Colten drove through the desert back to Goodwell in a trance. He had brought himself to the brink of hysteria, but something had nudged him back. It wasn’t a prick of conscience, but a nagging feeling that it just wasn’t the right time, that something had to be done before he could fully relish in snuffing the life out of the girl.
The dirt kicked up behind the truck as he drove in silence, his elbow on the open window as his hand rubbed his chin. Thinking, exploring the scenario in his mind. He was so sure of the outcome throughout the day that he felt a sense of disappointment in himself. A sense that he had faltered. Why was he waiting, what could be added to the act that would make it any more welcoming tomorrow? It made no sense. It made perfect sense.
He pulled into the small town and up to the gas station. It was getting dark. The sunset over the now-distant mountain range spilling blood red over the desert valley. He parked the truck and let it idle as he sat there, contemplating the whole scene again in his mind.
Walking up to the girl, grabbing her neck, and feeling the smooth, unadulterated skin beneath his palm, her look of terror and the scream building in her lungs. Yes, everything had been perfect, he thought. He should have done it.
“You should have done it. You had the chance,” said Seth, now sitting in the passenger seat.
Colten was not surprised to find him in the truck now. His gaze remained vacant as he stared out the front window. “Yeah, but something just didn’t . . .”
“Didn’t feel right? What do you know about feeling right?”
“It just wasn’t the time.”
“Sure it was. You just lost it.”
“I didn’t lose it.”
Seth stared at Colten. Colten glared back. The two of them looked cut from the same cloth, just at different times in history. The older man’s button-up shirt showed the fading of time, dark patches under the armpits brought on by a life in the desert heat. His pearl buttons caught the last light of day and sparkled.
“So what are you going to do? You just going to sit here and sulk?”
“No.”
“Huh, looks to me like that’s what you’re doing.”
Colten opened the truck door and stepped out, leaving the truck running. He walked up to the shack convenience store and went inside. The fan was off, and the stale air hung thick as he went back to the cooler. Seth was standing there waiting for him.
“Quit hiding in here.”
“I’m not hiding,” Colten said as he reached into the cooler and pulled out a drink.
“Looks like hiding to me.”
“Would you get off my back? I told you, it just wasn’t right. I’ll get to it sure enough.”
“All I’m saying is you can’t let these things go too long. You’ll get crazy, it’ll get messy . . . sloppy.”
“I know how to do this . . . you of all people should know that.” Colten stared at the man, his hatred building again with each sip from the aluminum can. They stood in negative shades, dim reflections in the cooler’s lighted glow. “If you know everything, what do you think I should do, huh?”
“I’d go back up there and get it done.”
“Why tonight? Just as good doing it tomorrow.”
“Naw, you was right in thinking that something wasn’t right . . . I’d get back up there quick.”
Colten took another slow swig from the can, and then wiped his forehead with his arm. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that somebody is messing with your prize.”
“What?”
“Just saying.”
“Saying what?”
“Saying that someone has caught on to your work and has decided to deal himself into the game.”
“Who? Red? He don’t know anything.”
“No, not Red. Someone you wouldn’t know.”
“So why should I be worried?”
“’Cause he’s heading up there right now . . . to the cave . . . to steal your girl.”
Colten turned and ran toward the door. He scampered across the gravel, opened the door of the still running pickup truck, and slammed it into gear. Tearing out of the station, he cut a crazed figure against the twilight. Riding shotgun beside him was the man in the dark shirt and pearl buttons.
“It’ll be all right, Cole. You’ll get up there and do it quick.”
“I should have done it before.”
“Yeah, but you’ll fix that mistake soon enough.”
Colten felt a morbid panic rush through his guts. His mind was racing a thousand different directions that he tried to untangle. So much different than when he had made this trek earlier, driving slowly and savoring the expectation of vicious deeds soon to be realized. Now he raced through the night, as scared as a young boy when he realizes that his father is on to his lies.
“Who is this guy?”
“Just some old-timer meddling in things that don’t concern him.”
“Yeah, I know him.”
Colten’s steel stare switched from the blacktop to Seth and back again. “You knew he was coming, didn’t you. You knew it and didn’t tell me!”
“This guy’s been around a long time, Cole. He usually doesn’t get involved. Huh, usually doesn’t care about a thing. Takes the world to come apart for him to get moving.”
“Why now?”
“Who knows? He can’t be figured out,” Seth said. “Just get up there before he takes off with her.”
Down the highway he drove until he came to the two-track in the desert. He turned off the highway, and the man in the passenger seat dematerialized out of the truck cab and dispersed into the dusty backwash of the truck’s exhaust.
The cave was still a ways off . . . and with all his panic, all his anxiety, all his fury, Colten willed himself to press faster through the desert night.