Chapter 6

“Actually I asked for vanilla,” Ron said as Karena passed a milkshake back to him. Donna sat in the driver seat at her insistence, and Ron sat in the back seat behind Karena. After much arguing, they had agreed to make a quick stop for food before setting out on the long drive to Purthansburg. They used the drive-through to minimize how much any of them were seen.

“Looks like they messed up the order and just gave us chocolate,” Karena said as Donna pulled out of the parking lot and headed for the nearest highway interchange. “I hope you’re not allergic, that is all you are getting.”

Ron looked out the window on his right and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure, it will be fine.”

Before leaving Karena’s apartment, Ron had given Donna a brief overview of where they were headed, so the three proceeded down the road in silence. When he saw on the car clock that it was near the top of the hour, he suggested to the two women in front that they listen to the news. Donna made no move to turn on the radio, but after a moment Karena turned it on and skimmed through the presets until she found the news station.

They did not have to wait long for the headline news announcements. Ron felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as his incident with the other driver was reported and it was confirmed that the other young man was dead. He could tell from the news report that the police had received his message on his phone even though the news announcer did not say so directly.

“Well, I think that makes you officially a fugitive,” Donna remarked.

“Yeah, I get it,” Ron said quietly.

Karena looked over at her friend. “They said the police want to talk to Ron, not that they are pressing charges at this time,” she said. “If it is true, as Ron said, that the other man fired first and Ron was just protecting himself, it might not be as bad as you are making it out to be.”

“I’m sure the longer it takes them to get in touch with me the worse it will look,” Ron said. “Right now that is not my main concern. Once I have made contact with Dan and you are both properly protected, hopefully I can do something to minimize the legal consequences of what happened. Unfortunately, I don’t trust that I will be able to convince the police that I was just defending myself. And really, at this point I have no plans to go in and talk with police directly anyway, which won’t help my case at all.”

Karena turned off the radio after the weather report. They drove along in silence once again. It was well past sunset by that point, and Ron started feeling drowsy in the back seat. However, any time he started to nod off, his mind would race back to his shooting of the young man who had shot at him, and the flashbacks would yank him back to full wakefulness.

Other than stopping for a quick break at a highway rest stop, after earnest pleas from Ron about needing to use a restroom, they made no other stops until they reached Purthansburg. Once again Ron was arriving in the small town in the middle of the night, and his fresh memories from his prior visit allowed him to easily direct Donna toward Jeff’s house. Instead of directing her into Jeff’s driveway, however, he had Donna pull up to the curb in front of Becky’s house.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Ron said as he unlocked his door. “Hopefully this will only take a minute or two. This neighborhood is kinda sketchy and I’m not really sure what is going to happen, so follow your instincts and don’t wait for me if things go badly.”

“You can bet on that,” Donna commented quietly as Ron climbed out of her car.

Ron shivered as he stood on Becky’s doorstep. He was glad that he was able to hear the sound of the doorbell when he pushed the button, but the lack of a response did nothing to quiet his nerves. Of course, at that hour it was quite possible the woman and her daughter were asleep. Ron wondered if they had other family, and in retrospect he was mildly surprised that neither they nor Jeff had a dog. Keeping dogs for security seemed a common trait in unfriendly neighborhoods.

After allowing plenty of time for someone to respond to his first use of the doorbell, he pressed the button again, this time pushing it twice. He hoped the woman would ask questions first instead of shooting first if she decided to answer the door with her shotgun. Ron raised his arm to ring the doorbell again when he heard the sound of the door being unlocked and he stopped before pressing the button.

“Touch that button again and I’ll blow your damned hand off,” Becky growled as she opened the door, shotgun in hand but with the barrel pointing down. “Kid, you’re a fool. What is going on in your head?”

“Things went bad, real bad, when I went home. I know you don’t owe me anything and that you put up Dan and me because Jeff wanted you to, but I’m asking for a favor anyway. I need to get in touch with Dan, but I have no rapport with Jeff. I also have… well, I have some people with me that need a safe place to stay at least until I get some word from Dan about what he wants me to do with them.”

