Divine Justice

CHAPTER 49

JOE KNOX WAS FEELING GOOD for the first time in a long time. He'd ditched the tail and could now move on. He looked at the map on the seat next to him. The guy at the bus company had given him fairly precise directions to where the bus had dropped Carr and his friend off. Knox did a rough estimate in his head. He was probably an hour or so away.

When he got there he slowed the truck and looked around. It really was the middle of nowhere. Yet maybe not. He punched in some buttons on his navigation system and on the screen sprang up a number of different locations in the relative vicinity. "Tazburg, Mise, Divine, South Ridge." He read the names off the screen. All these places were scattered in different directions. So which should he take? And what should he do when he got there? His experience in the last tiny town had not been good. He swore he would not flash his federal badge, for one thing. And he was a stranger, so they would be suspicious anyway. If Carr were still in one of these places he might have already ingratiated himself with the townsfolk. Knox could be walking into something he would end up not liking. And the bus driver had said that Carr had a young guy with him. Was he from one of these towns? If so, he hadn't told the driver which one.

Knox pulled off the road and left the engine running as he stared at the navigation screen. He sighed. Hell, even for intelligence experts it sometimes came down to something as simple as this.

He closed his eyes and stabbed the screen with his finger. When he opened his eyes and pulled his finger back the town's name was revealed. He had a twenty-five percent chance that it was right.

Tazburg , Virginia , here I come.

He put the truck in gear and pulled back on the road.

While Joe Knox was enjoying a rare moment of exuberance Annabelle was slamming her hands down on the steering wheel. They'd been driving round and round trying to pick up the scent, but when they pulled past the same gas station for the third time, she'd driven into the parking lot, ripped the van into park and was now scowling at a dog that was sunning itself next to the air pump, only rising every few seconds to investigate its private parts.

"This isn't working, is it?" said Caleb.

"You think!" snapped Annabelle.

"Do you have another idea?"

She glared over at him. "Why do I always have to come up with the ideas, Mr. Librarian of Congress?"

Caleb said imperturbably, "I only asked because I happen to have one, an idea I mean."

She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel and looked at him expectantly.

"Do you want to hear it?" Caleb said tersely.

"Yes!" she shouted at him.

"I don't appreciate being yelled at."

She leaned into him. "Will you appreciate it more if I pull you out of this hunk of junk and kick the shit out of you instead?"

Caleb put one hand on the door lever and looked ready to sprint for it. "How about I just tell you my idea?"

Annabelle gripped the wheel so hard her forearms quivered. "That would please me very much," she said between clenched teeth.

"You see, civility is really not that difficult." She gave him such a ferocious look that he hurried on. "Okay, we go back to that town where they serve heart attacks instead of meals. You go to the bus station, do your usual bushelful of lies routine, maybe show some leg, buy a ticket and get the driver to drop you off at the exact same spot he did Oliver. He might have even overheard where they were headed. I'll follow in the van, and when you get there I'll pick you up and we go from there. At the very least it'll put us in the general vicinity of where Oliver was. How does that sound?"

Actually it sounded pretty good, Annabelle had to admit. She put the van in gear and pulled onto the road, setting a course back to the town.

Caleb's cell phone buzzed. It was Reuben. He spoke for a few minutes and then clicked off.

"Well?" said Annabelle.

"He's about two hours away, he said. I filled him in on the plan and he'll meet us there."

"Good."

"So you like my idea?"

"I'm doing it, so I must think it has some merit," she snapped.

"Annabelle, can I make a personal comment?"

She took a deep breath. "Go ahead."

"You really need to do something about your anger issues."

She stared over at him with an incredulous look. "I've been in this van so long I can't even remember when I haven't been in this van. I'm tired, I'm filthy, I'm worried and I'm frustrated. Okay? I don't have anger issues."

Caleb smiled knowingly. "That was a good first step to getting your feelings out. Only then can you achieve real progress."

"Can I share another feeling with you?" she said pleasantly.

"Of course."

"Either go back to being the mildly amusing testosterone Caleb, or else your ass can walk back to D.C."

Predictably, they drove on in silence.