56 comments/ 44487 views/ 7 favorites One Damn Fine Truck By: magmaman Someone was fucking with Darin's truck. Stealing gas, someone had rummaged through the jockey box, a couple of tools behind the seat vanished. There was a scratch on the passenger side door that was new, Darin knew he didn't put that there. He liked that truck, inherited it from his father who bought the thing brand new. The right side tank now read 1/4 full and he had filled it two days before. He knew damn good and well that he was running on the driver's side saddle tank, and it shocked him when he flipped the switch. He even pulled over, looked underneath for leaks. There weren't any. Gas mileage? It didn't get any, the machine weighed two and one half tons. When his old man had brought the rig in to Darin's engine shop for a new one, Darin had tried to talk him out of it. Hell, it only had 88,000 miles on it. Not a damn thing wrong with it. But the old man insisted, no way was he going to deal with any breakdowns when he and Mom were off in the warm South for the winter. "Some more power would be nice, you can do that, can't you?" His Dad had asked with a grin, tipping his oversize stetson hat back on his head. 80 years old, his Pop still had every hair he was born with. He also still kept rubbers in the drawer alongside their bed, Darin had seen those when he needed a flashlight one evening when he was over there for a visit. Darin had a nice grin to himself at that one, old habits are hard to break. One of them had let go when the old man was 54, the result was Darin. 80 years old and still able to get a piece now and then, that was his Dad, no doubt about it. And he loved that old Chevrolet truck. +++ Darin dug out a good core 350 cubic inch engine block with the 4 bolt mains, poked around in the back room and found some parts left over from his circle track racing days. Darin squared up and decked the block, fit a set of .030" oversize forged pistons to the bores, a shade over 10 to one compression ratio, and he also machined the main line. That was a shade high compression for regular fuel but with the high energy ignition he replaced the old factory points setup with, and some careful tuning, it would work. A set of aftermarket rods, plus adding a camshaft he machined himself on the old antique lobe grinder he owned would perk up the power. That camshaft took some thinking. The truck was turning 2800 at 60 mph, so he set the power peak right in that range and upwards some by moving the cam lobe center lines to an early split duration and increasing the valve lift by quite a bit. In the heads he installed some 2.05" inlet valves and a set of 1.60" exhausts, matched the valve springs to the cam. A few airflow tricks he learned racing hobby stock cars was easy to do. Chrome Moly push rods, he was ready to build and build he did. It took him three long days, every single part hand fitted and balanced. Two Carter 600 CFM carbs rounded out the package. Taking her for a drive after she had rumbled to life, then settled to a steady throb was fun. At one stoplight, he hit the throttle just a bit too hard and all four tires began to bawl. The machine set sideways for a second or two while Darin gathered her back up. A cop was right behind him when he pulled into the shop. "Nice truck!" Were the first words out of the man's mouth, then the policeman chewed him out some for spinning his tires. He filled that in with the "public street, kids, endangering other drivers" lecture, a bit of a grin on his face as he kept looking at the big rig. Next he mentioned he had a Ford F250 that could use a few more ponies, so Darin suggested a price that would be hard to resist and that was that. His Dad had a smile on his face after driving her that made all of the effort worthwhile, and when he pulled out his checkbook to pay Darin, Darin would not take any money. The big hug was payment enough. +++ Just one trip was sadly all his Mom and Dad had made in the old truck, they were back for only a week when she called, sobbing. That was a bad time, then his Mom was gone just 24 days later. With his folks, it seemed there was no such thing as one without the other. The estate was just under 3 million dollars counting the property, some stock holdings, odds and ends...and that truck. Most of that was the property, a small farm out in the country. Man, that old truck! A 1974 model, 3/4 ton with 4 wheel continuous drive, long bed with step side? The special order one ton chassis rounded her out, there was probably not another one exactly like it on Earth. That was because all of the other one ton trucks had duals on the back, this one didn't. That was because the driveway into the ranch was narrow and his old man was concerned about scratching the paint. +++ There was a 50 gallon tank in the bed, that one had a padlock on it. It wasn't a fancy lock at all, which became clear