Relentless

CHAPTER 7
1

Watchman batted his hands together and thrust them under his armpits and squeezed into the lean-to. The woman was lifting the mess-kit cup of instant coffee off the Sterno. She sucked at it and passed it on to Buck Stevens and said to Watchman, “Do you charge extra for the coffee or does it come with the rescue service?”

“The coffee’s free. So’s the weather.”

“Do you think he’ll be all right?”

“He’ll be fine.” Maybe a touch of frostbite, but not serious. The temperature wasn’t all that low; it was the wind effect that seemed to drive it down. Without shelter you could die out there but the pilot would pull through now.

Paul Vickers was blowing his nose, giving Mrs. Lansford a bloodshot look. He was taking the weather badly. He had lost his hat in the blow and his hair stood out in wild disorder. “I’d like to know what really happened up there-why this man helped you get away. What he expected to get out of it.”

“Maybe he found a streak of humanity in him.” Mrs. Lansford said it a bit sharply, as if in rebuke.

“I don’t see that. I don’t want to put down your gratitude to the man, Mrs. Lansford, but if he thinks that will get him off he’s mistaken. Two men have been murdered-by this man and his friends.”

“I don’t think they’re his friends.”

“Then why was he with them?”

Buck Stevens stirred in the back of the shelter. “Can’t you leave her alone? Why don’t you just shut up for a while?”

Vickers’ head whipped around. It was the first time the rookie had talked back to him and it seemed to catch him off guard: he didn’t know whether to bluster or sneer or ignore it. He twisted his gloved knuckles, looking cranky.

Watchman’s voice was rusty, tired; it had been a bad day for them all. “Let’s all settle down and try to get some rest.”

Vickers turned to him. “They’re right up the mountain there.”

“Then go get’em, tiger.”

“I know my limits, Trooper. I couldn’t find that cabin in this storm to save my life. But you could.”

“Look at your watch, Vickers.”

“What’s that got to do with it?”

“The sun’s going down. Another half hour and what little light we’ve got will be gone. We’re not going anywhere for a while-neither are they.”