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Description
Andy Albertson was forty years too old to be hitchhiking when Jesse Guthrie pulled over on the highway in the middle of the Texas panhandle to pick him up.

"Thanks, man," Andy huffed as he opened the trailer unit's door. The cabin was so high up that the floor was almost above his head, so it took some work to wrestle his bulging backpack into the space between the seat and the dash. Once that was done, he placed a foot on the first step and hauled himself high enough to see into the passenger's seat—and found himself nose to whiskers with a fat white rabbit.

"Don't mind him." The voice was higher than Andy expected, but he didn't have time to think about that before a hand lifted the rabbit by the scruff of its neck and pulled it across the gap between the seats into the lap of…

"Oh! I'm sorry, ma'am, I thought—"

"Don't worry about it, just hop in. The company don't wait and all that."

Fifteen minutes and no conversation later, Jesse pulled over again, this time for a pair of cop cars with their blue lights blazing. The rabbit went in the back, Andy and Jesse clambered out, and the officers had them sit with their backs to the two tires under the front of the trailer. It wasn't comfortable, not with the setting sun to the right keeping the desert at a broil, but Andy found that he liked feeling the heat of the asphalt through the seat of his pants. Might as well enjoy the little things while he could.

After some indistinct static over the walkie-talkies and mumbling between the two police officers, the senior officer got back in his car and drove off the way he'd come, leaving a younger man in charge. He stood on restless feet in front of Andy and Jesse, interrupting the view of land so colorless and flat it looked like the surface of the moon.

Andy leaned back against the wheel and sighed. He'd relaxed once he'd caught a ride with a man—John? James? J-something—headed home to Oklahoma, let himself believe he was leaving all traces of custody behind. After several silent minutes with nothing better to do, he stared at the setting sun long enough to give himself a blind spot so large that it blocked out the police officer's gun when Andy looked directly at where it should have been.

"I wouldn't try anything, if I were you."

Andy snorted and flicked his gaze up only to be annoyed when the green patch in his vision hid the officer's expression. The boy hadn't looked more than three years out of high school and the line was more bluster than anything else. Just like those damn middle school boys playing cops and dispensing justice, but with a badge. It was a weak effort to sound like he was in charge, but Andy let him have it. No sense trying to take a boy with a gun down a peg—hell, there wasn't much sense in trying to take any boy down a peg.

The young officer shifted his feet again in a move Andy had seen often enough in assemblies that ran too long. He'd been doing the bathroom shuffle for about a quarter of an hour, and the reason he hadn't already taken care of business was sitting right next to Andy.

Jesse was too young for him, as was most of the population these days. Not much to look at, of course—he hadn't seen many truckers who were. A bit of grey hair in the brown and some wrinkles around the mouth had made him guess mid forties. But forget looks—any woman who drove a truck and picked up hitchhikers had to have some spunk in her.

As if she had heard the thought, Jesse glanced sideways at Andy before looking back at the police officer. She paused before she spoke, and when she did, she sounded like she'd been practicing what she was going to say.

"Officer, I've done a man's job for over twenty-five years and I've seen enough of men to make a doctor blush. Now go take a piss before you burst."

Damn those blotches! Andy would have handed over a full day's pay to see the officer's face after that.

"Do you think I'm stupid, ma'am?"

Now it was Andy's turn to look away, so the officer couldn't see his amusement. 'Never ask questions you wouldn't want the answer to' was a rule he operated by. Sure had made janitorial work easier.

"No," Jesse said, "but I know you locked my truck and kept the key, and I know you got a gun that I guess you can shoot, and I know that I really don't want to cause trouble. I'll even turn sideways and have a nice little chat with this man here, if it would make you comfortable."

The officer shuffled more aggressively than before. Fidgeting to stall for time was another middle school trick that Andy had down almost to a science. He estimated four minutes before the officer gave in and was only off by a few seconds.

"Just…keep your eyes on him and talk loud so I can hear you," the boy muttered. Jesse nodded and did as he said. Andy studied the few tufts of faded yellow grass in the flat, tan ground and tried to guess how many there were per square foot. He heard Jesse's shoes scuff and braced himself for another round of harassment.

"So, Andy, was it?"

"Yes it was, Jesse."

"Are you a talker or a silent rider?"

So that's how she wanted it: a conversation that she could pretend wasn't alarming now that she had backup. "Oh, I like a good chat."

"Then it's good I got pulled over."

