Second Thoughts (6 page)

“Uh, guys?” Petey said from the back seat.

“Yeah,” Moose said. His voice was hoarse. He looked at the steering wheel, the ignition and the gearshift, and finally figured out how to get the car back into motion.

* * *

Derek reached over and punched the volume on the van’s radio up a notch.

“…third time in as many days. There are as yet no leads. The gang of three has been incredibly lucky. An interesting development from today’s holdup is that one of the men is not as hardcore as his comrades. He actually handed over his gun to the clerk, but—”

“Huh?” Connie said, and Derek shushed her.

“…made their escape. More in a few minutes, after this important message. Please stay with us.”

Derek frowned, but not at the radio. The van was slowing, and Connie gave him a questioning look. A fast talker on the airwaves was trying to convince her to visit his automotive shop, and she reached across the console to lower the volume. Derek pumped the accelerator, squinted at the fuel gauge, and worked the accelerator again. The vehicle continued to slow and sputter.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d swear we were out of gas,” he said. The sputtering ceased, the van rolled another couple feet, then came to a stop.

“We are out of gas.” His frown deepened as he looked at the fuel gauge, which read half full. He tapped it with his knuckle.

The gauge dropped so fast that Connie blinked. “Huh?”

“Yep. Out of gas. Great.”

Connie looked at the empty road. Her concern rose and her heart sank. “Oh, boy,” she murmured. More expressive phrases occurred to her, but they weren’t fit for the kids’ ears.

Derek appeared more annoyed than alarmed.
With his gaze still on the faulty fuel gauge, he muttered, “Could be worse. How did we manage in situations like this before cell phones?”

He looked at Connie, as if expecting her to produce one out of thin air.

She looked back at him. “Cell phone? I don’t have one. You know I never wanted one.”

His brows met. “You still don’t—”

“Yes, I still manage quite well without a phone attached to my ear, thank you.”

“It’s not a question of—”

“I was wondering how this was going to be my fault that the vehicle you were driving ran out of gas. It’s because I don’t have a cell phone. Makes perfect sense. Where’s your phone, Derek?”

“As far as this week goes, I’m out of touch, and the only way to truly accomplish that is don’t carry the phone around. So I left it in my car. I don’t wear it attached to my ear, either, thank you.”

“It’s in the car you’re not driving instead of the one you are driving.” She nodded soberly. “Makes perfect sense.”

“Annie Connie.”

“Just a second, Chris,” Derek answered, his eyes not leaving those of his ex-wife. “This is Kristy’s van,” he said with what sounded like forced patience. “And unlike you, she realizes the importance of a cell phone in case of emergency. There should be one right there in the glove compartment.”

Oh, Connie thought. She looked at the glove box but made no move toward it.

“Annie Connie, don’t you remember? You took it in the house to see how it worked. Did you put it back?”

Thank you, Chris, she thought. Thank you very much.

Derek continued to look at her, she continued to look at the glove box, and then he faced front and stared out the window. “Great.”

Connie sat quietly. As her mind searched for a way to redeem herself, she recalled the sights on their drive to the stream this morning. “Maybe it’s not too bad,” she ventured.

Derek looked at her, at the kids seated behind them, then back at her. “It isn’t?”

“We passed a house this morning, maybe only half a mile or so from here. An old green pickup was parked in front. We can ask to use their phone.”

Taking another look at the back seat, Derek nodded. “Worth a shot. Okay, we each take a baby on our shoulders, and Chris can take the diaper bag, just in case.”

“Wouldn’t it be better for you to hike it, and we’ll wait here? That’d be faster.”

“And leave you and the kids out here alone with three holdup artists running around somewhere?”

Whether it was innocent or not, that statement held sexism, and the implication that he was more capable than she
definitely wasn’t innocent. She didn’t try to hide her annoyance in the stare she leveled at him. “Don’t look now, but a streak of macho just showed up.” She glanced at Christopher, not wanting to alarm him, but he appeared more interested than alarmed. The darned kid seemed to be enjoying himself. Abbie was humming monotonously, probably on her way to sleep. Andy was jabbering at whatever was outside the window, waving his arms as if conducting an orchestra.

She looked back at Derek. “Not to put you down,” she said, her tone proving women could be just as condescending as men when the opportunity arose. “But how much more effective would you be than me against three armed men? One’s wit would count for more than one’s muscle power, wouldn’t you think?”

He gave her a long, equally critical stare, and then opened his car door. “Choose your baby, put him or her on your shoulders, and let’s get going.”

* * *

Max wondered if his heart would ever stop racing. He was glad he wasn’t driving because he’d probably run them into a ditch.

Moose wasn’t doing a whole lot better. The Mustang unsteadily approached the farmhouse and then jerked to a stop. Everyone remained inside the car, staring straight ahead. Even Petey seemed subdued. The man behind the steering wheel was the first to show life. With a shaky forefinger, he pointed at the plastic bag in Max’s lap that contained guns, stockings and money. “Might be our best take yet, and definitely the riskiest. But do you believe that woman? She had balls.”

“Yeah, she was something, all right.” Max eyed the bag, resisting the urge to fling it away. He couldn’t rid himself of the feeling that something in it was going to pop out and bite him. “She took five years off my life, and then that cop who passed us took another five. I’m going to die a young man.”

They finally opened car doors and exited. When Petey pushed the seat forward and got out on Max’s side, his brother took a double take.
“Shit!”

Moose jerked his head toward them, then doubled over the car’s door, laughing so hard he was reduced to making strangled breathing noises. Petey looked confused by the commotion he’d caused. All he’d done was get out of the car.