Becky raised one eyebrow and looked vaguely amused. “What to do with them? Are they your prisoners?”

“No,” Ron shook his head, “they drove me here, but they’re not happy about it, to say the least.”

“Can’t they just sit in their car while you talk to Dan?”

Ron looked over his shoulder toward Karena and Donna. “Yeah,” he acknowledged, “I guess that would work if you think you can get me in to see Dan right away.”

Becky snorted. “Well, I ain’t Jeff’s damn secretary or your runner, but I guess I can go knock on his door for you. Hang on.” The large woman closed the door, and returned a few moments later with a heavy robe on. “You stay here on my property and watch for me, and be ready to haul your ass over there if I motion for you to come,” she instructed as she pushed past Ron, shutting the door behind her.

“Understood,” Ron said. He followed her back toward the street but did not go with her to Jeff’s. After she was out of sight, he glanced over at the women in the car, and despite the dim light he could see that they were staring with a mixture of puzzlement and annoyance. He gave them an exaggerated shrug of his shoulders and turned his attention back to Jeff’s. A few moments later, Becky reappeared and motioned for him to come over.

Ron walked quickly over to where Becky stood. She said nothing but instead jerked her thumb toward Jeff’s front door. Ron nodded and strode past her toward where Jeff stood in his front doorway. Like Becky, Jeff said nothing, he just pointed back into his house. His expression was difficult for Ron to read but he guessed that if Becky felt any amusement, Jeff did not share it. Ron gave a quick nod of thanks to the other man and moved hastily past him, hoping his urgency would be taken as a show of respect for Jeff’s allowing him in rather than as a sign of fear.

Ron found Dan still in the hospital bed, but the lights in the room were turned down and Dan’s eyes were closed. He cleared his throat to get Dan’s attention. “Sorry to wake you,” Ron said as Dan opened his eyes.

“You’d better have a really good reason for being here right now,” Dan said coldly.

“No, actually,” Ron said, “I have a terrible reason for being here right now, but it’s a reason I can’t ignore.” He proceeded to fill in Dan on the events back in Branner Glen, including his thoughts that Brianna was the still-unnamed victim of the shooting that morning. Dan looked distinctly surprised when Ron said that Karena was sitting in Donna’s car at the curb outside, but he said nothing and let Ron finish.

Dan nodded slowly when Ron fell silent. “You’re right, that’s a terrible reason, and a downright awful scenario. Now is not the time to second-guess your choices, we have to proceed with the situation as it stands. I’m not ready to move yet. I’m also not ready for a confrontation with Karena, or her watchdog friend. They, and you, need a secure place to be at least until morning and possibly longer. Jeff?”

“Here,” Jeff answered from the doorway to the room, startling Ron who did not realize the other man was so close behind him.

“Keith still have his place, and can he still be trusted?”

“Yep.”

“Okay, Ron,” Dan said, turning his attention back to the younger man, “here’s what you’re going to do. On the south side of town there’s a small motel, the Son Rise Fresh Motel. You’re going to check in there and get a room for you, Karena, and Donna, whom you will refer to as your aunt and her friend. You will ask for the Starshine Room and say that it was reserved by Martin. You will not have to pay. Got it?”

Ron nodded. “Got it. What then?”

“Stay there until you’re contacted,” Dan answered. “Try to keep Donna and Karena there, inside, away from windows and out of sight. And yes, I know that is easier said than done. You might want to pick up some food to hold you over. It’s just a motel, they don’t have room service. I will call you tomorrow with further instructions. This is just getting messier and I need time to think.”

“Got it,” Ron said again. With nothing more to say, he promptly made his way back through the dark confines of Jeff’s house and left, shutting the front door behind him. Becky was nowhere in sight and he assumed she had returned to her own home. He walked quickly to Donna’s car.

