Chapter Fifty-Nine

As David pulled out of Mrs. Potter’s drive, he considered waiting for backup. But the Ross farm was miles from town, and no one knew better than he how thin local law enforcement manpower was stretched. It could take half an hour for someone to answer his call, and a lot could happen in that amount of time.

He’d only gone a few hundred yards when his scanner crackled to life.

We have an emergency on a farm near mile marker sixty-five off highway three-fourteen. The caller says an elderly woman is unconscious as a result of multiple rattlesnake bites. Valencia County Sheriff has requested help. Any first responders in the area should also be advised a man has reportedly sustained a knife wound.

His insides turning to ice water, David floored the gas pedal. Scenery flew by in a kaleidoscope of color. A flash of something yellow in the midst of a stand of juniper caught at the periphery of his vision, but the instant his law enforcement brain registered it and sent up a red flag, he pushed the thought aside. Whatever it was could wait until he found out which of his aunts had managed to get herself bitten by a rattlesnake.

As he pulled up the Ross’s drive, he saw Cleg Elliott and a younger man staring down at a bundle of something on the ground. David jumped from his vehicle and approached the scene.

Holding a towel dabbed with blood around one of his forearms, Cleg stood as if in a trance, his lips puckering and un-puckering like a blowfish.

The younger man glanced at David, then muttered something about having to go into the house. By the time David realized what the guy really had in mind, the young man was driving away.

Murmuring a quick prayer for whichever aunt had been so desperately hurt, David hurried toward the body on the ground. A nanosecond later, he allowed himself to breathe again. Although the face was swollen, Margo’s telltale skin flap moved in and out with her every breath and moan.

David took a deep, relieved breath. He straightened and turned toward Cleg. “Are you okay?”

Cleg nodded, never taking his eyes off Margo’s body. “I’ve never seen anything like that before. Snakes crawling all over her head, biting and hissing something fierce, even the little bitty ones.” He cut off the beginnings of a chuckle and looked into David’s face. “I don’t know what’s come over me.” He cleared his throat. “It’s a terrible thing; it sure is.” He looked back at the now-mewling woman on the ground. “Looks like she’s still alive.” The tone of his voice wistful, he added, “So, that’s that.”

“An ambulance is on the way,” David said. He motioned toward Cleg’s arm. “What happened?”

Cleg looked down at his arm, a puzzled expression on his face. “Oh, this is nothing. I did it myself.” He peered into David’s eyes. “Your Aunt Dixie, now there’s a woman, got an iron streak a mile wide. She’s the one hatched the plan.”

Electricity sizzled through David’s body. “My aunt was here?”

Cleg nodded. “Yeah, she was, but they’ve all gone now, gone and left me to deal with that.” He motioned toward Margo.

“Where, Cleg, where have they gone?”

“I don’t know, they just up and left. The kid, your aunt, Toby, they all scattered to the four winds.” He looked around. “Mort was here just a minute ago, but I guess he’s gone, too.” He took a deep breath around the nasal cannula that ran from a portable oxygen-making machine hanging from a strap around his shoulder. “How long do you reckon she’ll be in the hospital?”

“Cleg, I need you to think. Were they afoot or did they take a vehicle?”

“They must’ve taken Toby’s truck.”

“Describe it.”

“Nineteen ninety-five Dodge Ram. Club cab, rusty yellow.”

Yellow.

“Did my aunt tell you where they were headed?”

“She said if anyone asked, I was to say she was taking the girl to stay with an elderly family member.”

David frowned. Beth said they didn’t have any other family, at least none she knew of.

“Are you sure that’s what she said?”

An offended look on his face, Cleg said, “I know what Dixie told me.” He tapped an index finger on his temple. “She even made me repeat it so’s I’d not forget.”

His aunt had either hoped to throw the Elliott crew a red herring, or she’d left the clue for David’s benefit. But it seemed she’d given him more credit than was due because he hadn’t the foggiest idea what to make of her words.

Then as if a gong had been struck right next to him, he jerked his head up. Mrs. Potter—Jillie’s godmother—next best thing to a blood relative.

“How long have they been gone?”

“I don’t know, maybe thirty minutes.”

David reached for Cleg’s towel-wrapped arm. “How bad is it?”

Cleg moved the other arm in a dismissive move. “Dix said it wasn’t bad enough to worry about.”

“Maybe you should sit in your pickup until help gets here.”

Cleg nodded and ambled toward his vehicle, chuckling every other step.

David hurried toward his Jeep. If he hadn’t been out of his mind at the report of an elderly woman being snake-bit, he’d have checked out the flash of yellow he glimpsed just off the road. He’d lost all objectivity and was acting like a rookie.

The approaching wail of a siren disrupted David’s self-flagellation.

Muffled sounds of a distant pistol shot followed by the blast of a shotgun floated on the gentle breeze. In one smooth move, David jumped into his Jeep, slammed the door, and fired up his engine. As if the hounds of hell were hot on his heels, he floored the pedal, peeled out of the Ross drive, and pointed his vehicle toward the Potter place.