Absolution Read Online Free PDF Page A

illegals across the border.”
    Jose had nothing more to say on the subject.  If he had any idea who had killed the men, he wasn’t going to share it.
    “Here will do fine,” Logan said as they reached the outskirts of town and he saw a Best Western on the left up ahead.
    After Logan had got out of the Toyota, Jose said, “Be careful, Gringo.  If you annoy a snake enough it will bite you.”  And then he drove away.
    Lance was parked way off in the distance, and there was enough traffic to hide him from view.  He watched as Logan got out of the car and walked across the sidewalk to the motel.  Once the big man had gone inside the office, Lance set off again, now in pursuit of the Toyota.  Caught up with it inside of two minutes and gave the cruiser’s siren a blast and flashed his high beams.
    Jose pulled over and parked.  Waited for the deputy to walk up to the car, then lowered the window and put his hands on the steering wheel.
    “You just dropped a guy off,” Lance said.
    “He was hitching,” Jose said.
    “What did he talk about?”
    “He was the silent type.  Hardly said a word.”
    “Did he mention why he was stopping in Ajo?”
    “No, officer.  I asked him where he was from, just to make conversation, but he just said from nowhere in particular, and closed his eyes.”
    Lance walked back to his cruiser.  There was no reason for the Mex to lie to him.  He used an unregistered cell to make a call.
    “Logan is in Ajo,” Lance said to Zack.  “He’s at the Best Western on North Gila Bend Highway.”
    “Okay,” Zack said.  “Leave it with me.”

    Logan checked in, went to his room and switched on the coffeemaker.  He showered, thought it through and decided that his intention to seek out whoever had killed the man he had found was one of the dumbest things he had ever considered doing. After talking with Jose, he now realized that this was not his fight.  He determined to eat, sleep, and then head east at daybreak.
    It was seven p.m. when Logan entered the Gunsight Grill, just a couple hundred yards along the highway from the motel.  He made his way to a corner booth and sat with his back to the wall, facing the other tables, booths and the counter, giving him an unrestricted view of the other occupants.  A waitress came up to him almost immediately, smiled at him but said nothing, just put a glass of iced water down on the table and raised her notepad and pen to take his order.
    “The biggest cheeseburger you have,” Logan said.  “With fries and a pot of coffee.”
    “Any toppings?” the waitress, Stella Walker, asked.
    “Why not.  Bacon and mushroom,” Logan replied.
    “You got it,” Stella said, and went for the coffee.
    Logan sipped the water and took in his surroundings.  Automatically studied other patrons, and subconsciously was aware of the traffic that passed by outside the plate glass windows.  It was a longtime habit; an inbuilt defense mechanism.  He wasn’t paranoid, just careful, especially in places he was not familiar with, which was almost everywhere he happened to be these days.
    A dark-blue sedan slowed to walking speed as it passed, and the brake lights flared as it signaled to turn into the small parking lot at the side of the building.
    One, two, then three minutes passed, but no one entered the diner.
    Logan ate his meal, drank the coffee, paid the check and left.  Just ambled back along the sidewalk to the motel.  He was in his element, in a place that he had never been before, and with a lot of options to consider.  He had no idea where he would lay his head the following night, and that suited him just fine.  It was hard to believe that he had resided in New York City for over twenty years, living by rules and working shifts and being part of a way of life that had not suited him, and that with hindsight he deemed to have been unsatisfying on several levels.  But that was then.  He was truly the master of his own destiny now, not bound to