“I’m Ben, the man who helped Willie last night.” Her features looked familiar. “Are you Willie’s mom, Shirley Coombs?”

She took a drag on her cigarette and nodded absently, but the suspicious look only deepened. “How’d you know that?”

“You look like each other.” Stone glanced over her shoulder into the trailer. She followed his gaze and said hurriedly, “I came over to check on things when I heard ’bout Willie. Got folks round here that might take advantage of him being laid up in the hospital. Messing with his stuff and all.”

It occurred to Stone that Mom might’ve been messing with her son’s stuff too.

“Have you seen Willie yet?”

“Planning to get over there soon. Long drive. And my car’s not too dependable.”

Stone glanced back at her car. “Looks to be pretty new.”

“Yeah, well, it’s a piece of crap. Keeps stalling out on me.”

“Everything look okay in there?” he asked.

“Willie’s not the neatest person in town, so it’s hard to tell, really. Looks okay, I guess.”

“You need any help?”

“No,” she said quickly, a beat too quickly actually. “I mean, you’ve helped enough. Willie would be dead except for you. I thank you for that.”

“I’m glad I was around. But Bob helped with Willie too.”

Her features turned dark. “Yeah, old Bob is real good about helping folks. At least ones he likes.”

“He doesn’t include you in that group?”

“You could say the whole town doesn’t include me in that group.”

Okay. “I was sorry to hear about your husband.”

She stiffened. “Who told you about him? Bob?”

“No, Sheriff Tyree. He mentioned the hunting accident. Pretty tragic.”

“Yeah, real tragic.”

Stone looked at her quizzically. “I hope Willie will be okay,” he said, after an awkward silence.

“Hell, he’ll be fine. He’s got four shotguns, a deer rifle, two hunting bows, a pickup truck, his own double-wide, cable TV and propane to keep warm, a camp stove to cook on and folding money from the mine. What’s not to come home to? My boy aimed high in life, didn’t he?” She smiled. But then it quickly faded. “Look, I got to go,” she said. “Thanks again for saving my baby.”

She closed the door behind her and moved past Stone.

He watched as she got in her car and drove off.

He hoisted his bag and walked back to the main road.

Five minutes later the truck almost hit him as it flew by. He dodged out of the way, rolled and came up in time to see a man throw himself out of the truck cab and land hard in the road. Stone raced toward him and turned him over.