“He’s the kidnapper? Ramona said it was two or three women. One was a big one.”
“I know, but this guy is the boatman, so I’m thinking he’s bringing her.”
“Okay.”
“His name is Paco, you know him?”
“Nope, but I hope to get an introduction real soon.”
A small, pale cloud of dust drifted upward from the vega road near the river, and a moment later a blue Ford Ranger pickup came toward them. It was several years old, but came quickly.
Hunter and Ike stepped into the road and waited. Ike had his pistol in his hand, down by his leg. The pickup slowed, then turned into the brush and drove diagonally across it, accelerating to pass them and going at an angle to reach the highway beyond them.
Ike ran to his pickup and said, “Come on!”
Hunter slid into the passenger’s seat of the big Ford as Ike turned the key. It started immediately and he spun gravel and dust from his wheels as he reversed to get out from behind the shed, then pulled the automatic shift to D and powered across the road toward the blue Ranger that bounced across the rocks, brush and cactus, raising a cloud of dust in an effort to escape them.
Ike and Hunter buckled their seatbelts tight as the Ford crunched over brush and cactus like a black tank. Rocks and dead branches banged against the undercarriage like pistol shots as Ike increased speed.
Hunter could tell they would reach the smaller pickup before it reached the highway, and Ike didn’t slow down as they approached it.
He cut the wheels so his big Ford caught the rear left fender and spun the Ranger in a circle, scattering gravel and dust in a cloud of bone-pale caliche dust.
Both Hunter and Ike were out before the two pickups completely stopped. Hunter jerked open the driver’s door as Paco scrambled across the front seat toward the passenger’s door, only to have Ike open it and pull him from the vehicle.
Ike’s face was inches from the older man’s as he said, “Where’s Anita! Where is she!”
Paco hesitated and Ike shook him like a terrier with a rat, bouncing his head back and forth as Paco barked, “Hah! Hah!”
Hunter put her hand on Ike’s forearm to calm him and said, “Anita, where is she?”
Paco said, “I don’ have her.”
“You crossed the river with her, so where is she?”
“In the cane, there was this car,” He pointed at the Ford, “And another pickup, big like this one.”
Ike shook him again, “Did you put her in that one?”
“The muscle woman, Suretta, she took the child and left in it with her.”
Hunter said, “What kind of vehicle, what color?”
“Was green, like a plant or weed, that color.”
“What kind of car?”
Paco sweated and had a hard time controlling his urine as the man gripped him so tight, “Was a…how you call it, a Chevrolet.”
Hunter said, “Where did they go?”
“Down river in the cane, then up to the carretera, to the highway. There are more roads than just this one that reach the pavement.”
Hunter called Norma and passed the information to her. Norma said, “I’ll get the word out, maybe we can stop them at a checkpoint, or the Highway Patrol can spot them. Damn, Hunter, you’re in the shit again.”
“I can’t help it. You’d have done the same.”
Norma sighed, “I know. Keep looking.”