19 Chapter 19

“Speaking of missing things, I hear you had a bad thing happen with your fancy red Jeep.”

“What?”

“Someone sliced through your brakes.”

“Where did you hear that?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Rumors fly like bats out of a cave when the sun goes down in this burg.”

He’s fishing again, Bond thought. I now see he’s a gossip. It was Bond’s turn to force a laugh. “The thing about rumors is they’re usually grossly exaggerated or cut out of whole cloth.”

“I don’t know. Sounds like someone wants you gone. I’d be careful if I were you.”

This time, Bond’s laugh was genuine. If Marshall had the slightest inkling of the measures being taken to protect him and keep him here, he’d feel foolish. Even Bond felt foolish…and annoyed since the subject had come up. “Who could possibly want me gone, Marshall? I’ve hardly been here long enough for someone to want me to move to the valley. And if anyone had ‘sliced’ my brakes, as you put it, I’d be dead and they’d be facing a murder charge.”