Journey Into Darkness – Chapter 4

“Thank you, Trumper.”

 He looked in the rear-view mirror. She was sitting up, with the blanket pulled up over her shoulders. He had the air on cool to keep him awake. He checked the clock on the dash. It was 11:45.

She looked out the car window. It was as black as a witch’s armpit.

“Where are we?”

“South of Bozeman.”

“No fireworks, I take it?”

“Nothing. Not even a sighting of an SUV.” The girl was silent for a moment.

“Is there anything I can do for you?” Her hands moved to his shoulders and she began to massage his lower neck.

“That feels good. I was beginning to get a bit stiff.”

“A little rubbing always helps relieve the tension when you’re getting stiff.” He wondered if there was a double entendre in her reply. He chose to believe there wasn’t. “Would you like me to take a turn at the wheel?”

“No, just keep doing what you’re doing. I’ll be fine.”

She kept massaging him for several minutes and he glanced at her every few seconds in the mirror. She was, he decided, very easy to look at. Then he castigated himself for having such a thought.

“I need to take a pee. Can you pull over?” He came to a gradual stop and she got out. He expected her to go into the woods, but she just squatted by the vehicle. He could see her through the open back door. He forced himself to look away.

When she finished she got back into the car. He waited for her to close the door, but instead she got out, reached back for the blanket and then joined him in the front seat. He was about to put the car into gear when she leaned over and kissed his cheek. He could feel the press of her breast against his arm. He was thinking it wouldn’t take much of that before he’d need another massage. More self-recriminations.

“Thank you, Trumper,” she said again. “I owe you.”

They drove in silence for a few minutes and the girl curled up under the blanket. He thought he should turn the heat up a little, but he didn’t want to risk getting drowsy. He estimated that they still had another two hours to travel.

“Did you grow up in Butte?”

“Do you think I’m grown up, Trumper?”

“You know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t. Explain it to me.”

“Were you born in Butte?”

“I was born in Orange County.”

“California?” He was surprised at her reply.

“Florida.” Again, he was surprised at her reply.

“How did you end up in Butte?”

“I don’t care for your choice of words.” He made no response. He could tell she was sizing him up. He wondered why she would be doing that. “We moved there when I was ten. I don’t know why we went to Butte.”

“How old was your brother?”

“When we moved to Butte?” He nodded. “Robbie was sixteen.”

“Were you close to him?”

“Close enough.”  

“And what am I supposed to understand by that?”

“I’ve always been a bit of a loner.”

“You said he taught you to drive.”

“That took a couple of hours, then I was on my own.”

“What about your family?”

“Were we close? No, I don’t think anyone would accuse us of that. But we got along okay. Not that we saw much of Dad. He was always away on some sort of business. And now we know what sort that was. The sort of business you’d just die for. Funny, huh?”

“No, Cassie, it’s tragic.”

“What you need, Trumper, is a sense of humor.”

“Well, I’ll try to raise a smile once I’ve got you safely off my hands.”

“You’ll find I’m not that easy to offload.”

“I’m not anticipating too much difficulty.”

“You’re in this, Trumper, whether you like it or not. You’re going to find that Diamond is not an easy man to ignore. If you really wanted to get rid of me, you should have blown his brains out when he drove past us on that trail. He’s going to track you down, you know that, don’t you?”

“Because he was in Billings? I told you, there’s no connection between my truck and my grandmother. He had two choices, once he hit the highway. Which would you pick? The handful of people in Butte or Bozeman, or a hundred and twenty thousand in Billings?”

“You believe what you want to believe.”

“What I believe is that, if he’d wanted to surprise us in Billings, he wouldn’t have left his vehicle in full view on the main street. If he’d laid low we’d be sleeping at Burnstead Drive right now.”

“We’d probably be dead right now.”

“That’s another possibility.”

“Boy, you’re a real source of comfort, aren’t you?”