"Yes, it was, wasn't it?" Andy ought to have known something was wrong a minute after he'd climbed into the trailer cabin and slammed the door. He had hoped a trucker would get more of the news from a radio than a T.V., but Jesse must have recognized him anyway, because she shut up and concentrated so hard on the road that her knuckles shone white on the wheel. She must have texted the police at some point, though he didn't remember noticing her hands move.

"So," she continued after a pause, "what's a man your age doing hitchhiking in Middle-of-Nowhere, Texas panhandle?"

He smiled, reaching back for the innocent elderly flirt that always made the student teachers laugh. "What's a woman your age doing trucking and picking up hitchhikers?"

Her face did something. Andy could see it, now that the blotches were almost gone from his sight, but he didn't know what to do with it. The middle school kids he cleaned up after had big, showy emotions that veered from one extreme to the other, but this was a look caught up in a tug-of-war with humor and sadness.

"Trucking's a long story. Hitchhiker…I guess I thought I couldn't get in any more shit today, so might as well."

"Not very smart," put in the officer, returning to his position in front of them. "Never know what kinds of vagrints you might pick up."

Andy gave the boy a withering glare. "I've seen that movie, too. You can stop being all tough-ass. "

The officer's ears flushed red, but he didn't have a reply, smart or otherwise, so he just got back in position.

The sun was almost halfway below the horizon by the time four police cars came screaming up the highway to pull over next to the truck. Jesus. Was all this for him? He'd known it was a bit soon to be getting out of town, but didn't any of these cops follow the news?

The young officer straightened up as soon as he saw his superior coming. The older man didn't look angry or annoyed—he looked laid-back and amused, like a skater transplanted to a policeman's body. He thumbed for the younger officer to leave and shook his head as the boy scurried off. Andy noticed Jesse biting her lip with the same confused look she'd had before, like she couldn't make up her mind whether to laugh or scream.

"If you could kindly give me your attention, sir," the officer drawled from overhead. "Thank you. Now, I'm Officer Williams. I've got a bit of a mess to sort out. We caught up with that Oakie and he decided to cooperate pretty quick." Andy forced down a bubble of anger. So much for J-whatever's free ride. "But I still need to fill in a few gaps, so if you two could just cooperate and answer my questions, this'll go a lot faster and we'll all be out of here before the gila monsters come out. Ms. Guthrie, that's your truck you're leaning on?"

"Yes, officer."

"Right. You in the habit of picking up hitchhikers, ma'am?"

"No."

"But you did today."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I—don't really know," she stammered. "I never do. But I did." She shifted.

"So you expect me to believe that a single woman, driving alone across the longest stretch of Route 70 between rest stops, pulled over on a whim to pick up a male hitchhiker, a complete stranger?" He grinned, like it was the best joke he'd ever heard.
Jesse swallowed audibly, and Andy felt compelled to step in.

"She didn't know it was me, officer."

Her eyes widened at him. The officer's smile twitched on the side of his face still lit up by the last of the sunlight.

"I'll thank you to keep quiet and let her tell me that, sir."

Andy nodded and Officer Williams asked Jesse again what she expected him to believe, his unnerving cheeriness settling like a hot lump of lead in Andy's stomach. Jesse sat still and silent for what felt like five full minutes, long enough that Andy began to think he should say something else anyway, before she went off in another gush of the rehearsed-sounding voice.

"I expect you to believe the truth. So since that's the truth, I guess I expect you to believe it. And," she added, sounding braver now that she'd spoken, "if it's my safety you're worried about, don't. I help load and unload that truck at both ends of my route and I've tussled with a few drunks in my life. I think I could handle any old geezer who thought about giving me trouble."

"And I don't want more trouble, anyway," Andy muttered.

"Sir, I asked you to remain silent."

"Apologies." The extra two syllables had always worked wonders on the vice principal, but Andy wasn't sure if he was relieved or worried that Officer Williams seemed to appreciate it, too.

"What's your name, sir?"

"Andrew Albertson."

"From Phoenix?"

Shit. "Around there, yes."

"Uh huh. There's been some interesting things about you on the tube lately."

"Can't say I'm surprised," he said, as respectfully as he could manage—and still sounded flip, even to his own ears. Was this was those middle school twerps felt like when he grilled them about cigarettes he'd found in their lockers?

Officer Williams' smile stuck on his face, but the fading light made it hard to tell what his eyes were doing. "So how the hell did you end up in a truck in Texas?"

A bead of sweat rolled down Andy's back, making him shiver. He hadn't been so nervous when he'd been arrested.

"I hitchhiked."

