He also knew what she would find there.
“Did I, like, hurt your feelings, Sheriff?” Wen’s staticky voice sounded more amused than sarcastic.
“This time she won’t have a river to jump into.”
“Maybe she’ll jump off a cliff.”
“She’s headed toward Black Bear Road. That’s four-wheel drive only. Assuming Beto is still listening in, he’ll direct you, as well as other members of our team. The Sheriff’s Department of Madera County is happy to cooperate with the US Marshals Service. Just don’t show up like a bunch of cowboys because I don’t want to scare her off.”
“No offense, but you’re the cowboy,” said Wen. “We’re the city slickers, remember?”
EIGHTEEN
CARA
Is there a seven-word sentence scarier than, “It places the lotion in the basket?”#ClassicHorror
—@FilmFanForty
Cara couldn’t decide if she was more afraid of the wild-haired, gun-toting mountain man or the ominousthwapof the approaching helicopter.
“You don’t have to worry too much about those whirlybirds,” the man said. “They look for heat signatures, and you happen to be standing ass-deep in domesticated ruminants.”
“What makes you think I’m worried about helicopters?” she asked, not looking up.
The man chuckled, which only made her feel dumb for playing dumb—and that much more worried.
“They only come around here when something’s on fire.” He pointed toward the horizon, where the red sun was lowering toward a dense wall of smoke. “If they can spare one, it must mean they’re looking for something important.Someoneimportant.”
“Not all that important,” she mumbled.
“And here you are, in my barn, chopping off your hair with my sheep shears.”
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” she said, knowing it was. “It’s a case of mistaken identity and it’s really complicated, not because I’m guilty of anything, but because?—”
“We’re all running from something.”
There was no denying that.
“There was a big car accident. Everyone but me and this other woman I was traveling with were... it was really bad.” It was hard to get the next few lines out, even though she was determined not to stumble like she had with Sanjay and Devin. “I was in shock when I took off into the forest. I should have stayed put but there were things... totally out of my control... that I needed to?—”
“Put an end to?” he asked, watching her down the barrel.
Cara was sure she’d run out of second chances. “Please, I don’t want to die. I’ve come so close, so many times in the last twenty-four hours.”
He chuckled. “I was talking about your hair.”
She felt around her head until she reached a tangled mass of someone else’s hair she had paid #Ridiculousmoney to have attached to her head to give herself fuller, more luscious locks. Snipping quickly, she grabbed another extension and did the same. With no mirror, and a man who lived in a trailer mansion watching with amusement, she did her best to give herself an even trim.
“If I had to guess, I’d say you need a safe spot to ride things out,” he said.
“That would really help,” she admitted.
The man lowered his gun, gave her an almost imperceptible wave, and walked past her, which she took as an invitation to follow.
She couldn’t allow herself to think about how it had all come to this—trailing a middle-aged, rifle-toting hermit through his barn, out the other side, and past a series of buildings with overhanging roofs. The route allowed them to remain sheltered from above, she noted.
He stopped abruptly in front of a wooden door set into the hillside.
