They'd been over this a hundred times already, through every mile of the drive from Sharperville, and Cal knew it was her nerves talking.

"Eat your doughnut, Jamie. You haven't had anything all day."

She looked at it and made a face. "I can't," she said. "It would make me sick. Here, you eat it." She handed it to Cal.

He gave up trying to get some food into her and scarfed it down himself.

"Where's Elaine?" She was fidgeting with the edge of her coffee cup, picking at the rim with her fingernails. "She said she'd be here by eight." She squinted down the broad, untrafficked expanse of Main Street.

On a Sat.u.r.day night, the Main Street in Flintlock was pretty quiet. There was a movie theater in town, but it didn't do much business anymore. All the stores closed early, except for the big Kmart, but that was down at the other end of town, where Main Street curved around to join back up with the freeway, and it wasn't even visible from the courthouse parking lot.

Even as Cal was about to say that if Elaine said eight o'clock, she'd be there by eight o'clock, a dusty swirl appeared in the distance, coming off the freeway, and only moments later the silver Lexus was rolling toward them. It turned sharply into the parking lot and pulled up to a fast stop next to Cal's truck.

Elaine French, looking crisp in black patent pumps and black pantsuit with a white silk lining, got out of the car. She smoothed the jacket neatly in place over the white silk blouse and walked around to Jamie's side of the truck. She was carrying a black leather attache case and she lifted the case for them to see.

"I have your affidavits here. We have a few minutes before our meeting. Read through these papers and if everything's okay, sign them." She opened the case, resting it on the hood of Cal's truck, and handed the doc.u.ments to them. Then she removed her notary stamp and seal from the case. "As soon as you've signed them, I'll notarize them. Take your time. I'll wait here and check out the local scenery."

It had been two years since Jamie had been in a courthouse but this time it was different. First of all, this time she had a fighting team with her. They flanked her, Cal to her right and Elaine to her left, as they entered through the big gla.s.s doors at the front of the building. Second, the man who opened the door for them and introduced himself as Judge Prescott was not old and crabbed and tired, as Judge Joyner had been. This was a much younger man-not more than forty years old-and he had close-cropped reddish hair and a wiry mustache, which gave him a bristly, lively look. He was wearing casual clothes, jeans and a plaid shirt, and he led them down the carpeted hall to his chambers at a brisk pace. They pa.s.sed the gla.s.s doors of the clerks' offices and a drinking fountain and wooden benches that had been varnished to a super shine. The judge stopped them in front of an unmarked door, just beyond a huge historical painting that depicted the early settlers' arrival in the area.

"Hold on just a minute," Judge Prescott said. "I've got to get my court reporter. The poor woman thought she could get away from me at least for the weekend, but when you called, I dragged her away from her rose garden. No one in this county grows roses like Betty Burnitz."

He opened the door and they had a brief glimpse of a lounge area, with more gray-patterned carpet and dark gray couch and a coffee urn. A fifty-ish woman with tightly curled, auburn-dyed hair, looked up at them. She was about to put her cup onto the low table in front of her.

"We're ready now, Betty. Bring your coffee if you like."

"That's okay, Judge," she said, leaving the cup behind. She followed them to chambers.

In the years to come, Jamie would not be able to describe the interior of the judge's chambers, except that she would remember the blue and gold state flag standing tall behind the judge, who had taken his place behind a very large desk, and the American flag near the window, where the drapes had been closed against the setting sun. The judge pointed to chairs across his desk for Elaine and Jamie. Cal took a seat near the window. They all waited a few minutes while Betty set up her computer. At her signal, Judge Prescott began.

"All right," he said. opening the file and crossing his hands over it. "We're ready to begin."

In a mechanical tone that reflected the many hundreds of times he had done this, he read off the case name and docket number, and Betty's fingers began their flight over the keyboard. Then he looked up at Elaine who was facing him across the desk.

"Okay, counselor. What have we got here?"

Elaine had the affidavits and other motion papers ready for him. She closed her case, put it on the floor and put the papers on his desk.

"We're moving for a temporary restraining order, Your Honor. Although custody was originally awarded to the plaintiff-that is, the father, in this case-the affidavits will show that the child is now threatened with immediate and irreparable injury if she is required to remain with her father."

