Thirty-Eight

Arn and Danny sat blacked-out a hundred yards from Eddie Glass’s driveway. “This Olds blends in like a colored man at a KKK rally,” Danny said. “Eddie’s bound to spot you,”

Arn refilled his coffee cup from a Thermos and handed it to Danny. “Nonsense. We came in here darked out, and this cottonwood is big enough to hide even this boat. If he comes out tonight, I’m certain he’s going to be concentrating on stealing Pearly’s sheep that he missed last night when the deputy interrupted him.”

“Why would he risk going back there so soon after getting caught?” Danny broke off a piece of donut and nibbled at it.

“That’s just what Eddie figures folks would think. No one would think he’d return to Pearly’s so soon.”

“I hope he’s not out too late,” Danny said. “I’ve still got half a pile of tires to sort through tomorrow.” He pointed out the side glass. “And right now Eddie’s coming out of his house.”

Arn squinted, but he was unable to see Eddie’s shack in the darkness. He’d asked Danny once how he got such good night vision. His “Us Indians are born with good night vision” response answered no questions. But it was the reason he’d dragged Danny along tonight.

Eddie pulled onto the county road, his taillights quickly obscured by the dust kicked up by his truck. Arn let Eddie drop over the first rise before he started around the cottonwood. Danny hung his head out the window, yelling directions to Arn as they followed Eddie in the pitch blackness. “Left,” Danny said, and Arn corrected. “Right hand curve coming up … now,” and Arn gently turned the Oldsmobile.

Up ahead, Eddie’s taillights merged with headlights of another vehicle, and they both turned into Pearly’s pasture. Arn used his emergency brake to stop. “Wonder who he’s meeting?”

“Even I can’t see that good,” Danny said, pulling his head back into the car. He spit dust and took a swig of his coffee to wash it down. “But I’d bet it’s his partner in crime.”

Eddie and his accomplice slowly drove through a gate and hugged the ridgeline before they doused their lights. “That’s our cue.” Arn drove in first gear slowly along the gravel road until Danny spotted where the two vehicles had crossed an auto gate leading into the pasture. The gate lay open and on the ground, and Arn inched his car through the field on Danny’s direction. “Stop,” Danny whispered. He pointed in the dark “They’re about forty yards straight down this fence line.”

Arn grabbed his flashlight from the center console. “Cover the dome light.”

Danny cupped his hand over the light until Arn was out and had closed the door, easing it shut soundlessly. He wiggled his revolver out of his trouser pocket and approached the two trucks, their faint outlines barely visible.

Arn stopped short. Muffled voices rose and fell with the breeze: two people, and one was a woman. Suddenly, a dog barked. Arn flicked on his light and ran the last few yards to the pickups.

Eddie Glass was seated behind the wheel of his truck, blinded by the bright flashlight, eyes as wild-eyed as Bonnie Johns’s, who was sitting on his lap. Eddie’s dog sat on his haunches in the pickup bed and snarled. “Call your dog off, or …” Arn waved his gun so Eddie could see it.

Eddie gave the dog a command, and the Border collie lay down quietly in the bed of the truck.

“Let me see your hands, Eddie.”

“What the f—”

Arn shoved the gun into the open window inches from Eddie’s head. “Show them.”

Eddie held his hands high so Arn could see.

“Now turn on your headlights and get out. You too, Bonnie.”

They climbed out of Eddie’s truck and Arn motioned them to stand by the hood. The headlights illuminated them, and Bonnie looked scared.

“Now what the hell’s going on?” Eddie asked.

Arn backed away. “You tell me. This is the second night in a row you’re on someone else’s property. And with your dog, too. Just exercising him tonight as well?”

Eddie’s fists balled up. “Next time I see you, it’ll be without that gun.”

Arn smiled. “Next time you see me it might be from the other side of jail bars.” He turned to Bonnie. “You’ve been unusually quiet. You in this little venture with Eddie?”

“What venture?”

“Rustling sheep.”

“No way we’re partners in that!” Bonnie answered. “I just meet Eddie out here—”

“Shut up,” Eddie snapped.

“But he’ll call the law,” Bonnie pled. “Might as well tell him.”

“Mind?” Eddie motioned to his pocket.

