speeding?”
“Not really. Maybe a couple of miles over the limit. I was trying to hurry.”
“Only you could get pulled over for speeding in the middle of freaking nowhere in an RV, Ty.”
There was still barely enough shoulder for Tyler to safely pull off on. A regular car, sure, even a semitruck with an experienced driver behind the wheel. But not this top-heavy land yacht, with the toad, and a frantic Tyler driving.
“Slow down and put your emergency blinkers on so he knows you see him back there,” Tom said. He spotted an overpass about a mile ahead of them. Usually they had more room along the shoulder. “Pull over at that overpass.”
* * * *
Del’s radio went off, paging him. He responded. A fellow trooper reported, “Del, I think I just saw your BOLO going westbound. I’m in the middle of a traffic stop. Do you want me to pursue?”
“No, I’ll get them. It’s not an emergency. Where are you?”
“Just west of White Lake. Eastbound lane.”
“Roger. Unit Eighteen out.” He hung up the mic and flipped on his lights and siren as he sped up. “He’s only about five minutes ahead of us,” he told Nevvie and Andrew.
“Thank god,” Nevvie said.
Sure enough, it didn’t take long for them to catch up. “Why isn’t he pulling over?” Andrew wondered aloud.
“He’s probably scared to,” Nevvie said. “Afraid I’ll kill him. Which I will.”
Del laughed. “No, more like he can’t.” He pointed at the shoulder. “He probably thinks he doesn’t have enough shoulder here to safely pull over. They’re widening I-90 and improving things, but they haven’t made it this far, yet.” He pointed at an overpass ahead of them. “He’ll probably pull over there.”
“Can I claim justifiable homicide?” Nevvie snarked.
Del laughed. “I would.”
* * * *
Tom breathed a sigh of relief when they slowed as they neared the overpass. Sure enough, there was a slightly wider shoulder there, so Tyler could pull over. Tyler put the RV in park and headed for the door.
Tom reached out a hand. “You sure you want to go out there?”
“What?”
“Dude, that’s probably Nevvie and Dad getting out of the backseat. Lucky for you, she’s not armed.”
Tom opened the door as the trooper stepped up to it. “Are you Mr. Paulson?” he asked.
Tom laughed. “No, thank god.” He hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “He’s in there. How pissed off is she?”
Nevvie stormed up, followed by Andrew, who carried the shopping bags. “I left pissed off about twenty minutes ago,” she said. “The only reason I’m not homicidal is because I have a law enforcement officer as a witness. Tyler! Get your ass out here!”
Tyler nervously stuck his head out of the door. “Love, I’m so—”
“Don’t you ‘love’ me, you son of a bitch! What the hell did you think you were doing?”
“I’m sorry, Nevvie. Truly I am!”
The trooper looked amused. “I’m guessing no real murder is going to occur?”
“No,” Nevvie said. “I won’t kill him. But he’s gonna wish I had by the time I get done with him.”
Tom tried not to laugh, knowing it would only piss her off more. Boy, wet-cat-mad didn’t even come close to describing her mood. Poor Tyler would be lucky if she let him near her for a week or more. “Baby girl, he feels really bad about it.”
“He’ll feel worse before I’m done with him!”
The trooper laughed as he scribbled a phone number on a business card and handed it to Nevvie. “Seriously, if you make it back our way, the offer for dinner is good. We have enough room you can park in our yard for a couple of days and hook up to electric, grab showers, whatever.”
Nevvie took the business card. Her expression softened. “Thank you, Del. We really appreciate it. It’ll be a couple of weeks though. We’re going to tour Yellowstone before we head to Seattle for the book fair and then come back.”
“No problem. Looking forward to it.” He tipped his
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