Her face softened instantly. “John, you can ask Nest for anything. You know that. If she can help you, she will.” She paused. “I hope you know that you can ask me, as well.”
He grinned ruefully. “It helps hearing you say it. I wasn’t sure how things stood between us.”
She nodded slowly. “They stand the way they have always stood. Can’t you tell?”
The way she looked at him when she said it, he guessed maybe he could.
-=O=-***-=O=-
Deputy Sheriff Larry Spence pulled over at the Quik Stop and went inside to buy some gum. When he came out, hunching down into his heavy leather coat for warmth, taking note of the graying skies and gusting winds, he paused at the pay phone attached to the side of the building and dialed the number FBI Agent Robinson had given him. He still wasn’t sure about this whole business, but he didn’t want to take any chances with Nest.
He drummed his fingers on the metal phone shell while he waited for someone to pick up. He didn’t much like Robinson or that woman agent, especially after their visit to his house. His kids didn’t seem to like them much either. Neither had slept very well last night, and Billy had come awake half a dozen times screaming about knives. No, he didn’t much like it. It seemed to him they might have found a better place to talk to him about John Ross. He’d thought about calling the bureau, checking up on the agents, but he was afraid it would make him look foolish to do so. Anyway, all they wanted to know was whether or not Ross was out there. Once he told them that, he was done with the matter.
Then, maybe, the buzzing in his ears would lessen and the headaches would go away and he wouldn’t be spending all his time arguing within himself about what he should do.
The phone picked up on the other end, and a man said, “Yes?”
The buzzing stopped. “Agent Robinson?”
“Good afternoon, Deputy Sheriff Spence.” Robinson’s voice was smooth and reassuring. “What do you have for me?”
Spence looked off into the distance, unsure once more. Ross didn’t seem like much of a threat to him. Hell, he could barely walk with that bum leg. Nest didn’t seem all that taken with him either, not in the way Robinson had suggested she was. He was pretty old for her, more like a father. It just didn’t feel right.
“Deputy?”
“Sorry, I was checking on something.” He brushed his concerns aside, hearing whispers of derision and urgency that warned him of the dangers of equivocation. He was anxious to get this over with. “I was out at Nest Freemark’s house just a little while ago. John Ross was there.”
“Good work, Deputy. What did you tell them was the reason for your visit?”
“Oh, I made something up about checking on drug sales in the park, said it was a rumor we were investigating. I just asked if they’d seen anything, either of them.” He flashed on the angry response he’d gotten from Nest when he’d pushed the matter with Ross, and decided not to say anything about that part.
There was a pause on the other end. “Did you notice anything unusual? Was Ross carrying anything?”
Spence frowned. “Like what?”
“I don’t know, Deputy. I’m asking you.”
Spence flushed at the rebuke. “He was carrying a walking stick. He’s got a bad leg.”
“Yes. Anything else?”
“Not that I could see.” His breath clouded the air in front of him. The buzzing returned, working its way around inside of his head, making him crazy. He pushed hard at his temples. “I don’t get it. What am I supposed to be looking for?”
Robinson’s voice was iron sheathed in velvet. “You know better than to ask me that, Deputy. This is an ongoing investigation. I’m not at liberty to reveal everything just now.”
The whispers burned their way past the buzzing, filling Larry Spence’s head with sound and pain. Don’t ask stupid questions! Don’t go into places you don’t belong! Do what you’re told! Remember what’s at stake!