he decided to take matters into his own hands.

He began walking the aisles as if casually shopping, while checking out where all the security cameras were located and saw one aimed up at the ceiling and another that had been pulled partially out of the wall and was hanging down by its wiring. Satisfied that he wouldn’t get caught, he meandered past shoppers, looking for the women with the giant purses on the baby seats, left wide open and unzipped. Some even left their carts unattended as they walked up an aisle looking for something in particular, or walking off to visit with a friend.

Small towns took safety for granted until someone took it away from them, and Nubby was about to teach them a lesson. By the time he went to check out with his two six-packs of beer, he was over six hundred dollars to the good. Once he was outside, he was certain he was in the clear, but headed straight back to the motel.

He walked the seven blocks like he was sightseeing, pausing to look at window displays, once to help an old woman carry a box to her car, then sauntered on up the street like he had all day. It was only after he got to the motel that he glanced over his shoulder and saw a police car flying down Main Street with lights flashing. He was bracing himself for the confrontation when they went past without stopping. He watched to see where they were going, and when the cruiser pulled into the parking lot of the grocery store, he entered the motel with his grocery bag propped against his belly as he went.

Walker looked up from the table where he was eating and frowned as Nubby walked in with a weird expression on his face.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I hope,” Nubby said.

Walker stood up and tossed his garbage into a trash can. “What the fuck did you do?”

Nubby set the beer on the table, then dug out the wad of money he’d pickpocketed and tossed it on the table. “I know you don’t have money to fix that truck or pay the motel bill, and if we don’t fix that truck, we aren’t getting out of here, and if we don’t get out of here, your big plan to hit it rich is going to shit.”

Walker was furious. “I have money, and my social security check will be in my bank account by tomorrow. You went to get beer and come back with a wad of money. What did you do, rob a liquor store? What the hell’s wrong with you?”

“Six hundred dollars and change, and I got it from a bunch of purses in the grocery store.”

Walker was stunned. “Damn it, Nubby. Security cameras will have you nailed within the hour.”

“I scoped it out first. Two cameras. One aimed up at the ceiling. One hanging from a wire. Pretty sure neither of them work,” Nubby said.

Walker shrugged. “Pretty sure is a risk. You better hope you were right. And you also better hope you stayed under their radar. If there are security cameras outside other nearby buildings, they’ll be looking at strangers first.”

Nubby shrugged and popped the tab on one of his beers and put the rest in the mini-fridge.

“Them Vienna sausages mine?” he asked.

Walker nodded. “Crackers, too. The rest we share,” and then he sat back at the table and peeled the paper off a candy bar to top off his dinner. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that bad luck had come with them. It had cost him money to pay a fine and get out of jail. Then the truck broke down almost halfway to their destination, and now Nubby had gone and pickpocketed a bunch of ladies in a town too small to get lost in. He didn’t want to think about what came next, and kept listening for the thunder of too many footsteps coming down the hall toward their room.

Nubby ate, grumbling all the way about still wanting posole and fry bread until Walker picked up an empty beer can and threw it at Nubby’s head.

“What the hell?” Nubby said.

“Sick of you whining about your damn fry bread. You can eat your fill when we get home,” Walker said.

Nubby’s eyes narrowed to the point of almost disappearing in the roundness of his face. The only thing that kept him from cutting Walker’s throat where he sat was that he had no getaway car.

“I’m going to take a shower and give you time to readjust your attitude, or I’ll do it for you and to hell with consequences,” Nubby said, then stripped where he stood and walked naked across the room and into the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind him.

Walker’s gut knotted. He needed to find a way to make sure that Sonny wasn’t the only one dead when he left Texas. Someone needed to take the fall for Sonny’s death. It might as well be the man who did the deed. He just needed to figure out how to explain away traveling with the man who killed his son. Maybe he could make himself look like a victim, too. Right now, there were too many pieces of the puzzle that didn’t fit, but he still had time to figure it all out.

