“Just this overnight one. I can manage it.”
“You a friend of Miss Paris?”
“Business acquaintance.” He was surprised that Sandra had registered under her own name.
“You like to play cards?”
“Occasionally.”
“Later tonight there’s a friendly game of poker in room Twenty-nine if you’re interested.”
“What time?”
“Around ten.”
“I might drop in,” Nick said. It would take his mind off Sandra Paris alone in her room down the hall.
He went to a fast-food place across the street and picked up something for them both to eat. “How are we going to steal the bird?” she wanted to know.
“We start by cutting the toes off a pair of my socks.”
He hung around for a while after they ate, then went down the hall to room 29. The place was already smoky when Sid Rawson opened the door. There were three other men in the room and the night clerk was pleased to see Nick. “Good! You got a fourth, boys! I can get back to the desk.”
A bald man named Josh Fielding seemed to be in charge. He unwrapped a new deck of cards and announced the rules. “We play Texas Holdem here. Are you in, Mr. Nicholas?”
“Sure,” Nick said and bought twenty dollars’ worth of chips from the banker, a red-haired man in his thirties. His name was Henry Wilson and he was a salesman of bathroom fixtures.
“Twenty won’t get you far with this crowd,” he warned Nick. “The ante alone is five.”
“A bit rich for my blood,” he replied. “I’ll go for forty and that’s my limit.”
The fourth man at the table, Charlie Rainbow, was a local rancher, part Native American, with a leathery face and deep blue eyes. They drew for the deal and he won, giving the cards a quick, rapid shuffle and cut. He dealt two hole cards to each player and the game was under way.
Nick lost another ten dollars before he folded, figuring he’d try one more hand before quitting the game. Fielding and Rainbow, who knew each other, were talking about the latter’s German shepherds, which he actually used for herding sheep. Wilson was a stranger, much like Nick, but he managed to win the hand. On the second hand Nick had two kings as his hole cards, and he ignored his self-imposed limit to bet sixty dollars. One of the flops gave him a third king, but he ended up losing to Fielding’s full house.
“That’s it for me,” he told them, rising from the table.
“If you’re in town, try again tomorrow,” Rainbow told him. “We try to get a game going most every night.”
Nick returned to Sandra’s room and was surprised to find her on her feet. “Where’ve you been?” she asked.
“Poker game down the hall. I lost.”
“Nick! Keep your mind on business.”
“More to the point, what are you doing up?”
“I dozed for a bit and I’m feeling better now. I think we should go tonight.”
“Sandra—”
“In the early morning, before dawn. Before breakfast.”
“Impossible things before breakfast.”
“Exactly! I need you, Nick. I can drive the car, but I need you to get the ostrich into the horse van.”
“He’ll probably still be asleep.”
She shook her head. “He was awake the other morning. Awake enough to give me a good solid kick.”
He could see there was no talking her out of it. “All right,” he agreed. “We’ll go. I hope I’m more successful than I was at cards.”
When they left the motel at four A.M., clouds had moved in to all but obscure the moon. Sandra was walking with a decided limp, but it didn’t seem to affect her driving. “Bainbridge told me he’s installing security cameras next week,” Nick told her.
“Locking the barn after the horse—”
“Ostrich.”
“—ostrich is stolen.”
“At least we hope it’ll be stolen,” Nick agreed. “Here’s the turn.”
He’d debated whether to cut the fence at the same spot Sandra had chosen, but when they reached it there was enough pre-dawn light for Nick to see that the fence hadn’t really been repaired, just patched with chicken wire.
“The same spot?” Sandra asked.
“The same spot. It’ll be easy.”
He’d barely removed the chicken wire when he saw some of the ostriches moving toward them. He slipped the toeless sock over his left arm and climbed through the opening. The birds seemed more curious than hostile and he moved quickly through them, searching for Oscar. The dark-feathered males seemed identical in this light and he decided to rely on his nose. He’d detected a definite Oscar odor on his previous visit.
And suddenly the ostracized ostrich was there in front of him, stretching its neck until it towered over him. The others had scattered, and Nick was alone with his prize. He took a deep breath and wrapped his right arm around its neck, careful to avoid a kick from its legs. Then he pulled the sock from his left arm and slid it over the bird’s head. Oscar made a hissing sound, apparently a show of anger.
Sandra was waiting outside the fence with the ramp down on the horse van. “Be careful he doesn’t kick you,” she warned.
“Don’t worry. I think I’ve got him under control.”
“I remember that smell. What is it?”
“I have a feeling that’s what makes him so valuable.”
Oscar went into the horse van, his vision still obscured by the sock, and Sandra quickly closed it. “We make a great team,” she said as she slipped behind the wheel and gunned the engine.
They were almost back to the highway when the first bullet shattered the side window behind Nick’s head. “Someone’s shooting at us!” Nick yelled. “Off to our right. Keep your head down!”
“Is it Bainbridge?”
“I don’t know. Keep driving.” He heard two more shots, but they missed the car. He only hoped they’d missed the ostrich as well.
“I can see headlights. He’s following us!”
“Do you have a gun?”
She shook her head. “Couldn’t get it through airport security. Didn’t think I’d need one anyway.”
The pursuing vehicle had cut across the field, trying to head them off. There was enough light now to make out a black SUV with tinted windshield, closing fast. “If he fires again he can’t miss us,” Nick told her. “Any ideas?”
“We stop and hand over the ostrich.”
“And he’ll kill us anyway.”
“I guess you’re right.”
The SUV pulled up alongside them and a familiar figure got out. It was Charlie Rainbow, the rancher who’d been at the poker game, and he was holding an old-fashioned six-shooter aimed right at them. “Hey,” Nick said in a friendly voice, “don’t you ever sleep?”
“Not when I hear cars on my property. That’s when I get out my pistol.”
“This is your property?”
Rainbow nodded. “Right up to Bainbridge’s fence. And you’re trespassing, Mr. — Nicholas, was it?”
Sandra remained silent and let Nick handle it. “Sorry about the trespassing. My girl and I were just looking for a little privacy.”
“Yeah? This isn’t no lover’s lane, Nicholas. Better go back to your motel room.” He glanced at the horse trailer and waved the pistol at it. “What’s in there?”
“My horse,” Sandra said, breaking her silence. “Want to see him?”
“No, just get off my land.”
“What about my broken window?” Nick asked.
“What is it, a rental? Just tell them it was vandalism. Their insurance will cover it.”
“All right. Can I have a chance to win back my money tonight?”
Rainbow grinned. “Sure. We’ll be there. Just stay off my land. I’d hate to shoot you by accident.”
On the way back to the motel, Nick asked, “What if he was a horse fancier and wanted to look at your nag?”