Bob Bailey

So instead, I drove within the speed limit except for a cutoff above Mountain View where I could open her up for a few miles before getting back on the highway.

I'd probably bypass George as well as the highway traffic.

But the important thing was for me to get there first.

That's why I left 23 again, took the curving, narrow, but much shorter back road to Cedar Knoll.

Finally, I could see the Knoll, a sort of big mound, a high barren hill.

I could see the little building on top of it, its silhouette against the moonlit sky.

And I could see a car parked up there, a big sedan.

So Shockley had arrived and was waiting there.

At the bottom of the knoll, I pulled off to the side, cut the engine, doused the lights, and went the rest of the way on foot.

As I slowly approached the shack, through a drawn window shade, I could see a light in it, waving around like a flashlight.

And the shadow of a man.

No ways.

For a moment there, there were two of them, two shadows.

That meant Shockley wasn't alone.

And knowing they'd be well armed, both of them killers.

Well, this whole thing might not be so easy.

Yet somehow I had to keep them from hurting George.

Yeah, and from killing Adam.

Slowly, cautiously, I edged over to their car.

I slid down under it and went to work with my pocket knife on a small piece of tubing near one of the wheels.