Free Just Past Oysterville: Shoalwater Book One by Perry P. Perkins

the driver’s door of the
cab. Suddenly he stiffened and Cassie heard a hissing gasp of
surprise and then the clutching hand was gone and, with it, her
terrified paralysis.
    With a sob of relief, she leaped forward,
out of that horrible shadow and smell and toward the light. She
started for the café, but something made her turn, some curiosity
that would not be satisfied until she had seen what was happening
there in the shadows.
    In the dim place between the two trucks,
Cassie could just make out the lean, frozen form of her attacker,
just behind him stood another figure, slightly shorter and
stockier.
    As her eyes adjusted, she saw that it was
Jack standing behind the malodorous stranger. One arm curled across
the taller man’s chest and the other…Cassie saw a dull glint at the
man’s throat and realized that Jack’s other hand held that oddly
shaped knife that he had used to peel the apple.
    Now it rested firmly beneath the truckers
left jaw.
    Above the soft hum of the overhead lamps,
Cassie could hear Jack whispering softly into the man’s ear. There
was a pause and the stranger suddenly flinched and with a gasp,
began to nod his head rapidly.
    Jack began to whisper again, through clenched teeth, and her
attacker stuttered something in reply. Jack lowered the arm that
was crossing the taller man’s chest and reached his hand beneath
the leather jacket, pulling a small automatic pistol from the man’s
belt. After another brief whisper, the trucker reached slowly into
his pocket and retrieved a ring of keys, which jingled sharply in
his quaking grip. These he tossed toward Cassie, who jumped back in
surprise as the rattling keys hit the pavement at her
feet.
    “ Kid,” Jack called softly,
“are you okay?”
    “ I think so…” Cassie
replied, her voice quavering a bit.
    “ Good girl, here’s what I
want you to do. Pick up those keys and go around the far side of
this truck, the one to your right. We’re going to meet you at the
back end of the trailer. Can you do that?”
    “ I think
so…yeah.”
    “ Good girl,” he said again,
his soothing voice belying the tension in the air, “hurry up now,
kid.”
    Cassie bent and picked up the keys, almost
pitching forward as her head swam with vertigo. On the third try,
her sweeping fingers managed to catch the heavy silver ring and she
scooped up the keys and straightened, taking a deep ragged breath.
When Cassie reached the far end of the trailer, Jack was standing
there waiting. In his hand was the shiny automatic he had pulled
from the stranger’s belt. The trucker was leaning against the huge
double-doors, his bony, tattooed arms sticking out from the sleeves
of his jacket and his hands resting against the dusty back of the
trailer.
    Cassie saw that he wore a greasy pair of
blue jeans and worn black cowboy boots as well. Jack stood several
feet behind the man, with the pistol aimed at his back; he took the
key ring from Cassie and tossed it onto the wide bumper of the
trailer.
    Wordlessly the truck driver picked up the
keys and, selecting one, reached up with a shaking hand and opened
the heavy padlock that held the door.
    This done he swung the door wide and climbed
up inside. As soon as he was in the back of the empty trailer, Jack
stepped up and quickly relocked the padlock, sealing the driver
inside his own trailer.
    Jack turned to Cassie, searching her eyes
for panic, and then nodded crisply.
    Okay,” he said, “time to move along.”
    They walked quickly to the van, where Jack
unlocked Cassie’s door and then climbed into the driver’s seat. The
engine started easily, idling into a soft smooth hum confirming
Cassie’s first assessment that, despite the van’s road-weary
appearance, it was well maintained.
    Jack pulled out of the parking spot and
drove slowly back towards the café.
    “ First things first,” he
said, and removed the trucker’s pistol from his pocket. Pressing a
small button on the grip, he popped the magazine out into his