He was just about to turn on the television when he glanced out the window and saw two police cars pulling into the motel parking lot. His heart sank. He picked up the wad of money with a napkin and ran to Nubby’s suitcase, grabbed a sock and stuffed the money inside, shoved it beneath the clothes, and tossed the napkin back into the trash.

As he’d feared, the footsteps he’d dreaded were nearing their door.

Let them pass. Let them pass, Walker thought, but they didn’t.

Suddenly there was hammering on their door, and a man shouted from the hallway, “Boise City Police. Open up!”

Nubby was still in the shower when Walker went to the door.

“What the hell, man?” he said.

The police looked startled. This old Indian with gray braids wasn’t the man from the security footage, and then they saw two suitcases, instead of one, and heard water running.

“Who’s in the shower?” they asked.

“A friend from back home. I’m on my way to Crossroads, Texas, to visit my son. He’s just traveling with me for company. Why?” Walker said.

The police walked into the room. “I’m Officer Denton. Ask him to step out of the shower now. We need to speak with him.”

Walker shrugged and went over to the door and knocked, but Nubby didn’t answer.

Denton pushed past Walker and began pounding on the door.

“Police! Open up!” he shouted, then tried the door, only to discover that it was locked.

The water went off. A few seconds later, Nubby opened the door. His graying hair was dripping wet and stuck to his neck and back, and he was making no attempt to hide his nudity.

“What the hell’s going on?” he asked.

“Get dressed,” Denton said. “You’ve been identified as the man who just pickpocketed his way through Moore’s Food.”

Nubby said nothing, but the look he gave Walker was a warning.

Denton eyed two of the officers with him, then pointed at the suitcases. “Search their bags,” he said.

Walker frowned. “I haven’t left this room since we checked in.”

“You’re traveling together. You’re sleeping in the same room together. Until I know different, whatever happened, you’re in it together,” Denton said.

When the two officers began going through the baggage, Walker’s came up clean, which shocked the hell out of Nubby. He’d watched Walker put the money in his suitcase.

“Found it,” the other said, holding up the sock from Nubby’s luggage.

Nubby let out a roar and lunged at the nearest cop, only to be taken down with a taser. He dropped to the floor, moaning and shaking. It was enough to take the fight out of him.

Walker was handcuffed while Nubby was allowed to get dressed, then they walked both men out of the motel in handcuffs, put them in separate cars, and drove both of them to jail.

Walker said nothing because there was nothing to say. He’d made the mistake of bringing Nubby when he should have just hired someone to take Sonny out and stayed in his apartment. But he’d wanted to watch the look on his son’s face when he died. Even as a boy, Sonny had shown him no honor. Then when Sonny got famous, he refused to acknowledge his father’s existence. He should have died when the bull stomped him. Walker could have claimed his third from Sonny’s estate then, but by the time Sonny recovered, it was all gone to pay hospital bills.

Jealousy ate at Walker like a sickness. Never had he hated a man as much as he hated his own son, and he wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was because Sonny had become everything Walker had failed at, and now Nubby’s stupidity had derailed all of his plans.

He was still mute as the officers led him into the PD. Nubby was taken directly to booking, but Officer Denton still needed to hear Walker’s side of the story, and took him into a room to question, started a tape recorder, and then began asking questions. When they got past the basic information, Denton began to question him, and Walker answered without hesitation.

“I told you before. We were only in your city because we broke down a few miles outside of town. We waited three hours before the tow truck arrived, and during that time, Nubby drank an entire fifth of whiskey on his own and passed out. By the time the tow truck pulled us into town, the mechanic was already locking up. He stored our truck inside his garage, and pointed us to the nearest motel, which is where we were. Nubby was still nursing a headache and wanted a beer. I had food and pop in my travel bag, and not a lot of money to waste, but he was still intent on beer. I told him this wasn’t no five-star hotel, and I wasn’t his concierge. It made him mad, and he left. I sit down to eat and a while later he comes back with beer, and a wad of money. I asked him what the hell did you do, and he said it was to make sure we could pay to get my truck fixed, because he didn’t want to get stranded in the middle of nowhere.”

