The Highway Kind(14)

Like they were for all ranch vehicles, the keys had been left in the ignition. He opened the choke to full and turned the key and was astonished that the truck roared to life.

The Power Wagon reminded Brandon of a grizzly bear that had emerged from its den. It shook and moaned and seemed to stretch. The shed filled with acrid blue smoke. Pingston had been right when he’d inferred that the old truck was indestructible.

When Brandon eased it out through the doors, he saw Marissa standing open-mouthed on the front porch.

It was a rough ride and Brandon couldn’t goose it past thirty-five miles an hour. Blooms of black smoke emerged from the tailpipe. The heater blew dust on their legs when he turned it on. The cab was so high that the ground outside seemed too far down. He felt like a child behind the massive steering wheel.

He’d forgotten what it was like to drive a vehicle without power steering or power brakes. He didn’t so much drive it as point it down the road and hold on tight to the steering wheel so the vibration wouldn’t shake his teeth loose.

On the way into Big Piney, he glanced over at Marissa, who was holding the box of mice in her lap.

“When did you go into the shed?” he asked. He had to raise his voice over the sound of the motor to be heard.

“Yesterday, after I found the nest of mice.”

“How did you get in? The doors were locked.”

“The side door wasn’t locked. The one with all the weeds? That was open and I went right in.”

He nodded and thought about it.

She said, “Are you accusing me of something, Brandon? Your tone is mean.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, reaching over and patting her thigh. “I’m just confused. There are three dead people back there and my head hurts.”

“It was Wade,” Marissa said. “Peggy told me after the three of you left. Wade was behind it all.”

“I get that. But what were they after?”

Then, before she could answer, he reached into the box of mice and grasped a fistful of the shredded paper. He downshifted because the brakes were shot and he eventually pulled over to the side of the dirt road and stopped the Dodge. The motor banged away but didn’t quit running. He could smell hot oil burning somewhere under the hood.

“What is it, Brandon?” she asked.

The strips of paper in his hands were blue and old. But when he pieced them together he could see the words Trust, Security, and Stockman’s printed on them.

He said, “Stockman’s Security Trust. That’s the bank that got hit years ago. These are bands that held the piles of cash together. Where did you find them, Marissa?”

“I told you,” she said. “They were in the nest. I didn’t even look at them.”

He tried not to raise his voice when he asked, “Where was the nest?”

“It was in the back of this truck. When I found it and realized their mom wasn’t around, I looked for something to put them in so I could save them. There was a toolbox under the seat of the truck so I poured all the tools out and put the babies in the box. Brandon, why are you asking me this?”

He sat back. The water tower for Big Piney shimmered in the distance.

“Pingston did that armed robbery and hid the cash somewhere inside the Power Wagon. Probably beneath a fender or taped to the underside. He got pulled over and arrested before he could spend it or hide it somewhere else. And all these years he thought about that money and worried that the old man would find it—which he did.”

Marissa seemed to be coming out of shock and she registered surprise.

“Either that,” Brandon said, “or my old man was in on the robbery all along and fingered his partner. That way, he could always have a big roll of cash in his pocket even though the ranch was going broke. We may never know how it all went down.

“Pingston told his cell mate Wade about the cash and promised him a cut of it when they got out. I heard Wade say something about protecting Pingston inside and that makes sense. Wade kept Pingston safe so they could both cash out. Only the money wasn’t there and Wade thought his old pal had deceived him all along. He went berserk and killed Pingston, then Pingston’s family.”

Brandon put the truck in gear and turned back onto the road. “We’ve got to let the sheriff know to look for Peggy’s Jeep so they can arrest Wade and send him back to Rawlins.”

“Why didn’t he kill us and eliminate all the witnesses?” she asked.

“He thought I was dead,” Brandon said. “I think maybe he panicked after Peggy and Tater were down and just got the hell out of there. Maybe chasing down a pregnant woman was too much even for Wade.”

“Or maybe,” she said, “he thought he was stranding me out there to freeze to death without a car, that bastard.”

As they entered the town limits of Big Piney, Brandon had to slow down for a dirty pickup that pulled out in front of them. The legs of a massive elk stuck straight up from the bed, and sunlight glinted off the tines of the antlers.

Marissa said, “I can’t believe you grew up here.”

Brandon patted the steering wheel and said, “We’re keeping the Power Wagon. I don’t care what my brothers or sister say about it.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” he confessed. Then: “Maybe because I got it to run again with my own two hands.”