After one of the women unlocked the doors, Ron returned to his spot behind Karena. “I talked to Dan, he has a contact here in town who can put us up for the night at no cost,” he explained to them. “Let’s see if we can find a store that’s open at this hour so we can pick up some stuff for breakfast, and maybe lunch.”

“Sounds like a great time,” Donna remarked. “Let me guess, I’ll be sleeping on somebody’s couch on their front porch?”

Karena sighed irritably. “Let’s move on. I’m sure Dan would not arrange something like that.”

“You sure?” Donna asked as she put her car in gear. “You did go to the police instead of helping him.” Karena sighed again, but nobody said anything so Donna began to drive around the small town hoping to find a store that was still open.

Unlike in larger towns, there did not seem to be any grocery or drug stores open 24 hours. Eventually they found a gas station with a tiny, poorly-stocked convenience store staffed by a thin middle-aged woman with an apparently fake tan and a variety of tattoos. Ron tried to ignore the snide remarks that Donna kept firing toward him and Karena. He gathered together a handful of prepackaged pastries and set them on the counter before moving to the small refrigerator case to pull out several single-serving bottles of fruit juice.

“That it?” the woman behind the counter asked when they stopped placing things on the counter in front of her. She looked at the assortment skeptically before starting to ring it up, bagging the items as she went.

Ron used one of his prepaid cards to pay for everything, and he noticed he was getting low on funds that could be spent without tracking him. Karena and Donna grabbed the bags of supplies and headed back toward the car without showing any interest in whether he was done with the transaction or following them. When he was back in the car he was not sure if he was relieved or not that they had not left without him. He told Donna to head to the south side of town and gave her the name of the motel.

As small as the town was, it didn’t take them long to reach the Son Rise Fresh Motel. It looked old and poorly maintained, and Ron immediately began to dread both the experience of staying there and the inevitability of hearing what Donna had to say about it. As soon as she parked, Ron hopped out and went to the office, wondering if anyone would be around. He was glad to find the door unlocked, but there was nobody in sight. It took several ringings of the service bell to get a response. A man who looked to be a little older than Ron appeared in a wheelchair, coming in from a side room where Ron could see the flickering light of a TV but from which no sound could be heard.

“Yeah?” the man asked.

“I’d like to check in,” Ron said. He noticed the name Tim on the man’s nametag, and he wondered if he was supposed to ask for Keith instead. Dan had not said to do that, however, so he proceeded. “I’d like to have the Starshine Room, it was reserved for us by Martin.”

The man in the wheelchair gave him a suspicious look. “Oh, really,” he said. “And by ‘us’ who do you mean?”

“Myself, my aunt, and her friend,” Ron answered. He started thinking that whatever arrangement Dan was relying on was not actually going to work.

The other man stared at him for a few moments before reaching over to a box on the wall. He used a key on his keychain to open it, revealing a rack of room keys. He pulled one off and tossed it to Ron. “Number 1, the Starshine Room. I’ll make sure you’re not disturbed.”

“Thanks,” Ron responded, hoping he didn’t look surprised. Without another word, the other man turned around and wheeled himself back into the other room.

Ron went back to Donna’s car. Instead of getting in, he simply held up the key and motioned for them to get out. Donna and Karena exchanged glances and then got out of the car. They collected their food and other belongings, and the three of them went to look for their room. It took them longer to find because they assumed that room number one would be closest to the office, but instead it was as far from the office as it could be. Ron gave the surrounding area a thorough look before opening the door. He briefly thought about having his pistol in hand before going in, but his memory of killing another man earlier in the day stayed his hand.

The faint musty smell that greeted him as he moved into the dark room made Ron grimace. He quickly found a lamp and turned it on. He motioned abruptly for the women to come in and shut the door, and he was annoyed at how slowly they responded. Ron scanned the room as they moved forward warily and finally closed the door.