when Darin realized someone had picked the lock. Yep, someone was stealing fuel and that pissed Darin off. When the left saddle tank was suddenly low again, that really pissed Darin off. He even tried parking the truck closer to his house but his wife Sarah griped about that, she had to walk to the other end of their porch to go somewhere. So the tanks just got hit again. Darin was fairly sure it was the four kids that rented the old house just down the road, they were a rowdy bunch. They held parties, loud ones, that irritated Darin also but nothing he could do about it. "Dennis is OK, he seems like a nice young man." Sarah told him when he complained about all that was going on. That surprised Darin, Sarah knew the name of one of them? "Which one is Dennis?" He asked her point blank. "The cute one with the long curly brown hair." Sarah responded, then catching his expression she looked away. Darin knew which one she meant, the one with the three color Mustang that ran on seven cylinders and had a hole in the muffler. Big kid, maybe 24, 25 or so. He always wore a tank top style shirt which showed off tattoos of God knows what on his clearly muscular arms. Once Darin had looked out and Sarah was out in the yard sun bathing, she had on her white bikini. That suit was not all that skimpy but it did demonstrate that her body was in very nice shape for barely 32 years old. Darin had seen the kid walk up the hill and talk to her that day, but he beat feet when he saw Darin come out and head down there. Darin didn't ask any questions, the young man hadn't done anything, not really. But now Darin was fairly sure that was the one stealing his gas, especially when he looked down there one day and saw the guy pouring gas in that crappy Mustang with a jeep can. Of course, the kid could have bought the gas but none of them seemed to ever work, they were always down there, just hanging out. Moving out into the country was supposed to be peaceful, but his Dad had sold the acreage to the South and it became a collection of cheap houses in short order. Darin hadn't wanted him to sell but the old man said he wanted to "kick up his heels" as he put it, so that is what he did. What used to be a nice sloping field down to the creek was now homes, old cars parked around, piles of junk needing to be hauled off. It didn't improve his mood any that Sarah seemed to accept the mess. But he couldn't complain too much, Sarah was always willing in the bedroom and she kept a good house. Her one flaw was she liked nice things so Darin had to work hard to keep her in capital. Many times he worked until late in the evening to get a job out, so he could get paid. They did have nearly $200,000.00 in the IRA account, and all of those stocks his Dad had purchased. Darin was not going to dip into that, it was for when he and Sarah were old so maybe he could relax someday and kick up his own heels. Sarah often mentioned that, she never understood that Darin wanted to live off of his earnings and hang onto his investments. With around $60,000.00 in income and no house payment, things should have been comfortable for them. Darin had set a goal for himself way back when he was little. The idea was to save, live on the frugal side while he was young, then once he had enough cash he could just live in comfort for the rest of his life. But Sarah didn't see it quite that way, and now that they were married those savings were not increasing at all. They weren't very likely to, either. Not with her closet full of $200.00 shoes, jewelery, expensive outfits. There was a painting she bought that cost over $2000.00. Darin looked at it, he thought he could do better with this portable paint spray gun. There was a rather nice fight about that one. In fact, the money was the only thing they ever did fight about. He did go along with buying the insurance policies, $500,000.00 on each of them, double for accidental death. Sarah seemed happy for awhile after that, she even gave him a glorious hand job the night he signed up for the policies. That took her a bit of talking, along with her playing the sex game which she was so damned good at. "It just makes us so nice and secure." She mentioned right in the middle of moving her hand up and down on his erection. She even licked at it a couple of times although she never actually put her mouth on it. Darin did think that it was a rather strange time to be thinking about that but then she got him distracted and he forgot about it. Even for getting something she wanted, giving him a blow job was out of the question. She had tried that just one time, making a face. She never minded when he did that to her, though. Things sure could be worse. Business was pretty good, everyone for miles around came to Darin's shop, they knew he was honest to a fault and when he finished a job it was the best one he knew how to do. The work was OK, he did