At this point, Walker sighed, playing the hard-luck card for all it was worth.

“I told Nubby he was a fool. I told him he was going to mess up my trip to see my son. He said the security cameras were broken in the store and nobody saw him. At that point, I quit talking to him because I already knew I was going to be sleeping in the same room with him tonight and I didn’t want my throat cut. He sat down and ate the food I brought and drank his beers, then went to take a shower and then you all showed up.”

Officer Denton blinked. “So, you’re saying your friend is dangerous?”

“I’m just saying, I don’t want to make him mad, and what I’ve just told you isn’t good for my health. I did not know he was going to steal anything. We did not plan anything but a trip to see my son. My son and I have been at odds for years, and my intention to visit was in hopes of making peace. Now, I feel like this incident was the ancestors telling me this is not the time, but I don’t want to go to jail for something I did not participate in.”

“But you didn’t turn him in for theft,” Denton said. “You could be looked at as an accessory after the fact.”

Walker’s shoulders slumped. “I am guilty of a poor choice in traveling partners, but I have not committed a crime in your town.”

Denton ended the recording and got up. “I’m going to talk to your friend now, and see what he has to say.”

Walker watched the cop walk out of the room, heard the lock click and then got up from the chair, went to the back of the room and curled up in the corner and closed his eyes. He was tired to the bone. Whatever happened next was out of his control. All he knew was that Nubby would kill anything for fun, and took money for requests. At the present moment, Walker could have fallen into either category. It didn’t look good for him.

***

Nubby Zane already knew he was going to jail for this. They’d caught him on cameras he’d never seen, and Walker must have seen the cops drive up and put the money in his suitcase. He wanted to be pissed about that, but the weird part of his brain also saw that as logic. He would have done the same thing if the situation had been reversed. He’d done the deed. Walker had been mad about it, and he knew Oklahoma laws. This would fall under misdemeanors because it was less than a thousand dollars. He could get up to 180 days in jail and a fine, or be released on probation, but with his rap sheet, probation wasn’t going to be an option. The way he looked at it, at least he knew where he’d be sleeping for the next six months, and made up his mind to absolve Walker, no matter what he said about him in his statement. That way, when he got out, Walker would owe him.

After talking to Walker Bluejacket, Officer Denton was expecting Zane to be combative, but it was just the opposite as he sat down to question him.

“Mr. Zane, please state your full name for the recording.”

“Nestor Lee Zane.”

“In your own words, what prompted you to rob all those ladies in full view of security cameras?”

“Well, first off, I only saw two broken cameras. And I was still mostly drunk when we got towed to Boise City, pissed off by the three-hour wait, and needing a drink. Me and Walker argued when we got to the motel, and then I left to find a grocery store to get some beers. Taking the money was just an impulse. Nothing I planned. There were too many big purses in the shopping carts left open and unattended. And, I wasn’t sure Walker had the money to pay for getting the truck fixed and I didn’t want to be stranded out in the middle of nowhere.”

“But Walker saw the money when you came back, right?” Denton asked.

Nubby shrugged. “I showed it to him. It made him mad. We had an argument. He threw an empty beer can at my head. Instead of fighting with him, I went to shower. I acted on impulse. It was a bad decision. And I’m not gonna throw the old man under the bus for any of it. Tell him I’m sorry.” Nubby said.

“But he knew you’d done it and said nothing,” Denton said, and then watched a strange expression spread across Nubby’s face.

“People who know me well, know enough not to piss me off.”

The skin crawled on the back of Denton’s neck, but he didn’t let on that Zane had creeped him out.

“You’ll be arraigned sometime tomorrow,” Denton said.

“I’m not arguing the charges,” Nubby said. “I know it’s a misdemeanor. I reckon I’m looking at few months of jail time, but this ain’t my first rodeo.”