The room was basic, although large for a motel, with two queen beds, a cheap-looking chair by a small table, two simple night stands with a clock radio on one and a phone on the other, and an old TV on a stand. Near the back of the room was a closet and a door that led into the bathroom. There was one large window, covered with heavy drapes. The mirror on the wall by the TV appeared to have been missed on any recent cleaning, and the frame on the nondescript “modern art” on the opposite wall looked as if it had been through a war zone.

“Dan shouldn’t spoil us with such luxury,” Donna commented.

“For security reasons,” Ron said, choosing to ignore Donna’s remark, “you two should take the bed farthest from the door. Dan wants us to stay here until we are contacted, and he specifically asked you two to stay inside and out of sight. If the drapes are opened, you should stay away from the window.”

“It’s fine,” Karena said, putting the bag of food that she carried on the table by the chair. She then crossed over to the bed away from the door and sat down on it after putting her overnight bag on the floor at the foot of the bed.

Donna shook her head but said nothing more. She put the other bag of food on the table, and went over to sit on the bed as well. An awkward silence settled on the room. After several moments, Ron decided to try the TV to break the silence, but it took awhile before he realized he needed to also turn on the digital converter box too.

Once the TV was working, he switched it to a news channel and then sat on the bed closest to the door. He was not surprised when news of the violence in Branner Glen made the top story, and the confirmation that Brianna was the victim of the early-morning shooting made his stomach sink.

“You knew her?” Karena asked, apparently noticing the expression on Ron’s face.

Ron nodded. “It was as I expected, the victim in that shooting was sent by Dan to keep an eye on you for your protection. She and I worked together on a number of things.”

“She was supposed to protect Karena and got shot herself? That’s brilliant,” Donna sneered.

The comment about his dead fellow RALA member was the last straw for Ron. He stood abruptly, yanking his pistol from its holster. He pointed it directly at Donna’s face as he stormed over to where she sat. The fear in her eyes was unmistakable.

“Shut your mouth!” Ron screamed at her. “Shut your goddamned ignorant mouth! I’ve put up with your shit for too long! You don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t know a damned thing! You’re not Karena, you’re not under Mr. Starney’s protection. I don’t have to protect you, I can blow your brains out all over the wall if I want. Just keep your mouth shut!”

“Stop,” Karena pleaded, tears running down her cheeks. “Please stop. Both of you. Ron, put the gun away. Get it out of her face. Donna, your comments are completely uncalled for. Please. Stop.”

“Please, please don’t shoot me,” Donna said earnestly, visibly shaking.

“Keep your mouth shut!” Ron screamed again, not moving the pistol from its position a few inches in front of her face.

“Ron, please,” Karena said again. “Dan is not going to be okay with you killing Donna. You’re right, he isn’t protecting her, but she’s innocent. I know Dan. He won’t want you to hurt her. He wouldn’t want you to hurt my friend, and he wouldn’t want you to kill someone who is innocent. I don’t think you want to do that either. Please, put the gun down. Now.”

Ron stood still for several moments, not moving. He finally stepped away slowly, still keeping his weapon trained on Donna’s face. “Tomorrow,” he said, “you’re gone. I don’t care what you do, where you go, who you talk to, or what you tell them. I just want you gone. To keep this location secure so we can get some rest, you’re stuck here for now, but not tomorrow. Not tomorrow. Whatever happens, wherever I may go, wherever Dan may ask Karena to go, I’m not dragging your sorry ass along.”

Donna nodded silently and wiped away the tears that wet her cheeks. Ron moved to the chair and sat down glaring at Donna, leaving his pistol on his lap. Karena looked like she was going to say something to him, but apparently decided against it and instead stretched out on the bed and rolled away from him. Ron thought he heard her sobbing quietly but he said nothing. At that point he was completely awake and completely uninterested in using his bed. After several moments of giving quick glances over in Ron’s direction, Donna decided to lay on top of their covers next to Karena. Eventually Ron turned off the TV, but the night passed with none of them getting very much rest.

