Conard County Spy Read Online Free Page A

wouldn’t help at all, not right now. What good would it do him to ease his hand when his brain would be in low gear?
    â€œWe’ve got some time. Bill never told anyone he directed you to me, and I talked to him on a scrambled line this morning.”
    â€œYou have one?” Trace hadn’t expected that, given that Ryker had hung up his spurs. That technology was doled out very carefully.
    â€œBetter believe it. When I resigned, I still had a lot of useful stuff in my brain. They want to pick it occasionally. Think they’re going to trust the phone company with that? Or that I would? Hell, we don’t even let the NSA eavesdrop on our lines.”
    But another thought had occurred to Trace and it made him sick. “I got your address on an unsecure line. I’d better leave now. I don’t want your family at risk.”
    â€œWell...” Ryker’s eyes twinkled unexpectedly. “The conversation I had with Bill this morning wasn’t exactly as straightforward as I reported. We talked sideways on purpose. I gave Bill a helluva lecture about revealing my whereabouts, and I told him I’d sent you on your way this morning. So if anybody was listening, I sounded p.o.’d, Bill sounded apologetic and loosely explanatory, and in theory you’re already on the road. We’re gonna need to get your car out of town along with the phone, though. You okay to drive?”
    â€œYeah.” Trace started smiling. His head was getting into the game again. He guessed he’d been missing a sense of purpose. And it felt good not to be alone for the first time in a few weeks. “You wouldn’t happen to know of a junkyard a few hundred miles from here?”
    â€œWell, I do happen to know just the right guy to get a car towed a long, long way.”
    * * *
    An unreasonable curiosity dragged Julie off her usual path to the elementary school and past the motel. Trace’s car was still there, but probably wouldn’t be for long. Then she got a jolt as she saw Ryker exit the room with the guy. What was going on?
    Down the street a way, she pulled over to the curb and watched her rearview mirror. For some reason Ryker dashed across the state highway into the truck stop parking lot. A few minutes later he dashed back. She saw him wave toward the center of the town, then jog up the street to where his car was parked.
    What the heck? It was like a scene out of some spy movie, she thought, almost laughing at herself. Why in the world would Ryker park up the street instead of in the motel lot? Shaking her head as questions percolated in her mind, she started to put her car in gear. As she looked to the side she found Ryker pulling up beside her. He was lowering his window, so she touched the button to lower hers.
    â€œJulie,” he said.
    â€œRyker. What...”
    He interrupted her. “Whatever you just saw, forget it. Completely. Curiosity and the cat. You read me?”
    Astonished, she gaped at him, feeling her head bob agreement. “I never saw a thing,” she said when she could find her voice.
    He smiled. “Good. Just keep Marisa in mind.”
    Then he pulled away, leaving her with more questions than ever. Eventually she pulled out, remembering that twenty-two children would be piling into her classroom very soon. But she didn’t want to think about those kids.
    She wanted to think about what had just happened and what it might mean, and why he was concerned about Marisa.
    No matter how many times she told herself to just forget it, as Ryker had warned her, the questions kept percolating in her mind. Somehow she had to find out what was going on.
    Determined that she would, she entered her classroom smiling.
    * * *
    Ryker had told Trace just last night to lie low. Walking into a busy sheriff’s office hardly struck Trace as staying low. It actually seemed quite high-profile. His nerves began to crawl.
    No names were exchanged. The wizened woman at