Page 129 of For the Birds

Chapter26

The junkyard wason the west side of town, just outside the city limits. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad one considering Joe was a whole lot more perceptive than the Henryetta Police Department. It was close to seven, which meant we barely had an hour left before James met Buck Reynolds.

“Do you think they’ll really meet?” I asked.

“I think somebody’s gonna show somewhere.”

“Meaning?”

“Meanin’ Skeeter will show up to get his brother back, but Reynolds . . . I can see him cuttin’ and runnin’. Especially if you’re right and he doesn’t have him. And Skeeter will hunt Reynolds down and demand for him to hand over his brother. Make no mistake of that,” Jed said, looking through his binoculars at the junkyard. “Maybe we’re scopin’ out the wrong place. Maybe we should head down to the warehouse where they tookyou.”

“It’ll take over a half hour to get there. Do we really want to take the chance? How about we follow James?”

“He’ll notice. And it won’t stop him,” Jed said. “We need Scooter.”

He continued to study the junkyard, but I was nearly jumping out of my skin. “I have a really bad feeling about all of this,” I said, a panic attack brewing.

“Me too, but we’re trying to fixit.”

I shook my head. “No. I’m sure James is walkin’ into atrap.”

Jed lowered his binoculars and held out his hand to me. “Look.”

I grabbed his hand and tried to slow my breathing so I could focus. I closed my eyes and asked if James was being set up. After a few seconds, I saw James lying on the ground in a puddle of blood with multiple gunshot wounds.

My vision ended and I said, “Someone’s gonna kill James.”

“What did yousee?”

Nausea washed over me. “His dead body. He’d been shot multiple times.”

“Where washe?”

I tried not to give in to my panic. I needed to focus if I wanted to save him. “I don’t remember. All I remember is hisbody.”

“Try it again and pay attention to your surroundings thistime.”

My eyes burned as I closed them again and focused on whether or not James was walking into a trap. His dead body was there again, but the surroundings were dark, and I couldn’t make anythingout.

“Someone’s goin’ to kill James,” I repeated when my vision wasover.

“Anything this time?” Jed asked.

I shook my head and my voice broke when I said, “No. I couldn’t see anything buthim.”

Jed was silent for a moment. Then he finally said, “I’m goin’ in to look for Scooter.”

“I’m comin’ withyou.”

“No,” he said in a direct tone. “I know you mean well, Rose, but this will go faster if I do it on myown.”

I wanted to argue, but I was still shaken up over the visions. “Okay,” I said. “But check in, would you? Let me know what’s goin’ on.”

“Okay, I will. I’ll be back.” Then he got out of the car and strode toward the junkyard like he owned the place. Once he got to the gate, two large, vicious dogs began jumping against the fence, snarling and snapping, but Jed Tased them and they fell to the ground.

He scaled the fence and soon disappeared behind a row of smashedcars.

I was surprised I hadn’t heard from Neely Kate, and I knew I needed to let her know what was going on, so I calledher.

---