it without complaint but in the back of his mind was his being able to get up when he wanted to, go where he wanted to. Instead, his life was wrapped around that shop, and having to get up and go in to work even though he would rather not. +++ Now someone was stealing his gas, and the stuff cost money, so Darin went and got some locking gas caps. That appeared to stop that problem for awhile. After a couple of weeks, he forgot about that, the locks appeared to have worked. One day at his shop he looked up and that Dennis guy came walking in, with a 302 Ford cylinder head in his hands. "Can you fix this valve?" The man asked. Darin pulled the spring off, the guide was completely blown, the valve tip was badly worn and a wedge was burned out of the valve head. All the rest of the valve guides were on the loose side. "I need to fix that guide, replace the seat and the valve. But you have more troubles here, we better clean it up and do the whole head. Are you going to take off the other one?" "No, it only misses on this one cylinder, so that is all I need done." "I don't do patch work." Darin told the man. "Hey, bud. I get to decide what I want done." The man acted a bit upset. "That's true, but I get to decide what I will and won't do, and I don't do patch work! Plus I ain't your bud!" The guy's attitude put Darin off. "Yea, OK. I don't want to let some goofball like you work on my stuff anyway." The man snarled. Darin managed to not react, the guy came real close to losing some teeth over that comment. But he left, and Darin forgot all about it. +++ It was about a week later, Darin was at home and he heard the old Mustang fire up. It sounded very rough, ran for maybe 10 minutes, then there was a sudden cloud of steam, a loud thumping sound. A half hour later it started again, with the exact same result. Darin got himself a cup of Coffee, went outside and sat on his porch to watch the show. He knew exactly what was wrong, the guy had the head gaskets reversed, he could tell by the loud thumping sound the engine made after it overheated and stalled. Dennis looked up and saw him sitting there, he appeared to be upset. It probably didn't help matters that Darin was grinning broadly. "What's so fucking funny, asshole?" He snarled. Darin got up and went back inside, that guy was a real piece of work. What was it Sarah had said? "He seems like a nice young man." Yea, sure. The Mustang was still sitting there with the hood up when Darin got home the next evening. By then he was over being pissed off at the guy, so he parked his truck and walked down there. Dennis came out as he was standing there. "I think you have the head gaskets reversed, easy to do on this design." He told Dennis. "What difference would that make?" Dennis asked. "Blocks off a coolant passage, makes it overheat. That's why Ford gaskets are marked left and right." "Oh. Well, maybe. Hey, thanks." The guy said. Hell, the jerk even acted pleasant. The next day the Mustang started and ran, actually on all eight cylinders. It did smoke quite a bit, Darin figured the guy got his patch work job's worth. For the next hour Dennis ran back and forth out in the street, spinning the tires like a damn little kid. By the time he finally settled down, the poor engine was really pumping out the smoke. +++ A few days went by, Darin came home from the shop, on time for a change. Sarah was out in the back yard in a swim suit, and who was sitting there but that Dennis guy. Darin watched out the window for a few minutes, the jerk's eyes werer all over Sarah and she didn't appear to be minding that one bit. Once again, he hopped up and went down the hill before Darin could get back there. "What did Dennis want?" Darin demanded. He looked at his wife's outfit, it was one he had never seen and it was way skimpier than her white one. Hell, a full inch of untanned skin was showing at the tops of her breasts, another strip was showing at her crotch. One more fucking half inch and her nipples would be out in view, and those bottoms? Good God, skin where pubic hair used to be was showing, she must have trimmed that. The material was so thin Darin could make out her nipples, and the bulge at her groin showed an obvious camel toe. She had been sitting there in front of that Dennis jerk practically naked for lord knows how long? "He just came over to chat is all." Sarah sounded instantly defensive. "Yea, I can see why. Where did you get that suit, and why are you out here dressed like that in front of that guy?" He demanded. "I got it on sale, it was only $229.00. And I am perfectly decent." "That is NOT perfectly decent, I don't want you showing off to the fucking neighbors! And quit spending money like it is water!" He turned and stormed into the house. "We have lots of money, if you weren't so fucking cheap we could have anything we want!" Sarah yelled after him. He didn't answer, there was