McCrea wondered if he should share this next part, but ultimately decided they had a right to know. “On our way in this morning, we wandered up on a tractor trailer that had run off the road about five miles from here. The doors had been pried open, its contents strewn all over the place. Worse, the driver had been shot dead. At least we assume it was the driver. Whoever it was, he’d been shot through the forehead.”

The room gasped in unison, then erupted in cross talk.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Mr. Jake said, nearly shouting. “The man ain’t done yet. Let him finish. Who was he? Did you look at his ID?”

“Didn’t get a chance,” McCrea said. “That’s where we encountered Jeffrey Grubbs. He made a lot of threatening noises, but ultimately we broke it off. I do believe that if we hadn’t been armed and able to shoot back, he’d have killed us, too.”

“How many of them were there?” somebody asked.

McCrea looked to Victoria for confirmation. “Four, right?”

She gave him a thumbs-up.

“Another man and two females. I don’t know what the ages were, so I hesitate to call them ladies.”

“Oh, there ain’t no ladies in that crowd,” Joey said, causing the room to erupt in nervous laughter.

“So, what you’re tellin’ us,” Mr. Jake continued, “is that there’s a band of murderers out in the forest.”

“I’m not sure that was my intent, but that’s the gist of it, yes.” He turned his attention to George. “The ones in the woods were doing their best to protect something from view. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if that stuff started as your stuff.” He indicated Joey, too. Ben Barnett had gone back to his store.

“Then let’s go get them,” Joey said.

It wasn’t the reaction that McCrea had been expecting. He instantly regretted telling them anything about the hijacked truck or the Grubbs gang. “Let’s do nothing of the sort,” he said. “We were about a half-a-trigger pull away from a war out there just a couple of hours ago. Emotions are running hot. Give it a few days and let the emotions die down.”

Maggie raised her hand. “In a few days, everything they took is gonna be spoiled, just like your . . . just like Vicky said.”

“It’s gonna be spoiled so nobody can make use of it,” Joey pressed.

“Millions of people died last night,” McCrea said. “Maybe hundreds of millions. Maybe billions. I don’t know the number, but isn’t that enough for a twelve-hour period?”

“Chemistry and physics,” George said. “The clock is ticking.” He stood, his rifle back in his hand.

McCrea shot a glare at Victoria. Are you going to do something?

She ignored him.

“Grab your guns, folks,” George said. “Meet me at my station. We’ll go get those sons of bitches.”