Thomas frowned with annoyance. “No one takes him seriously.”
“Kerra Bailey might.”
“She won’t. All Trapper has are his wild speculations.”
“And pretty blue eyes.”
“Ms. Bailey is ambitious. She’s smart. She won’t risk her career breaking a story, especially one of this magnitude, on a pair of blue eyes. She would insist on seeing proof. None exists.”
“All that noise Trapper made three years ago—”
“He was spinning his wheels, and got nowhere.”
Jenks settled back on his heels. “That’s what I came to hear, and I’m glad of it. Otherwise, things might’ve got…messy.”
“Haven’t we had enough messiness this week?”
Jenks ignored that. “So, you don’t see Trapper as a serious threat.”
“Not at all. You can comfortably convey that message.”
“I wouldn’t say comfortably.”
“What would you say?”
“I’d say it’s Trapper we’re talking about. At the very least, he stirs things up and makes people nervous.”
“I’m not in the least bit nervous. Nor should anyone else be, or they risk doing something foolish.” Thomas stood and motioned toward the door. “You can convey that message, too.”
Chapter 16
Trapper growled into his phone, “I’m going to kill you, Carson.” He clicked off and immediately punched in a number on his speed dial. With his free hand, he turned on the truck engine.
“Did he say stolen?” Kerra asked.
“That’s what he said.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Turn myself in.” As he said that, a voice barked his name through the phone loud enough for Kerra to hear.
“Listen, Glenn,” Trapper said, interrupting the sheriff’s tirade. “Call off your hounds. Swear to God I didn’t know about this souped-up truck.”
“Souped-up truck? What souped-up truck?”
“Oh. Never mind.”
“I’m calling about Kerra. Is she with you?”
“You’re breaking up, Glenn. Say again? Shit! Are you still there? I can’t hear you.” Although he could, because Kerra could. The sheriff was shouting epithets and demanding that Trapper explain himself.
Trapper let him rant while he switched back and forth between drive and reverse, trying to gain enough purchase to get the SUV out of the ditch and up onto the roadway. Finally the vehicle gave a lurch up the incline and skidded onto the icy pavement. Trapper spun the wheel sharply to the right, heading them in the direction they’d been going before they’d spun out of control.
Trapper shouted into his phone, “Glenn? Glenn? Can you hear me? Damn!” Then to Kerra’s astonishment, he lowered the driver’s window and pitched the phone overhand out into the blizzard. As he raised the window, he accelerated. The SUV fishtailed, but he brought it under control, and they sped forward into utter darkness.
Clumsily, Kerra fastened her seat belt. “You forgot to turn on the headlights.”
“No I didn’t.”