no point. They had already had the money argument many times before. +++ The next morning Darin went out to head for work, there sat one of the locking gas caps on the ground. The filler neck on the gas tank was damaged where the cap had been pried off, and the side door over the cap was all scratched up. His day at work did not go well. On the way home, he stopped at an electronics store to see if he could buy a game trail camera. "I can do you better than that." The clerk explained, showing him a tiny camera setup that not only did motion sensitive video but recorded sound, also. Darin bought that, expensive but by now he was really pissed off at whoever was stealing fuel. That night when Sarah came to bed, he noticed that the whiter skin where her sunning suit usually covered her was now mildly red. The redness went all the way to her nipples, above and below. In fact, at first glance it almost appeared to be a pink swim suit? "What in the hell? Are you out there topless now?" He demanded. "I just wanted to get an all over tan, no one was around, I checked." She told him. That angered Darin, but he wasn't in any mood for an argument, so he rolled over and went to sleep. Too damn many arguments already, he hadn't gotten laid in over a week. Somewhere around one in the morning he woke up to hear a soft hum coming from the bathroom, he knew very well what Sarah was doing. She was in there with her $149.00 vibrator. Things just were not going all that well lately. +++ The camera was surprisingly easy to set up, it didn't even take an hour to wire it into the old truck's back up battery. "What are you doing out there, honey?" Sarah asked when he came back in. "Just working on the truck, is all." He didn't want to tell her what he was up to, let that be a surprise when she found out what a "nice" guy that fucking Dennis was. Goddamn gas thief was what that jerk was, Darin was sure of it. That night when she came to bed she reached over and fondled him, getting the usual reaction. They proceeded to have one of the nicest sessions in bed together they had enjoyed in quite some time. Darin even managed to not get a flash of anger when he saw her groin was now much browner than normal, and all of her pubic hair was gone. Obviously she had been sunning herself, but he was fairly sure she made certain no one was around first. No one could see her unless they actually came up the hill and through the gate. Skimpy was one thing, naked Darin was reasonably positive she would not do in front of anyone, so he said nothing. If he did, Sarah just went into an instant sulk, or she came right back at him with a ration of shit. Besides, with no hair on her pussy, it felt and tasted different and he rather liked that. She also appeared to climax much more readily, so it really was a fine lovemaking session. He even forgave her for the new pair of shoes she had purchased, although he had no idea at all where she might wear 4" heels. Sarah had certainly looked fine in those, modeling them wearing nothing but a pair of pink panties. His wife most certainly did have a set of tits to die for, and she damn well knew it. Sarah nearly always acted sexy when she bought anything that she figured might piss Darin off, so he was onto that. It was easier to put up with some of it, it was just the way she was. It had popped into his head to maybe get rid of her, get a divorce but like an idiot there was no prenuptual agreement so she would get half of everything at least. Besides, she hadn't done anything, not really. Not even a sign of ever doing anything, either. Her wearing a skimpy bathing suit was nowhere near enough, Darin knew that. There was no way out that he could see. +++ Over the next few weeks Darin checked the little card that came with his camera system at work. He kept the player there so he could look at it each day when he took a break. There was nothing, except once a bird came down and lit on the fuel tank in the bed. Another scene showed Sarah going by towards her car, it was daylight so that was the previous Saturday when she had gone shopping. Other than that, there was nothing. Busy at work, he almost forgot about the camera after a few weeks. Plus it had been raining so Sarah wasn't doing any sunning herself, nothing to worry about there. +++ One day his phone rang, one of his larger jobs had gone to hell from what his customer said. Darin needed to head down there, it was nearly 150 miles so he took his wife's little Mazda. The old truck barely did 14 miles per gallon cruising and closer to 8 miles per gallon around town, the Mazda did over 30 and Darin never spent money he didn't need to. The man sounded really upset, something about the Salmon running and he was stuck with a piece of shit for an engine. Darin had built that power plant with his own hands, he knew damn good and well it was not a piece of shit. One Damn Fine Truck