SIX

WILL accepted the call but didn’t say a word.

“Where are you, son?” Jack said.

“Walking down the dirt road we were on, and I’m not your son.”

“What do you plan on doing?”

“I dunno.  I’ll work it out.”

“You know where the cabin is, so why don’t you make your way to it.  We’ve had to drive back to 188 and go the long way around, so it’ll take us a while to get there.”

“You robbed a freakin’ bank, Jack.  The police will find you, and I don’t want to be with you when they do.”

“No one is going to find us, Will.  We wore masks, and the plate on the Ford is false.  When someone comes across the wreck and phones it in, there’s nothing to tie it to the robbery.  The authorities will believe that the guys in it just ran out of luck when the rock fall took them out.”

“But―”

“There are no buts.  As per usual we’re in the clear.”

“You mean you’ve robbed other banks?”

“Yeah, three others, but we’re done with it now that Gil and Joel are dead.  We needed money, Will.  I had no work and couldn’t pay my way to look after the two of us.  I did it so that we could get out of that roach infested apartment, to start over somewhere and have a better life.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“OK.  You know where I’ll be for the next forty-eight hours.”

Will ended the call and told Logan what Jack had said.

“You look a little confused,” Logan said.

Will shook his head and said, “I’m not.  Jack is basically a loser with a mean streak.  What worries me is that you aren’t armed and Jack and Lee are.  If I take you to the cabin it could end badly for both of us.”

“Or for them.”

“Is it worth the risk just to get your vehicle back?”

“It’s not just about the Chevy or my belongings in it, Will.  I got shot for no good reason, and I take exception to that.  If I’d been any closer to your stepdad I’d have probably been blown away.”

“This is about revenge, right?”

“It’s about setting things straight, which is probably the same thing.  I find it hard to turn the other cheek and walk away from any wrongdoing that comes my way.  I take it personally and sleep better once I’ve dealt with it.”

Will walked off, back to the partly crushed Explorer, to open one of the dented rear doors and fish a bottle of water from the pocket.  He then lifted up the cargo hold door and took a two-liter soda bottle, which was now full of water, from a sturdy cardboard carton that also held a coiled-up nylon rope and a bottle jack.

“At least we won’t die of thirst,” Will said as he returned to where Logan was standing.

Logan took the larger bottle off Will, and they both made their way to the edge of the narrow road and walked along it until they found a place that appeared to be less steep than where Logan had gone over.  Slowly but surely they climbed down to the valley floor, to take a couple of sips of water each before heading off in the direction that Will was sure would eventually bring them to the cabin on the opposite side of a wide tract of land which they estimated to be three or four miles across.  The distant ridge was bright orange under the dazzling light, and stretched both south and north as far as the eye could see.

It was heavy going.  The terrain was uneven and littered with: rocks, cacti, creosote bushes, prickly pear and much more flora and fauna.  They spotted a venomous Gila monster, a lone coyote loping across open ground, and a diamond back rattlesnake that was sheltering in a depression in the shadow of a boulder.  Logan took off his sweat-drenched shirt and draped it over his head, neck and shoulders to combat the still searing heat that drilled down from a cloudless sky.  Will, in turn, removed his T-shirt and copied Logan.  They took more sips of the water and kept moving slowly west to eventually come to a stream, that unbeknown to them had been a raging flash flood only twelve hours earlier.  A thunderstorm farther north on higher ground had run its course through the center of the valley, and it was an oasis for them to stop at and refill their bottles.  Logan removed his Timberland boots, his socks and his chinos; to sit on a flat slab of hot rock and use the lock knife he carried to dig out the pellets from his thigh and then sluice the shallow wounds with water.

“You OK?” Will said as he saw rivulets of blood run down Logan’s leg.

“Yeah, I’m fine.  I could use some peroxide, but that’ll have to wait.”

Less than two hours later they reached the far side of the valley, to climb wearily up to the top of an escarpment and find themselves on a plateau that had more vegetation, including a smattering of stunted trees among the shrubs and towering cacti.

Will used his T-shirt to wipe the stinging sweat from his eyes before looking about him to get his bearings.  He then pointed north and said, “The cabin is less than a mile from here.  It’s just an old timber-built two-room place in the middle of nowhere.  Last time I was there I thought it was going to collapse when the desert wind started up and set it swaying and creaking.  Jack said it was built back in the days when whites out in the boondocks were still at risk from Indians.”

“Lead on,” Logan said.  “We need to find somewhere close to it but out of sight, and with a little shade.”

It was dusk before the Chevy rolled up a narrow trail and pulled to a stop at the side of the cabin.  Logan watched as Jack Mitchell and Lee Roche stepped out and entered the structure by the front door.  Mitchell was carrying a large paper bag, presumably with groceries in it, and Roche held a pump action shotgun in one hand and a bulging duffel bag in the other.  It was a missed chance, Logan thought.  He should have been out of sight and standing next to the cabin, ready to deal with the situation when the two men climbed out of the vehicle; just taken them down hard and fast.  Now it would be a waiting game.

Light shone out through a small window to paint a yellow shaft on the sandy ground, and Logan knew from what Will had told him that there was no working generator, only oil lamps and a stove and fireplace.  Thirty feet from the rear of the cabin was an outhouse; the silvered, weathered wood a testament to the fact that it had served its purpose for over a century, and perhaps a lot longer.

“What now?” Will said.

“You stay here.  I’ll make my way to the back of the outhouse and wait ‘til one of them has the need to use it,” Logan said as he picked up a wrist-thick, three-foot long piece of a fallen branch, got to his feet and slowly, quietly walked from bush to bush until he reached the outhouse, which had a traditional crescent cut out of the door for ventilation and any available light to enter.  Making his way around to the back of it, he hunkered down, closed his eyes and just let random thoughts find their own way into his mind.  The current dilemma was not something that he dwelt on.  He knew what he would do.  The two surviving bank robbers would not expect to be attacked by a man that they believed to be dead.

A half hour passed before the back door of the cabin creaked open and was then closed.  Logan smiled as he heard someone approach and then enter the rickety outhouse.

Lee sighed with relief as he emptied his full bladder, shook off, zipped up and made to leave the spider infested outhouse, wiping cobwebs from his face as he determined to do his business out in the open for the rest of the time that he and Jack were at the cabin.