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Letting his nose lead him, he continued driving through the city until he once again reached the outskirts. He was getting bored, and sleepy, and weary from sitting behind the wheel for so long.
His mind drifted back to the schoolteacher. He’d been a damn fool to let her get away. She would have made a loving wife. They could have had kids, grandkids by now. These autumnal years wouldn’t be so lonely, and he wouldn’t be depending solely on Barrie for company. She was a great kid, and he loved her like she was his own flesh and blood, but she wasn’t a life partner. There was a difference.
Maybe, if he had married that sweet lady way back then, he wouldn’t be so afraid of dying now. “Some life for her,” he muttered. “Having to take care of a gasping old fart like me.”
His own voice snapped him out of his daydream. Where the hell was he? Unaware, he’d driven himself into an industrial park with row upon row of warehouses, one barely distinguishable from the next. All were closed at this hour. At loading docks, empty trailer trucks stood open like behemoths with their maws spread wide.
Daily’s car, and the one following it, were the only moving vehicles on these deserted streets. Becoming more disoriented with each turn, he wound his way deeper into the concrete maze until he entered a street that came to a dead end.
“Damn!” He glanced quickly at his rearview mirror. The sedan was right behind him in the cul-de-sac.
Acting on instinct, Daily hooked a sharp U-turn and was just about to pull up even with the sedan when the driver spun the wheel hard to the left. Daily had to stand on his brake pedal to keep from hitting the sedan broadside.
It would have been better if he had. He might have stood a chance of fleeing the scene of an accident. He feared there would be no escaping the three angry men who got out of the car and came toward him.
* * *
“You’re ten minutes late.” The woman’s whining could be heard through the walls of the camper.
“Shit!” Gray hissed.
“What’s going on?”
“I picked a Romeo with a bedroom on wheels. Hurry!”
He tossed her shoes, clothes, shopping bag, and satchel up onto the bunk that jutted into the cabin of the camper and extended over the cab of the pickup. “Get up there. Quick.”
“No way. It’s like a coffin.”
Having no time to argue, he grabbed one of her bare ankles. With the other hand splayed over her bottom, he launched her up onto the bunk, where there was less than a foot of space between the mattress and the ceiling. When not in use, the bunk served as storage space for extra bedding and pillows. Gray chinned himself up and crawled in among the pillows, blankets, and sleeping bags.
“Get way back in there,” he said to Barrie, who, for once, did as she was told without question. She made herself as small as possible in one of the forward corners.
The couple could be heard approaching the rear of the camper.
“I’m getting tired of this stupid thing,” the woman complained. “Why can’t we go to a motel?”
“Because this is more private.”
“And free.”
“It’s not a matter of money. Honest, baby. Motels keep records. You don’t want my old lady finding out about us, do you?”
During this spat, Gray worked frantically to reposition the rolled-up sleeping bags and pillows at the end of the bunk. With luck, they would shield them when the couple entered the rear of the camper. Then he scrunched Barrie even farther into the corner. With only seconds to spare, he pulled a quilt ov
er them, heads and all.
“When they join us up here, it’s going to be awfully crowded,” she whispered.
“Do you have a better idea?”
If she did, she had no time to say so. The rear door opened and the dome light came on. The camper rocked with the man’s weight as he stepped inside. “Here we go, baby.” He gave a low whistle. “You look like dynamite tonight. Is that a new blouse?”
“Like it?”
“I like it a lot. How quick can we get you out of it?”
“You’re such an animal!”