Ron was still sitting in the chair when daylight started to leak past the edges of the drapes, but his eyes were closed and his head was angled down as he drifted in and out of a light, semi-alert dozing state. The increase in light in the room brought him back to a sullen wakefulness, and he stood, stretched, and holstered his pistol. Ron saw that the women were asleep, never having bothered to get in the bed they shared, and he saw no reason to make an effort to wake them. However, he was hungry and decided to delve into their meager food supplies. He tried to avoid making crinkling noises as he pulled food out of the bags, but he heard Karena stir and guessed that she was waking up.

The overly-sweet pastries and fruit juice satisfied his hunger but his stomach made it clear that his breakfast choice was less than optimal. He tossed the empty wrappers in the small trash can next to the TV stand. He thought about turning the TV on and watching the news with the volume turned low, but decided to hold off until later. Instead, he went over to the window and peeked out past the drapes.

In the morning light he could see that the neighborhood of the motel looked like the rest of Purthansburg, with a heavy air of having had a bright history that faded quite some time ago. On the other side of the parking lot, there was a narrow stand of tall, thin trees that were green with spring growth, and beyond that was a chain-link fence apparently surrounding an auto wrecking yard. Weeds ran in irregular, thin green lines in cracks in the pavement of the parking lot and along the edge of the street.

“I’m sorry about your friend,” Karena said softly as she moved past Ron to get some food for herself.

“She wasn’t my friend exactly,” Ron said, wincing at the memory of all that had happened the day before. “More like a… a co-worker. I don’t know. It’s hard to describe. But she’s dead, and to treat her murder so trivially… it wasn’t right.”

“No, you’re right, Donna should not have been so cavalier about that,” Karena agreed. “You should understand her perspective too, though. She’s completely out of her element, and she views you and Dan and anybody working with you as dangerous criminals. Anything bad that happens to you can look like karma, like reaping what you chose to sow.”

Ron glared at her. “Brianna never killed anybody. I never killed anybody before yesterday and that was in self-defense. That guy was clearly after me and it was going to be me or him. Brianna and I were both shot at by people intending to murder us. I survived, she didn’t. I don’t see how this was karma!”

Karena held up her hands in a placating gesture. “I get it, Ron,” she said. “I’m pretty sure I understand your viewpoint on all of this. I may not agree with everything, but I get it. I’m just saying you need to look at how this appears to someone else, like Donna. I’m not excusing her comment about Brianna’s death, but… Ron, think about it. The entire nation thinks of Dan as a threat, as a domestic terrorist. That’s a fact you should not be ignoring.”

Ron shook his head. “Terrorist! What a trite and overused label. Need to demonize someone? Call them a terrorist. Instantly, people think of the September 11 attacks, or the Oklahoma City bombing. Innocent people, children, died in those attacks. Of course it’s going to trigger strong emotions. I share those emotions! There’s no excuse for those attacks, and they truly were terrorism, invoking terror on innocent people for political gain. What Dan was doing through RALA was not like that, it was never intended to be like that. People don’t understand.”

“They don’t have to, Ron,” Karena countered. “People just know you threatened the government.”

“The government threatens the people on a daily basis!” Ron snapped. “RALA did not threaten innocent citizens, it sought to free them from growing tyranny!”

Karena shook her head as she turned back to the bags of snack food from the convenience store. “Tyranny. Yeah, Dan has sunk his ideological teeth in you, and you’re wallowing in misty visions of tyranny. All the while, John Q. Public can choose what car to drive, pick what food to eat, decide what career to pursue, publish whatever he wants. Tyranny? Get over yourself, Ron. Look past the hype.”

Ron turned away from the window to look at Karena fully and crossed his arms. “Are you sure it’s just hype, Karena? What if John Q. Public wants to drive a car he built himself in his garage? He can’t, it’s not street legal. What if he wants to eat traditional foods like puffer fish or real haggis, or something exotic like wild beluga caviar? He can’t, they’re not legal. What if he wants to pursue a career as a grower of cannabis, like some of our founding fathers? He can’t, it’s illegal. What if he wants to publish information about how to get past digital rights management technology so that people can have full use of their digital content products? He can’t because that’s not legal either.

