Right. Because shooting an ex-cop in the process of an armed robbery of a diner full of innocent people isn’t already going to get you life — or close — in prison.
“Hold your horses,” Shorty was saying in the front seat as he slipped on his seatbelt. “Driving protocol, dude. You know, it wouldn’t kill you to drive once or twice.”
“But you’re so good at it,” Tall Suit said.
“Flattery will only get you in my pants.”
“I’ll pass.”
“Your loss.”
Shorty finally reversed out of the gravel parking lot before turning onto the interstate road. Allie glanced out the rear windshield and back at the diner, watching as more people began running around inside the building. She wondered how long it would take them to realize no one had a cell phone and that the only two landlines had been cut.
She turned back around and settled in her seat, then stripped off the mask. She sucked in fresh air and ran gloved hands through her hair. Like the past few hours, wide-open farmland blurred by on both sides of them, with only the massive mountain peaks in the distance to break the monotony. At least they had left the gray and dry desert behind, and her hair thanked her for the change of scenery.
Not that her appearance was something she was worried about at the moment. No, there were more important things to occupy her mind as she watched the endless parade of green fields and red barns. Traffic consisted of the occasional family in a minivan, RV, or obvious rentals, with semis hauling everything from car parts to other cars to food dominating the lanes on both sides of them.
After a few minutes of silence and only the wind banging against her windows for company, Allie remembered the pie in her lap.
“Reese,” she said, and leaned forward between the two front seats with the plastic container and the spoon on top of it.
The man in the front passenger seat took the box from her, glancing briefly up at the rearview mirror as he did so. It was just a moment — maybe not even half a second — as they locked eyes. She wished she could have said she had become used to the way he scrutinized her — after all, he had been doing it since she climbed into the car — but it still managed to unnerve her.
“Thanks,” Reese said.
“Why apple pie?” she asked.
“When in Rome…”
“Apple pies aren’t actually that common with American meals.”
“No?”
She shook her head.
Reese opened the case and cut out a piece with the spoon. “Dwight told me everyone ate apple pie in America.”
Dwight grinned. “I haven’t had apple pie in years. Not since college. And that was just once.”
“So you lied?” Reese said. Allie couldn’t tell if he was genuinely hurt or playing along.
“I didn’t know you were so gullible,” Dwight said, and reached down and turned on the radio. Country music filled the car. Something about a horse…
“It’s called trust, Dwight.”
“Call it whatever you want, dude. Still makes you a dumbass.”
Reese ignored him and ate another piece. “You did good back there,” he said. It was meant for her, even though he hadn’t turned around when he said it.
“You sound surprised,” Allie said.
He shrugged. “You never know how people will react their first time in a pressure situation.”
“This is hardly my first time.”
“First time with us seeing you in action.”
“She should have shot the old fart,” Dwight said. “He was probably a cop.”
“He was in his sixties,” Allie said.
“So?”
“How many sixty-year-old cops do you know?”
“Out here in boondocksville? A fuck lot, that’s how many.”
“Even if he were a cop, that’s an even better reason not to kill him.”
“She’s got a point,” Reese said.
“And shooting him in the leg is better?” Dwight said.
Reese chuckled. “Dwight’s got a point too.”
“Like I said, I’m not adding a dead body to my list of crimes today just to make you two happy,” Allie said.
“We’ll see about that,” Dwight said.
She didn’t respond, and eventually Dwight began to slow down before turning off the interstate and into a wooded area. A rusted-over sign with “RV Park”-something stenciled across it flashed by to their right, and the road was bumpy as soon as they turned onto it. Dwight slowed down again as he entered what once upon a time was a park, but the grounds had since been swallowed up by grass and foliage, making it almost indistinguishable from the surrounding woods.
A white semitrailer, no different than all the ones she had been seeing since they hit the road, loomed in front of them next to a Ford four-door. It would have been easy to think the vehicles had been abandoned here, but Allie knew better.
Two men appeared out from behind the trees to their left as they approached. She spied bulges along the men’s jackets — barely noticeable if you weren’t looking for them or didn’t know what they meant.
Dwight parked a good twenty yards behind the semi, and they climbed out just in time to hear the wail of police sirens in the distance. Still very far off, but getting closer.
“That was smart, taking their cell phones,” Allie said to Reese.
“It wasn’t our first time, either,” Reese said.
“So you’re the brains of this operation.”
“Was there ever any doubt?”
“Kiss my ass,” Dwight said, and walked on ahead of them.
Reese led her to the sedan while the two men who had stepped out of the woods joined Dwight at the back of the semi.
“The old man in the diner,” Reese said. “Juliet would have gone for the back of the head.”
“I’m not Juliet,” Allie said.
“No, you’re not.”
At the Ford now, she narrowed her eyes across the roof at him. “If you still have any doubts about me, maybe we should put it out there now, Reese. Otherwise, you’re just wasting both of our time.”
“Doubts?” He shrugged. “I always have doubts. But Juliet recommended you…”
“Yeah, she did.”
“Then again, people make mistakes. Even Juliet.”
“Then you should take it up with her.”
He nodded. “I’ll do that, first chance I get.”
A loud clang! from nearby, as Dwight threw open the semi’s back doors with the help of the two men.
“Why are they opening the trailer here?” she asked.
“Just to make sure the assets made it to us fully intact,” Reese said. “Wouldn’t want to get blamed for damaged goods on delivery, right?”
It took Allie a few seconds to make out the small, round faces peering out of the darkness inside the parked transport at Dwight and the other two. They were seemingly drawn forward by the blinding sunlight like moths to a flame, slowly and (justifiably) afraid of what awaited them.
God help what I’m about to do, Allie thought, her fingers making fists at her sides.
Two
“Did they use to call you Lou back when you were a lieutenant?” the pretty girl with the red lipstick asked.
Hank Pritchard would have smiled if only he could ignore the throbbing pain coming from his right thigh. The sensation was similar to that of someone shoving a hot poker through his flesh and then dropping a boulder the size of a house on top of it.
“Yeah, some of them,” he said.
“I knew it,” the young woman said. “Saw it on TV. Figured it was the same with cops everywhere.”