That made the officer laugh. "Of course, right." He turned his attention back to Jesse. "So, Ms. Guthrie, having never picked up a hitchhiker in your life, you thought you'd pair it with a run-in with a criminal."

"I guess I figured I couldn't get in any more shit today, so might as well."

Andy's frown at being called a criminal melted into astonishment. He'd thought she sounded rehearsed before—now she was repeating her lines!

"Ma'am, have you ever seen or spoken to Mr. Albertson ever before in your life?"

"No sir, of course not."

"Where were you planning to drop him off?"

"I thought I'd stop in the next town. He'd have to decide from there."

"He didn't say anything about where he was headed?"

Jesse shook her head. "We didn't say much. I sort of had other things on my mind."

"Yes, ma'am, I expect you did." It was too dark now to make out the features of his face, but Officer Williams still had that unsettling tone of enjoyment laced through his voice.

"And what were you going to do if we didn't catch up with you?"

Jesse drew her knees up to her chest. "Drive until he told me to stop."

"Uh huh. Not actually the best thing to do when you're threatened, but I can see why you did."

Andy had to bite his lip to keep from talking. He'd never threatened Jesse! All he'd done was displace a rabbit, and she'd been the one who moved it.

"So you drove off when you got the chance—which was the right thing to do, by the way. But why did you keep driving?"

"I—" Jesse's face went red. "I didn't know what to do. But I had to—the company don't wait and all that. Figured I'd know by the time I hit the next town."

"Weren't thinking of just driving off, were you?"

She didn't answer. When the officer spoke again, his voice sounded gentler, more genuine. "If it didn't cross your mind, you're a better person than me."

Andy shivered again and wished he could stretch out to soak up the warmth of the road while he tried to figure out what the hell was going on. He was too old to be sitting on the ground this long, too tired of odd questions to follow yet another set of them without a rest first. Why didn't the cops just take him in, if they were going to?

"So. Here we are in the middle of nowhere with a woman who can hold her own against a convicted felon. I wish there were more women like you, ma'am."

A twinge of anger upset the worry in Andy's chest. "I wasn't convicted."

The policeman frowed. "Excuse me?"

"I said I wasn't convicted. And I'm not a felon, either."

"I'm well aware, sir, I do follow the news. Now as I was saying—"

He was interrupted by the sounds of Jesse scrambling to get further away from Andy. "He's a criminal, too?"

At the sounds of the scuffle, half a dozen flashlight beams swept to focus on the little scene in front of the tires, illuminating the look of terror on Jesse's face. If Andy's heart hadn't gotten such a workout during his past few months in the justice swamp, he didn't think it'd be able to handle the stress of whatever the hell was happening right now.

"Ma'am, this is Andrew Albertson," Officer Williams said, annoyance finally giving some color to his amusement. When she looked blankly from him to Andy and back again, the officer burst into laughter. "She doesn't know who Andrew Albertson is!" he crowed, as if the rest of the policemen hadn't already grasped the fact and contributed a few sniggers and embarrassed chuckles. The brilliant light of the flashlights shining behind Officer Williams made Andy's eyes water, but he was damned if he was going to look away, not now that he was on trial all over again for the one person who hadn't followed the proceedings.

Officer Williams was gasping by the time he got a hold of himself. "You don't get a lot of news, do you Ms. Guthrie?"

"I—I'm working my way through Sue Grafton," she said, almost apologetically. "Books on tape. I'm on T."

"Right. Well, Andrew Albertson's a crazy old coot of janitor who beat five thirteen-year-old boys to a pulp."

At Jesse's look of horror, the little sparks of anger that Andy had hoped to smother once he crossed the state line burst back into furious life. "They attacked a boy with baseball bats," he snarled.

"A pansy fag," the officer said with a dismissive shrug.

"A single, defenseless boy."

"And you gave them what they gave him."

"Bruises and two black eyes," Andy spat. "The one with the broken wrist got it because one of his so-called friends shoved him into a wall for not running fast enough. Small change compared to sending a kid to the hospital."

The argument didn't faze the officer in the slightest. "Mr. Albertson was acquitted," he went on for Jesse, whose face had gone pale. "He was released yesterday and apparently hightailed it out of Phoenix."

"Completely legally," Andy insisted.

"Right. So now that we've established that Mr. Albertson is not a criminal, can we say the same thing about you, Ms. Guthrie?"

The question brought her back to her senses enough that she sat up straight and squinted to meet the officer's eyes. "Of course."

"Then if you'll just hand over that suitcase, we'll let on your way."

"Behind the driver's seat in the trailer."

