Chapter 9

Have you got a spare weapon?" Steve asked, as he joined the frustrated Weston outside.

"Yeah." The deputy didn't waste any more time; he ran back, retrieved the gun and they hurried to the patrol car. At this hour, the streets were deserted, and it wasn't hard to follow the tire tracks in the snow. Weston drove expertly in the poor conditions, pushing the speed of his car to the limits of the weather conditions. "The good thing is, he won't be able to go that fast," Weston commented. "And perhaps he'll get reckless if he sees us in his rear view." He sounded quite gleeful at that notion.

It took several minutes, but they did catch up to the fleeing redhead. The car in front was driving quite sedately, but they knew the moment he spotted them in his rear view mirror, as his speed increased and he began to fish-tail all over the road. "Pull over already," Steve muttered as the car in front narrowly missed a parked vehicle.

"He's not going to quit," Weston observed. "He's heading out of town."

"He must be pretty desperate," Steve agreed. "I wonder how much silver there is under that land out there."

"Could be quite a bit," Weston replied, casually steering into a skid while Steve gulped nervously. "You know this area was all but founded on the silver mines. Didn't you ever watch Bonanza?"

"Of course I did," Steve smiled. "I wanted to be Little Joe."

Laughing, the deputy kept his eyes on the road. They had cleared the outskirts of town now, and he edged the speed up slightly. He didn't want this man getting away. "That's why the called the show Bonanza," he explained. "Because it was a silver bonanza and the towns grew up around the mines." Again, he casually corrected the car's slide. "And when the silver dried up, the towns had to find something else to support them. Now it's skiing and gambling and tourism."

"Look!" Steve cried, pointing ahead, as though Weston was looking anywhere but at the road.

The deputy's wish had come to pass. The redhead had hit a patch of ice and was travelling too fast. The car was no longer just fish-tailing; it was waltzing around in dizzying circles. The headlights caught both men in the following car right in the eyes, and they both winced. Then the lights were gone again and Steve gasped as he realised that the car was now travelling towards them and they had nowhere to go to escape. He became aware that another car was approaching from the other direction and hoped that the driver did not get caught up in the same deadly dance as them.

"Hang on!" Weston cried, as he spun the wheel as gently as he could, trying to get the patrol car out of the way of the other, out of control, vehicle.

"What's going on there?" Mike asked. It was a rhetorical question, but he couldn't help himself. "They're in real trouble!"

"Slow down!" Jeannie cried, as though Mike had been driving fast in the first place. "Oh, Mike, are they going to crash?"

As Mike brought their car to a controlled stop, they heard the shriek of metal from the other vehicles. "Stay here," Mike ordered grimly. "I'll go and see what's happened."

"Be careful," Jeannie pleaded as Mike stepped out into the wintery night and made his way towards the crash.

As the cars seemed to collide from the sound of metal, Mike shone a flashlight toward where he had heard the sounds. He saw nothing except for one car that was semi crumpled in between two trees.

He moved closer seeing a red headed person trapped in the car yelling his head off. He ascertained that the person did not seem to be hurt in any way just trapped and furious.

He moved closer to the road's edge to see what had happened to the other vehicle he and Jeannie had seen. He saw the other car down a slight embankment and one person was seen pulling themselves out of the side window.

At a glance he could see a sheriff's uniform and knew it was not the person he and Jeannie had been seeking all this time.

From the corner of his eye he saw another light bobbing off to his left and realized his daughter had exited the car.

"Jeannie, I thought you were to wait in the car," Mike called worriedly.

"I wanted to help, you always said two heads were better than one so that should go for two sets of eyes too," Jeannie answered.

As her light played over the area she thought she saw something and let out a sharp gasp as she whipped her light back toward what she saw. She realized what she had seen was not imagined and kept her light aimed at the form on the ground not far from the car that had gone down the embankment.

"Mike, it's Steve!" Jeannie exclaimed excitedly.

She started to make her way down slowly toward the form that was now starting to move as though he was knocked unconscious when thrown from the car.

Mike threw all caution in the wind, slid down the embankment as fast as he could and beat Jeannie to the prostrate body in the snow. He knelt down next to young man, shone the torch beam in his face and frantically started palpating his head and limbs for injuries.

"Jeannie, you're right, it's Steve" he called out to his daughter with relief flooding his heart. "Sweetheart, I need you to go back to the car and get a blanket, a warm sweater and the First Aid box. "

The young woman hesitated.

"He's fine, darling, but we need to keep him warm, okay?"

Jeannie nodded and slowly scrambled back up the slope.

Now Mike could concentrate fully on the task on hand. He gently slid his hands over Steve's head again where he had felt a bump earlier on. The young man had just about regained consciousness and was still disorientated, but he tried to get up. "Easy now, easy. Just stay still for a little while longer!" Mike soothed.