Elaine's tone was modulated, direct, competent, experienced. She was comfortable with the language of the law. By contrast, Jamie was sure everyone in the room could hear the rapid thumping of her own heart and see her fingers, gone white at the knuckles, gripping the bra.s.s-studded leather arms of her chair. She felt the cold sweat of the worst case of nerves she had ever known.

For the record, Elaine told the judge what he already knew, that in this state the fundamental principle in custody matters was that the best interests of the child are always held to prevail over all other considerations. Then, in a less formal manner, she reviewed the highlights of the evidence contained in the affidavits, emphasizing the dangers that Mandy was being exposed to. Then she moved on to the next element of the motion.

"In addition, Your Honor, as the affidavits state, there has been a material change in the circ.u.mstances of the parties since the decree was entered two years ago."

Jamie's hand started to tremble and she put it in her lap, hoping to keep it steady. Her eyes were locked on Judge Prescott's face, searching for a clue to what he was thinking, but except for his first quick glance at her as Elaine began her statements, she couldn't see that he paid her a lick of attention through the whole proceeding. He put a few questions to Elaine while he skimmed through the papers, and it seemed to Jamie that her lawyer and the judge were speaking a private, technical language.

Then he stopped skimming and, while they all sat silently he carefully read Jamie's and Cal's affidavits concerning everything that had happened in the last few days, including what Mandy had told Jamie about Ray and Tina, and what Cal had found in Ray's trailer.

Finally, he stopped reading and looked at Cal for a long minute, while he pinched at his chin thoughtfully. At last, tilting himself way back in his big swivel arm chair, he spoke.

"I want to go off the record," he said, and immediately Betty stopped transcribing. Jamie felt her heart drop.

The judge continued to study Cal intently, looking him up and down, as though he was measuring him. He said, "Calvin Cameron. Cal Cameron." He repeated the words a couple of times, obviously trying to place the name. Cal was rotating his hat nervously in his hands and the judge had a sudden image of a handsome young man in the bright sunlight, raising his hat triumphantly to a cheering crowd.

"Didn't I see you maybe a couple of summers ago? Up in Cheyenne, at the big Frontier Days rodeo?"

"Yes, sir. That was probably me, sir."

"I remember. You had one h.e.l.l of a day. As I recall, you went home a big winner that day."

"I guess I did, sir. Yes, sir." Cal was beginning to squirm in his chair, embarra.s.sed. He was spinning the hat still more nervously.

"I've always had a lot of respect for rodeo cowboys," Judge Prescott said. "I did a little rodeo myself back in high school."

He said nothing more for a while, and the silence in the room became intense. He was apparently thinking long and hard.

"Young man," he said to Cal, peering intently at him. "I'm satisfied that the information contained in your affidavit is accurate and will be supported by the evidence. And I'm not going to make a fuss and ask how you got it. In a case like this, where the safety of a young child is concerned and where the possibility of serious harm is very genuine, I'm inclined to look the other way, so long as the evidence satisfies me. I presume you are prepared to face the consequences of a possible charge of trespa.s.s." He paused momentarily and chuckled. "Trespa.s.s, at the very least."

Cal only nodded and said, "Yes, sir. I am."

"Okay," Judge Prescott said. Without turning to look at his reporter, he said, "Let's go back on the record." Betty's fingers began to whirr again, and the judge turned to Elaine.

"Counsel, as far as I'm concerned, this evidence is adequate, pending a search pursuant to a duly executed warrant. It is my understanding that you will also subpoena the medical records for the civil action."

"Yes, Your Honor."

They talked some more technical talk and finally, while Jamie's heart raced excitedly, the judge unscrewed the top from his fountain pen.

"All right," he said, "I have no problem with this order."

He leaned forward again and put his signature on the precious piece of paper that Elaine had prepared for him.

"Here you are, Ms. Sundstrom." He pa.s.sed the paper across the desk to Jamie, whose hand was still shaking as she took it from him. She hadn't spoken a word since they'd walked in, and she wondered if the whole proceeding could have been conducted without her.

"Thank you, Your Honor." She was surprised that any words at all came out of her nerve-choked throat. "Thank you."

