Read Online Blazer Drive by Sigmund Brouwer - Free Book Online

Belkie.”
    Another man joined us. He was much smaller than the wild-haired guy. He wore tan pants and a sweater. “I’m Dan Belkie. This is my foreman, Jim Cowle.”
    â€œYes, sir,” I said. “My name is Josh Ellroy.”
    I stuck out my hand. Dan Belkie stepped forward and shook it. The big man didn’t.
    â€œEllroy,” he said. “As in Ryan Ellroy?”
    â€œYes, sir. He’s my father.”
    â€œAnd quite the rancher. Pleased to meet you. What can I help you with? You were talking about a girl?”
    â€œShe told me she was coming here to meet you. Have you seen her?”
    The big man quietly moved around behind me. I didn’t like that. But it seemed rude to say anything. What was he going to do? Jump me? Dumb thought. Even so, the skin on my neck prickled.
    â€œHaven’t seen any girl,” Dan Belkie said. His voice was soft. It sounded educated, with an English accent. “You say her name was Stephanie?”
    â€œYes.” I looked past Dan Belkie. With the big man out of the doorway, I could see a little more of the inside of the barn. I saw the bed of a pickup truck. In it was a large basket, big enough for two or three peopleto stand inside. Some ropes hung over the side of the basket.
    â€œMaybe she’s playing a joke on you,” Belkie said. “It’s a shame you had to drive all the way out here by yourself.”
    â€œActually,” I said as I jerked a thumb back over my shoulder at my parked truck, “I have a friend with me.”
    â€œOh.” Belkie shook his head. For a second, it seemed like he was looking at the big man behind me. “Well, then at least you’ll have company on your way back.”
    â€œYou’re sure,” I said, “that Stephanie never made it here?”
    â€œYoung man, are you accusing me of lying?”
    I felt my ears turn red. “I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just that—”
    I stopped. If he was lying, I wouldn’t get anywhere like this. If he wasn’t lying, I would just be making a fool of myself.
    â€œIt must be a joke,” I said. “Stephanie lives on a ranch too. She’s probably with her friends right now, killing herself with laughter.”
    Dan Belkie put his hand on my shoulder and guided me back toward the house. We walked side by side. When I headed back to my truck, he dropped his hand.
    I can take a hint. He wanted me to leave.
    â€œWell, sir,” I said as we reached the truck, “I’m sorry to have bothered you.”
    â€œNo bother,” he said. “Have a safe drive back. These mountain roads can be dangerous.”
    I felt a chill run through me. And it wasn’t from the cold mountain air. It was from the way he said it.

Chapter Eighteen
    â€œWhat’s going on?” Luke asked.
    I didn’t answer until I had driven out of the yard and we were on the long drive back to the main road.
    â€œWeird stuff,” I said. “They told me Stephanie never made it there.”
    â€œMaybe she changed her mind,” Luke said.
    â€œMaybe.” Luke had not been there at the doorway to know how strange it had been.
    The men had seemed like hunters, eyeing me as if I were a deer in their gunsights.
    I thought of the pickup truck inside the barn. “Luke, what would you do with a basket big enough to hold three people?”
    â€œIs this a riddle?”
    â€œNo.” I described what I had seen.
    â€œOh,” he said. “It’s probably from a hot-air balloon. Especially if it’s in the back of a truck.”
    â€œHot-air balloon?”
    â€œMy parents took me for a ride in one as a present on my sixteenth birthday. The guys who pilot the balloon need a way to get the balloon to and from their launch site. They load the basket in the truck. Plus the empty, folded up balloon. Plus the gas burner.”
    I was driving slowly because my mind was working on