Page 131 of To Catch a Latte Thick as Thieves

Jared looked at Cat with a raised eyebrow.

“I have to tell you that for a moment we were wondering if you were following us,” he said.

Mabel choked on her tomato juice, spewing it across the table. Fly thumped her on the back none too gently.

“Why ever would you think that?” she gasped.

“You said you were going to Florida,” Cat reminded her.

“We...uh...changed our minds after talking to you two,” Fly said. “Isn’t that right, peanut?”

“Yeah.” Mabel barely acknowledged him and narrowed her eyes at Cat. “Where was it you were moving to again?”

“Surprise. It’s just outside Phoenix,” Jared lied, squeezing Cat’s fingers as if to get her to play along.

“Maybe we’ll see you again.” Mabel smiled.

“Yeah, maybe,” Cat agreed, hoping not.

“We’d better roll,” Jared said.

“Good luck to you,” Cat said to the Bickersons as Jared pulled her away.

“It’s official,” Jared said when they were out of earshot. “They’re weird.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Cat said.

“I’m with you,” he agreed.

They drove southwest from Holbrook, and Cat watched the scenery roll by. The dusty, scrub-covered hills rippled all the way to the horizon where she could see dark clouds looming ahead of them.

“Oh, no.” She nudged Jared’s arm. “Look ahead.”

“Stormy weather.” He nodded. “That’s pretty typical during monsoon season.”

“Monsoon season?” she echoed.

“Didn’t your friend tell you that?” he asked. “July and August are the rainy season for Arizona.”

“No, Sally didn’t mention that,” Cat admitted.

“Be careful,” he admonished her. “We have a lot of dried-up riverbeds, called washes, that fill up during a storm. People get killed when they misjudge the washes and are swept downstream. They drown.”

“I’ll be careful,” she promised, even though she suspected Jared was exaggerating.

The road they followed became mountainous, and Cat kept a watchful eye on the storm to the south of them. Occasional bolts of lightning lit the darkening sky, and she gasped at their brilliance.

“This is nothing like Massachusetts,” she marveled. “Do you realize the sky above us is still blue, but I can see that storm as clear as if it were overhead?”

“There’s a lot of sky out here,” he agreed. “It gives you a nice feeling of space.”

“I’ll say,” Cat agreed and then jumped when another brilliant bolt ripped through the sky. “Whoa? Did you see that? Are we going to drive through the storm?”

“No, it’s moving south of us.”

“Hey!” Cat sat up straight. “Isn’t that the Bickersons?”

Jared looked at the white-and-black RV chugging along behind them.

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