Among Men: Genesis, Book 1

Chapter 8

Liam unfolded the map again in the passenger seat, checking for the road they passed about two miles ago. He was trying in his head to figure out how many miles were left until they reached the ranch. The land in Wyoming stretched out for miles. Empty fields and the occasional telephone tower were the only notable sites. Tanner put out his cigarette into the console ashtray and said irritable,
"I feel like I'm gonna go crazy looking at the same road, same field, and fence post. You'd think people would just kill themselves out here."

The long dirt roads weren't paved. Instead, they were just dusted with gravel that would fly up into Tanner's fenders, each piece making small clicks much to his detest seeing how much money he'd put into that beloved Pontiac convertible. Liam squinted his eyes and folded the map back into the glove box, slamming it shut abruptly.
Tanner looks over across the top of his sunglasses, then turns down the radio playing Time of the Season,
"What's with you, champ? That girl of yours keep you up all night?"

Liam sneered, he was never free of the torment of his dating life. Or the lack thereof. He scoffed hatefully and said,
"So fucking funny. Has Johnny Carson called you yet?"

Tanner snickered under his breath and said,
"Trust me, I'm waiting by the phone."

Tanner was always a big kid. Slender like a rail with dark, almost black hair that he kept long enough to sweep back with combing gel. He kept a mustache on his lip that Liam found himself envious of but instead he was thankful he wasn't as lanky as his partner. Tanner was a great guy and if you were the ass of his jokes, he thought pretty great of you as well.

"Diane doing okay?" Liam asked, putting on his sunglasses, hoping the sun out of his eyes would help his head stop pounding against his skull.

"Ehh." Tanner said shrugging, "She's so worked up over this Sharon Tate shit in the news. I mean she's really having a hard time with it. Have you seen it? These miserable Manson bastards."

"Yeah." Liam answered, "I saw something about those freaks in the Enquirer. She was in that movie last year right?"

"Yeah, yeah." Tanner said nodding as he held the steering wheel with one hand to talk with the other, "I forget the name. Anyways, they murdered her. She was eight months pregnant. Ain't that the sickest shit you ever heard? Her husband was away in London for a trip or something. She was home all alone."

"Damn." Liam said looking over, "Rosemary's Baby, I think was the movie. She was…ugh.."

"She's hot." Tanner interrupted. "Smoking hot. But yeah, Diane is all a fuss. Doesn't want me to leave the house anymore. I hate it, but we're so covered up right now."

Liam got the map back out of the glove box and looked ahead as they were coming to a crossroads. He found his spot from before and told Tanner this was the right turn before arriving at Erwood Ranch.

"When we get up here-" Tanner said, turning, slinging dust in a cloud behind them, grabbing his badge off the dashboard to clip onto his side, "Follow my lead. Remember what Priestly said in the brief, we're just here to gather information, we don't want them to get a sniff that we're onto them for something. Cause they could do anything like split town or whatever, alright?"

Liam nodded and he asked as he also clipped his new badge onto his hip,
"I'll stay close but I won't breathe down your neck or anything."

They noticed on their left in the neighboring field, cattle being let in from the side in an enormous, moving herd. Several hundred heads of steer all roaming at once. Two riders on horses stayed near the end, leading them ahead into the range in the back of an upcoming home. Liam couldn't make out the faces of the men on horses but saw both of them shouting across the moving drove.