“You think you have freedom, but just like Independence Day celebrations in cities that have greatly restricted or completely eliminated personal use of fireworks, you only have the freedom your government gives to you. When the US was founded, the whole point of the bloody revolution that we celebrate on Independence Day was to restore liberty! And now? Now you accept whatever ‘liberty’ your government decides to grant, and pretend the rest of your freedoms have not been stripped away. As long as you fit into the narrow scope of what the government finds acceptable, or your deviations are mundane like not licensing your cat or jaywalking, you’re blind to the tyranny that is all around you.

“Could it be worse? Obviously! There are many examples around the world of how it could be worse. Does that mean we should stand by idly until the US is as restrictive as North Korea? Do we need daily in-your-face oppression like we see in the Middle East to realize that we’ve lost our freedom? But people like you, and Donna, and John Q. Public don’t care. As long as you’re entertained by corporate-controlled media, which funds those corporations who have their tentacles deeply entangled in Congress through lobbying paid with your money, you don’t see or care about how the laws are constantly shifting away from personal liberty and toward tight control over everything you do.”

“Are you done with your rant?” Karena asked. “I would like to eat my breakfast without the serving of politics on the side.”

Ron snorted. “Rant. Sure. That’s all it is. Go ahead and eat your government-regulated food in its government-approved packaging.”

Donna rolled over on the bed she had shared with Karena. “Is the fact that the government protects our food supply reason to commit domestic terrorism?”

Ron glanced over at Karena’s friend and shook his head in disgust. “The dearth of logic and abundance of invalid assumptions evident in your so-called question leave me with no possibility of a rational and meaningful answer, but no, I don’t condone terrorism of any kind, and RALA didn’t plan any.”

“Overthrowing your government isn’t domestic terrorism?” Donna responded.

“No, it’s not,” Ron answered. “If you fight back against your oppressor in another country, the US will call you a freedom fighter. If you do the same thing here, you’ll be on the receiving end of the broad-strokes misuse of the terrorism label.”

Donna sneered. “So it’s okay to blow up a federal building.”

Ron turned to peek back out past the drapes. “As a category of actions, it could be okay, although we did not plan to do that. As the specific reference to Oklahoma City that I assume you’re implying, I already said that was not acceptable. One instance of something that is not valid does not invalidate a whole category of actions. The use of an atomic bomb on a population center with no military importance does not invalidate the use of a nuclear weapon against a strictly military target. Using amputation to treat an ingrown toenail does not invalidate amputation to prevent the spread of gangrene.”

“Really?” Karena spoke up angrily, talking around a mouthful of food. “I ask for a halt to the political rants and you not only continue but, while I’m eating, you talk about amputation, ingrown toenails, and gangrene?”

Ron looked over at Karena with a neutral expression that gave way to a sheepish grin. “I’m sorry,” he said simply.

The rest of the morning passed in uncomfortable silence in the motel room. Occasionally they turned on the TV, although they avoided the repetition of cable news and typically landed on something innocuous like a cooking channel until one of them grew irritated enough at the noise to turn the TV off again.

Ron tried to keep his distance from Donna as much as possible, and much of the time he spent within arm’s reach of the phone, willing it to ring. When midday rolled around, the last of the convenience store food served as their meager lunch. Even without words, the looks they exchanged as the last wrapper went into the garbage made it clear that they were all eager to get out of the room.

When the phone finally rang, Ron virtually dove to grab it. “Hello?”

“Dan here,” the older man’s voice crackled across the line. “In the parking lot there is a white van with markings for a painting company. The keys are sitting on top of the rear tire on the driver’s side. Use the van to return here. Transportation will be provided for Donna’s car to a secure location where she can get it sometime later. Leave soon, but find somewhere else to wait. Pick me up at 16:00. I will be leaving Jeff’s care as soon as you arrive. He will help load me and some medical necessities into the van. Any questions?”