Denton felt something was off, but he couldn’t put his finger on it, and it was charges for pickpocketing and nothing more. He motioned for the guard to take Zane back to jail, then returned to the interrogation room where he’d left Walker.

He walked in the room to an empty table, then saw the old man curled up asleep on the floor.

“Walker…wake up!” Denton said.

Walker jerked, then got up slowly. “It’s been a long day,” he said, and started back to the table.

“Don’t sit down,” Denton said. “We’re releasing you. Mr. Zane confirmed your story and absolved you of abetting. He blamed it on still being drunk. Said to tell you he was sorry.”

Now Walker was seriously worried, but he pretended to be relieved. Nubby didn’t have an ounce of empathy for anyone. There had to be a catch.

“So, I am free to go?” Walker asked.

“Yes, sir. I’ll have one of my officers drop you back off at your motel.”

“Thank you,” Walker said. “Hopefully my truck will be an easy fix and I’ll be headed home.”

“What about that visit to your son? Won’t he be disappointed?” Denton asked.

“He didn’t know I was coming, remember? This was to be a peace-making visit, but as I said, I think the ancestors are telling me this is not the time,” Walker said.

“Right,” Denton said. “I’ll walk you out. One of my officers will pick you up out front.”

Walker followed the cop to the lobby, and then went outside to wait. A couple of minutes later, a cruiser pulled up. He got in the back seat and rode in silence to the motel, then went back to their room.

His suitcase was still on the bed with the contents strewn about. He packed everything back inside, then took a quick shower and crawled into bed. He’d just dodged a bullet, and he’d told a cop a lie to set up an alibi. His intent hadn’t changed. He had one more chance to get this right, and he’d be set for life.

Walker, being the heartless asshole that he was, pulled up the covers and slept like a baby. He was up by daylight and waiting at the garage when the mechanic opened up.

“Morning, Mr. Bluejacket. I need to get everything up and running before I check out your truck. You can wait inside if you want. I’m gonna start a pot of coffee.”

Walker followed the man inside, already thinking about that coffee.

“I didn’t get your name yesterday,” Walker said.

“Oh…my name is Aaron Hershey, but everybody calls me Sonny.”

The hair crawled on the back of Walker’s neck as he sat down in a chair near the little coffee station. He didn’t know what this meant, but he didn’t see it as a coincidence. He found a Sonny, but it wasn’t the right one. Was this a sign that he needed to end his search now? Doubt began to creep into his thoughts as he waited.

About an hour later, Sonny came back into the waiting area. “Your alternator is kaput. I can get a new one for three hundred dollars plus labor. Or I can get a rebuilt one for a hundred bucks, maybe less.”

“Has to be the rebuilt one, and I’m holding my breath that I’ll have enough to cover that and the labor,” Walker said. “All I want to do is go home to Henryetta.”

Sonny’s head came up. “I got family in Henryetta.”

“Small world,” Walker said.

“Listen, if you have the bucks to pay for the part, I’ll do the labor pro bono.”

“Deal,” Walker said.

Sonny Hershey grinned. “I’ll call over to the parts store. They’ll bring a rebuilt over for me. Shouldn’t take more than an hour or so. Help yourself to coffee.”

About an hour later Walker was back in his truck and headed to the motel to get his things. Now he’d told two people in Boise City that he was going home. It was like adding another layer of glue to the lie.

He checked out, went looking for a drive-in to get some breakfast to go, then headed west.

***

The delivery truck with Sonny’s order arrived. He took them to the barn to unload and as soon as they were gone, he loaded up some fencing equipment and drove down to where the old trailer house had been, removed the broken-down gate, pounded a T-post into the gap and then strung high tensile wire across the five-wire opening to solidify the fence line. As he did, he noticed insulators and frowned. They weren’t hot, and they should have been. Damn Wade Sutton anyway. When he’d cut the wire to let the horses into the pasture, he must have found where to disable the power. Something else Sonny would have to find and get fixed.