Officer Williams nodded, then turned around to give out orders. To Andy's relief, the flashlight beams scattered at once. Jesse stood up easily enough, though Andy had some trouble unfolding his stiff knees. As he was about to get his feet under him, a hand whipped forward in front of his face so fast that he flinched before he realized that Jesse was offering to help him up. He winced in embarrassment at his reaction—so much for being a hardened child-beater!—but he accepted her hand gratefully.

"Thank you ma'am."

"You're welcome."

They stood there in front of the truck in silence while the three youngest policemen, including the one who'd guarded them earlier, opened the trailer and climbed in to retrieve whatever it was they were after. From outside, Andy and Jesse could hear the first officer tromping back into the cabin. There was a pause, then a screech and a thud.
"Holy shit! Something moved!"

A single shout of laughter burst from Jesse's mouth before she clamped a hand over her lips.

"Jesus, Rob, it's just a rabbit!"

Andy grinned. "Serves them right," he whispered. There was just enough light from the swinging flashlights for him to see Jesse nodding.

They watched one officer lean out of the trailer to hand a small but apparently heavy suitcase down to another, who popped up the handle and rolled it around the front of the truck and out of sight. Andy heard Jesse release a long, slow breath.

"Thank God," she murmured, then crossed her arms and turned her face to Andy. He had a feeling she was working on something to say to him, but Officer Williams returned before he could find out.

"I don't suppose you're planning to keep driving Mr. Albertson cross-country," he teased Jesse.

"I—wouldn't mind, actually." Officer Williams huffed a disbelieving laugh while the lead in Andy's stomach lightened a little. "But I don't know what my supervisor would think."
"Ma'am, this man whupped a bunch of kids for a fag," Officer Williams chuckled. "I don't think he'd give you problems."

"All the same…I'm gonna be late as it is, and picking up hitchhikers isn't really allowed. My supervisor might take it a bit better if I didn't have a—" She bit her lip, searching for a word, but settled with "—have him ride with me."

The officer nodded. "Fair enough. Just give us your contact info and we'll let you get on your way. When you see your supervisor…" He pulled a pad of paper out of his pocket, scribbled on it, and tore off the piece to hand to her. "Have him call this number. We'll make sure he knows you were held up in aid of the law. Mr. Albertson…" He headed toward the front of the truck, waving for Andy to follow. "We'll drive you to Vega, but you're on your own from there."

Andy suspected he ought to thank Officer Williams—but screw that. It wasn't like the man had made it an easy evening for any of them. Andy glanced away to hide a scowl just in time to see Jesse flash him a brief smile before she reached up into the cabin and dragged out his backpack. She held it up for him, leaning forward to whisper, "Thank you" as he slid his arms through the straps. Andy frowned in confusion, but before he could ask why she'd said it, she'd pulled herself up into the trailer and closed the door behind her.

"Let's go, Mr. Albertson."

Andy squared his jaw and made a decision. He caught up with Officer Williams. "When they call about Jesse," he said, "don't make her sound like some fainting daisy just cause she accidentally picked me up. Her job's gotta be hard enough as it is."

"Ha! Regular white knight, are you? Doesn't matter what you say one way or the other, Mr. Albertson. But I like her. It's not often a woman gets the better of an armed man."

"What?" Andy laughed. Jesse, with her over-thought speeches, uncertain emotions, and ignorance of regional news, didn't seem the type to be outsmarting criminals.

"Bank robber back in Superstition hijacked her truck, held a gun to her head, and told her to get out of town. Few miles down the highway he has her pull over so he can take a leak, leaves the money in the trailer, and she drives right off." He opened the back door of the police cruiser, but Andy just stood there, stunned.

"You pulled us over to talk to her. For what the robber stole."

"Bravo, Mr. Albertson, A+. Kindly take a seat so we can get out of here."

"You're not arresting me." As far as he knew, he hadn't done anything to deserve it, but he had to be sure before he crawled into the caged back seat.

"Oh I'd arrest you if I could," Officer Williams assured. "God'll sort out the fags on His own, but you, sir, got no right to go whaling on kids who're just trying to set things right. But I like my job too much to waste time trying to pin you with something. Now get in the damn car."

It was the best he was going to get, so he took it.

As Officer Williams pulled forward for space to pull a u-turn, Andy glanced up to the truck's cabin window. Jesse sat in the driver's seat, her head lowered and her face buried in the fur of the fat rabbit in her arms. Maybe it was a reflection of light from the police cars' headlights, or maybe the fur was just so white compared to all the darkness around it, but Andy could have sworn that rabbit was glowing.

