“Definitely Midland, boss.” Bukowski was already pulling off the highway when he saw the pickup parked in front of the Ember gate and the young couple staring at the lock. His stomach tightened, “I’ll call you right back.”
He swung in behind the truck, shut the engine off, and stepped out, “Evening, folks.”
“Evening,” the man grunted, still frowning at the padlock.
The young woman squinted, then brightened, “We met at Ellie’s wedding … Buk-something?”
Buk grinned, easy and automatic, “Bukowski. Buk’s fine, though.” He held out his hand.
“Hello, Buk!” She gave him an enthusiastic shake. “Bobbi Ann Monroe, and this is Joe.” She waved toward her boyfriend, who was still trying to force a key into the lock, “Lock’s less than a year old and it’s completely gummed up.”
Amateurs, Buk thought, and stepped forward, “Mind if I try?”
Joe grunted, stepped back, and handed over the key ring. Buk knelt, sniffed lightly at the keyway. Even over the Texas dust he caught the faint, acrid bite of cyanoacrylate.
Fucking amateurs.
He stood, heading for the rear of his 4Runner, “Somebody super-glued the lock.”
Bobbi Ann blinked. “What?”
Buk pulled a small hard case, extracted two thin shims and a pair of channel-locks, and walked back to the gate, “Y’all out here for any particular reason, or just visiting?”
“Remy called us,” Bobbi Ann said. “Asked us to look in on their livestock for a bit. We figured he needed to go somewhere and get his head straight over this Ellie-disappearing mess.”
Buk grunted, sliding the shims over the shackle bars where they entered the lock body. He seated them with the channel-locks, twisted once, hard. The padlock snapped open, he dropped it in the dirt and pushed the gate wide.
“He sound okay when he called?”
“About as good as Remy is ever going to sound,” she answered, “Being away from Ellie more than a night.”
Buk looked at Joe, then at Bobbi Ann, “Bobbi Ann, why don’t you give the Sheriff a call. Please ask them not to shoot at us when they get here, all right?”
She already had her phone out. Buk patted the air gently where she couldn’t see; Joe nodded once, understanding the silent wait.
Buk climbed back into the 4Runner, pulled around the pickup, and rolled hard down the gravel lane.
The front door of the house hung crooked on its hinges, kicked in hard. Buk drew his pistol and cleared the house fast and quiet — living room, kitchen, bathroom, both bedrooms. He was coming out of the master when he heard the pickup crunch to a stop outside.
“Coming out!” he called, and waved an empty hand before stepping onto the porch.
Joe stood behind the open driver’s door of the pickup, shotgun pointed at the dirt. On the far side Bobbi Ann held a small lever-action carbine, muzzle safely down.
Buk holstered his pistol, appreciating their safety, “He’s gone. Found his phone on the bedroom floor.”
“This is bullshit,” Bobbi Ann snapped. “Sheriff’s on the way.”
“Complete bullshit,” Joe agreed quietly.
Buk pulled his phone out of his pocket, “Please pardon me. We’ve got calls to make.”
He hit speed-dial, “Mari. Get to the boss. Work clothes.”
A short pause.
“Remy’s been grabbed.”
He hung up and walked over to Bobbi Ann and Joe, “I don’t expect you to trust me, but I can’t do any good talking to the Sheriff for four hours …”
“Go,” Bobbi Ann said immediately, “We’ll handle the Sheriff.” She looked him straight in the eye, “Bring Ellie and Remy back, okay?”
Buk nodded once, “I’ll do my best.”
Wrote this last night. I must be getting used to rough drafting my work, because when I looked at it just now, my eye only twitched a little.
In this scene, Bukowski has finished having a chat with the Russian security types Remy put in the hospital in a previous scene.
Remy is currently on a helicopter out of Wichita Falls, headed to a lease south of Midland, where things are going to rapidly go to hell — as seen in an earlier snippet I posted.
Ian
Snippets are like a trailer for a 70s action pic. 2 sec glimpses out of sequence to get you salivating but not drooling,...yet. Keep up the good work.
The Russians are still alive? After reading that section I just assumed that they were both dead.
The sequencing is just a little awkward when Buk says "Found his phone on the bedroom floor" after no mention of his seeing the phone while he's going through the rooms. I felt a momentary "missed step" sensation and had to look back.