“No,” Ron said at first, then corrected himself, “well, yes. I want Donna out of the picture. She doesn’t want to be involved, and she’s just an irritant with nothing of value to offer. Am I correct in assuming you would have no problem with her leaving? She could depart now and Karena and I could use the alternative transportation you mentioned.”

“And if she goes directly to the police?” Dan asked.

“I expect she would do that,” Ron acknowledged, “so I would need to leave with Karena as soon as she was gone.”

“I don’t think it’s that simple, especially since she’s been here at Jeff’s house,” Dan pointed out. “On the other hand, we don’t want to essentially kidnap somebody who doesn’t want to cooperate. This is becoming a huge mess. They should have been left in Branner Glen. I’m not as convinced as you were that the danger to Karena was that immediate.” Dan sighed irritably and was silent for a moment. “Is she really that much of a problem? And is she going to accept being split up from Karena?”

Ron looked over at Donna. Both of them were watching him intently. “I guess I’ll ask,” Ron said to Dan before holding the phone away from his mouth and addressing the women. “Donna, I already made clear that I don’t want to drag you along. However, Mr. Starney is worried that you won’t accept having Karena continue on with me without you going too. I’m not sure what our next step is or where we will be going, but Mr. Starney has arranged alternative transportation, so we don’t need your car anymore. If I could choose, I would make you go away and hope I never saw you again, but as Mr. Starney just put it to me, it’s not that simple. So what do you say? What is your intent?”

Donna stared at him wordlessly for a moment. She then turned to Karena. “Do you plan to continue on with Dan and his cohorts?”

Karena shifted her gaze from Ron to Donna. “Not happily, but willingly at this point. I have work tomorrow, as I assume you do also. I’m not sure how far I can go with this, at least not without seriously disrupting my life more than it’s already been disrupted, but at least for today I will go along with it. I’m not exactly in a hurry to see Dan, but if today is the day for him to fully understand the old quote about hell having no fury like a woman scorned, so be it.”

“I am scheduled to be in at work tomorrow morning,” Donna confirmed. “This weekend was already thrown off schedule and now… now I’m behind schedule.”

Ron cocked an eyebrow. “Schedule? Good grief. How about if you focus on getting back on your precious schedule and let those of us who have more complex concerns than what time it is make some progress toward something more meaningful than whether a deadline was met?”

“You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about,” Donna snapped at him.

“Ignorance has never stopped you from opening your mouth,” Ron said with a sneer. “I’m just following your lead.”

“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” Karena spoke up sharply, stopping the retort on Donna’s lips. “And believe me, I want to go somewhere. Can we just go see Dan and be done with this?”

Ron shook his head. “He said he won’t be ready until later this afternoon. Either we leave here all together, if I can’t be rid of Donna, or she leaves and we leave as soon as she’s gone. We then find somewhere else to go until Mr. Starney is ready to be picked up. I understand your concern about being able to work tomorrow but I don’t think it’s safe for you back there. In other words, I don’t think there is much chance of being ‘done with this’ anytime soon.”

“So you think I’m going to just disappear with you and Dan? Go into hiding from some unknown, unnamed threat?” Karena asked in disbelief. “That’s really not what I had in mind, to put it mildly.”

Ron was about to reply when he heard Dan yelling his name into the phone trying to get his attention. “Yes, Mr. Starney?” he asked, putting the phone back up to his ear.

“This is a dead end,” Dan snapped. “I’ve listened to the whole thing and this is just a dead end. Am I able to speak freely without them hearing?”

“Yes.”

