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CHAPTER 8
Sky and Marie took a few n that any strangers had been there
Sky made a last scan of the horizon “Could Coy have taken his motorcycle somewhere? I don’t see it”
“That Harley’s mine It’s parked behind the Blue Coyote,” Marie said “I drove Coy into town for a burger and some snacks yesterday and dropped him off back here when he was done”
“So that was you I heard driving up I thought you’d be working at that hour”
“My shift doesn’t start till four-thirty on weekdays Coy gets antsy out here alone, but it makes more sense for me to keep the bike in town I’d just as soon not have hi into trouble” Marie lifted her hat and raked a hand through her sweaty hair “I heard so if it ht be you”
Sky reached into the tent and lifted out a moth-eaten, red wool blanket The butts of a half-dozen round as he shook it There was nothing underneath but a couple of well-thuazines
Sky tossed the blanket aside “I don’t see any guns Where would Coy have kept them?”
“Right here in the tent All he had was a little lever-action rifle and the shotgun we took off the old man”
“Could he have taken the guns and gone hunting? There are plenty of rabbits and birds out here”
“Maybe Coy likes to kill things But he’s so lazy, he’d have to be starving to skin and cook anything he shot Besides, we agreed that a caht attract attention”
“In this drought, it could start a range fire, too” Sky holstered his pistol and glanced back toward the spring “How about helpingit all in the truck? Maybe by the time we’re finished, he’ll show up”
He seized one of the black hoses and yanked it free of the bent wire stakes that anchored it to the ground It cath between his hands After watching hi it over her arret—after all, she’d likely helped Coy buy the pu systeht as well have been chiseled in stone
It didn’t take long to coil the hoses, pull the pipe out of the spring, and disconnect everything from the pump By the ti into the bed, the s in the heat—and there was still no sign of Coy
Marie gave Sky a questioning glance, as if to say, What about him?