The Highway (40 page)

*   *   *

On the way to Inola on old Route 66 for the skids of frozen catfish, dawn broke over the horizon. It was clear and cold and there were commas of snow on the Oklahoma prairie. He had to tap his brakes to prevent running into an older model Honda weaving unsteadily on the two-lane highway. As he swung around it, he could look down and see inside.

A disheveled brown-haired teenaged girl in sloppy lounge pajamas, her hair askew, was squinting hard over the wheel and barely keeping her car on the road. Hungover, he thought, and driving home in the morning after a long hard night of beer and sex and privilege.

She looked up at him, obviously annoyed that he was staying right with her.

The Lizard King returned.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Butch and Dana Preston of Montana, two wonderful long-haul truck drivers, for offering technical assistance and answering all my questions during that cold January ride on I-90 from Billings to Chicago.

I’m also grateful to my first readers: Laurie Box, Molly Donnell, Becky Reif, and Roxanne Box. Special thanks to Ann Rittenberg—who was right as always.

Thanks also to Don Hajicek, Jennifer Fonnesbeck, and the terrific St. Martin’s Minotaur team: Sally Richardson, Andy Martin, Hector DeJean, Matt Baldacci, Matthew Shear, and my peerless editor Jennifer Enderlin.

ALSO BY C. J. BOX

T
HE
S
TAND-
A
LONE
N
OVELS

Back of Beyond

Three Weeks to Say Goodbye

Blue Heaven

T
HE
J
OE
P
ICKETT
N
OVELS

Breaking Point

Force of Nature

Cold Wind

Nowhere to Run

Below Zero

Blood Trail

Free Fire

In Plain Sight

Out of Range

Trophy Hunt

Winterkill

Savage Run

Open Season

About the Author

C. J. BOX is the bestselling author of
Back of Beyond, Three Weeks to Say Goodbye
, and sixteen other novels, including the award-winning Joe Pickett series.
Blue Heaven
won the Edgar Award for Best Novel in 2009, and Box has won the Anthony Award, the Macavity Award, and the Barry Award. His first novel,
Open Season
, was a New York Times Notable Book and an Edgar Award and Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. Box’s work has been translated into twenty-six languages. He lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

THE HIGHWAY.
Copyright © 2013 by C. J. Box. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.minotaurbooks.com

Cover design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein

Cover photograph by Exactostock/Superstock

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Box, C. J.

    The highway / C. J. Box.—First edition.

           pages    cm.

    ISBN 978-0-312-58320-0 (hardcover)

    ISBN 978-1-250-03192-1 (e-book)

  1.  Missing persons—Fiction   2.  Roads—Montana—Fiction.   3.  Serial murder investigation—Fiction.   I.  Title.

    PS3552.O87658H54 2013b

    813'.54—dc23

2013009869

eISBN 9781250031921

First Edition: July 2013