Description
Andy Albertson was forty years too old to be hitchhiking when Jesse Guthrie pulled over on the highway in the middle of the Texas panhandle to pick him up.

"Thanks, man," Andy huffed as he opened the trailer unit's door. The cabin was so high up that the floor was almost above his head, so it took some work to wrestle his bulging backpack into the space between the seat and the dash. Once that was done, he placed a foot on the first step and hauled himself high enough to see into the passenger's seat—and found himself nose to whiskers with a fat white rabbit.

"Don't mind him." The voice was higher than Andy expected, but he didn't have time to think about that before a hand lifted the rabbit by the scruff of its neck and pulled it across the gap between the seats into the lap of…

"Oh! I'm sorry, ma'am, I thought—"

"Don't worry about it, just hop in. The company don't wait and all that."

Fifteen minutes and no conversation later, Jesse pulled over again, this time for a pair of cop cars with their blue lights blazing. The rabbit went in the back, Andy and Jesse clambered out, and the officers had them sit with their backs to the two tires under the front of the trailer. It wasn't comfortable, not with the setting sun to the right keeping the desert at a broil, but Andy found that he liked feeling the heat of the asphalt through the seat of his pants. Might as well enjoy the little things while he could.

After some indistinct static over the walkie-talkies and mumbling between the two police officers, the senior officer got back in his car and drove off the way he'd come, leaving a younger man in charge. He stood on restless feet in front of Andy and Jesse, interrupting the view of land so colorless and flat it looked like the surface of the moon.

Andy leaned back against the wheel and sighed. He'd relaxed once he'd caught a ride with a man—John? James? J-something—headed home to Oklahoma, let himself believe he was leaving all traces of custody behind. After several silent minutes with nothing better to do, he stared at the setting sun long enough to give himself a blind spot so large that it blocked out the police officer's gun when Andy looked directly at where it should have been.

"I wouldn't try anything, if I were you."

Andy snorted and flicked his gaze up only to be annoyed when the green patch in his vision hid the officer's expression. The boy hadn't looked more than three years out of high school and the line was more bluster than anything else. Just like those damn middle school boys playing cops and dispensing justice, but with a badge. It was a weak effort to sound like he was in charge, but Andy let him have it. No sense trying to take a boy with a gun down a peg—hell, there wasn't much sense in trying to take any boy down a peg.

The young officer shifted his feet again in a move Andy had seen often enough in assemblies that ran too long. He'd been doing the bathroom shuffle for about a quarter of an hour, and the reason he hadn't already taken care of business was sitting right next to Andy.

Jesse was too young for him, as was most of the population these days. Not much to look at, of course—he hadn't seen many truckers who were. A bit of grey hair in the brown and some wrinkles around the mouth had made him guess mid forties. But forget looks—any woman who drove a truck and picked up hitchhikers had to have some spunk in her.

As if she had heard the thought, Jesse glanced sideways at Andy before looking back at the police officer. She paused before she spoke, and when she did, she sounded like she'd been practicing what she was going to say.

"Officer, I've done a man's job for over twenty-five years and I've seen enough of men to make a doctor blush. Now go take a piss before you burst."

Damn those blotches! Andy would have handed over a full day's pay to see the officer's face after that.

"Do you think I'm stupid, ma'am?"

Now it was Andy's turn to look away, so the officer couldn't see his amusement. 'Never ask questions you wouldn't want the answer to' was a rule he operated by. Sure had made janitorial work easier.

"No," Jesse said, "but I know you locked my truck and kept the key, and I know you got a gun that I guess you can shoot, and I know that I really don't want to cause trouble. I'll even turn sideways and have a nice little chat with this man here, if it would make you comfortable."

The officer shuffled more aggressively than before. Fidgeting to stall for time was another middle school trick that Andy had down almost to a science. He estimated four minutes before the officer gave in and was only off by a few seconds.

"Just…keep your eyes on him and talk loud so I can hear you," the boy muttered. Jesse nodded and did as he said. Andy studied the few tufts of faded yellow grass in the flat, tan ground and tried to guess how many there were per square foot. He heard Jesse's shoes scuff and braced himself for another round of harassment.

"So, Andy, was it?"

"Yes it was, Jesse."

"Are you a talker or a silent rider?"

So that's how she wanted it: a conversation that she could pretend wasn't alarming now that she had backup. "Oh, I like a good chat."

"Then it's good I got pulled over."

