Shadows Reel (Joe Pickett #22)(84)
“Which is why we got a rental,” Joe said. “Geronimo will exchange your van for a new one no one is looking for. He’ll load up your birds and my shotgun and hit the road.”
“You were sleeping when we figured out our escape,” Geronimo added.
Joe was still coming down from the adrenaline rush of the shootout in Portland, even two and a half hours later. He didn’t feel like a game warden. He felt like a criminal or a special operator. Geronimo had been much more lucid during the drive and they’d talked out how the three of them should split up to get away. Joe had the distinct impression Geronimo had done this kind of thing before. Geronimo was tactical and efficient in the mode of special operators like Nate. Had he been one? Joe wanted to know more about his background.
Nate put his arm around Joe’s neck, and Joe steered him toward the entrance door, when Nate stopped. He turned toward Geronimo.
“Thank you,” he said.
“My pleasure,” Geronimo said while tipping an imaginary hat. “Maybe I’ll pick up Jacinda on my way to your place in Wyoming.”
“I’d like that,” Nate said. “So would Liv.”
“Who knows,” Geronimo said, “maybe I can learn something about child-rearing and the bird abatement business.”
Nate nodded.
They turned toward the brightly lit departure lobby.
Joe said, “I think I can make it home before the girls all have to hit the road. And I bet you can’t wait to see Liv and Kestrel.”
“I missed our second Thanksgiving together,” Nate said through gritted teeth. “I don’t plan to ever miss another one.”
“We’ve got plenty of food left over,” Joe said. “Come by with them and have turkey sandwiches. Turkey sandwiches are the best part of Thanksgiving, in my opinion . . .”
“That, my friend, is a good idea.”
Supporting each other, Nate and Joe limped toward the glass doors in the early-morning mist.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the people who provided help, expertise, and information for this novel.
The Julius Streicher photo album from 1937 Nazi Germany is real. It was handed over to a former local Wyoming library director who asked not to be named here. Nevertheless, to his credit, he wisely found a home for the relic at the Hoover Institution. An online version of it exists here: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/56022.
Alton More, who allegedly returned home to Wyoming from World War II with Hitler’s photo albums, is also real. My thanks to the library director for sharing this intriguing mystery.
Other sources included Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose, Beyond Band of Brothers by Major Dick Winters and Colonel Cole C. Kingseed, and Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook by Mark Bray.
I also sourced “Nazi Family Values” by David Jacobs at the Hoover Digest, “Antifa’s American Insurgency” by Andy Ngo in The Spectator, and “Roots of Antifa” by Mark Hemingway in RealClear Investigations.
Special kudos to my first readers, Laurie Box, Molly Box, and Roxanne Woods.
A tip of the hat to Molly Box and Prairie Sage Creative for cjbox.net, merchandise design, and social media assistance.
It’s a sincere pleasure to work with professionals at Putnam, including the legendary Neil Nyren, Mark Tavani, Ivan Held, Alexis Welby, Ashley McClay, and Katie Grinch.
And thanks once again to my terrific agent and friend, Ann Rittenberg.
About the Author
C. J. Box is the author of twenty Joe Pickett novels, six stand-alone novels, and a story collection. He has won the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, Gumshoe, and Barry Awards, as well as the French Prix Calibre .38, and has been a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. A Wyoming native, Box has also worked on a ranch and as a small-town newspaper reporter and editor. He lives outside Cheyenne with his family. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages. He’s an executive producer of ABC TV’s Big Sky, which is based on his Cody Hoyt/Cassie Dewell novels, as well as executive producer of the Joe Pickett television series for Paramount Studios/Spectrum Originals.