only nine, Spencer. We can’t just let him disappear either.’
‘Be sensible, Sidonie. He’s probably not even off the property. Think about it. How would he leave, even if he wanted to? There’s almost two miles of private road. Then you come to River Road and no one drives on that except the local ranchers. It’s five more miles before you get to the old highway, and that is the old highway. Again, almost no traffic. Then another seven miles before you get to the main highway and five more after that to Abundance. So he’d have to walk almost twenty miles to get to any kind of civilization. He’s not going to manage that. Not as fat as he is. And he’s not stupid enough to try. He’s a smart boy, Sidonie. He’s playing us. He’ll be hiding somewhere around here, just trying to get the fuck back at me. And I’m not falling for it. I’m not going to play his fucking little game. If we wait long enough, he will come out.’
‘What about coyotes or something?’ Sidonie said.
‘Don’t be blonde. He’s not a chihuahua.’
Sidonie kept on with the sad eyes.
‘OK, look, here’s what I’ll do. I’ll call Jamieson,’ Spencer said. Jamieson was his primary bodyguard in LA, a big burly black dude who looked as if he could bite the balls off a bull. ‘In the morning I’ll call the security agency and ask them to send a couple more guys with Jamieson. They can do everything the police do and much more quietly.’
‘In the morning?’ Sidonie asked dubiously.
‘Yes, in the morning,’ Spencer said decisively and lifted a bottle of Casa Nueva Meritage from the wine rack. ‘Now leave me alone.’
Chapter Ten
They always say in stories how folks go speechless with shock. Up to that point it had been just a tired old cliché in Dixie’s mind, but really, until it’s happened to you, you just never realize what a paralysing experience shock is. Standing in the flatbed of the truck, Dixie stared at the bound-up child, and it was as if the duct tape had fixed her too into motionless silence.
Billy was like a Labrador puppy, bouncing and grinning and waiting for her to get happy. ‘That there’s our ticket to heaven,’ he said.
‘To hell, more likely,’ she replied when she finally found her voice. ‘And jail most certainly. Oh Billy.’ Dixie covered her face with one hand and turned away. ‘I can’t believe this. Dear Jesus, dear, dear Jesus, please make this just a real bad dream.’
‘Let me explain my plan.’
‘Plan? Billy, do you know what you just done? This isn’t playing. This isn’t some game. Do you understand?’
Irritably, Billy slammed the toolbox lid down. ‘For fuck’s sake, Dixie. There’s no pleasing you, is there? First you’re moaning on and on about me taking the job out at Baker’s ranch. And I heard you. So then I go trying hard as I can to set things right, to get Jamie Lee’s funeral paid for and get us a decent life, and you’re still not happy. Nothing I do is ever good enough for you.’ He hopped over the side of the truck and headed back in the house.
‘No! Billy, no.’ Dixie ran after him into the kitchen. ‘We can’t just leave that kid there, shut up in your toolbox. It’s too hot!’
‘That’s how come I put the truck in the garage, stupid.’
‘Billy, the garage is even worse than outdoors. It’s like ninety degrees in there and it’s all closed up. He’ll die.’
‘Oh, for Christ’s sake. I’ll go roll the window down, if that’ll make you happier.’
‘He’s not in the cab. He’s in the toolbox and you’ve got tape over his mouth.’
‘Would you stop screaming? You want all the neighbours to hear? If you want to get us in trouble, that’s the way to do it.’ Taking a beer from the fridge, he opened the tab and drained it in loud, thirsty gulps.
‘What if that boy’s thirsty?’ Dixie said in a quieter voice.
Billy crumpled the beer can with one hand and lofted it at her. Dixie didn’t flinch when the can bounced off her shoulder and clattered to the linoleum.
‘If I knew you were going to act this way, I wouldn’t have bothered,’ he said sulkily. ‘I only did this for you.’
‘I certainly didn’t ask you to go do something like this, so don’t blame me.’
‘Well, it’s your fault. You and all your harping about money all the time. You want me to pay for some goddamned funeral for some fucking bastard who isn’t even my kid, and then you think you got the right to tell me how to do it. I’m a cowboy, Dixie. I was a cowboy before you met me; I was a cowboy when you met me, and I’m still a cowboy; so you shouldn’t keep thinking I ought to be something different. You should know I need to be my own man.’
‘Let him go, Billy. Right now.’
‘You had me right up against the wall with all your bellyaching about not having enough for that funeral.’
Lowering her head, Dixie pressed her hands over her ears, then her eyes. ‘Please, Billy. I don’t care about any of that any more. I don’t care if you go cowboying forever. I don’t care if we never get the funeral paid off and that funeral man makes me go bankrupt. Just please let that boy go. Now. Please.’ She pinched the bridge of her nose.
‘Oh Jesus. Now you’re going to cry again. Jesus H. Christ, Dixie. This whole thing is your fault.’
‘I’m not crying! I’m just trying to figure out how the heck to get us out of this. You don’t got the sense God gave a goose, Billy. You don’t even know what you just done. You’ve kidnapped this kid. Oh dear Jesus. You’ve kidnapped Spencer Scott’s son!’
‘It’s not kidnapping. Not really kidnapping,’ Billy said and his tone became more conciliatory. His face brightened with the hint of a smile. ‘I’m protecting him, if you want to know the truth. Because know where I found him? Walking all alone along River Road. That’s dangerous there, because there ain’t nowhere to walk without being on the road itself. And know what he was trying to do? Hitch a ride. No kidding. To California! He’s just a little bugger and there he was with his thumb out. So, see, I’m actually doing Spencer Scott a big favour here, because some pervert could easily have come along and took his kid.’
‘Keeping him safe by putting duct tape around him and throwing him in your toolbox is going to make folks think you’re the pervert, Billy.’
‘I didn’t start out putting duct tape on him. First, I was just picking him up to take him somewhere safe, because he’s too little to be out wandering around and I reckoned his folks would be worried. I didn’t know he was Spencer Scott’s son until he told me. The way it all happened, I reckon God sort of planned this for me.’
‘I can tell you right now it certainly wasn’t God who got into your head in that moment.’
‘No, listen to me. Here’s how I got it figured. You and me can pack up a few things and say we’re going camping. Like we do every summer anyway. No one will think anything of it. We’ll go up on Crowheart for a few days till news gets around that he’s missing. Then we’ll bring him back safe and explain how we found him and were protecting him. We’ll ask for just a little money. For taking care of him.’
‘That makes it kidnapping, Billy.’
‘No, it doesn’t. Because we didn’t set out to do it. Kidnapping means that you planned it all and you meant to do it and you’re holding the kid for ransom. We’re just caring for him and keeping him safe. It’s only fair we get paid for doing that.’
‘And what happens when this kid tells people you tied him up with duct tape and shut him up in your toolbox? Because folks aren’t going to interpret that as “caring for him”.’
‘I’ll say sorry to him once we’re up in the mountains.