Page 10 (1/2)

Nineteen

All You Need to Know About That

Intimacies, what happens between two people in private (or one person and a Sea Beast in a pasture), are not the business of anyone but the parties involved Still, for the sake of the voyeur in us all, a tidbit or two to satisfy curiosity

Molly tried, made a valiant effort in fact, but even for a woreat She did, however, as-powered hacker (which the late drug chefs used to clear flaentle application of that rudeSteve to that state the French inscrutably call "the little death"

And soon after, what at first seemed an insurmountable obstacle, the size difference, was turned to advantage, allowing Molly to join Steve in that place of peace and pleasure How? Iue, each taste bud a tease and tingle in just the right place, and you can understand how Molly ended up a satisfied puddle snuggled in that spot between his neck and shoulder that women so love (Except in Steve’s case, it didn’t o to sleep)

Yes, there was a bit of the aardness that comes with the unfamiliarity and exploration of new lovers, and

Theo’s Volvo was soundly sround was an inappropriate way to display his enthusiasm, but a boxy Swedish autoreat sches

And that is all you need to know about that

Twenty

Theo

Over the years, Theo had learned to forgive hihts at inappropriate ti for a high death toll in Third World earthquakes, wondering whether white slavers provided in-house financing), but it worried himfor his executioner, he was thinking about getting laid instead of escaping or et away, ive hi’s-eye view of the dirt floor, but shortly after that, when the voices outside had stopped, he was overtaken with thoughts of wo an erotic e of the erstwhile actress and resident Crazy Lady, Molly Michon

So it was embarrassment as much as relief that he felt when, after the sound of a hacker and the crashing of metal, Molly popped her head into the shed

"Hi, Theo," she said

"Molly, what are you doing here?"

"Out for a walk" She didn’t coot to get away frouys around here"

"Not a probleet help But get away frouns"

"I ?"

"There’s no time"

"There’s plenty of tinition of one Theo heard so shattered In a second Molly was back in the doorway She tossed the keys on the floor near his head "Can you get to those?"

"Can you unlock ht now But you’ll be able to get to those eventually, won’t you?"

"Molly!"

"Yes or no?"

"Sure, but"

"Okay See ya, Theo Sorry about your car"

And again she was gone

As he scraet to the keys, he was still troubled about the unwarranted wave of horniness that had overtaken him Could it have been set off by the handcuffs? Maybe he’d been into bondage all these years and never even knew it Although when he’d been arrested right before Sheriff Burton had black constable, he’d spent almost two hours in handcuffs and he didn’t re an espe-cially erotic experience Maybe it was the death threat Was he turned on by the thought of being shot? Man, I aht

In tenthoughts of sex and death Molly, Joseph Leander, and the house trailer were gone, and he stood before the ruins of his Volvo with an entirely new set of questions nagging hion was now mashed down to level with the hood, three of the four tires were blown, and on the ground, all around the car, were the tracks of what had to be a very, very large anirass leading away from the shed and over the hill One, obviously, was the track of a person The other ider than the dirt road that led into the ranch

Theo dug into the Volvo for his gun and cell phone, having no idea what to do with either of them There was no one to call - and certainly no one he wanted to shoot Except maybe Sheriff John Burton He searched the area, found Joseph Leander’s gun, and tucked it into the waistband of his jeans The keys were still in the red four-wheeler, and after a ainst having been kid-napped, handcuffed, and almost killed, he cli the double trail

Gabe

Gabe and the rancher stood over the pulverized re flies away from their faces, while Skinner crouched a few yards away, his ears back, growling at the mess

The rancher pushed his Stetson back on his head and shuddered "My people have been running dairy and beef cattle on this land for sixty years, and I ain’t never heard or seen anything like it, Gabe"

His na on seventy, leathery from too much sun and stress, and there was a note of the sad lonely under everything he said He was tall and thin, but stood with the broken-backed slouch of a beatenoff in her Mercedes to live in San Francisco and taking with her a note worth half the value of Jim Beer’s thousand acres His only son, as to have taken the ranch over, enty-eight now and was busy getting thrown out of colleges and into rehabs all over the country He lived alone in a fourteen-room house that rattled with ehter of the ranch hands, who Ji Jim was the last of his breed, and he would forever trace the beginning of his downfall to an affair he’d had with the witch who once lived in Theo’s cabin at the edge of the ranch Cursed he was, or so he believed If the witch hadn’t run off ten years ago with the owner of the general store, he would have been sure the

Gabe shook his head "I have no idea, Jim I can take some samples and have so at here"

"You think it was kids? Vandals?"

"Kids tip cows over, Jim These look like they’ve been dropped from thirty thousand feet" Gabe knehat appeared to have happened, but he wasn’t willing to admit it There wasn’t a creature alive that could have done this There had to be another explanation

"So you’re saying aliens?"

"No, I a aliens"

"So was here Look at the tracks Satanic cult?"

"Damn it, Jim, unless you want to be on the cover of Crackpot Weekly, don’t talk that way I can’t tell you what did this, but I can tell you what didn’t This was not aliens, or Satanists, or Bigfoot on a binge I can take some samples and run some tests and then maybe, maybe, I can tell you what did this, but in the et them out here"

"I can’t do that, Gabe"

"Why not?"

"I can’t have strangers running around on ettin’ out That’s why I called you"

"What’s that?" Gabe held up a finger to hold his place in the conversation, then looked to the hills: the sound of an engine In a second a red four-wheel-drive pickup appeared on the hill headed toward theo," Jim Beer said

"Why?"

"You’d just better Nobody’s supposed to be on this side of the ranch but o"

"This is your land?"

"Let’s juet a better look at the truck, then waved "That’s Theo Crowe," he said "What’s he doing in that thing?"

"Oh shit," Jim Beer said

Theo pulled the truck up next to Gabe’s, skidded to a stop, and crawled out To Gabe, the constable looked pissed off, but he couldn’t be sure, having never seen the expression on Theo before "Afternoon, Gabe, Jim"

Jim Beer looked at his boots "Constable"

Gabe noticed that Theo had two pistols stuck in his jeans and was half-covered with dust "Hi, Theo Nice truck Jim called me out to take a look"

"I knohat that is," Theo said, tossing his head toward the mashed cow "At least I think I do" He strode up to Ji to sink into a hole in his own chest

"Jih product to hype all of Los Angeles You wanna tell me about it?"

The life seeround in a splay-legged sit Gabe caught his ar his tailbone Beer didn’t look up "My wife took a note for half the ranch when she left She called it in Where else was I going to get three million dollars?"