The Smoke Jumper Read Free

metallic, while lightning flickered from their roiled bellies to the mountain mass below.
    She saw the police car before he did. Something made her look back and as she did so the cop turned on his flashing red and blue lights. Sean looked in the rearview mirror and said nothing. He didn’t look scared or even worried, just stoned. He slowed and pulled onto the shoulder and the police car behind did the same. The cop sat there awhile, no doubt checking them out on his radio.
    ‘What do we say?’
    Sean shrugged.
    The cop got out of his car and walked slowly toward them. Sean lowered the window, watching him in the side mirror all the way. As he came alongside, the cop bent so that he could get a look at Skye. He was young, in his mid-twenties maybe, with a neatly trimmed ginger mustache and blue eyes that were wide-set and friendly. He touched his hat and Skye gave him her best smile.
    ‘Howdy. Where you folks headed?’
    ‘Glacier,’ Sean said, not looking at him.
    ‘Great. On vacation?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘This your vehicle?’
    ‘Belongs to a friend.’
    ‘Uh-huh. Okay. Well, I’d like to see your driver’s license, registration and insurance, please.’
    Sean turned to reach for his bag. Skye suddenly had a bad feeling that he had a gun in there and that he was going to do something dumb and dreadful. But he seemed to change his mind and turned back to the cop.
    ‘I forgot. All that stuff got stolen.’
    Something shifted and hardened in the cop’s eyes.
    ‘Would you mind stepping out of the vehicle please, sir?’
    He straightened up and reached for the door handle and in the same moment Sean gunned the engine. The cop yanked the door open and tried to grab Sean’s shoulder but the car was already moving and he lost his balance and fell and in the fall his arm went down behind Sean’s seat and twisted and got trapped. He cried out.
    ‘Stop!’ Skye shouted. ‘Stop!’
    There was a loud crack and Skye knew from the man’s scream that it was the sound of his arm breaking. But Sean either didn’t hear or care. He just hit the gas pedal harder so that the tires squealed and smoked and the car snaked its way back onto the highway dragging the cop beside it yelling and shrieking. Skye screamed.
    ‘Are you crazy? Stop the car! For godsake, stop!’
    But he didn’t. She reached over to try to knock the shift out of drive but he shoved her violently back across the car and her head cracked against the passenger’s side window. With his left hand, he was trying to unhitch the cop’s arm from behind his seat but it wouldn’t come free. The door kept swinging open and slamming shut again on the poor man’s arm and when it opened Skye could see his face above the sill. There was a bloody gash all down one side of it and his eyes were glazed with fear.
    The car was swerving across the lanes of the highway and Skye became aware of the blast of horns from other vehicles. They were passing a pickup truck and there was a big brown dog standing in the back and the driver was hooting and yelling at them and the dog was barking, trying to keep his balance as the truck lurched away to avoid them.
    ‘You idiot!’ Skye shouted.
    ‘Shut up!’
    Suddenly there was the tearing sound and then a loud thud and Skye looked back to see the cop’s body bounce and twist and tumble across the road behind them.
    ‘You stupid fucking idiot! What are you doing ?’
    The cop’s severed arm was still jammed behind the boy’s seat and he wrenched it free and threw it clear and slammed the door. Skye screamed and started to hit him and he struck her hard in the mouth. She felt a tooth break and blood start to flow and that made her want to hit him all the more and with all her strength and anger she lashed at him and tore at his face and hair until finally he punched her so hard she felt something give in her head as if she were being swallowed from inside and she slumped in her seat watching the world twirl away from her in a red