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Chapter 52
"God, is she going to be in there all day again today?"
The Inside Hollywood producer that Jennifer thought of as "Weasel-face" actually had a name; it was Lenny.
The cameraman, who she thought of as "Greaser", tried to use a tough-guy image to overcome a name of Sherwin. "Yeah, is this going to be the most interesting footage since Snake River Canyon, or what?" he snorted.
Both Lenny and Sherwin were lounging on a bench in the shade of a small tree in the parking lot across from the Record-Herald. It was hot and humid; both were wearing t-shirts and shorts, but the heat and humidity was something they weren't used to. Other than
that, Spearfish Lake hadn't been the Black Rock that they had expected; a relatively decent little town, for a little town, duller than dishwater. They'd wondered if they were going to be facing angry mobs armed with axes, but so far, this trip had been a total waste. They'd
gotten a few background shots of the town, and of some kids swimming at the beach, but darn little of Jenny Easton. The only interesting footage they'd gotten had been a poor shot of her and some other woman helping some pregnant woman into the hospital yesterday, but it had
been at a distance, at a bad angle, and probably wasn't usable.
"Well, we can still get some interviews from the local yokels about how great it is to have Jenny home," Lenny said. He hadn't been too crazy about the assignment; it sounded like a waste of time, but the orders were to stick around and get something. "Cut that in
with some stock shots, a couple distant shots, and it'll make a story. We get paid if we do something, and we get paid if we do nothing," he said.
"I still don't think she knows we're here," Sherwin commented.
Lenny agreed. "She hasn't acted like it, anyway. If that big lug she keeps around had been here, I think he'd have spotted us, though."
"Well, we ain't exactly been laying low," Sherwin said, looking up. "Oh, hey, shit, there she is."
Lenny had been checking out the boobs on a long-haired girl walking down the sidewalk. He swung his head around to see Jenny standing on the sidewalk in front of the Record-Herald, waiting for a break in the traffic. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that
Sherwin already had the camera on his shoulder, running. It took several seconds for the traffic to clear. "Best shot of her we've got so far," Sherwin commented, as she walked across the street, and got in her car.
Lenny was already heading toward their car. "Come on, man, we've got to move."
They had a tough time getting out of the parking lot and keeping her car in sight, but once they got out on Main Street, it was no trick trying to trail her a couple of blocks behind. As they got out to the edge of town, they could see her turn signal going for a right turn
onto the state road. "Not trying to lose us at all," Sherwin said. "She still hasn't caught on."
"She's not going home again," Lenny said. "Six will get you two she spends the next four hours shooting the shit with some old friend, some place where it's air conditioned."
"Maybe it'll be some place where somebody has a beach. We might get a bikini shot or something," Sherwin said.
"The way this has been going, that's a whole lot to hope for," Lenny said. "Christ, I didn't expect this to be this boring."
Three or four miles up the state road, they could see Jenny's turn signal going again, this time for a left turn onto a gravel road. "So much for a bikini shot," Sherwin snorted. "The lake is the other way."
Lenny slowed for the corner. There was a sign there with an arrow, saying "SPEARFISH SIGNS", and another that said, "DEAD END". He turned onto the road, and immediately wished he hadn't. "Don't they ever grade these goddamn roads?" he said.
"You see the name of this road?" Sherwin said, gritting his teeth and looking at the dust cloud in the distance caused by Jenny's passage."
"No."
"Busted Axle Road."
"Christ, I believe it." They weren't going fast, but neither was Jenny. After a ways, they passed a house on their right, and pretty soon, Jenny turned into a farm on the left. "Let's drive past, and turn around," Lenny suggested. "She'll have to come back this way to leave."
A few minutes later, they came to a stop a couple of hundred yards past the farm, the one that had a sign shop sign in the yard. "Get a wide shot, just in case," Lenny suggested.
Sherwin was already getting out of the car, but he got right back in, in one big hurry, cranking the window hard as he did, with three large dogs snarling through the glass.
"Where the hell did they come from?" Lenny asked, cranking on his own window.
"Christ, I don't know," Sherwin said, cringing as a large red dog barked at him through the glass, his paws on the window. "All of a sudden, they were right there."
"I think everybody in this neck of the country must keep a yard full of dogs," Lenny commented, disgusted. "I wonder if they use them to pull dog sleds in the winter?"
Sherwin looked outside, to see another dog lifting his leg against the front tire. The red dog barking in his ear was distracting, to say the least. "Hey, there she is," he said.
"Where?"
"Out back of that barn. Oh, shit."
Lenny looked out the windshield; there was now a dog barking in his ear, as well -- a big black one. Back behind the barn, they could see Jenny putting a suitcase into the back of a small, white airplane. "She's going somewhere," Lenny said.
"Maybe that cottage we heard about," Sherwin said, watching Jenny climb into the right seat of the plane.
"Can you get a shot?"
"With these damn dogs?" Sherwin snorted. He watched for a few seconds, and could see the propeller on the airplane start to turn. "How the hell do we follow her now?"
"Maybe it's not real fast," Lenny said hopefully, watching the control surfaces flop. "If it follows along the road, maybe we can keep them in sight if we drive like hell."
"You're crazy."
"Sherwin, she's got to know we're here. If she's trying to lose us, then where she's going might be our story." He started the engine as the little white plane began to race down the runway. "It's probably not far away, so it's probably worth a shot. Try to keep them in sight."
The road had been bad enough to drive down slowly, but the way that Lenny stuffed his foot into the engine, it wasn't actually quite so bad -- they only hit the high spots. Sherwin tried to remember a line he'd learned as a kid, but "Hail Mary, full of grace . . ." was as
far as he could get. They got out to the corner of the state road, and Lenny jammed on the brakes. "Can you see them?" he asked.
"Over to the south, not far," Sherwin said. "Heading back towards town."
"All right," Lenny said, turning onto the state road with a screech of rubber, and stomping the gas.
Fortunately, there wasn't a lot of traffic, which was good, as the speedometer needle in the Dodge was bent way over to the right -- but he could see that they were actually gaining on the little white plane a little. This might work after all. "Christ, I hope the cops are
all in the doughnut shops," Sherwin commented.
Lenny slowed a little as they came into the outskirts of town, and got it back under a hundred, but they were flying as they went through the Main Street intersection and continued south, with Lenny's foot on the floor.
With their attention riveted on the plane, it was a long time before they noticed that they had company. "Oh, shit," Lenny commented. "All the cops aren't in the goddamn doughnut shop."
There was nothing they could do but stop, alongside the road. The cop car, lights flashing, slid to a stop behind them. Two large cops sprang out, guns drawn. "Out of the car, motherfuckers," one of them yelled.
"Let's be cool," Lenny said, opening the door.
"He said out of there, motherfuckers," the other cop yelled.
"I can be cool," Sherwin replied, opening his own door. "You were driving."
