Free White Thunder by Aimée Thurlo Page B

bareback lesson. Before Dawn could chatter on, Ella got serious. “Pumpkin, I have to work late tonight and maybe tomorrow too. Someone’s lost and I’ve got to help find him.”
    “Okay.” Dawn said, then added, “CanI ride Wind one more time before dinner?”
    Ella sighed. Sometimes she had the distinct feeling that if Dawn had to choose between her and Wind, the pony would win. “Ask Boots,” Ella said, referring to Dawn’s baby-sitter, “and your shimasání,” she added, using the Navajo word for “grandmother.” “Whatever they say is fine with me.” Ella heard Dawn drop the phone and run off to talk to Boots.
    Asecond later Rose picked up the receiver. “She really does miss you,” Rose said gently, guessing what had gone through
Ella’s mind. “It’s just that she knows you’ll be home sooner or later, and, in the meantime, she has Boots and me. Remember that time doesn’t mean as much to her as it does to older folks like us.”
    “Mom, if something comes up while I’m working on this case and you find that neitherBoots nor you can stay with my daughter, call her father and ask him to help.”
    “We’ll manage. Don’t worry about us.”
    “Thanks, Mom.”
    The sun was resting atop the Carrizo Mountains when a pale brown or gold SUV passed her at high speed, racing east. A blinding glare reflected off the rear window, and even though she’d been wearing sunglasses, Ella had to take her foot off the gas and concentrateto keep her unit in the lane. With bright dots still dancing in her eyes—much like the aftereffects of a flashbulb—she looked ahead, hoping to catch a better description of the SUV, and maybe the license plate.
    The vehicle—from the size and shape a Ford Excursion—was still accelerating, and Ella saw it whip around and pass a pickup loaded with firewood less than an eighth of a mile ahead. Theglare must have blinded the pickup’s driver as well because he hit the brakes hard and swerved, wobbling in the lane and spilling a dozen or more split logs onto the highway. The chunks of wood struck the pavement at forty-five miles an hour, bouncing and flipping end-over-end like bark-covered footballs.
    Ella tapped the brakes heavily, trying to slow enough to maneuver around the logs, whichbounced randomly all across the highway. She had to pull hard to the right to avoid a particularly large chunk tumbling right toward the center of her onrushing vehicle.
    Due to the extra-wide tire on the back left, the rear end fluttered and lifted up off the pavement on the right side as the unit reacted to her abrupt maneuvers. She compensated quickly, but a chunk of wood struck a front tireand the vehicle shuddered. With all four tires making contact again, and no oncoming vehicles, Ella pumped the brakes, easing off onto the shoulder, needing only a last-minute adjustment to avoid a rolling log.
    Her heart beating a hundred times a minute, Ella glanced up, and through a big cloud of slowly clearing dust, saw that the pickup with the firewood had run off the road. It had also takenout a section of wire fence along the way, finally coming to a stop fifty yards into the brush. From her angle, she couldn’t see the front end, but the vehicle was upright and looked intact.
    Ella called it in with her radio, then ran to check on the driver. As she approached the oversized white four-door truck, her blood turned to ice. The pickup belonged to Herman Cloud, her mother’s friend,and hers too.
    “Herman!” she yelled, then breathed a sigh of relief when she saw him step out of the truck slowly and turn back to look at all the scattered firewood. He wasn’t injured as far as she could see, but he looked angry as hell.
    “The people in that big Ford are crazy!” he called out to her. “Did you see what happened? That stupid game of theirs caused all this! They should be arrested!”
    “Game … you don’t mean glare?”
    “There was someone in the back of the SUV wearing a red cap