Security Breach
Page 4
But Dash had taken it to an entirely different level.
He’d targeted the small towns, the towns that couldn’t and wouldn’t purchase such a policy. He’d dared to take on the agency.
Nora trudged back down to the house.
She was sitting in a rocking chair on the porch, cleaning her gun, when Ben walked out.
“Do you have a plan?”
“Yes.” She tried not to take offense to the question. “The first thing I need is for you to take me to a car rental place.”
“We don’t have one.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean Shipshe’s too small. The closest car rental place is in South Bend, and I can’t go that far in a buggy. In general we only use horses to travel a few miles.”
“How do you get around if you need to go farther than a few miles?”
“We hire Englisch drivers. I could walk to the phone shack and call one for you.”
She stared at him in disbelief for a moment, but finally shook her head.
“Forget it. Can you take me to the market downtown?”
“Ya. Sure.”
When they were nearly to town, she cleared her throat. “Look. You’ve been a lot of help, but just drop me off.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because this is my job. It isn’t yours.”
“I get that, but...well, it seems we’re in this together.”
“How do you figure?”
“You lost a partner last night.”
“Are you offering to step up?”
“Sure. Why not? We’re already off to a better start today than yesterday. You haven’t threatened to shoot me once.”
“Give it time.”
“See? We get along swell, and besides...if I’m with you, and if Dash is looking for you, I might be able to pick him out of a crowd—like one of those games. You know the ones. What doesn’t belong here?”
“That’s our Dash all right.”
But they didn’t find anything at the market, or in the crowds of tourists going from shop to shop, or in the restaurants. Nora gave Ben one of the radios and showed him how to use it, but the only time he called her was to see if she wanted one of JoJo’s Pretzels.
They’d agreed to meet back at the buggy at noon. She got there first, and when she saw him hurrying toward her, she knew something had happened.
“It’s Atlee. He’s got something. Wants us to meet him at the Yoder place, out beyond my farm.”
“How do you know that?”
“Atlee told Jeremiah and Caleb, who he knew would be working their booths and would probably see me.”
“You people don’t even need phones.”
“Exactly.”
“Though they’d be more efficient.”
“You think?”
“Trust me.”