"Yes, it was, wasn't it?" Andy ought to have known something was wrong a minute after he'd climbed into the trailer cabin and slammed the door. He had hoped a trucker would get more of the news from a radio than a T.V., but Jesse must have recognized him anyway, because she shut up and concentrated so hard on the road that her knuckles shone white on the wheel. She must have texted the police at some point, though he didn't remember noticing her hands move.

"So," she continued after a pause, "what's a man your age doing hitchhiking in Middle-of-Nowhere, Texas panhandle?"

He smiled, reaching back for the innocent elderly flirt that always made the student teachers laugh. "What's a woman your age doing trucking and picking up hitchhikers?"

Her face did something. Andy could see it, now that the blotches were almost gone from his sight, but he didn't know what to do with it. The middle school kids he cleaned up after had big, showy emotions that veered from one extreme to the other, but this was a look caught up in a tug-of-war with humor and sadness.

"Trucking's a long story. Hitchhiker…I guess I thought I couldn't get in any more shit today, so might as well."

"Not very smart," put in the officer, returning to his position in front of them. "Never know what kinds of vagrints you might pick up."

Andy gave the boy a withering glare. "I've seen that movie, too. You can stop being all tough-ass. "

The officer's ears flushed red, but he didn't have a reply, smart or otherwise, so he just got back in position.

The sun was almost halfway below the horizon by the time four police cars came screaming up the highway to pull over next to the truck. Jesus. Was all this for him? He'd known it was a bit soon to be getting out of town, but didn't any of these cops follow the news?

The young officer straightened up as soon as he saw his superior coming. The older man didn't look angry or annoyed—he looked laid-back and amused, like a skater transplanted to a policeman's body. He thumbed for the younger officer to leave and shook his head as the boy scurried off. Andy noticed Jesse biting her lip with the same confused look she'd had before, like she couldn't make up her mind whether to laugh or scream.

"If you could kindly give me your attention, sir," the officer drawled from overhead. "Thank you. Now, I'm Officer Williams. I've got a bit of a mess to sort out. We caught up with that Oakie and he decided to cooperate pretty quick." Andy forced down a bubble of anger. So much for J-whatever's free ride. "But I still need to fill in a few gaps, so if you two could just cooperate and answer my questions, this'll go a lot faster and we'll all be out of here before the gila monsters come out. Ms. Guthrie, that's your truck you're leaning on?"

"Yes, officer."

"Right. You in the habit of picking up hitchhikers, ma'am?"

"No."

"But you did today."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I—don't really know," she stammered. "I never do. But I did." She shifted.

"So you expect me to believe that a single woman, driving alone across the longest stretch of Route 70 between rest stops, pulled over on a whim to pick up a male hitchhiker, a complete stranger?" He grinned, like it was the best joke he'd ever heard.
Jesse swallowed audibly, and Andy felt compelled to step in.

"She didn't know it was me, officer."

Her eyes widened at him. The officer's smile twitched on the side of his face still lit up by the last of the sunlight.

"I'll thank you to keep quiet and let her tell me that, sir."

Andy nodded and Officer Williams asked Jesse again what she expected him to believe, his unnerving cheeriness settling like a hot lump of lead in Andy's stomach. Jesse sat still and silent for what felt like five full minutes, long enough that Andy began to think he should say something else anyway, before she went off in another gush of the rehearsed-sounding voice.

"I expect you to believe the truth. So since that's the truth, I guess I expect you to believe it. And," she added, sounding braver now that she'd spoken, "if it's my safety you're worried about, don't. I help load and unload that truck at both ends of my route and I've tussled with a few drunks in my life. I think I could handle any old geezer who thought about giving me trouble."

"And I don't want more trouble, anyway," Andy muttered.

"Sir, I asked you to remain silent."

"Apologies." The extra two syllables had always worked wonders on the vice principal, but Andy wasn't sure if he was relieved or worried that Officer Williams seemed to appreciate it, too.

"What's your name, sir?"

"Andrew Albertson."

"From Phoenix?"

Shit. "Around there, yes."

"Uh huh. There's been some interesting things about you on the tube lately."

"Can't say I'm surprised," he said, as respectfully as he could manage—and still sounded flip, even to his own ears. Was this was those middle school twerps felt like when he grilled them about cigarettes he'd found in their lockers?

Officer Williams' smile stuck on his face, but the fading light made it hard to tell what his eyes were doing. "So how the hell did you end up in a truck in Texas?"

A bead of sweat rolled down Andy's back, making him shiver. He hadn't been so nervous when he'd been arrested.

"I hitchhiked."