“Here’s what you’re going to do,” Dan continued. “In ten minutes, walk out and proceed out of the parking lot and take a right toward the wrecking yard. Three paces past the property line you will be out of sight of the window of the room you are in now. There will be a shipping container secured with a combination lock. The combination is twenty-two, forty-four, thirty-three. Go in, close the door, and proceed to the far end of the container. You will be able to see daylight. More importantly, you’ll be able to peek through a hole in the container to observe the entrance to the room you are in now. Wait until a police officer meets Karena and Donna and escorts them away from the motel. As soon as they are gone, get yourself back to the van and get out of there. Understood?”

Ron scowled. “Understood. But—”

“No,” Dan interrupted. “I know your concern. You made the best choice you could under the circumstances but I think it was the wrong choice and I am going to untie this knot that you’ve created. Feel free to put whatever fear you want into Karena and Donna about disclosing anything about Jeff, his location, or his involvement with me. Whatever you say, it probably won’t be far from the truth. If they are aware that I arranged your stay at the motel, they should get the same message about that. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Ron said. “I understand and will do as you instructed.” The abrupt click of the call being terminated left no doubt in Ron’s mind about how angry the older man was. He hung up the phone and checked his watch.

“Mr. Starney disagrees with my choice to extract you from Branner Glen,” he told the women, trying to keep emotion out of his voice. “He is arranging for your safe return. I still believe the danger for you is too high, and I have to hope that he is making some sort of arrangement that will effectively mitigate that risk despite a strong police presence.”

“I’m touched you care so much for our well-being,” Donna commented with a roll of her eyes. “So we can just leave now and you’ll leave us alone?”

“I’m not going to see Dan at all?” Karena asked, sounding disappointed.

“Apparently,” Ron confirmed as he thought through his instructions. “He is apparently having someone contact the local police to have them meet you here. This is probably because it is already known that you left Branner Glen with me and he wants to have the Purthansburg police make initial contact with you here. This may be for your protection, to have more law enforcement involved so that any corruption within one jurisdiction will have less influence. The police should be here in a few minutes, and you are free to go with them.

“You are free to tell them what you want. However, I will tell you that the owner of the house where I spoke with Mr. Starney last night is a scary man who apparently has a lot of influence. I know you would like to tell the police where Mr. Starney is, especially you, Donna. But I kid you not, if you send the police over to that house, or if you describe our stay at this motel, you will have a new danger in your life, and that danger goes by the name of Jeff.”

“Jeff?” Donna asked skeptically.

“Ignore my warning at your peril. From what little experience and knowledge I have regarding him, I would not cross Jeff. Not even by accident if I could avoid it.” Ron turned away from them dismissively to begin gathering his belongings.

“I don’t think we need to share any speculation about anybody with the police,” Karena said. “We don’t have any direct knowledge of wrongdoing, and passing along rumors won’t help anyone.”

Donna looked at her friend and raised her eyebrows in disbelief. “Are you kidding?”

“No, Donna,” Karena said flatly, “I am not kidding.”

After glancing at his watch several more times, Ron grabbed his things and left the room without a word, slamming the door behind him in anger. He strode across the parking lot toward the street and followed Dan’s directions until he was safe within the shipping container with a view of the room where Karena and Donna waited for the police. He did not have to wait long before a police cruiser pulled in to the lot, and he watched as the solitary officer parked and went up to the door of the room. After what seemed like a brief conversation, the two women returned with the officer to his car and were soon gone from the motel parking lot.

Ron waited several seconds to give the police car time to drive away. After peeking out carefully to ensure he wasn’t being observed, he slipped out of the shipping container, locked it again, and walked quickly back to the parking lot. The keys to the van were on top of the tire as indicated by Dan, and Ron was soon on the road driving back toward the center of the small town.

When he ran across a light industrial district, Ron pulled in to an alley to park and pass the time before he was scheduled to pick up Dan. He knew that he might fall asleep after getting almost no sleep the night before, so Ron set his watch alarm. He then settled in to wait, closing his eyes and letting himself doze lightly. When his watch alarm sounded, Ron started the van again and drove away toward Jeff’s house.