For the first time, the judge smiled at her. "That's all there is to it, ma'am. Now, you go on home," he said, "and get your little girl."

Outside, in the parking lot, Elaine took the temporary restraining order out of Jamie's fingers, folded it and slipped it into an envelope that she took from her attache case, and handed it back to Jamie.

Jamie was still looking a little stunned by how it had all turned out. She wanted to say thank you, but Elaine saw it coming and headed her off.

"It's nice, isn't it," she said, "when the legal system works the way it should?"

No one had a chance to say anything. She put a quick kiss on Jamie's cheek, another on Cal's, gave them each a hearty handshake, and was back in her big Lexus.

"Go get 'em, kids," she called out, waving happily at them, and she was away down Main Street, raising a cloud of dust as she went.

Cal watched her speed off toward the interstate and shook his head, laughing.

"Just like the Lone Ranger," he said. "Hi-ho Silver, and away."

"That's just what I was thinking," Jamie said as she climbed into his truck.

Chapter Twenty.

He tried to get her to take a quick break for dinner as they returned through Jimson. "How about it, Jamie? You haven't had any solid food in you all day."

"I can't, Cal. I can't stop." The envelope with the restraining order was folded up inside her shirt pocket and she touched her fingertips to it repeatedly, as though it was a lucky charm. "I'm not hungry at all. I just want us to get back to Mandy as fast as we can. It's been a whole day Ray's had her, and I promised her, Cal. I promised her she wouldn't have to be with him. And now it's been since last night and G.o.d knows what he's done with her. I know she's scared and she's counting on me to come and get her. I can't stop to eat. I couldn't eat anything anyway. I'm too nervous."

"Well, we're just coming up on the Chevron station at the end of town, and I have to stop to fill up the tank. So why don't you run the gas and I'll hustle on inside and pick us up some candy bars and maybe some juice or something. Isn't good for you to be going all day without any food. Never know when you need your strength. Won't be but a minute."

As long as they needed gas, Jamie was willing to agree if it really didn't take but a minute, so while Cal paid for a handful of granola bars, a couple of packets of beef jerky, and some cartons of juice, she filled up the tank. They were out of there and on their way in ten minutes.

The sack of food was on the floor at her feet, and she pulled out a granola bar and showed him, for his approval, that she'd do the right thing and get some food into her. She peeled back the paper and took a bite. She kept it down, and she finished off some juice and stick of jerky.

While she ate, Cal kept the truck moving fast and steady along the wide open road that ran, unbending, like a painted line, inside the bright walls of his headlights. Only once did Cal have to swerve wide-to avoid a fawn that sprinted down the center of the road ahead of them, too confused to run into the shrubbery, while its mother ran desperately along the opposite side. The moon appeared and disappeared as a new front of clouds, wind-driven and moving rapidly, was building above them, threatening the next storm's arrival in a few hours. Cal switched on the radio to check the weather forecast, and then left it on, so music played a soft background as they talked, while the high country raced past them.

"Things have been moving so fast," Jamie said, "I haven't even thought, where am I going to stay with Mandy after I get her?"

"You don't want to take her to your place, I guess."

"No way. Not even for one night. She doesn't even know her grandfather, and I'm not going to have her meet him this way. But I just started looking for a place this week, and I didn't expect to be needing it all this soon."

"Well, shoot, honey. I don't even have to ask Ellie and Harv. I know you and Mandy can stay at their place. They've got a guest room, and I can bunk down anywhere at all, easy."

"Well, maybe for a couple of days, just till I get things worked out."

The shift in her life-all set in motion so quickly, much more quickly than she'd had time to plan for-began to present itself alarmingly, with demands and consequences she hadn't thought to sort out yet.

"Maybe for a couple of days anyway," she said again. "Maybe I could take a little more time, maybe Gordie would understand, and maybe Ellie would be willing to keep an eye on Mandy while I look for a place. It's just a couple of days."

"Why, sure she would. If I know my big sister, she'd just love to tuck another little one into her nest."