The highway down to Coos Bay was crooked as a snake's back, no point in wasting fuel. The Ford 289 cubic inch engine he had built for the fisherman's boat had nearly instantly leaked water, now the guy was sure the block was cracked. Darin was sure it wasn't, and he thought he knew what had happened. Best to go solve that so that is what he did. One glance when he got there and he knew what was wrong. The camshaft had an eccentric that drove the manual design fuel pump. There were two designs, early and late and one was thicker than the other. Installing the wrong year timing cover jammed it, cracked the cover and yep, she leaked water into the hull. He also spotted that it had the wrong intake gasket on it, so it leaked coolant there, also. It took Darin just three hours to locate the correct cover, drain the system and refill it. This boat had a heat exchanger on it, that worked lots better than using river water to cool it, things didn't get so damned rusty. He pulled the intake manifold and changed that gasket also. That part was supplied with his assembly kit, it sometimes amazed him what some people would do, the difference was obvious. The engine started instantly and ran dry as a bone, a soft sweet rumble to the idle. All of Darin's engines did that, he was very fussy with his work. They took the boat out for a quick test, she now hopped instantly up onto a plane, the engine singing along at 4400 RPM. Before, the stock powerplant had struggled to touch 3600. The man was so happy he was beside himself, now he could go fishing, perhaps catch a big Chinook. He slapped Darin on the back so many times it made his shoulder sore. Back home, he parked the Mazda and went inside. Sarah was fresh out of the shower, her hair still wet, and she was wearing a robe. That was a complete surprise. It was four in the afternoon? Sarah never took any showers in the day time, not once that he could ever remember? "I just felt...sticky." She told him when he asked, not meeting his eyes. Then she went into the bedroom and shut the door? Sarah never shut the door to the bedroom? Darin pushed the door open, Sarah was straightening up the bed. That was the very first thing Sarah did each day when they got up, she really was a bit of a neat freak. She was acting nervous. For the very first time since they got married, Darin had a suspicion that something was going on. "How did the bed get messed up?" He asked her. "I was tired so I took a nap." She answered. Sarah did sometimes nap during the afternoons, but always on the couch? Darin felt a flash of disbelief, but then he discounted that. No way at all would Sarah be cheating, of that he was fairly sure. Still, this was odd, but he was still happy at having solved a crisis so he told her what had happened. "That's good, honey. What would you like for dinner?" She asked, quickly heading for the kitchen. +++ The next day at work he happened to think about his camera, the truck had not been touched now for a couple of months and he wasn't really paying much attention. In fact, with everything else going on, he had nearly forgotten the camera. Every time he had taken the time to look at the video, the result was nothing. Plugging in the little card, the blank screen shot of the inside of his truck came on. Darin had just taken a bite of his sandwich when he saw the truck door open and Sarah slide into the passenger seat! It had been raining the day before, it was clearly raining in this shot. Then he heard the sound of the other door. The tiny camera was hidden high on the driver's side so he could see out the side and rear window at whoever was stealing gas. But that meant he could not see who had just gotten in the truck. Sarah leaned forward and her face became a blur, then she leaned back. For an instant, Darin saw what looked to be someone's ear but it was so close to the lens it was hard to tell. Did she just...kiss someone? That is what it looked like. "That was pretty close, maybe we should cool it. I barely made it out the window." A male voice said. "Maybe. But it won't be too long and it will all be over." Sarah said. "Are you sure you can come up with the rest of the money?" The male voice asked. The voice was slightly distorted, Darin could not quite place it as a result. "Yes, sweetie. That is not a problem at all. Just one thing, I want it to be really quick if you can? He really has been good to me so I don't want him to suffer, it's just that he is so damn cheap. I want to live a little." She said. "It really could be the two of us, you know, babe? You have one hot body, I like fucking you." The man said with a chuckle. "No. You have a nice cock on you but once this is done we can't ever be near each other, it has to be that way. We can't have the cops getting suspicious." Sarah told him. Then she handed the man something, that was also blurry and he couldn't see what it