FOLLOW THE LEADER - Chapter 59

 Chapter 59



Sheriff Calder said, “Come on, ‘Country.’ At least tell me your real name.”

“Rhonda.”

“Now that is a pretty name. Why would you want a dumb nickname like Country?”

“It’s not dumb. He put a lot of thought into it.”

“If you say so.”

She saw headlights blinking in the rear mirror and immediately freaked.

“We’re being followed,” she said. She saw the car’s image in her outside rear mirror. “It’s not a cop car.”

“How do you know? Cops and feds often drive unmarked cars,” he said.

“Pigs!”

He chuckled softly. He had not heard that one since the late Sixties. He glanced at his mirror.

“Feds, I think.” he said.

“What do they want with me?” she asked.

“Same as me. The truth.”

She said nothing to that.

“Tell you what, Rhonda slash Country. I’m gonna tell you about this girl I met. She was waiting for me beneath some trees, just between two cornfields. I had all kinds of questions to ask her, but I never got the chance.”

“Why not?”

“Someone had cut off her head.”

She gasped. Then recovered.

“So?”  Defiant now.

“All I saw at first was her severed head. I had to shoo away the flies so I could make out her features. Her killer had thrown her body into a trough. The buzzards led me right to it.

“That’s gross! Why are you telling me this?”

The sheriff ignored her question.

Rhonda shook her head and began to cry again. “I let him down,” she bawled. “I’m such a coward!”

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