red?.
he's talkin' to ya'.
press has been waiting almost an hour, red. red nods then notices someone at the door and motions her in.  sally gerber, 28, cute in a plain, no nonsense way, with giant curls accenting her round face in step with the latest hair fashions, enters the room, closes the door behind her. she's nervous as hell but trying to hide it. red motions her to have a seat while he finishes his call.
what'd he say?
the guvner', red. red closes the file.
penny munroe.
rings a bell, red. believ' they sent us something about her this mornin'.
 guvner', red. adler finds the telex message sheet he's looking for and hands it to red.
 here it is.
tom adler. deputy. state police.  system.
on our way, marge.
gettin' antsy, red. you scheduled it. adler hangs up, grabs red's tie and coat from a brass rung on the wall and hands them over. red puts down the telex, stares at sally and reluctantly attempts to make himself presentable.
all right, that's it, boys. chief's got work to do. red and adler move through the parking lot to saunders, 50, an aide to the governor. saunder's seconds are a photographer, young and energetic, and suttle, 35, dark-haired, with a cowlick. saunders shakes red's hand and they turn to gaze upon.
s'cuse me. this here's bobby lee. he's a specialist with the feds. they want him to tag along. red stares hard at bobby lee, then nods. bobby lee steps into the airstream.
got a spot on 'em. a store right outside of benhur. about 20 miles from here. adler sets down the mike, sticks a tack on the map and stands back.
ya' figger' they're that far along?
sunday drive. i like that. never heard you use that one before, red. sally is watching red and listening to all of this with a troubled look on her face. red notices.
what makes you so sure they won't stay together? sally hesitates. red notices.
what about the hostages? they gonna' flip a coin to see who gets to keep who? red rises and walks to the sink. he rinses a spoon.
that oughta' put his pecker in a sling, huh, red? sorry, ma'am.
in a perfect world, miss gerber, we'd lock arms and thrash the bush til' he turned up.
locals are heading out. wanna' follow?
highway 16 north. four miles south of desdemona. got it. stole a vehicle. kaiser radios up front, the engine starts and the airstream moves.
what's that?
owner told the locals they only drove it to church, but it does have a bad emergency brake. how'd ya' know it was a ford?
looks like you was right, red. he's off the farm to market and onto a spur. whattaya' wanna' do?
what's that? red, the locals wanna' know if they're to take a clean shot if they get one? red stares out the window for what seems like an eternity.
uh.  no.
no, er, yes. no means negative. same thing. over. red sees sally peering at him over the top of her file. he glances around at the other sets of eyes.
they've forwarded the stolen vehicle license to the roadblocks. you still wanna' go to the farm? red pulls out a package of red man chewing tobacco and mulls over the question while he slaps a wad into his cheek.
no bodies this time, thank gawd.
uh.  naw.
they've got him penned down in noodle, north of abilene.
haynes bought tape, rope, and some clothes for the boy. red comes to and turns to adler. sally smiles almost to her- self. she was right -- haynes is looking after the boy. everyone knows it, but no one says anything.
one puzzler though. they say the boy could have gotten away but didn't.
that's not all. the kid stole a halloween outfit.
with the pit stop in noodle looks like he's headed for the panhandle. red sighs and groans. unpleasant news but somehow he knew it. he moves to the back room for another shot of geritol.
there's more roads than people in the panhandle.
but if anybody knows them backroads it's red. sally lifts her head, watches red reenter the room, then stares out the window.
what's she doin', red?
what'd the authorities do?
they didn't even stick him in juvy?
what happened?
yeah? kill somebody else?
that's where the son-of-a-bitch learned to be a criminal. seen that before, ain't we, red? red doesn't answer. he seems in a faraway place.
i believe it was casper.  casper the friendly ghost.
turn it around! that was them!
uh.  red?
they wanna know if the boy looked okay?
governor's hot line, red. governor insists that he have the mobile home back for the parade tomorrow. red just stares at adler, then sighs, removes his hat and scratches his head.
spur 208 northbound. and 83 at aspermont coming and going. that it?
they've got two highway patrol cars they can give to us now.
he knows he's hemmed in. i predict we'll have him singing a different tune by nightfall.
he got through! at aspermont.
coerced a motorist. red sighs.
got t-bones in the frig, red!
-- and look, red! tater tots! those kind you like! red turns and looks.
that's the governor's line, red! red calmly walks past sally who smiles a "thanks". he gives her a one finger to the hat salute, walks to the phone, reaches down and yanks out the cord. the ringing stops.
guvner, i assume.
ya' think he means it? red mulls it over, replaces his old chaw with a fresh one and looks to sally.
shit, he'll get the chair anyway. he's killed two in two days.
well he wasn't at home in his strat-o- lounger. 'sides, who killed pugh? casper?
that'd be the boy's mother.
he's gonna make a run for it.
i thought he had a gun, too, red. there was just no way of knowin'. red doesn't even look at adler, just keeps walking. adler stops, his eyes following red. sally, nearby, watches red walk away.