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I didn’t want to see Bartlett and his blank whiteboard, so I got in the Gladiator and turned north on Rt. 52. I played with the buttons on my steering wheel and managed to find favorites three and hit it.
Rain answered on the third ring. “What’s going on, Ranger?”
“I’m heading to Skye Blue’s apartment,” I said as I reached I-275 and turned west on it to cross the Ohio River into Kentucky. Even though Burney is in Ohio and Cincinnati is in Ohio. Because that’s where the bridges are. “Want to meet me there?”
A couple of seconds of silence. “No can do. The heat is palpable from my boss. He doesn’t even like me heading to Burney to spend time with Molly. Burney is one of those places on ancient maps that’s left blank and has ‘Here There Be Monsters’written in the space.”
“Just because we had a homicidal biker arsonist?” I asked.
“Because Senator Wilcox has put out the word.”
“Why?”
“Geez, Vince. Navy and Lavender Blue are dead. Thacker is dead and he was posting some pretty damning stuff before he got killed and the Senator got mentioned. Mickey Pitts was just killed in prison after torching half the town. His son, Jimmy, is run off the road and dies. Burney is radioactive.”
“Not yet Cabot Cove body count level,” I said. I turned off 275 to I-471 to head back to Ohio, and Cincinnati.
“This isn’t funny, Vince.”
“You can’t sneak out?” I asked
“You ever hear of GPS tracking, Vince?”
“You’re kidding? Your car?”
“My phone. We live in a surveillance age. You have a phone, the machines know where you are if someone puts a trace on you.”
“Your boss has a trace on your phone?”
“I bet he does now.”
“Why not go dark?” I asked.
“That’s admitting you’re doing something wrong,” Rain said. “It’s a lose-lose.”
I gave up on that. “Anything on the paint from Jim’s bike?”
“Standard white, used on millions of vehicles.” There were a few seconds of silence. I was crossing over the Ohio River once more, into Cincinnati. “Vince?” she said in that voice that I dreaded.
“Yeah?” I was watching the GPS to take me to Skye’s downtown apartment. I never used the voice option because it was too bossy.
“If Senator Wilcox offered you a job here, she offered you a lifeline. Take it.”
“Senator Wilcox offered me a job in Cincy,” I said, “to get me off the playing field.”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because it means she’s scared,” I said. “And I’m going to prove her fear correct.”
Rain laughed. “You have a thick head, Ranger.”
“Rangers lead the way,” I said.
“Sometimes they do,” Rain said. “Stay safe, my friend.”
