Max drove down the street, turned left, and then said, “Did you get any of that?”
“Directions?”
“Yes, directions,” he said.
“No. Did you?”
“I wouldn’t have asked…”
“I know where Highway 26 is,” she said cheerfully. “I can get you that far.”
Max programmed the GPS to locate Lipton, and they were on their way. It was a pretty day, but the heat was rising. Ellie wished she could roll all the windows down, but she knew the humidity would make her miserable in no time at all.
She checked the weather app on her phone. “It’s supposed to be in the mid-eighties,” she said. “Seems hotter to me.”
A half hour into the trip, the GPS indicated that they should turn off at the next exit and that Lipton was just twelve miles ahead. Max took the turn and said, “Why did your dad make it so complicated?”
“Maybe he didn’t know about this exit.”
They drove for a couple of miles on a two-lane road, and the GPS gave them another order to take a left at the next intersection. Fifteen minutes later, they were bumping along a dirt road with few signs of habitation in view. The GPS announced that it was recalculating the route, and Max looked as though he wanted to empty his gun into it.
“Maybe we should have paid attention to Dad,” Ellie said. She could have sworn she saw Max’s jaw flinch as he turned the SUV around on the narrow road and headed back in the direction from which they had just come.
Several miles and several turns later, they ended up on a road lined with construction signs but no construction equipment or workers.
“Is anyone following us?” she asked with a straight face.
They hadn’t seen a single car or person in the past half hour.
Max was trying to turn the car around without sinking a tire in one of the multitude of holes.
“Not funny,” he said. “We’re out in the middle of nowhere.”
He picked up her bottle of water, took a swig, and handed it over to her. He finally got the SUV turned around, and they backtracked to a somewhat decent two-lane road. It took another half hour before they found 168. Ellie wanted to laugh, but she didn’t dare, so she rode in silence the rest of the way.
As they finally passed the sign proclaiming they had arrived in Lipton, Max grumbled, “Damn GPS.”
Ellie couldn’t help herself. She burst into peals of laughter.
Other than giving her a vexed look, Max didn’t respond.
He slowed the car as they pulled into the town, which was tiny and quaint. There was a main street two blocks long with shops lined up on both sides. Cars were parked in front of most of them. Toward one end of the street was the hardware store, and at the other end was the Goose restaurant. Max noticed the first storefront they passed had SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT etched on the glass above the door.
He stopped the car in front of Waid’s Hardware Store, and they walked inside. Odors of leather and wood shavings and paint and engine oil greeted them. The old hardwood floors creaked when they stepped on them. A man wearing a carpenter’s apron stood behind the counter waiting on two young men. As Max and Ellie entered, they all turned toward the door, raising their eyebrows when they saw the strangers.
Ellie assumed they had noticed the gun at Max’s side. Max knew they were all noticing her.
After finishing his transaction with the two men, the clerk addressed them. “I know what you’re here for,” he said as he pulled the thermostat from a shelf behind the counter. He dropped it in a paper bag and handed it to Ellie.
Back outside, Max locked it in the car, and they headed down the street to the restaurant.
A cartoon caricature of a goose, who apparently was a close cousin to Donald Duck, was painted on the large front window of the establishment. It was a narrow space with a cash register at the front door and red vinyl booths along the walls. The lunch crowd filled most of the seats. Max spotted an empty booth toward the back, and they were heading for it when Ellie stopped suddenly.
“I don’t believe it,” she said.
Max looked over at her. She was standing dead still and staring wide-eyed. When he turned back to see what had caught her attention, he saw a tall, burly man walking toward them. He wore a baseball cap with the word SHERIFF embroidered above the brim.
Ellie ran to him and threw herself into his arms.
Max was right behind her. He wanted to peel her off the sheriff but decided on diplomacy first.
“Let go of him,” he snapped.
She ignored him. “Oh my God. I knew you’d either end up running from the law or becoming the law. I’m so happy to see you.”
A huge smile spread across the man’s face. “Ellie Sullivan. Where have you been?”
She finally let go of him and introduced him to Max. “This is Spike Bennett… Sheriff Spike Bennett,” she corrected.
“You sure grew up nice,” Spike said.
They were standing in the aisle, and a waitress was patiently waiting to get past. Ellie slid into a booth, and Max sat beside her across from the sheriff.
If Spike hadn’t been wearing any identification, Max would have thought there was a possibility he’d just been paroled from prison. Both his arms were covered with tattoos, and there were a couple of scars near his elbows. A larger scar ran from his hairline down to his right eyebrow. It made him look dangerous.
His affection for Ellie was apparent.
“How do you two know each other?” Max inquired.
“We were in school together,” Spike said. “Are you married, Ellie?”
She shook her head. Max had the insane urge to put his arm around her shoulders and haul her into his side. Was he trying to mark his territory? Jeez, he was acting like a caveman.
“What about you? Are you married?” she asked.
“Yes, two years now,” he answered. “I met my wife in college,” he added. “You’d like her.”
“I’m sure I would,” she said. Turning to Max, she said softly, “Spike saved me from Patterson. That’s how he got the scar on his forehead.”
“Tell me about it,” Max said to Spike.
“It was a long time ago,” Ellie said.
“Yes, it was,” Spike agreed, “but I remember every minute of it as though it happened yesterday. It was lunch hour, and I was hiding behind that big oak tree by the chapel. Remember that tree, Ellie?”
She nodded. “Kenny Platte climbed it and fell. He broke his arm.”
“Why were you hiding?” Max asked, curious.
Spike grinned. “I was trying to get the matches to work to light a cigarette I had stolen from my uncle. I had a plan. Once I got it lit, I was going to stroll past the principal’s office puffing away. I figured smoking would get me kicked out of school no matter how much money my father had. The matches were wet, though, and I never did get the cigarette lit.”
“Spike had a bad-boy image to keep up,” Ellie explained.
“Yes, and it took work,” he admitted. “So there I was behind that tree when I heard you screaming. I ran around the corner to see what was happening, and Patterson was trying to drag you away.” Turning to Max, he said, “The guy was built like a bull, and was at least six feet. By the time I got to him, he was on top of Ellie, using his fists. She was curled up in a ball on her side, so her shoulders and her legs took most of the beating. Sister Mary Frances tried to pull him off, but he knocked her down and-”
“He hit Sister Mary Frances?” Ellie was appalled.
“You don’t remember?”
She shook her head. “I just remember you jumping on top of him.”
“That’s right. I did get him off of you, and I shouted for you to run, but you wouldn’t.”