was. "Hey, there is only $500.00 here!" The man said. "I will have the rest in a week, if I do too much at once Darin will demand to know, OK?" "OK. Hey, the asshole is gone all day, right? How about...?" The man said. Sarah smiled, then all Darin could see was the top on her head as it began to bob up and down. My God! It looked like she was sucking on whoever that was...? The motherfucking BITCH would not even go down for him, claiming she didn't like that. There was a short flash of an arm, some color. Darin ran the video back, then froze the frame. It was blurry, but it was an upper arm, and a tattoo. Darin now knew who the man was! This sounded like Sarah and this mother fucker Dennis were making plans to kill him? And Sarah was giving the jerk a blow job? Sarah didn't give blow jobs. His mind flashed back to Sarah fresh out of the shower, then the messed up bed. Now he knew. His Sarah was fucking this Dennis asshole, apparently part payment for having him done in? There was no mistake here, Darin was completely sure. He managed to hold himself in check, even though he went into a nearly complete rage at what he had just seen. It did flash into his head to call the cops, but then his rage took over and he decided to make some plans. That dirty son of a bitch, fuck with his father's truck, fuck with his cheating bitch of a wife? Make plans to kill him? There was no more work done the rest of the day. They each had a half million in life insurance on each other, and double if death was an accident? That cunt wife of his was actually making plans to collect on that? Sure, he could go to the cops, maybe what he had on video was enough. But? What if he just beat the dirty bitch to the punch? The idea would never have even crossed his mind, until he saw that video. His Sarah, clearly sucking that weasel's cock? Darin took a deep breath, he had to keep things completely under control. By God, this could work. Darin was making some plans. +++ Darin now was also paranoid, he was watching carefully. On the way to work, he checked every other vehicle, every bush on the way. He had no idea at all of how they planned to do it, but he did think he had a little time because Sarah still needed to come up with more money, that much was clear. If she just pulled what she would need out of the account all at once, she knew Darin would know and there would be hell to pay. He checked the accounts, she had been taking out cash withdrawals, already it was over $3000.00. The withdrawals were all for $500.00, spread over a couple of months. He checked Sarah's credit card statements, everything was close to normal there, so he knew what the cash was for. It had also been over a month now since she suddenly went into one of her sexy modes, which told him she spent some more money. Apparently murder came fairly cheap to that dirty mother fucker, Dennis. Even that $3000.00 would be hard to explain, but Sarah loved to shop and Darin had griped less and less about it, because that always led to a fight. +++ Back at the electronics shop, he purchased some equipment to bug their phone. Of course Sarah might just use her cell phone, if she did, there was nothing he could do about that, not really. He didn't have long to wait. The call came on Thursday while he was at the shop. He played it back that evening when Sarah was in the kitchen. "Yes, I have it." Sarah said when she answered the phone. "Good, we can go ahead then." "Sunday he will be here, you can get in then through the back with the key I gave you. Are you sure it will be enough for, you know..quick?" "Hey, 200 gallons of Propane going off at once will take care of it." Dennis laughed. "What if it leaks out and then it doesn't work?" She asked. "It will take at least a day, maybe more to all leak out into the building." Dennis snorted. Darin could not believe this, they were talking like it was about some kind of sports or something. Propane? Darin had a 200 gallon tank at his shop that he used to fuel an old pizza oven for heat treating metal and for straightening Aluminum cylinder heads. Now he knew what they planned, so he knew what to do. Friday morning at his shop, he went over to the tank, it was only 1/4 full. He opened the vent and drained that to the outside open air, it took quite awhile but finally it was empty. Then he closed the valve and went back to work. At home that evening, he mentioned in passing to Sarah that the the cost of Propane went up, and he had to refill his system. He even let himself go into a bit of a rant about it, how expensive everything was. When he next played the phone tap that evening, Sarah did exactly what he thought she would. Somehow she sneaked the call in while he was there at home, it must have been when he was in the shower. "It's ready! He just refilled it today, so how about Sunday?" She said when Dennis answered. "OK. Perfect, by morning it will have