The Pale Man Rises

CHAPTER SIXTY THREE

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Despite the growing profusion of the snow storm Fipps managed to close the gap between him and the Sayerville sedan. He was just about sure these fools were the Sayerville cops that were involved with the case and he could just as easily follow them but the way they were going he didn't think the sedan could make it to town. He didn't want to have to ride with them because sure as shit rolls down hill they'd be on his ass like the patrolmen had been. And he would have to give them a ride if they lost that thing. He'd prefer getting around them and keeping the Sheriff and the federal agent in sight. He wanted to monitor the federal man because he considered him the main actor in this chase drama the man whose name would be at the top of the feature attraction marquee.

He tried to read their license tag, but soon saw that it was obscured by the snow and yet he could clearly see part of the word Sayerville printed there. If the opportunity presented itself he intended to pass them. The way they were swerving and sliding along the treacherous road he expected at any moment to see them headed straight for the ditch. He wanted to get around them before that happened so that then he wouldn't be obligated, legally or morally, to help them.

Ahead of him the two cops were not appreciative of his closing lights, which he rudely had on bright and because of the height of them they reflected out into the rearview mirror of the sedan with maximum intensity blinding Farr. "That som' bitch I–I can't see, I can't see!" Farr cursed as the procession was now passing over the bridge where the mass killings had taken place.

Seeing their reaction through the rear window, which the two detectives had scrapped clean at the café, of the sedan the reporter clicked his lights to dim and widened his distance from the vehicle. Ahead of the sedan Sheriff Harper drove at a dangerously fast pace for the conditions and Mabry was concerned for their safety. 

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 The independent wheels of the Jeep pulled the vehicle along through the vast accumulation of snow there on the highway sometimes being forced almost to a complete halt and at other times spinning about as if it would suddenly roar off the road like an errant missile. But the Sheriff seemed quite relaxed as he manhandled the vehicle through this territory and because of this Mabry remained confident that he could get them where they were going unscathed. And soon he had the red Wagoner way out ahead of the other two machines its rear lights growing fainter as it moved off.

And pretty soon the Wagoner passed a stand of trees where a snow covered tobacco barn stood. Beauregard Harper who was an undeniably astute law enforcement officer and forever wary did not however, see that parked there also, virtually hidden by the great fall of snow, was a 1966 Mustang automobile. One might have seen it as a large bush with a great white sheet draped over it. The snow was now unbelievably intense and was growing more so by the second. The radio aerial of the car might have tipped it off, but it had been broken off when Clay Reese was flung from its roof the strip of metal frozen in his grasp.

The car was green where its paint showed through and that is exactly how it would have looked to a less sophisticated observer, like the green of a bush that shown through the snow. Or an igloo perhaps. If an Eskimo had been moving by out of his even colder environment he might have mistaken it for that the way the gloom of snow laid upon it.

Eventually the sedan came upon this area and the gray Jeep behind it closed on them once more. Fipps saw another opportunity to pass and had set about to do so. It came on them quickly defying the conditions as it did. The bloodhound sat beside the reporter and watched his every move with his canine stoicism. The onrushing vehicle shocked Farr and he fought the wheel of the sedan again. He went right and felt he was in trouble and so he began twisting it to the left. He could then feel the crunch of metal as the vehicles came into contact with each other. The sedan began to swoon and then to revolve round and round on the highway blocking the momentum of the following Jeep.