It was close to 3 p.m. by the time everything was arranged and the small convoy left the police station. Sheriff Noble lead the way in his blue-and-white cruiser with the rental Galaxie right behind. Steve was at the wheel, with Mike beside a handcuffed Rutter in the back seat. Two more cruisers, with Carson and Carruthers, brought up the rear.
"Let's just hope all hell doesn't break lose while we're gone," Noble had said, only half-joking, before they left the station. "The entire Kearney police force is gonna be out of town for about eight to ten hours. God help us all."
Steve started the Galaxie and was just about to shift it into Drive when he caught his breath in alarm.
"What?" Mike asked from the back seat, knowing full well his partner was not easily startled.
"The gas gauge. It's only showing a quarter tank."
"Are you sure?"
Steve nodded as he tapped his finger against the plastic cover, hoping the needle was just stuck.
"Do you remember seeing it this morning when you drove us here?"
The younger man shook his head. "I don't remember, but maybe I didn't look because I knew we filled it up before we got to the motel last night and I didn't think to check."
"Well, this doesn't make any sense…" Mike began quietly then noticed a slight smile on Rutter's lips as he stared straight ahead through the front windshield. "What do you know about this?" Mike demanded, and Steve looked into the rearview mirror, startled by his partner's change of tone.
When Rutter didn't move or change expression, Mike said to Steve, "Stay here, I'm gonna talk to Eli." He got out of the Galaxie and approached the driver's side door of the sheriff's sedan.
Steve stared at Rutter in the rearview mirror but the felon's slightly self-satisfied expression never wavered. The San Francisco cop's uneasiness ratcheted up a notch, and he swallowed down the bile that had crept up the back of his throat.
Mike got back into the car. "Eli says we'll stop at the gas station on the edge of town and fill up." He stared at Rutter's unchanging profile as he settled once more into the back seat. He couldn't shake the feeling that their reluctant prisoner knew what had happened to their full tank of gas, and that this was an ominous beginning to a potentially challenging odyssey home.
Noble pulled out onto the road, the other three cars following. It took less than ten minutes to wind their way through town and as they passed the Town Limit road sign, turned into the Marathon Gas Station. Steve had pulled the Galaxie up to a pump before he noticed the hand-written cardboard sign taped to the front of the pump: NO GAS. He looked at the other pump; it had a similar sign. He glanced at Mike in the rearview mirror; he had seen the notices as well.
An old man in a battered John Deere baseball cap and greasy overalls stepped out of the dirty, once-white wooden garage office and shuffled towards the cars. "Sorry, fellas, we're outa gas."
Steve and Noble got out of their cars simultaneously. "What do you mean you've got no gas, Cyrus?" Noble demanded as he crossed towards the old man.
Flashing a toothless grin, Cyrus shook his head, putting his hands on his hips. "We dun run outa gas first thing this mornin'. Put a call in and waitin' fer the truck to come fill us up but till then, we ain't got no gas."
Noble sighed in frustration and looked at Steve, shaking his head in apology. "Sorry, Steve, this isn't unusual here. It kinda happens a lot. I just didn't think it would happen today." He turned back to the old man. "What about Alister?"
"Nope. I called over there – he's out too."
"Of course he is," Noble said under his breath, then looked at Steve again. "That's the station on the other side of town – and the only other one around here."
Frustrated, Steve sighed heavily. "Where's the nearest station between here and the Interstate?"
"There isn't one," Noble said almost apologetically. "Well, that's not quite true, there's a little Mom-and-Pop pump that services the local farmers about 20 miles this side of the Interstate, but they don't keep regular hours. It's just a pump at a feed store. We might be able to rouse 'em when we get there if you think we need to get enough gas to get us to the Interstate, but that's a long shot."
"There're no private pumps around here?"
"Just the ones the 'shiners have, and I don't want to go anywhere near those ones, if you catch my drift." Noble was trying his best not to sound defeatist and Steve appreciated his effort. "Listen, uh, we're rationing gas around here too, but not quite like you guys are with that odd-even thing going on. But I've been thinkin' – you losing gas like that, it could just be someone siphoning off gas to fill their own tank. Happens around here all the time. Might be nothing really sinister about it, if you know what I mean?"
Steve took a deep breath, irritated and angry. "Yeah, maybe you're right, but it sure doesn't help us out right now though, does it?"
The sheriff looked up. The clouds were accumulating again; the sunshine from the morning was long gone and storm clouds were on the horizon above the hills. He sighed in frustration.
"Well, we better get going. The sooner we get to the Interstate, the sooner I'll like it. Keep an eye on that gauge, Steve, and if it gets too low for your liking, well, maybe we can siphon some out of one of our cars to tide you over."