Steve's eyes snapped open and he looked at his mentor in disbelief. "No, you can't be here, Mike. Impossible!" He blinked, trying to clear his vision.

"Impossible to get away from me, you mean! When Jeannie and I heard you went missing, we set out to find you."

"Aww, Mike, you always worry too much!" Steve's speech was a little slurred but he seemed to be coherent.

Mike laughed out loud. "Obviously I worry for a reason, buddy boy!" He filled his ever present white handkerchief with a handful of snow and pressed it against the swelling right under Steve's hairline. "At least there is no shortage of ice for cooling your lumps and bumps. There now, you hold that in place!" Steve complied without putting up a fight. Then Mike proceeded to check his friend's limbs for fractures or sprains, but everything seemed to be alright. Steve only winced and let out an involuntary yelp when Mike touched his left arm.

"It's only a crease, Mike and we've cleaned that up already!" the injured man tried to explain.

"Only a crease. Sure. Buddy boy, what did you get yourself into?" Mike chided while he helped the shivering young man into the padded jacket that he had been wearing.

"I didn't do anything, just to put the record straight." Steve defended himself.

"Sure, sure, you can tell me about it later, especially how you ended up here in a snow drift without a jacket." The older man already felt the cold and the piercing wind and was glad when he saw his daughter and the man in the sheriff's uniform approaching. Jeannie must have gone through all the bags they had and had found a sweater for the Deputy to wear, too. She threw a thick turtleneck down the slope towards Mike who deftly caught it in mid-air and quickly put it on.

Weston introduced himself and threw a rope that he had fastened to a tree trunk down to Mike and Steve to help them with the climb back up the slope. With Weston and Jeannie pulling and Mike pushing and steadying, they had Steve hauled back up soon. Propped up between Weston and Mike they led him to the Stone's rental car and put him on the back seat. "Jeannie, you get in there with Steve and make sure he doesn't fall asleep. We need to get him checked out for head injuries, so don't give him anything to eat or drink yet."

Steve glanced at his mentor. "He may have concussion, but he is neither deaf nor is he stupid!"

"We'll decide about the "stupid" bit after you have told me the whole story!" Mike joked. He put a blanket over the two young people and fixed them with a steely glare. "And no hanky-panky, understood?"

"Mike!" both shouted in unison. Mike left them with a last wag of his finger and a broad smile. Now it was up to him and Weston to organise the rescue of the man trapped in the car.

The Deputy filled Mike in on what they knew about the red headed man's involvement in the case.

Mike recapped: "So he could be the one who actually did the killing while father and son thought they did it? We'd better haul him back to Detective Daniels to sort it all out! By the way, did you get through to him?"

Weston nodded. "It's like a miracle, after hours of nothing but static on the airwaves I got a clear radio signal the moment I tried the radio after the crash. Reinforcements are on their way." He paused for a moment. "A miracle, yes it is a miracle that you found him. He was talking about you and your daughter and was anxious to get in touch with you."

"Yes" Mike agreed with a smile. "A miracle! But isn't it the season for miracles and wonders?"

Slowly the two men plodded towards the crashed car, as ready for yet another rescue as you could be in the small hours of the morning.

Fortunately it didn't take too long until Detective Daniels and his partner arrived. As soon as radio contact had been re-established Deputy Griffith had contacted Daniels and alerted him to the whereabouts of the wanted men.

It took four men, a crow bar and a tyre lever to prise the dented door open and help the trapped man out - only to arrest him straight away under suspicion of murder. All of a sudden the suspect clammed up and demanded a doctor and a lawyer.

"I suppose your friend should see a doctor, too!" Weston suggested.

The two crashed cars had to remain at the scene until a recovery crew could bring them into town, but Daniels and his partner took care of the prisoner while Weston volunteered to drive Steve and the Stones. Mike agreed readily. The last thing he fancied now was another stint of driving. He felt the long day and even longer night weighing heavily on him. Now, that he knew Steve was safe the tension was gone and all he wanted to do was sleep…

Sleep… He opened the back door of the car and looked in. Jeannie was fast asleep, curled up against Steve, who had manfully tried to stay awake. He greeted Mike with a drowsy smile.

"Move over, you! After you sent my daughter to the land of nod you can try the same with me while you tell me your story!" Mike slid onto the back seat and pulled some of the blanket over himself.

"I think we can forget about a good night's sleep, but I'll settle for a good day's sleep too." Mike yawned, but got no answer from Steve, who had succumbed to exhaustion as well. Mike considered for a moment to wake him up, but decided to let his protégé rest for at least a few minutes, while he closed his eyes, too…

When Weston looked in the rear view mirror a few minutes later all three of them were curled up together, fast asleep.