Standoff Read Free

had since come into the store. She'd overheard them speaking Spanish while heating packaged burritos in a microwave oven.
    Gully said, "Linda—"
    "Linda? She got the story?"
    "You're on vacation, remember?"
    "A vacation you urged me to take!" Tiel exclaimed.
    Linda Harper was another reporter, a darned good reporter, and Tiel's unspoken rival. It stung that Gully had assigned Linda to cover such a plum of a story, which rightfully should have belonged to her. At least that's the way she saw it.
    "You want to hear this or not?" he asked cantankerously.
    "Go ahead."
    The elderly man emerged from the men's room. He moved to the end of the hall, where he paused to wait for his wife. To kill time, he took a camcorder from a nylon airline bag and began tinkering with it.
    Gully said, "Linda interviewed Sabra Dendy's best friend this afternoon. Hold on to your hat. The Dendy girl is pregnant with Ronnie Davison's kid. Eight months gone. They've been hiding it."
    "You're kidding! And the Dendys didn't know?"
    "According to the friend, nobody did. That is, not until last night. The kids broke the news to their parents, and
    Russ Dendy went apeshit."
    Tiel's mind was already racing ahead, filling in the blanks. "So this isn't a kidnaping. It's a contemporary
    Romeo and Juliet."
    "I didn't say that."
    "But… ?"
    "But that'd be my first guess. A view shared by Sabra
    Dendy's best friend and confidante. She claims Ronnie
    Davison is crazy about Sabra and wouldn't harm a hair on her head. Said Russell Dendy has been fighting this romance for more than a year. Nobody's good enough for his daughter, they're too young to know their own minds, college is a must, and so forth. You get the picture."
    "I do."
    And what was wrong with the picture was that Tiel
    McCoy wasn't in it and Linda Harper was. Damn! Of all times to go on vacation.
    "I'm coming back tonight, Gully."
    "No."
    "I think you sent me on this wild goose chase so it would be impossible for me to return."
    "Not true."
    "How far am I from El Paso?"
    "El Paso? Who said anything about El Paso?"
    "Or San Antonio. Whichever is closer. I could drive there tonight and hop a Southwest flight in the morning.
    Do you have their schedule handy? What time does the first flight depart for Dallas?"
    "Listen to me, Tiel. We've got it covered. Bob's working the manhunt-law enforcement angle. Linda's on the kids'
    friends, teachers, and families. Steve's practically moved into the Dendys' mansion, so he'll be there if a ransom
    call comes in, which I don't expect. And, bottom line, those kids'll probably turn up before you could get back to Dallas anyway."
    "So what am I doing out here in the middle of freaking nowhere?"
    The old man shot her a curious glance over his shoulder.
    "Listen," Gully hissed. "The friend? Sabra mentioned to her a few weeks back that she and Ronnie might just hightail it to Mexico."
    Mollified because she was closer to the Mexican border than she was to Dallas, Tiel asked, "Where in Mexico?"
    "She didn't know. Or wouldn't say. Linda had to twist her arm to get that much from her. She didn't want to betray
    Sabra's confidence. But the one thing she did say is that Ronnie's dad—his real dad; his mom's remarried—is sympathetic to their predicament. Awhile back he offered his help if they ever needed it. Now, you're gonna feel really bad about yelling at me when I tell you where he hangs his hat."
    "Hera."
    "Satisfied?"
    She should have apologized, but she didn't. Gully understood.
    "Who else knows about this?"
    "Nobody. But they will. It works to our advantage that
    Hera is a one-horse town, not on any beaten path."
    "Tell me about it," she muttered.
    "When word gets out, it'll take everybody a while to get there, even by helicopter. You've got a definite head start."
    "Gully, I love you!" she said excitedly. "Direct me out of here."
    The elderly lady emerged from the ladies' room and rejoined her husband. She admonished him for fiddling
    with the camcorder and ordered