"You have a siphoning kit in your car?" the younger cop asked with a chuckle.
Noble grinned. "Are you kiddin'? Everybody around here does."
Nodding, his brow furrowed with a worry he couldn't put his finger on, Steve got back into the Galaxie. Mike, unable to overhear the conversation, knew from his partner's expression that all was not right but he didn't want to go into any detail in front of Rutter. Something in the back of Mike's mind was telling him that all this was not one big coincidence, and his cop's sixth sense was on full alert.
Their eyes met in the rearview mirror once more, and they both knew what the other was thinking.
# # # # #
They were making good progress. Steve kept glancing at the gas gauge, probably more than was necessary and, though it was going down, he felt a little more optimistic that they were going to make the Interstate before they ran into trouble. The cloud cover made everything darker than usual, and with the sun going down, he had turned on the headlights earlier than normal.
The trip had been made in silence; Rutter had continued to stare through the front windshield, his slightly knowing smile beginning to grate on Mike's nerves as the miles passed.
Without the illumination of the full moon that was blocked by the heavy clouds, and with no roadside lights, the blackness that seemed to descend upon them quickly was particularly oppressive to the city cops. They were both more than anxious to get to the Interstate, but also knew that it would be another hour or so till that would happen.
Suddenly, the sheriff's car braked and pulled onto the shoulder. Steve followed suit.
Noble got out quickly and motioned for Steve to join him; he obviously didn't want to talk within earshot of Rutter. Steve glanced into the backseat and met Mike's concerned stare. The senior partner nodded and Steve got out quickly and jogged to the sheriff's cruiser, where Noble had already been joined by Carruthers and Carter.
Noble had his hands on his hips and was shuffling restlessly. He looked up as Steve approached, looking worried and frustrated. "Steve, I hate to do this, but we have to leave you guys."
"What?"
"We just got a call. All hell is breaking loose back in Kearney. From what I can gather, two of Caudill's boys just got arrested by the KSP for selling heroin, and the Caudill's are on the rampage. They've accused the Rutters of setting them up and a few of Caudill's boys are heading to the Rutters to settle the score. We've gotta get back."
"I thought you said you kept a hands-off approach when it was family on family?" Steve demanded, his nerves beginning to fray.
"Yeah, well, sayin' it and doin' it are two different things. I'm the sheriff, and I gotta do what a sheriff is supposed to do." He paused, his anger and exasperation very obvious. "I'm sorry, Steve, but my first priority is to the people of Kearney."
Steve nodded his head quickly, fidgeting, trying to think through any other options. "No, no, I understand, Eli, I do. It's just, ah, well, you know, Mike and I don't know this place, these aren't our people…"
"I hear ya," Noble interjected softly with an angry sigh of his own. He glanced towards the Galaxie. "If that damn thing just had a police radio, I'd feel a lot better. At least then we could keep in touch with you through the KSP. Look, I'll get on the horn to them and see if they can start down the road here and meet you guys before you get to the 75. That's the least we can do for leaving you in the lurch here."
Steve nodded, pleased at the idea.
"And if it turns out to be nothin' more than a tempest in a teapot back home, God willin', well, I'll send one of the boys back this way lickety split to try to catch up with you before you hit the Interstate. How does that sound?"
"That sounds good," Steve nodded, glancing back anxiously at the dark sedan with his partner and their prisoner in the back seat. "Listen, I want to get going, get out of here. I think we're good in the gas department, I still have around an eighth of a tank, if I can trust the gauge, and you said it's just about another twenty to the 75?"
Noble nodded.
"Sheriff," Steve held out his hand and Nobel shook it, "thanks for everything, from both of us. And good luck back home." Steve shook the two deputies hands as well and jogged back to the car. He got behind the wheel and shifted into gear, pulling out from behind the sheriff's car and starting down the dark two-lane blacktop.
"What's going on?" Mike asked from the back seat, staring into the rearview mirror.
Steve, wanting to inform his partner of everything but not wanting to divulge too much to Rutter, just shook his head. "Eli and his men have to get back to Kearney. Seems there's some trouble back there. We're on our own." His eyes burned into the mirror for several seconds, and he watched his partner freeze, eyes wide, then nod ever so slightly. "But it's only about twenty miles or so to the Interstate. We're gonna make it." He hoped he sounded more optimistic than he felt.
Mike looked sideways at Rutter as he settled back in the seat. The smaller man continued to stare forward, the irritating half-smile still pasted on his thin lips. Mike slowly moved his right hand down to his side, and unsnapped the holster on his belt.