True, they’d temporarily lost track of Pickett, but picking him up again shouldn’t be too difficult. This time, once they’d located him, they’d wait until the time was just right before trying to pick him up, and he’d have real pros on the job instead of what was available locally.
But the forthcoming delay didn’t disappoint him because the failure of these men had provided him with something almost as valuable as Pickett himself: proof. He knew what had happened to this man’s pickup, because he remembered the bottle caps. He saw them popping off their rims as vividly as if the old man had given him the demonstration yesterday.
This was much better than bottle caps, however. Much better. Idly, he wondered if Pickett could do the same thing to, say, the gears that held tight the treads of a tank, or maybe the bolts attaching an airplane’s wing to its fuselage. In their failure these three sods had opened up a universe of wondrous possibilities, and every possibility had the same name: Jake Pickett.
For that reason as well as reasons of security he was inclined to be kindly toward them.
“It’s alright, you tried your best. It was an accident, that’s all.”
“Accident, hell,” said Royrader. “It wasn’t no accident.”
“And by way of compensation,” Huddy continued smoothly, “I think it only fair that you receive your promised bonuses anyway, for trying your best.”
“Excuse me, Mr. Huddy,” Lasenby began, “but are you certain that you…?”
“I’ll give you an authorization through my own office, if you prefer, Frank.”
“Whatever you think best, Mr. Huddy.” The manager was puzzled, and not a little envious of his three employees.
Royrader’s anger had dissolved instantly at Huddy’s words, though the confusion remained. “Thanks, sir. Look, if we can, we’d sure like to know if, well, if there’s something we ought to know. I mean, it was mighty funny what happened to my truck out there and—”
“You are to receive your bonus money, Mr. Royrader,” said Huddy softly.
“Yeah, but …” Royrader broke off as Snyder approached him and put a hand on his friend’s shoulder. Snyder smiled thinly at the neatly dressed representative from the coast, then looked down at his companion.
“You heard the man, Ed. Let’s get out of here, huh? We’ve got our own work to do.”
“Sure, but we should—”
“Yeah, let’s split,” said Archer, heading for the door. “Like the man said, we did our best and we blew it. We’re through with it, right?” Together he and Snyder hustled their reluctant companion out of the office, closing the door loudly behind them.
Lasenby guessed the reason behind Huddy’s unexpected largess. “You think they’ll keep their mouths shut about this like you want them to?”
“I think so, Frank. The money should do it, but even if they get drunk and start spouting off about it in some bar, no one’s likely to believe a word they say.”
“I’d sure like to know what went on out there, sir,” the manager said.
“It’s all part of a CCM experiment that’s gone a bit awry.” Huddy spoke as though confiding some important secret. “We’ve been having a few problems with it. Nothing drastic. Part of it’s due to recalcitrant employees not honoring the terms of their contracts.”
“Like maybe this old man?”
Huddy just sat there, let the manager draw his own harmless and inaccurate conclusions.
“Well,” Lasenby said, “if there’s anything else I can do to help, sir, just let me know. The home office can always count on Frank Lasenby.”
“You’ve shown me that, Frank.” Huddy rose and the manager rushed to match him. The two men shook hands. “I’ll be sure to let Headquarters know how helpful you’ve been.”
“Thank you, Mr. Huddy.” Lasenby escorted him from the office and walked him through the plant back out to his waiting rental car. Only after Huddy had disappeared through the plant gates did Lasenby begin to wonder seriously about his employees’ story. For a moment he thought of calling them back in and asking them to repeat it one more time in the absence of the intimidating presence from the West Coast. Then he shrugged, decided against it. There was his own bonus money to consider, not to mention the favorable recommendation Huddy had promised to turn in, and there was plenty to be done around the plant today. So he quickly forgot all about it.
Huddy could hardly contain his excitement as he drove back toward Phoenix. He couldn’t keep from checking out every car he passed to see if it mightn’t be a sixty-one blue and white Ford Galaxie.
He blamed himself for the failure even as he congratulated himself on what it had taught him. He’d been too anxious to get Pickett back, still envisioning the old man as a harmless quick pickup. Next time he’d plan more carefully.
There was the possibility, of course, that the three men had made up the whole story to cover their failure, but Huddy had discounted that likelihood early. The tale was too fantastic, too unbelievable to be a lie. Besides which, the three didn’t have the intelligence to make up anything so incredible.
Privately he saluted Jake Pickett, wherever the old man might be. It was nice of him to have confirmed what until now had only been Huddy’s suspicions of his potential. Out of respect for that potential, Huddy intended to see that the old man was recovered quietly and professionally this time. Maybe he’d even fly Drew out from Los Angeles. They had plenty of time in which to not make any more mistakes, and he’d feel a lot better if people he knew personally were on the job. They’d handle the recovery so that Pickett wouldn’t even have the chance to pull something like that trick with the wheels a second time.
Give the old man a day or two, let him start on his way out of Phoenix thinking he’d made good his escape. Let him relax a little. Maybe he wouldn’t even make the connection between the men in the pickup truck and CCM. Pickett didn’t strike him as much of a chess player. His other talents more than made up for that deficiency. They were talents which Huddy intended to put to his personal use.
“They tried to get me, Mandy.” Jake lay on the bed in the Motel Six and tried to convey his fear to his grandniece. “They tried to run me off the road.”
“Oh Uncle Jake,” the voice whispered sympathetically inside his head, “I’m so sorry. I warned you, though.”
“I know you did, Mandy. But it’ll be alright now. I lost ’em. Scared them a little, I think. I tried not to hurt anyone and I don’t think I did. It’ll be better when we’re together. We’ll work things out, just the two of us.”
“Yes we will, Uncle Jake. How did you get away from them?”
“I didn’t know what to do, Mandy. There were three of them and they were in a big truck. I couldn’t think of what to do. I tried to ignore them and that’s when they tried to run me off the highway. I thought of the bottle cap trick; you know, the one where I make the bottle caps slipt on the kids’ sodas? I did it with the caps holding their wheels on. They came right off and I got away from them clean. They’re not following me anymore, either. I’ve checked. I checked several times before I found this motel.”
“Calm down, Uncle Jake. It’s good that you got away from them. Where are you now?”
“In a motel. Oh, you mean what town. I’m in Phoenix. I’ll leave here early tomorrow morning. If they try to bother me again I can do the trick with their wheels. It’ll be easier next time because I’ve already done it once. Mandy, it was so easy, but it hurt me a little. In the head. I’ll be in Port Lavaca in a couple of days, if the old clunker holds up.”
“Uncle Jake?”
“What is it, Mandy?”
“I’ve been thinking about this a lot, Uncle Jake. Maybe it would be a good idea if we didn’t meet here. Port Lavaca’s so small and quiet. Maybe it would be a good idea if we met where there were lots of people around. You remember me telling you about our vacation last year?”
