Deep in the Night, in the Parking Lot
“Hey, buddy! You want to tell us what you are doing here.”
The voice wasn’t unexpected. The crunching of the tires on gravel woke Stephen up from the light dozing he was doing as he lay on the gear in the back of the truck. He was very careful not to move anything except his eyes at first. No reason to get them startled. He didn’t need to add any more openings to his body.
“Officers, I and my two companions who are asleep in the cab of the truck, didn’t want to move around after dark with the curfew. So, we stopped here for some sleep, figuring to move on at sunrise.”
At this, he saw one of the two officers, a male, move to one side so he could see the cab of the truck better while his partner, a woman, continued to do the talking.
“You shouldn’t be out at all. You should have stayed at home.”
“Love to, officer, but my home is about fifteen-hundred miles north of here. That’s where we are headed.”
“And the other two in the truck?”
“My brother and sister. Our mom’s house is gone, and they are coming north with me. No house to stay in to avoid curfew, so we figured stopped was better than you seeing someone driving around.”
“Sounds like a real convenient story.” Her partner said, not taking his eyes off the cab.
Stephen prayed real hard Sam and Gabe paid attention to what he said earlier about not moving anything, not even twitching, and sleeping with their hands in the open, where someone could see they were empty.
“Sometimes the truth is like that. I know better than to screw with you guys.”
“Professional curtesy?” the woman asked, her hand still not off of the pistol at her side. Neither was her partner’s.
‘Here was the tricky part.’ Stephen thought as he spoke.
“Yeah, I basically tried to put myself in your shoes, tried to make sure I didn’t do anything too stupid, and stay away from any actions I would have issue with in my jurisdiction.”
“Your jurisdiction?”
“Yeah. I’m federal law enforcement up in Washington state.”
“Sounds squirrely. If he was Federal, then why didn’t he ID himself earlier?” the male cop asked his partner.
“Because I’m way outside my jurisdiction, and here as a civilian. I didn’t figure you guys needed another asshole trying to throw their imaginary weight around. I hate it when others try to do it to me, so I try to not do it to others.”
“You got proof?” the female officer asked.
“I have my credentials in my left upper outer pocket if you want to see them. I didn’t want to start reaching for them here in the dark before I asked. That would have been a very bad mistake on my part.”
“Slowly and carefully.” The woman said.
Stephen reached in with two fingers and retrieved his credentials wallet. Once it was out of his pocket, he opened it up and held it out to the side where the male officer could see it and read them in the light of his flashlight.
“Forest Ranger?” He looked at his partner. “A Forest Ranger?”
Stephen grinned. “Yeah, Backcountry Forest Ranger Law Enforcement. I’m the one who makes sure your pick-a-nick baskets are safe. That’s the other reason I didn’t throw it around. Half the time I have to convince people it’s a real job. Most the time they are more impressed with my Eagle Scout than they are my creds.” He tried for his best disarming smile. He just wanted them to see them as harmless and move on. Even better would be them making sure no one else stops in hand hassles them. He risked a glance at his watch. They might get two more hours sleep if these guys left soon.
“Hey, the forest guys do more than that. They were the ones working with Chris down in New Mexico hunting druggies.” The woman said.
“And you believe what your ex said? Hell, I wonder if he even went to New Mexico. Weaselly-ass DEA prick.”
“Oh, I believe him on that one. I saw the pics of some of the places they were humping through the desert. No way in hell that directionally challenged mother****er would have ever made his way into or out of some of those places.” She shot back.
“Yeah, I’ve played tour guide for them a few times up north. We go through all the effort to find the spots, bring them in, and then they get all the kudos, budget increases and promotions, and we just get a thanks for the assist letter.” Stephen chimed in.
“Well, selfish prick is one of the reasons he is my ‘Ex’.” She said.
“That, and he tried to sleep with your sister.” The guy added.
“ANYWAY, back to the subject at hand,” the woman said turning back to Stephen, “what can we do to help you out?”
“Well, depending on what the rules are, you could mark us as ‘OK’, so no one else has to detour the rest of their patrol for us being here, we catch a few more hours sleep, then at dawn, we continue trying to find a navigable gap in the ten so we can go north? How does that sound?”
“You’re still trying to find how to get north?” she asked.
“Yeah. Between collapsed crossovers and horrible jams, we kept moving west looking for a way through.”
“Tell you what. You wake the other two up, then you follow us and we will take you through the closest cut over. By then, it will be close enough to dawn, you can press on without getting hassled. Does that work?”
“Tell you what,” Stephen said as he made an exaggerated show of looking at his watch “Best plan I’ve heard all morning.”