Chapter Forty-Two

"I'll call a tow truck." Brent pulled out his phone and scowled at it. "Damn rural hicks. What kind of place is this that I can't get a signal? This isn't the wilderness."

"Could be the rain."

"I guess we'll have to wait it out. Either that or walk to the nearest place where we can use a phone."

"We passed a place not far back," Joe said sullenly. "Maybe we can go over there and get them to call us a tow truck."

"I was hoping you'd want to wait until the rain stopped."

"Why?" Joe said. "We're already wet. Waiting here won't do us any good. Besides, knowing our luck, if we wait here, that'll be enough time for Elise to get away again."

"Yeah, but the rain won't go on like this all night. Let's give it half an hour and see what happens."

"Wait here, if you want to," Joe said. "But I'm tired of always waiting, always losing her. I'm going to go see if I can get to a phone. Or hell, maybe I'll just walk to Ursula's place." He made to climb over Brent again, but Brent turned up his collar, threw open the door and got out first, closing his eyes against the pulsating beat of the rain. Joe jumped down behind him and slammed the door. "This way," he said. Wrapping his jacket around himself, he started up the road.

Brent caught up and strode silently beside him. After several minutes, Joe pointed to a spot across a field, dimly visible through the rain. "Maybe they'll let us use their phone."

"Where's the road to get to it?"

"We can cut across that pasture."

"It's going to be muddy."

"Did you see any other places? How far is it to where Ursula Docet lives?"

"Pretty far," Brent admitted. "It's at least another two miles after turning down that street we passed."

"And that street was half a mile back, if it's even the right one." Joe crossed the street, leaped the ditch, and inspected the barbed wire fence. Calmly, he pulled one wire up, and the other down, bent over and slipped through. His jacket caught on the tendrils of a dead vine but he reached behind and pulled it free.

Brent had been standing on the edge of the ditch, gauging the distance and the slipperiness of his shoes. With Joe watching, he got a running start and cleared the ditch easily. His coat became tangled on the barbed wire fence though, and Joe was compelled to come back and hold the top wire. Once on the other side, Brent straightened his coat, useless against the cold in its sodden state, and the two men set off in the direction of the small frame house Joe had seen from the road.

They tramped along in silence, dripping hair plastered to their skulls, shoes squelching in the mud. After what seemed like miles they arrived at the house, which turned out to be just a drab little shack. Joe pounded on the door. Nothing. Brent tried to peer in a window but could see no light or movement from within. "Give it up," he said as Joe began banging on the door again. "There's no one home."

Joe slammed his fist into the door, then grabbed the knob and rattled it, to no avail. He looked around wildly, all composure gone. "Don't tell me I'm stuck out here, soaking wet, freezing my ass off in the goddamn rain because of you!"

"Hey, I didn't say we should come here," Brent said. "I wanted to stay in the truck until the rain let up, but you--"

"Shut up, damn you! Just shut the fuck up!" Joe stomped around in the mud, splashing muck up to his knees, then took another swipe at the door, bruising his knuckles this time. "If you'd have looked at the map or wiped off the goddamn window like I told you to, or better yet if you'd have just left my wife alone--" Joe stepped back and took a powerful kick at the door, throwing his weight into it with a fury that splintered the wooden frame around the lock. There was a loud popping sound as the door gave way. Joe stumbled, made a grab for the doorknob, leaned into it for support and stumbled again as the door swung inward. He stopped uncertainly in the doorway.

"Now you've done it," Brent said.

"It was an accident." His anger suddenly spent, Joe gazed in shock at the place where the frame had splintered. "Damn cheap wood."

"Right."

"It is! What the hell kind of idiot uses yellow pine on their front door?"

"Look, will you just let me in?"

Joe gave Brent a sanity-questioning stare. "What do you mean, let you in? We're closing this door and getting the hell out of Dodge, before whoever lives here comes home."

"Oh, come on. Let's at least wait it out, now that we're in. We can use their phone. We'll leave as soon as it lets up."

"Man, now I know you're nuts."

Brent pushed past him and stood dripping in the shelter of abbreviated entryway. "I'm not crazy," he said. "Just cold and wet. Now will you please shut the door?"

"Look, I know we've done a lot of shady things since we got into this whole mess, but this is going too far. Get back on this side of the door. I'll close it as well as I can, we'll go back to the truck and hope for the best."

Brent shrugged out of his coat, dropping it to the floor with a splat. "You'll be standing there waiting on me for a long time because I'm staying here until it lets up." He glanced around the quiet, dusty room. "It doesn't look like anyone really lives here, anyway. It's probably someone's second home, for when they want to get away for a little bit. I bet no one's been here in months."

"That doesn't make it right."

"What's the problem? You didn't hesitate to break into Perry's place."

"He was a crook. If he'd caught us, the worst that would've happened is we would've had to fight him. Whoever lives here is probably an honest man who'll call the cops as soon as he'd look at us."

"I'm sure if the owner was here he'd let us in, with this rain. And besides," Brent ran his fingers through his dripping hair, "to be quite honest, I really don't care anymore. Let them come and arrest me if that's what they want to do, but I'm not going back out there until I'm warm and dry and the rain has stopped."

Joe considered. "I guess if we don't mess anything up, it can't hurt to hang out here until it clears. When we leave, we'll put some money on the kitchen counter to pay for the door."