CHAPTER 25

Spud had learned a valuable lesson when that sheriff’s deputy followed him the previous day. He needed to wait until dark to make his daily trip. In the daylight, people could see into his car, but at night he was just another pair of headlights.

That evening, after Reed had gone to work, Spud played a game of Go Fish with Pip, using a deck of cards he’d found in a kitchen drawer. By the third hand, Pip started talking, cautiously at first, as though he had momentarily forgotten to be shy. Spud smiled and asked questions. Pretty soon, Pip was telling Spud about a girl he liked at school, and his favorite flavor of ice cream, and a dog that had licked his face when he was visiting a friend. He was still guarded as Spud drew him from subject to subject, but there was a definite and encouraging thaw in his demeanor.

When it was sufficiently dark outside, he again strapped Pip into the back of his car and eased down the trail. He drove to where he normally parked to check his emails, but he did not stop—another lesson he had learned. As dangerous as it was to check his phone while driving, he wasn’t about to have some deputy catch him trespassing again. He would stay on the road and be extra careful.

When he reached the point where he knew he had reception, he touched the email icon on his phone and returned his eyes to the road. The highway curved slightly, and he waited until he was out of the curve to look at his screen. There was a message. He lifted his phone closer to his face and saw it was from his lawyer. In his excitement, he jerked the car over the center line and back. This was it. It had to be.

He opened the email and again focused on the road as another pair of headlights came at him. The two cars passed and then Spud looked at his phone.

I am happy to inform you…

The road curved around a bend. After the bend he read,

The documents are ready to be signed.

There was more to the email, but now that he had it loaded onto his phone, he could read the rest of it at the shack. He pulled onto a gravel road, turned around, and headed back, his heart beating with joy. His jackpot was sitting in the lawyer’s office, more money than he ever thought he would see in his lifetime. All he had to do was fulfill his end of Reed’s bargain and he could return to St. Paul a rich man.

Then again, although he had given Reed his word, Reed had deceived him. Sandy wasn’t an abusive parent; Spud knew that now. Reed was the cruel one, the one whose mere presence could turn his son mute. If Spud had known that, he never would have gone along with Reed’s plan, no matter how much money was in it for him.