That made the officer laugh. "Of course, right." He turned his attention back to Jesse. "So, Ms. Guthrie, having never picked up a hitchhiker in your life, you thought you'd pair it with a run-in with a criminal."

"I guess I figured I couldn't get in any more shit today, so might as well."

Andy's frown at being called a criminal melted into astonishment. He'd thought she sounded rehearsed before—now she was repeating her lines!

"Ma'am, have you ever seen or spoken to Mr. Albertson ever before in your life?"

"No sir, of course not."

"Where were you planning to drop him off?"

"I thought I'd stop in the next town. He'd have to decide from there."

"He didn't say anything about where he was headed?"

Jesse shook her head. "We didn't say much. I sort of had other things on my mind."

"Yes, ma'am, I expect you did." It was too dark now to make out the features of his face, but Officer Williams still had that unsettling tone of enjoyment laced through his voice.

"And what were you going to do if we didn't catch up with you?"

Jesse drew her knees up to her chest. "Drive until he told me to stop."

"Uh huh. Not actually the best thing to do when you're threatened, but I can see why you did."

Andy had to bite his lip to keep from talking. He'd never threatened Jesse! All he'd done was displace a rabbit, and she'd been the one who moved it.

"So you drove off when you got the chance—which was the right thing to do, by the way. But why did you keep driving?"

"I—" Jesse's face went red. "I didn't know what to do. But I had to—the company don't wait and all that. Figured I'd know by the time I hit the next town."

"Weren't thinking of just driving off, were you?"

She didn't answer. When the officer spoke again, his voice sounded gentler, more genuine. "If it didn't cross your mind, you're a better person than me."

Andy shivered again and wished he could stretch out to soak up the warmth of the road while he tried to figure out what the hell was going on. He was too old to be sitting on the ground this long, too tired of odd questions to follow yet another set of them without a rest first. Why didn't the cops just take him in, if they were going to?

"So. Here we are in the middle of nowhere with a woman who can hold her own against a convicted felon. I wish there were more women like you, ma'am."

A twinge of anger upset the worry in Andy's chest. "I wasn't convicted."

The policeman frowed. "Excuse me?"

"I said I wasn't convicted. And I'm not a felon, either."

"I'm well aware, sir, I do follow the news. Now as I was saying—"

He was interrupted by the sounds of Jesse scrambling to get further away from Andy. "He's a criminal, too?"

At the sounds of the scuffle, half a dozen flashlight beams swept to focus on the little scene in front of the tires, illuminating the look of terror on Jesse's face. If Andy's heart hadn't gotten such a workout during his past few months in the justice swamp, he didn't think it'd be able to handle the stress of whatever the hell was happening right now.

"Ma'am, this is Andrew Albertson," Officer Williams said, annoyance finally giving some color to his amusement. When she looked blankly from him to Andy and back again, the officer burst into laughter. "She doesn't know who Andrew Albertson is!" he crowed, as if the rest of the policemen hadn't already grasped the fact and contributed a few sniggers and embarrassed chuckles. The brilliant light of the flashlights shining behind Officer Williams made Andy's eyes water, but he was damned if he was going to look away, not now that he was on trial all over again for the one person who hadn't followed the proceedings.

Officer Williams was gasping by the time he got a hold of himself. "You don't get a lot of news, do you Ms. Guthrie?"

"I—I'm working my way through Sue Grafton," she said, almost apologetically. "Books on tape. I'm on T."

"Right. Well, Andrew Albertson's a crazy old coot of janitor who beat five thirteen-year-old boys to a pulp."

At Jesse's look of horror, the little sparks of anger that Andy had hoped to smother once he crossed the state line burst back into furious life. "They attacked a boy with baseball bats," he snarled.

"A pansy fag," the officer said with a dismissive shrug.

"A single, defenseless boy."

"And you gave them what they gave him."

"Bruises and two black eyes," Andy spat. "The one with the broken wrist got it because one of his so-called friends shoved him into a wall for not running fast enough. Small change compared to sending a kid to the hospital."

The argument didn't faze the officer in the slightest. "Mr. Albertson was acquitted," he went on for Jesse, whose face had gone pale. "He was released yesterday and apparently hightailed it out of Phoenix."

"Completely legally," Andy insisted.

"Right. So now that we've established that Mr. Albertson is not a criminal, can we say the same thing about you, Ms. Guthrie?"

The question brought her back to her senses enough that she sat up straight and squinted to meet the officer's eyes. "Of course."

"Then if you'll just hand over that suitcase, we'll let on your way."

"Behind the driver's seat in the trailer."