“Go ahead.”

Eddie fished a pack of Pall Malls out of his pocket and thumbed a match. “Me and Bonnie started to meet out in the country to patch things up.”

“As in, romantically?”

“Is there any other kind?”.

“Did you forget Eddie’s a married man?”

Bonnie put her arm around Eddie’s neck. “He’s going to leave his wife.”

“That right, Eddie? You going to leave your wife and your new baby?”

“When the chance is right.”

Arn rubbed his forehead. A headache was fast approaching. “You tell that to all the women you mess around with?”

“Bonnie’s my girl—”

“I’ve talked with three more women who you promised to leave your wife for,” Arn lied.

When Bonnie slapped Eddie, Arn thought it was a thing of beauty. His smirk left him and his cigarette flew out of his mouth. “You son-of-a-bitch.”

Arn stepped between them. “You visit with me for a moment.” He took Bonnie by the arm and led her away from the front of Eddie’s truck, far enough away that he couldn’t hear. “What are you doing out here? Don’t you know he makes it his vocation to bed as many women—other than his own wife—as he can?”

Bonnie looked over her shoulder and glared at Eddie. “And to think I damned near got caught trespassing with him here last night.”

“You were here?”

“Almost. I was just coming up the road when I spotted the deputy turn into Pearly’s field, so I just drove on by.”

Arn remained quiet, letting Bonnie tell her tale at her own pace. “Me and Eddie had a thing last summer, but broke it off when his wife got wind of it.” She spit tobacco juice on the ground. “I’ve been going with Eddie on his out-of-town trips to dog shows, or when he teaches his seminars. With his domineering old lady, it’s the only way we could have some quality time.”

“You call this quality time?” Arn asked.

Bonnie shrugged. “It’s better than not being with him. But now I learn he’s messing with more women.” She spit again. “I’d lop his nuts off if I didn’t owe him.”

Bonnie told Arn that Eddie had arranged for her and Beverly to give the dog classes. The fee they charged helped with ranch expenses, which had been getting out of control lately. And he’d loaned her his beater truck to use after she had to park hers in back of the barn with the rest of the crapped-out machinery so the cops wouldn’t find it. “Up until tonight, I thought he treated me pretty good.”

“And you can stand there and tell me you have nothing to do with sheep rustling?”

“No way!” Bonnie fiercely met Arn’s stare.

“And Eddie?” Arn said. “That dog of his is trained really well. He ever into sheep stealing?”

“Mr. Anderson,” Bonnie said, glancing over her shoulder, “that SOB’s a scoundrel and a bastard, apparently, but he’s no thief. I’ll swear on that.”

“Has he always made it to the dog classes on time?”

“What you mean?”

“You vouched for Eddie being at class that Saturday.”

“So?”

“Was it the truth, or was that what he told you to say?”

When Bonnie didn’t answer, Arn nodded to Eddie leaning on the hood of his truck. “That’s what I thought—he wasn’t there right at eight. You can join Eddie now.”

Arn followed Bonnie to the truck. The thought that Bonnie and Eddie were the Midnight Sheepherder was fading fast.

“You have a schedule of your classes you’ve given around the country?” Arn asked him. “Something with dates on them?”

“Look it up,” Eddie blurted out. “It’s all on my website.” He took a step closer to Arn. “Now either shoot me with that silly gun or put it away so’s I don’t have to shove it where you won’t like it.”

Arn grinned and pocketed his gun. He’d finally had a butt-full of this smart-ass. “See?” He held up his hands. “No gun.”

Eddie came away from the hood of the truck without warning, and swung a looping left roundhouse at Arn’s head. Arn stepped to Eddie’s right and threw his own punch. It wasn’t particularly hard. It wasn’t particularly fast. But it was a blow that he’d used many times working the street when faced with an assaultive drunk. The blow landed flush on Eddie’s liver. He dropped to his knees, moaned in pain, and toppled over clutching his back. Bonnie forgot her anger with him and dropped to the ground beside him. She shielded him with her body as if Arn intended on hitting him again. “My God, don’t kill him!”

“He’ll live,” Arn said. “When he recovers in about twenty minutes, you two clear out of this pasture, or the deputies will have to arrest both of you for trespassing tonight.”