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“She’s swearing,” Nina said, gnawing her lip.

Nygard glanced back at Broker.

“Better than crying,” Broker said, his voice awful.

Sergeant Barlow tapped on the window. Nygard zipped it down. She eyed Broker and Nina with restrained amazement. “I put out the APB with the description you gave me: Kit Broker, eight-year-old white female, red hair, four foot three, seventy-three pounds, cross bite on front teeth. Gave your names, said you were in contact with Kit by cell phone. Few minutes later the FBI in St. Paul called me back on my radio. Asked me if I’d met the parents and did the father have eyebrows. Was the mother in the Army. When I said, Yeah, about the eyebrows, the FBI guy says, in the clear: ‘Prairie Island Broker and Nina Pryce, no shit.’”

Sergeant Barlow bit her lower lip. “I don’t know who you people are, but the FBI outa Duluth is putting an Air Force Reserve Blackhawk up in this. Packed with electronics. BCA’s coming from Bemidji and St. Paul. Something’s going on in St. Paul, because half the troopers in northwest and central are shutting down the road-”

Nina cut her off, her open hand shooting up in a blur, signaling silence.

“…stopped…red…I see…” The faint voice crackled in the speaker box.

Nina and Broker leaned forward, desperate.

“Shit,” Nina said. “Can’t-”

Then the dispatcher’s stronger signal stepped on the static. Yelling with excitement. “Keith, got good copy on her last. She said, ‘We stopped. I see a red tractor in a light.’ You copy?”

“Copy. Ruth, saddle up!” Nygard shouted, slamming the Vic in gear, wrenching the wheel, and fishtailing the cruiser in a wheely, sending Sergeant Barlow jumping back out of the way. Nygard righted the vehicle and pointed it north up 12. Stepped on the gas.

“What?” Broker and Nina shouted in unison, lurching in their seats.

“Only one place in cell range I know of got a red tractor under a light. Gator’s shop. He’s Cassie Bodine’s brother. Excon…” Then under his breath, “Maybe you ain’t as rehabilitated as you look, you sonofabitch.” He snatched up the mike, his eyes darting to the rearview. “Ruth, you with me?”

“Right on your ass.”

“No flashers, no siren. We’re going about twelve miles up this road to a farmhouse on the edge of the big woods. Place is just barely in range of the last cell tower. Gotta be. Okay. When I kill my lights, you do the same. We’re going in blacked out.”

“I guess,” Barlow yelled back; her voice charged, building on Nygard’s.

“And Ruth-”

“I’m here.”

“Kick it. We’re going in real hot.” Nygard mashed down on the accelerator. He turned a quick eye to Nina, who was picking frozen snow out of the trigger guard of the Colt with the hem of the T- shirt she wore under the sweat-suit jacket. More blowing off tension than serious, he said, “If it gets rough, the book says I’m supposed to jettison civilians-”

“Drive,” Broker said in a grim voice from the backseat, where he was wiping down the shotgun, checking the action.

“Yeah,” Nygard said, doing 70 m.p.h., looking at maybe thirty yards of visibility, with Sergeant Barlow suicidally hugging his rear bumper.

Chapter Fifty-four

Gator wheeled into his driveway, saw the Nissan sitting in plain view with the lights on, vaulted out of the truck, and stomped toward the farmhouse. Coming up the porch steps, this inky streak zipped between his boots, nearly tripping him. Saw the kitten race toward the barn, get swallowed in the snow. Great. And she let the cat out…

He went in and found Sheryl standing at the kitchen sink. Her leather coat was ripped at the shoulder, and the sleeves were scraped with red barn paint. She was putting a Band-Aid on her wrist, with difficulty because her hand was shaking.

“You let the cat out,” Gator shouted.

Sheryl stared at him incredulously, her face muscles jittery. “What?” she said. “What? ”

Gator put the heel of his right hand to his forehead and pressed. Felt like something was busted in there, Spinning. “Where is she? And what’s the car doing running, all lit up?”

“Slow down, goddammit,” Sheryl hissed though clenched teeth. She held up her hand. “When I tried to get her out, she stuck me with something. She’s still in there. And I couldn’t get the garage door open. It’s stuck.”

“C’mon.” Gator spun on his heel.

Sheryl followed him outside. He pointed to the car. She opened the driver’s-side door and jumped behind the wheel. Then he approached the garage door, put his shoulder to it, and broke the ice jam. Shoved it open.

Sheryl gunned the engine and, wheels spinning, aimed the Nissan into the garage.

“Open the trunk,” Gator said, striding toward the back of the car. Sheryl was out of the car fast, grabbing at his jacket. Hair flying. Face all scrambled, she shouted, “Just a minute. What are you going to do?”

Gator gritted his teeth and yelled back. “We,” he corrected her. “What are we going to do. You’re in this too.”

Sheryl shook her head vehemently. “Uh-uh. No way. Not a kid.”

Gator poked her in the chest. “You brought that idiot Shank in…from the big time…”

Sheryl pushed his hand away. “You sent me to get him.”

“And you were supposed to be his ride out. So where the fuck is he?”

“She said he was chasing her. In the woods. I waited, I called him on his cell. Flashed the lights. Blew the horn. Yelled. I did a lot. Then I saw a car parked at that house, and I got the hell out of there.”

They glared at each other, shivering, shoulders hunched, the snow frosting their faces. Gator thinking how cold was hard on machinery, harder on people. Affects judgment…

“Bottom line, Sheryl. Whatever happened to Shank. The way we are now…she’s a witness,” Gator said with finality.

“Oh, Christ.”

“We find out what she knows. Then…I don’t see any other way. You found her lost in the woods. They’ll find her in the woods. Now open the goddamned trunk.”

Moving like a sleepwalker, Sheryl reached into the car. The trunk lid popped. In the agitated shine from the barn light, Gator Bodine stared at Kit Broker, who was coiled back in the cavity, brandishing a screwdriver.

“Hey, now, girl; you look cold in there,” Gator said in a reasonable voice.

“Leave me alone.”

Damn kid coiled tighter, like an obstinate snake. “Can’t do that-your mom and dad are on the way, with the sheriff. Heard you’ve had quite a night,” Gator said.

At the mention of her parents, the kid’s lower lip trembled. But the dark pockets of her eyes struck Gator as unyielding. He needed to get her in the light. See her eyes.

“Look, I’m not going to let you freeze. I’m taking you in the house.” He extended his hand; she wielded the screwdriver. Gator struck fast, snatched her arm, plucked the screwdriver from her hand, and tossed it away. Getting pissed, he lifted her bodily, roughly, from the trunk and tucked her, kicking and flailing, under his arm.

When he got her in the kitchen, he released her. Immediately, she tried to run. He caught her easily and shoved her back into the room. She banged up against the kitchen table, arching away when she saw Sheryl come into the room. Gator could see her eyes now; hot, green, hostile over the smeared dirt and blood on her face. And Sheryl wasn’t helping, walking to the corner by the stove, one arm folded across her chest, the other up, hand