“That cop,” Max said. “That cop. He was right there. He passed us by, and, and…”

Moose got control of himself. “You can take the mask off now, Petey.”

Roughly thirty yards away, Derek backed up into Connie and made her stagger. She tightened her grip on Abbie. “Hey, what—”

“They’re…they must be…I don’t believe this,” he whispered. He stared as if mesmerized at the Mustang and its occupants. “We stumbled right into them.”

“Who?” Connie asked, confused. She’d been behind Derek as they’d approached and had seen nothing but the hood of a car resembling the one that had starred with Steve McQueen in that classic car chase movie. And she’d heard hearty laughter, which shouldn’t have bothered anyone.

She and Derek and the kids stood within the shadow of a young oak, adjacent to the yard and at a side angle to the house. When she tried to step aside to look around her ex-husband, his arm went out to halt her.

“Be still,” he hissed. “Movement might make them look over here.”

“What are you talking about?” Because of his alarm, she also spoke in a whisper.

“The robbers,” Christopher breathed. “We found the robbers.”

Connie angled her head to look around Derek’s shoulder. Three men surrounded an elegant, royal blue Mustang. If they looked this way, there was no way they could miss their visitors. The oak cast ample shadow, but its trunk wasn’t nearly big enough to conceal all five of them. Fortunately, two men had their backs to the tree, and the third stood sideways to it. The trio then walked to the house and went inside.

“What makes you think they’re the robbers?” Connie asked. Though the men were gone, she still spoke in a whisper.

“The stocking mask was a dead giveaway,” Derek said.

Three sets of eyes remained riveted on the aging farmhouse that was in bad need of another coat of redwood stain.

Then suddenly Derek and Connie dropped to their knees, as if receiving the same belated command in the same instant. They took the babies from their shoulders and sat them on the ground. One child grabbed a handful of dirt. The other one’s head bobbed as if the baby were checking out its new environment. Following their lead, Christopher crouched next to the adults. Music, country rock, broke into the silence. Though it wasn’t loud, Connie jumped at the suddenness of the sound.

Her mind raced around their predicament, but she couldn’t come up with a really good, really fast next move. They were in the middle of nowhere, and the skinny tree trunk was the only cover in a very wide, very open area. The only good news was they hadn’t been seen. Yet.

Following that thought was relief she’d worn the green tank top instead of the orange one. At least she blended into the environment. Then she scrunched up her eyes and ran both hands down her face. She was thinking about how she was dressed?

“Now what?” she whispered. If Derek’s mind was no more on target than hers, they were in trouble.

“Main road isn’t too far off,” he whispered back. “We can backtrack, find some traffic, something. I’m not inclined to ask these guys if we can use their phone.”

“Annie Connie.”

“Just a second, Chris. But they don’t know that we know who they are.”

“Unca Dare.”

“In a minute, Chris. What difference does that make? We do know who they are.”

Christopher was tugging Connie’s hand and Derek’s elbow. “But—”

In the same instant, their heads snapped around to the young boy, and Connie got the words out first in an exaggerated whisper. “For crying out loud, Chris, what is it?”

In answer he pointed at the baby who was halfway across the yard, already at an equal distance between them and the house.

Connie jumped to her feet.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Derek caught her
by the arm in mid lunge and pulled her back down.

She turned on him, twisting and pulling, and for her efforts she got her other arm captured as well. “The baby, Derek, the baby.” She was battling herself to keep her voice down as well as fighting him to get away. “What are you doing! Let go of—”

“I’ll go. Settle down and stay with these two.”

“Oh, for— Stop it, Derek!”

“You stop it! While we’re over here wrestling with each other, that baby is going to knock on the door and say hi. Now quit it.”

Connie forced herself to be still. It was the hardest thing she’d ever done. “Then go!” she snapped. “Go!”

Fortunately, the baby wasn’t traveling fast. It kept taking time out to bounce and twist to the music. As Derek took off after it, the child turned in a complete circle, its shoulders dipping to each side as if in time to the beat, then toddled off again. The last dance step had altered the child’s course, and it was now headed toward the parked vehicles instead of the house.

Derek sprinted across the yard, scooped up the wanderer into the crook of his left arm, and pivoted to run back. He looked like a football player capturing a fumbled ball.

Behind him, the screen door opened.

“Hey, what—?”

Derek came to an abrupt stop.

Connie had a death grip on each child. Her hold tightened, and both kids squirmed. If the man looked this way…

Derek turned. “Uh, hi.”

He took a few steps toward the parked vehicles. The man’s attention remained on him, which meant it was a little less likely he’d catch sight of Connie and the kids. He was about the same height and weight as Derek but was older and appeared to be in poorer physical shape. Connie couldn’t remember the size or appearance of the other two guys. But three against one weren’t good odds, regardless of their physical condition.

Another man appeared in the doorway, and Connie’s heart sank. He was huge.

“Uh, hi,” Derek said to the newcomer.

“Yeah, hi.” The first man and the second one exchanged glances. The bigger one shrugged.

The first guy looked back at Derek. “Can I help you with something?”

“I…ran out of gas.”

“Oh.” He looked relieved. “That’s all. You want to use the phone?”

“Uh, yeah. Okay. I mean…please.”

The big man opened the screen door and motioned for Derek to come in. “No problem. Come on in. You got a cute kid. Boy or girl?”

Derek looked down at the baby in his arm. Repositioning the child, he put his hand under its chin and tilted its head to get a better look at its face. It ducked its head, bit his finger and giggled.

He yanked his hand back. “Must be Abbie,” he muttered.

The big man frowned. “Must be?” he echoed. But he shrugged it off, probably thinking he’d misunderstood. “Good old-fashioned name and a pretty little baby girl.”