I went to bed after talking to Dani. Early Sunday morning, the cell phone rang under my pillow. The clock said 3:30 A.M. I near about ignored it, not being in the mood for any more Dani drama. But when I looked, it was Logan Loy.
“Lynn Marie?” he said, not sounding quite right. Even though I loved that he called me by both my names (nobody but my mom did that and usually only when pissed off), I also felt something hard and prickly doing angry laps around my stomach lining.
“Yeah?” I said. “Is something wrong, Logan? You don’t sound—”
“Remember I told you about that sergeant? One who knows that old man we saw out by Cobbtown? His brother or cousin or something?”
“Mmm-hmm.” I thumbed away some sleep from my eye.
“Your nosy old man called him up. I’m looking at a buttload of trouble. He told me, tomorrow morning I’ve got to go up.” He breathed in wisps and wheezes. “They’re going to article my ass. I know it. I fucking know it. I’m dead, honey.”
“Slow down, Logan. What do you mean, articled?”
“I hauled off and thumped him one. Just the once, but it knocked him clean out. Now I’m well and truly fucked. Backwards, sideways, you name it.”
“You did what, now?” I asked.
Logan spoke so fast it was hard to follow what he said. I’m not even sure he heard me because he kept right on talking. “I lost my shit and ran. I’m on I-16 now, going near about ninety miles per hour.”
“Man, you best slow down or the regular police will drag you in.”
“You’re right, you’re right. I didn’t even think of that. I knew you were a smart one the first time I talked to you.”
Despite the circumstances, I couldn’t help but feel a gush of pride. “What are you going to do now?”
“I don’t know. Run.”
“But where? You got friends you can stay with?”
“Uh. My grandma.”
“Oh, Logan, you can’t go there. That’ll be one of the first places they come looking.”
As it turned out, he was only about three miles from the Metter exit. I told him he might as well just come here for the night. He could figure out what to do in the morning. Nobody would think to look for him at my house. He wasn’t all that sure about it, but I added that Mom wasn’t home, and then all at once he was.
“You saved me, girl.” He nearly sang this to me, like the sweetest gospel song ever sung and aimed straight into my ear.