Chapter 5: Friday Night

"I'll hold you to it," I said.

"I figured you would."

I moved my truck.

Friday night it rained the whole way up from Cumberland.

At eleven-forty I was sitting on the shoulder of the westbound grade below Keysers Ridge with my flashers off and an empty trailer behind me.

Alastair's voice came over the handheld on the dash.

"Unit 17 just pulled out of Hancock. Eleven-oh-six."

"He's a minute late."

"You want me to write him up?"

"I want you to stop talking."

I watched my mirror.

Mile 19. Then the gold letters came around the bend, KESTERSON FREIGHT on a blue box, wipers going.

I pulled out in front of him.

I let him get close. Then I cut the wheel hard left and locked the trailer brakes.

My trailer swung out behind me and slammed across both lanes.

The Kesterson driver stood on his brakes.

His rig shuddered and slid and stopped with his bumper eight feet from my trailer wall.

Then Alastair's cars came down off the crossover and up from behind.

His cab was full of Shardlow men before he got his door locked.

They pulled him out by his collar and put him face down on the wet road.

I jumped down with Clem's bolt cutters.

The trailer stank of sweat and bleach.

The seal on the trailer doors had a number on it.

KF 0040817.

I cut it. I cut the padlock under it.

I swung the door open.

Crates stamped MACHINE PARTS were stacked to the ceiling in front.

Somebody had left a gap between the last two, just wide enough for a body.

"Hello?" I said.

A chain rattled.

I climbed up and squeezed through the gap with my flashlight.

She was sitting against the front wall with her knees pulled up.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Mom Abandoned Me to Save Herself from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.