The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman

Author:Tony Hillerman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Mystery, Suspense, Adult, Western
ISBN: 9780061795206
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 1970-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

> 13 <

IT WAS A little more than an hour after daylight when McKee heard the car puttering up the canyon, its exhaust leaving a faint wake of echoes from the cliffs. Canfield had said Miss Leon would be driving a Volkswagen and this sounded like one. It certainly didn’t have the throaty roar of whatever it was the man who had stalked him had driven away in the night before.

McKee moved out of the thicket of willows where he had been lying, and prepared himself for a moment he had been dreading. If the car which would soon round the corner ahead was a Volkswagen he would wave it to a stop. If the driver was Miss Leon, she would be confronted with the startling spectacle of a large man with a badly torn shirt, a bruised and swollen face, and an injured hand, who would tell her a wild, irrational story of being spooked out of his bed by a werewolf, and who would order her to turn around and flee with him out of the canyon. McKee had thought of this impending confrontation for hours, ever since it had occurred to him that he couldn’t simply escape from this canyon—and whatever crazy danger it held—and go for help to find Canfield. To do so would be to leave Miss Leon to face whatever he was running from.

The car which came around the cliff into view was a baby-blue Volkswagen sedan, driven by a young woman with dark hair. McKee trotted down the slope onto the hard-packed sand, signaling it to stop.

The Volkswagen slowed. McKee saw the woman staring at him, her eyes very large. And then, suddenly, she spun the wheel, the rear wheels spurted sand, and the car roared past him.

“Miss Leon,” McKee screamed. “Stop.”

The Volkswagen stopped.

McKee ran to it and pulled at the door. It was locked. He looked through the window. The girl sat huddled against the door on the driver’s side, frightened eyes in a pale face.

McKee cursed inwardly, tried to pull his gaping shirt together, and tapped on the window.

“Miss Leon,” he said. “I’m Bergen McKee. I was supposed to meet you here. Dr. Canfield and I.”

The girl, obviously, couldn’t understand him. McKee repeated it all, shouting this time, conscious that the man with the machine pistol must have heard the Volkswagen and might now be taking aim.

The girl leaned across the front seat and pulled up the lock button; McKee was inside in an instant.

“Start turning the car around,” McKee ordered. “Head it out of here.”

“What’s wrong?” Miss Leon said. “Where’s Dr. Canfield?”

“Drive,” McKee ordered. “Turn it around and drive and I’ll explain.”

Miss Leon backed the car across the sand, cut the wheel sharply, and pulled the Volks back on the track. McKee opened his door and leaned out, staring back up the canyon. Nothing moved. He looked at Miss Leon, trying to decide how to start.

“What’s wrong?” she asked again. “What are we doing?”

She looked less frightened, but now as he turned toward her she saw the bruised side of his face, with the dried blood.

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