Officer Williams nodded, then turned around to give out orders. To Andy's relief, the flashlight beams scattered at once. Jesse stood up easily enough, though Andy had some trouble unfolding his stiff knees. As he was about to get his feet under him, a hand whipped forward in front of his face so fast that he flinched before he realized that Jesse was offering to help him up. He winced in embarrassment at his reaction—so much for being a hardened child-beater!—but he accepted her hand gratefully.

"Thank you ma'am."

"You're welcome."

They stood there in front of the truck in silence while the three youngest policemen, including the one who'd guarded them earlier, opened the trailer and climbed in to retrieve whatever it was they were after. From outside, Andy and Jesse could hear the first officer tromping back into the cabin. There was a pause, then a screech and a thud.
"Holy shit! Something moved!"

A single shout of laughter burst from Jesse's mouth before she clamped a hand over her lips.

"Jesus, Rob, it's just a rabbit!"

Andy grinned. "Serves them right," he whispered. There was just enough light from the swinging flashlights for him to see Jesse nodding.

They watched one officer lean out of the trailer to hand a small but apparently heavy suitcase down to another, who popped up the handle and rolled it around the front of the truck and out of sight. Andy heard Jesse release a long, slow breath.

"Thank God," she murmured, then crossed her arms and turned her face to Andy. He had a feeling she was working on something to say to him, but Officer Williams returned before he could find out.

"I don't suppose you're planning to keep driving Mr. Albertson cross-country," he teased Jesse.

"I—wouldn't mind, actually." Officer Williams huffed a disbelieving laugh while the lead in Andy's stomach lightened a little. "But I don't know what my supervisor would think."
"Ma'am, this man whupped a bunch of kids for a fag," Officer Williams chuckled. "I don't think he'd give you problems."

"All the same…I'm gonna be late as it is, and picking up hitchhikers isn't really allowed. My supervisor might take it a bit better if I didn't have a—" She bit her lip, searching for a word, but settled with "—have him ride with me."

The officer nodded. "Fair enough. Just give us your contact info and we'll let you get on your way. When you see your supervisor…" He pulled a pad of paper out of his pocket, scribbled on it, and tore off the piece to hand to her. "Have him call this number. We'll make sure he knows you were held up in aid of the law. Mr. Albertson…" He headed toward the front of the truck, waving for Andy to follow. "We'll drive you to Vega, but you're on your own from there."

Andy suspected he ought to thank Officer Williams—but screw that. It wasn't like the man had made it an easy evening for any of them. Andy glanced away to hide a scowl just in time to see Jesse flash him a brief smile before she reached up into the cabin and dragged out his backpack. She held it up for him, leaning forward to whisper, "Thank you" as he slid his arms through the straps. Andy frowned in confusion, but before he could ask why she'd said it, she'd pulled herself up into the trailer and closed the door behind her.

"Let's go, Mr. Albertson."

Andy squared his jaw and made a decision. He caught up with Officer Williams. "When they call about Jesse," he said, "don't make her sound like some fainting daisy just cause she accidentally picked me up. Her job's gotta be hard enough as it is."

"Ha! Regular white knight, are you? Doesn't matter what you say one way or the other, Mr. Albertson. But I like her. It's not often a woman gets the better of an armed man."

"What?" Andy laughed. Jesse, with her over-thought speeches, uncertain emotions, and ignorance of regional news, didn't seem the type to be outsmarting criminals.

"Bank robber back in Superstition hijacked her truck, held a gun to her head, and told her to get out of town. Few miles down the highway he has her pull over so he can take a leak, leaves the money in the trailer, and she drives right off." He opened the back door of the police cruiser, but Andy just stood there, stunned.

"You pulled us over to talk to her. For what the robber stole."

"Bravo, Mr. Albertson, A+. Kindly take a seat so we can get out of here."

"You're not arresting me." As far as he knew, he hadn't done anything to deserve it, but he had to be sure before he crawled into the caged back seat.

"Oh I'd arrest you if I could," Officer Williams assured. "God'll sort out the fags on His own, but you, sir, got no right to go whaling on kids who're just trying to set things right. But I like my job too much to waste time trying to pin you with something. Now get in the damn car."

It was the best he was going to get, so he took it.

As Officer Williams pulled forward for space to pull a u-turn, Andy glanced up to the truck's cabin window. Jesse sat in the driver's seat, her head lowered and her face buried in the fur of the fat rabbit in her arms. Maybe it was a reflection of light from the police cars' headlights, or maybe the fur was just so white compared to all the darkness around it, but Andy could have sworn that rabbit was glowing.