As the edges of the night began to lift around them they hustled down the road, desperately looking for more clues.

Reuben was the first to see it. “The truck cut across here.” He pointed to the smear of oil on the road. “And went into that field.”

They rushed into the open space. It was quite easy to see the ruts the truck had made in the soft earth here. As they got to the middle of the field, Alex swept his light in a wide swath.

Harry said, “Stop. Hold it right there.” Alex did so and Harry knelt down and grazed his hand along the top of a long depression in the dirt.

He looked up. “That’s a mark from a chopper’s skids.” He eyed Tyree. “Who has a chopper around here?”

Tyree’s light was square on this mark, his features were very grim.

“Tyree, does anybody you know up here have a chopper?” Alex said, tugging at the lawman’s arm.

“Yeah,” he said slowly. “My damn brother.”

There was a buzzing sound. Tyree reached in his pocket and pulled out his phone.

“Tyree?”

The tall lawman’s legs buckled. “What? When?”

Annabelle said, “What is it?”

“I’ll be right there.”

He clicked off and looked at the others.

“What is it?” Annabelle demanded again.

“That was a fellow I deputized to look after Abby Riker. He just came to.”

“Just came to?” Alex said uneasily.

Tyree was already rushing back to the road. “They’ve got Abby,” he yelled.

Chapter 72

CHAPTER 72

KNOX AND STONE ate their breakfast in silence, doing their best to act as lethargic as the rest of the prison population actually was from their drug dose the day before. Both men’s gazes were in fact sweeping the cafeteria.

Near the end of the meal, Knox, who was sitting across from Stone so they could watch both sides of the room and not be surprised from the rear, gave a little rehearsed cough and his gaze darted to nine o’clock. An instant before the blow struck, Stone lifted his tray up and used it as a shield. The shiv glanced off the hard plastic. In the next motion, Stone had hooked Manson’s leg with his own, and the big guard’s momentum caused him to slide across the table. He crashed through plates and plastic cups until he toppled to the floor on the other side, taking two prisoners next to Knox down with him. In the commotion that followed, Knox edged his plate off the table with his elbow and his uneaten grits plopped directly on Manson’s head.

When the other guards came running they found Stone and Knox sitting there calmly, but with bewildered expressions, and staring at the pile of bodies on the floor.

When the guards pulled Manson to his feet, he was still holding the shiv.