He’d just finished tying off the last wire and was gathering up his tools when he felt the wind changing. He’d been so intent on work that he’d hadn’t paid attention to the weather, and was startled by the dark clouds rolling in. He wasted no time loading up his equipment and headed for the house. He could see the horses moving toward the shed where he and Maggie had picnicked, obviously to take shelter. He swerved to miss a trio of giant tumbleweeds rolling across the road in front of him, and continued to dodge tumbleweeds the rest of the way home.

The first raindrops were beginning to fall as he reached the back porch. He was fumbling for his keys to unlock the door as the first shaft of lighting flashed through the sky, then finally he was inside and out of the wind.

The first thing he did was turn on the television to check the weather. The weather station was running a crawl at the bottom of the screen, naming the counties under thunderstorm warnings, and when he saw Briscoe County in the warning area, he reached for his phone, pulled up the app to check on Maggie’s location and saw her driving toward her house.

He watched her reach her destination, then gave her a few minutes to get inside. The weather alerts were coming steady now, warning of strong winds, rain, and possible hail and he needed to know she was safe.

***

Maggie flew into her house on the run, chastising the weather gods with every step that she took. She kicked off her wet shoes at the door, threw her purse and phone on the bed, and stomped off to the washing machine and started stripping where she stood.

“Mother Nature on the rampage and just look at me!” she muttered, and pulled her T-shirt over her head. “Soaked to the skin. Hair glued to my head,” she added, and unzipped the red slacks she was wearing. “And I’m pretty sure these pants aren’t color-safe. If my granny panties come out tie-dyed, we’re gonna have a conversation! Some mother you are. My first mother gave me away and now you’re trying to drown me.”

She threw the red pants aside, tossed everything else in the washing machine, grimacing at the red dye streaks on her white panties. “Stupid pants. Stupid weather,” she said, then threw in a sheet of color-catcher, added laundry detergent, and started the washer. She glared at the red pants before hurrying to the bathroom to get bath towels. One for her hair, and one for her as she ran to turn the heat up on her thermostat, then back to her bedroom to dry off and get dressed. She was almost finished when her phone began to ring. She reached behind her to get the phone and then answered.

“Hello.”

“It’s me, darlin’. Just checking to make sure you’re okay.”

“I’m fine. Just in a snit. Pearl closed the Rose and told all of us to go home. Got soaked getting into the car at the Rose. Got a second dose getting out of the car at my house. There was water in my shoes by the time I got inside. I look like someone gave me a swirly…you remember swirlies, right? When some jerk kid at your school shoves your head in the toilet and then flushes it? Oh…maybe you missed that. Anyway… I am naked as the day I was born trying to get dry enough to get dressed again. I have cursed Mother Nature up one side and down the other. You have to be a woman to understand the effort it takes to pull lingerie up over a wet butt.”

Sonny was grinning through the whole soliloquy, thinking what a spitfire he’d fallen for when she got to “wet butt.” At that point, he started laughing.

“Magnolia, my sweet, southern woman…you can bring down the wrath of God faster than anyone I’ve ever known. I’m sorry you got soaked. I’m even sorrier I’m not there to dry you off and set a fire in your belly that would reset your body clock.”

She shivered with sudden longing. “I would so take you up on the offer,” she said. “Are you okay?”

“As wet as you. As naked as you. But no longer worried about you. The weather is nasty, but the rain is good for the land, so I can’t complain.”

Maggie took a deep breath and then sighed. “I forget the world doesn’t revolve around cheeseburgers and fries,” she said. “I assume the horses are okay?”

“Last time I saw them, they were headed to our picnic spot. They have better sense than most people when it comes to weather.”

“Good, but with the Rose being closed until tomorrow, I’ve had no way to keep an eye out for strangers coming into Crossroads. Do you know if they’re still en route?”