"Or maybe I can take Mandy with me. Might be fun for us to pick out our own new home together. Oh, G.o.d, Cal, I'm going to have Mandy with me." Jamie closed her eyes and rested her head back against the seat behind her. "Every day. Get to tuck her in again at night and read to her. Dress her in the morning and brush her hair." She opened her eyes and looked over at Cal. "That judge is going to make it permanent, isn't he?"

"I think you can count on it." Without taking his eyes from the road, he reached over to her and put his arm around her, pulling her close to him.

"Why don't you come over here," he said. "It's been a real tough day. You ought to just close your eyes and rest a little bit. Do you good."

"I couldn't. I'm too wound up."

But she did-she couldn't help herself-and she snuggled up against him anyway, and in a minute or two the whisper of the road beneath them and the comfort of his arm and the cool night air on her face all worked their nighttime magic, and she did indeed doze off.

It was well after ten o'clock when they reached Sharperville. In another minute, they'd turned east on Eighth South and were heading for the trailer.

Jamie took the restraining order from her pocket.

When he opens that door and he sees me, and Cal is standing there next to me so that sonofab.i.t.c.h can't pull anything funny on me, and when I show him that paper- She was breathing fast now as Cal pulled the truck up into the dirt at the front of the trailer. The light at the kitchen end of the trailer was on and behind the curtains of the living room window the intermittent gray light of the television was visible.

"You're coming with me, aren't you, Cal?"

"You bet I am. We're just going to get her and leave. I'm not even turning off the motor."

They both got out of the truck and went to the door. Cal stood to one side, while Jamie knocked. She had the restraining order out of its envelope, unfolded and ready to show to Ray.

Here, she could say, here, you sonofab.i.t.c.h, take a look at this.

"What if he refuses?" she whispered.

"Don't worry, honey. If you have to, you just go back to the truck and call the deputy sheriff. Shouldn't be any fuss. And as long as I'm here, Ray's not going anywhere. Al Crosby's a smart fellow and a good deputy. He'll know how to make Ray listen to reason."

They waited another moment in the silence. She didn't like it, how quiet everything was. She knocked again. Someone moved inside and the light in the kitchen went out. She looked at Cal, suddenly alarmed.

The truck's headlights were behind him and Cal's face was shadowed, but she could see that his eyes had narrowed and that his expression had grown very serious. He set his hat forward, and then spoke to her, very quietly.

"Get into the truck, Jamie. Back it away from here and turn off the lights. Keep the motor running and wait for me."

She didn't ask any questions and she didn't argue with him. She turned and ran for the truck, getting in behind the wheel. Quickly, she folded up the judge's order, returned it to its envelope, and b.u.t.toned it into her shirt pocket. Then she backed the truck away, out of sight.

Cal didn't like the feel of this. He'd given a quick thought to getting his Smith and Wesson out of the truck, but if Mandy was in there, there couldn't be a gunfight. He flattened himself up against the front of the trailer, to the side of the door that would open away from him, and waited. He knew that Jamie's knock must have provoked some curiosity, and in a little while someone would stick a head out that door to investigate. With a little luck, this would be his chance to meet up with Ray Nixon. He could feel all his reflexes getting set. He'd just have to remember that if the little girl was there, he'd have to keep it quiet. Wouldn't do to scare her, and Jamie would never forgive him. But if Mandy wasn't there- He kept his breathing slow, getting ready.

Just have to be careful not to kill the sonofab.i.t.c.h.

A minute pa.s.sed and then, just as he'd expected, the door cracked and a man's lanky figure filled in the narrow opening. The television's light revealed his face.

d.a.m.n it! Wrong man!

Cal recognized Orrin Fletcher's ragged face. With his left hand, Cal pushed the door fully open and with his right, he slammed hard against Fletcher's chest, throwing him backward into the living room. Fletcher stumbled, landed awkwardly on the sofa, and sat there dumbly, like a man just looking up from his television program.

Cal, standing in the doorway, lifted his hand to one side and flicked on the light switch. He looked around quickly. No sign of the little girl. The man on the sofa looked at him as though he couldn't believe his bad luck.

"Jeez, what are you doing? Following me around?"

"Maybe I should be. What are you doing here? And where's Nixon?" Cal watched him warily. The man didn't appear to be armed, but there were a lot of weapons around this place.