Page 72 of Take a Hike
“Yeah.”
Kieran nudged Charlie’s side and showed her the traffic map on his phone. “A large vehicle is causing traffic to slow over this stretch.” He pointed to a section of road that was highlighted red.
“Thank the gods for feather-footed, RV-driving tourists!” Charlie crowed, peering closer at Kieran’s phone as Fifi gave an answering whoop. “What is that—about four miles? Five?”
“Just under five.”
“Do the math, B,” she urged, bouncing a little in her seat. “What’s Mom’s new ETA?”
“If the traffic stays at this pace, then twenty-seven minutes.”
“Yes!” Charlie quickly texted Lou the update and got an immediate response. “She said they can work with that. Probably.”
Brake lights lit the night as the vehicles in front of them slowed to a crawl, and Fifi brought their car in line with the others in the long, creeping caterpillar inching over the pass and down the other side toward Simpson.
“Oh,” Charlie said.
“What is it?” Kieran looked around, obviously picking up on the startled disappointment in her tone.
“I just realized that it’ll take us twenty-seven minutes to reach Simpson too.”
He gave one of his snort-choke-laughs before gripping the back of her neck in an affectionate squeeze. “You’ll survive.”
Her own snort was skeptical. “We’ll see about that.”
***
Somehow, she did manage to survive the endless half hour before traffic loosened up just a few miles before the Simpson town limits. As they sped past the RV sitting on the short section of shoulder marked as a slow-vehicle pull-off, Charlie gave the driver a cheery thank you wave. It was likely they’d saved their bacon.
“Jane’s less than a minute outside Simpson,” Bennett reported.
Charlie fumbled a little as she texted Lou, adrenaline making her thumbs feel large and clumsy. Despite that, she managed to pass on the message, receiving just a thumbs-up icon in response. “Can’t wait to see what alternative plan they came up with.”
“Knowing Lou Sparks,” Kieran said wryly, “it’ll be a doozy.”
“Doozy?” Charlie teased. “Okay, Grandpa.”
Before he could respond, they went around the last curve before passing the WELCOME TO SIMPSON sign.
Charlie felt a delighted smile stretch across her face as utter chaos, lit by the pink and gold dawn light, came into view. “I take it all back, Kiki. This is, indeed, a doozy.”
“What are those?” Fifi peered through the windshield at the milling animals. “Sheep?”
“Goats,” Bennett corrected.
“That’s Millie Iverson’s truck and trailer.” Kieran nudged Charlie over to get a better view between the front seats, but she refused to budge. This was just gorgeous, so perfectly chaotic.“And her goats.” He paused before speaking again, sounding rather awed. “All of them.”
An ancient pickup and even older stock trailer were parked diagonally across the street, blocking the road. A large herd of goats milled around, completely surrounding Bones’s white car. Charlie peered through the VW’s back window.
“I don’t think anyone’s in there,” she said, her heart giving a thud of dread. A memory of searching for Jane in the forest behind their house popped into her head. After all this, would they end up just losing Jane on foot?
Fifi slowed the car, and Charlie hopped out even before it had come to a complete halt. She scanned the scattered groups of early-rising townspeople watching the commotion, but she didn’t see Jane or any of the treasure hunters.
Nor, come to think of it, did she see any of the murder club ladies.
“Lou?” Charlie called, weaving her way through the goats. It was trickier than she would’ve thought, their warm, furry bodies pressing against her legs and then skittering off to the side, her clear path suddenlynotclear anymore, and she tripped over a goat that definitely hadn’t been there a half second earlier. The pavement flew toward her face as she fell, but then she stopped before hitting the ground, her face just inches from the pavement.
Craning her head around, she saw that Kieran had caught her by the back of her shirt.
