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"Like on the romance book covers"

"Lord, woman," said Bad Teeth "That&039;s Fabio"

"Well, he hadup into a huge grin "Was his naotten all about New Guy I was losing my mind He must have followed Tina up here on his own

The woman stuck her head out of the back room She rinkled and flannel "That&039;s it You know hiot the Suburban"

I&039;ll be da, du City and was hot on Tina&039;s trail The toas small, but I still didn&039;t have ti for him But it sure would have been nice to have sohed

"Mister?" Bad Teeth was giving ot in a four wheel drive?"

"You going up the ht up the mountain"

That earned me a bad look, but he filled out the paperwork on a white Chevy Silverado He said I could leave the I for this?"

I thren a Visa card

He ran it through the machine and smiled as he handed it back to ood day, Mr Minelli"

I sat in the Chevy and watched the doors to my hotel rooh to see anyone approach

After leaving the rental place, I ran a few last-ht a thermos, filled it with coffee later at the sa in the truck was a three-hour deal I&039;d sucked back most of the coffee and pissed behind the Chevy four times

Another pain pill

It ell after dark when they finally appeared

Tina wasn&039;t with theht They parked the car two spaces down from the room, a dirty red Camaro a few years old They piled out, three of the lot, hands deep in flannel coats, stea from their mouths in the cold The looked at each other nervously Hesitation Ae Two y trousers, scuffed boots, three-day beards One was tall and fat The other was short and fat

The third guy was out of place, the only one wearing a wool, gray overcoat and wingtips He had a tie Neat haircut Red hair Ex-military maybe

Or maybe FBI Dunn would be sad to learn that another of his sheep had deserted the flock

When they took the iron police battering raht He was clearly in charge and directed the two locals to charge the door with the battering rah I&039;d left the door unlocked

They smashed down the door on the first try It flew open, and they followed, all three crowded in The locals dropped the battering ram, drew pistols I couldn&039;t see the there with idiot looks on their e and pick it up, realize what it was, turn it over, see o hohed at the looks I knew must&039;ve been on their faces They were so dumb, and I was so smart They should elect ed frouy I thought naled theent was the only one I worried ht spot me, so I kept as far back as I dared It wasn&039;t any trouble I followed theh the hills Soon I was on a looping zigzag, the beginning of the slow, back-and-forth clilad I had the truck, although the Ca fine

The climb was steep and dark, and I was the only vehicle behind the Ca to do but keep going

Up the

Up the ht as well have been a different world After cli a thousand feet or so, the road leveled off, and the socioeconomic difference between up the mountain and down the mountain became clear Down the mountain meant civilization Up the mountain was the frontier

Alhts The Caht or above, the occasional cabin or ht I passed a poorly lit shack nestled an out front said: Store The sky was a panorama of black velvet It was peaceful and quiet and cold The snow caravel driveway I followed the wandering path with ant, two-story house lit well by outside floods I kept driving

Two ht have been a service station, with a single-wide ht next to it I pulled into the dirt lot The single-wide had neon beer signs in theA sign out front declared Top of the Mountain Tavern Iainst such a thing It couldn&039;t be a tavern

I went in

It was

The little trailer tavern was close and hot and heavy with a layer of tobacco smoke

They had an itty-bitty pool table ja roo I didn&039;t know A bar The patrons looked like guys you&039;d ile-wide I went to the bathroom It was the first barroom bathroom I&039;d ever been in that actually had a bath

I wanted to give Tina and her partners some ti for the phone to ring, and that would rabbed a barstool and ordered coffee

The bartender was skinny and greasy, a pack of cigarettes rolled up in his T-shirt "This ain&039;t Denny&039;s It&039;s a drinking establishht"

He nodded and returned a

I popped a pill, chased it with the beer

On the jukebox, George Jones let everyone know that he stopped loving her today I ordered another beer and made myself take this one slow I didn&039;t know the next two songs, and I&039;d had enough of the Top of the Mountain Tavern I paid for the beers and went outside

The truck had a half-inch layer of snow on it It was still co

Back inside I asked the bartender if he sold half-pint flasks of Chivas

"We got Jim Beam"

"I&039;ll take it"

I sat in the cab of the truck and twisted the top off the Jim Beam It burned its way down h my chest I cranked up the truck Turned on the heat

I drove back to the kidnapper&039;s house and parked the truck at the bottohts out, they couldn&039;t fail to spotup the driveway I parked a quarter mile away and started up the slope at a slow ood blanket of snow underfoot now, and it crunched clean and hard with each step Thein an otherworldly glow I buttoned the pea coat, took another hit of the Jiht at the top of the hill