“I don’t know more than I did, but don’t worry about me. Remember what I said to you. I’m not scared of anything, or at least I wasn’t until you. Your welfare is important to me. Your safety is important to me. I love you like crazy.”

Tears welled. “I’ve never been that important to anyone before, but I’m tougher than I look. I will always find a way to float…even if it’s Mother Nature herself, trying to drown me. Love you more. Get dressed and get warm, and don’t forget the vault if you need it.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She heard the tease in his voice. “And stop smirking. I can feel it from here.” He was still laughing when she disconnected, but her bad mood was over, and she had air-dried enough to get dressed.

She was on her way to the kitchen, trying to ignore the wind slamming rain against the windows, but there was a high-pitched whine within the storm that gave her goose bumps. It sounded a little like a woman screaming and she told herself it was just her imagination, and not a warning of things to come.

She glanced at the painting of Sonny still on the easel and then covered it with a cloth and moved it away from the windows. If a twister was coming, she had that old cellar in the backyard. She might have to share it with a snake or two, but she had no intention of blowing away.

***

Walker was already in the Texas panhandle when he drove straight into a thunderstorm. The rain was coming down so hard he could barely see the highway, so he pulled over onto the shoulder and stopped to wait for it to blow over.

He wasn’t sure how far away he was from where he needed to go. He didn’t know how to use the Maps feature on his phone and was relying on the directions he’d written down from a map in an old Atlas to get him there. Chances were, some of those highways no longer existed, or had been absorbed into interstates, or bypasses, but he knew he was going in the general direction before he had to go south, and if he was lucky, he should get there before dark.

He glanced down at his phone, frowned at the low battery, and attached the phone charger and plugged it into the dash.

While he was waiting for the storm to pass, he googled hotels in Crossroads, Texas, and got one hit. If there was only one, he wanted to make sure he could get a room. He hated sleeping in his truck, and this was no kind of weather for sleeping in the truck bed.

He made a quick call. A man answered. After a brief conversation, Walker was assured there would be a room waiting upon his arrival. It never occurred to him that he’d used his real name until it was too late. He was a man full of deceit and yet he was messing it up at every turn.

***

Like Maggie, Pearl’s new grill cook, Davey Lewis, was still at the Yellow Rose going through the kitchen routine with Pearl when the storm warnings began. Pearl sent everyone home, with orders they were opening up tomorrow and everyone was hired. For the first time in months, Davey felt hopeful about his future. He hadn’t meant to stay in Crossroads, but it happened, and now, over eight months later, he was finally going to be employed again.

He was standing at the front desk telling his friend, Ralph, the good news when the phone rang.

“Hang on a sec, Davey,” Ralph said, and answered. “Crossroads Lodge, Ralph speaking. How can I help you?”

“Do you have a vacancy? I need a room for a few days.”

“Yes, we do. Do you have an arrival date?” Ralph asked.

“I’m a couple of hours out, I think, but I’ve pulled over to wait for this storm to pass. If I don’t get lost, I’ll be there before dark.”

“That’s fine,” Ralph said. “This is a hotel and a boarding house, so people come and go at all hours. I’ll need your name and a deposit to hold the room for you,” Ralph said.

“My name is Walker Bluejacket. Got a pen? I’ll give you the credit card details.”

“Go ahead,” Ralph said, and took down the info. “Okay, Mr. Bluejacket. Your room is reserved. Safe travels, and we’ll see you later.”

Ralph hung up. “Sorry, Davey. Where were we?”

“Did you say that man’s name was Bluejacket?” Davey asked.

Ralph nodded. “Walker Bluejacket. Do you know him?”

“I wonder if he’s related to Sonny. You know…the guy who put a skunk in those drug thieves’ car.”

“Oh, yeah! The rodeo guy!” Ralph said. “Maybe he’s coming to visit his son.”

“Maybe so,” Davey said. “Anyway…as I was saying, I got a job working for Pearl at the Yellow Rose. I’m her new grill cook.”