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CAR TROUBLE
A Cassidy Callahan Novel
byKelly Rysten
CCB Publishing
British Columbia, Canada
Car Trouble: A Cassidy Callahan Novel
Copyright ©2010 by Kelly Rysten
ISBN-13 978-1-926918-04-4
First Edition
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Rysten, Kelly, 1960-
Car trouble [electronic resource] : a Cassidy Callahan novel /
written by Kelly Rysten.
Electronic monograph in PDF format.
ISBN 978-1-926918-04-4
Also available in print format.
I. Title.
PZ7.R98Ca 2010a j813'.6 C2010-905195-5
Cover artwork by Kelly Rysten: www.kellyrysten.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, and characters are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be considered as real. Resemblance to any events or persons, living or dead, past or present, is purely coincidental.
Extreme care has been taken to ensure that all information presented in this book is accurate and up to date at the time of publishing. Neither the author nor the publisher can be held responsible for any errors or omissions. Additionally, neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the express written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For other permission requests, please contact the author. Printed in the United States of America and the United Kingdom.
Publisher: CCB Publishing
British Columbia, Canada
Special thanks to Allen and Brandy K. for sharing their experiences in Police Academy and Search and Rescue.
Thanks also to Paul and Donna for their patience, hard work and dedication in helping me put my stories into print.
Other books by Kelly Rysten
Triple Trouble
Read about Cassidy Callahan’s first
tracking adventure with trouble at every turn.
Published 2009 – ISBN 978-1-926585-41-3
Contents
The white monster truck appeared out of nowhere. I was winding through the narrow mountain roads of the Angeles Forest when it came barreling around a corner. I yanked hard on the steering wheel, pulling off to the side of the road to let him pass. My dog, Shadow, standing on the front seat, yelped with surprise as he lost his footing and hit the passenger door. The white truck barreled past in a cloud of dust. My first thought was the driver hadn’t seen my vehicle in his haste, but then I saw his face as he drove by. The guy was laughing at me.
“Wimpy little Jeep Wrangler,” he seemed to be saying, “stay off my road.”
As his tailgate disappeared behind the billowing dust I hopped from the Jeep to survey my situation. Shadow watched intently as I looked down the embankment. The mountain fell away in a three-hundred-foot drop with only the tall pine trees returning my gaze. One wheel hung over the precipice, one was deeply embedded in the soft shoulder, while the other two were hanging to the very edge of the solid roadbed. I switched the Jeep to four-wheel drive and gently got back in on the uphill side. I cranked over the engine, eased up on the clutch, down on the gas pedal, gently, easy does it. I felt the Jeep move slowly forward. As the shoulder gave way, the Jeep slowly twisted downward and I felt the passenger side tip a little more. Okay, better stop. Shoot, how many times had I needed a winch on this thing then forgotten all about it the next day? Too many times to count. Maybe I should paint notches on the fender or something to remind me. Cass, you know this is the umpteenth time you’ve done this. And there I was at umpteen and one.
I grabbed my daypack from the back of the Jeep, found Shadow’s leash and stuffed it in the pack.
“Come on boy, we have a long, hot walk ahead of us.”
I looked in the pack. Two days of backpacker food, a plastic bag with trail mix, a hunting knife, a change of clothes and a couple of pieces of beef jerky. It looked like the standard stuff for this pack. The backpacker food wouldn’t be used because I didn’t have my stove, but the trail mix and jerky might be greatly appreciated by the end of the day. I found a couple water bottles rolling around on the floorboards and added them to the pack. I tended to take off like this a lot and there was no telling when some water would be needed, so I kept a small stash in the Jeep at all times. I looked for more bottles but only found the two.
“Okay, if that’s what I’ve got,