built up to be enough for one damn big bang. When he comes in on Monday and hits the light switches, that should take care of that." The guy laughed at that. The cock sucker actually laughed. Man, were these two stupid or what? Darin almost laughed himself, if it wasn't so damned serious. Sunday Morning Darin told Sarah that he had to go see a customer. He had done that a few times when the job was on a farm or something like that. He had already checked down the hill, the crappy Mustang sat there so Dennis was not out and about yet. "OK, Honey." She told him, giving him a big kiss. "Are you going to swing by your shop?" She asked. "No, it's the other way, why?" "Oh. No reason. OK, then. See you this afternoon, sweetie." Sarah smiled and kissed him again. Sarah never once called him "sweetie" that he could remember. She sure did seem happy. The fucking bitch! +++ Darin saw the Mustang coming, he was ready when it started up the hill into town. Hidden in a side driveway, Dennis didn't see him as he went by. It only took a few seconds for Darin to be right on his ass going up the hill. The road was winding and steep down the other side, with a sharp left hand curve at the bottom. There was a guardrail there, the bank dropped about 40 feet off into the river at that point. Darin's battery powered impact wrench had made short work of the guardrail bolts, at a glance they looked fine, but they were simply sitting there. He knew he would need to time it just right, but he was reasonably sure he could with all of the experience he had racing cars out at the local speedway. Not exactly racing, that was jalopies, the idea was to put other drivers into situations they didn't want to be in. Darin had a half dozen trophies to prove his skill at doing exactly that. Dennis looked up and saw Darin coming up on him from behind just before the top of the hill, he realized, in a panic he stepped on the gas. A huge cloud of smoke poured out of the exhaust. Darin hit the gas at the same time, feeling his crash bars he had installed on the old truck meet the Mustang's back end. Like he figured, there was no way the worn out little Ford could get away from the his truck, heavy be damned, he had over 390 ponies on tap. Up over the crest of the hill and down the other side they went, the Mustang was fish tailing wildly. Dennis hit the brakes at one point, but all that happened was his tires slid. Again a huge blast of smoke poured out of the machine as the man tried again to get away from him, out run him. Darin stayed right on him, working the wheel to keep from spinning the Mustang out, building speed. Then he saw the Mustang's brake lights come on again, far too late. 3200 pounds being pushed by over 5000 pounds had little chance, not headed down a steep grade. Just before both of them piled into the guardrail, Darin tapped the brakes and left the Mustang to it's fate. It went straight through and vanished down out of sight. Darin barely made the corner himself. Slowing, he turned and drove back home, through his gate and down into the lower field. Luck was with him, he never saw another vehicle. Like he figured, on Sunday morning there was no other traffic. That had been a risk, one he was prepared to take. Putting the crash bars against the old Farmall tractor that sat down there in the lower field disabled, he managed to shove it all the way to the barn. The huge rear axle messed up his crash bars nicely, just like he figured. Any evidence that he was involved in anything was long gone. Back inside the house, he sat and sipped on some Coffee. "What have you been doing, honey?" Sarah asked when she came out. "Oh, I pushed the old tractor up to the garage, I want to fix the engine." He told her. "Oh. I thought you said you were going to check on a job?" She asked, a frown on her face. "Changed my mind." Darin told her curtly. +++ At work Monday, it was mid morning when the phone rang. Darin was expecting that. "Have you heard? There has been a terrible accident, our neighbor Dennis was killed." "What? Really? What happened?" "I don't know, he went through the guardrail at the bottom of the hill into town." Sarah sounded like she was about to cry. "Well, that's too bad. He was a nice guy, I guess." Grinning, Darin went back to work. Sarah was very quiet that evening, then at bedtime she wanted to cuddle but Darin begged off, telling her he had a headache. Darin also half expected someone to come by, maybe ask questions but there was nothing. The story in the papers mentioned speed as being a factor, but that was it. They also found drugs in his system, that helped a lot to eliminate any suspicion. There was no mention of the missing guardrail bolts. Over the next couple of months, Darin did his level best to make everything appear normal. After refueling them, each day he checked his tanks at work before turning anything on, but nothing out of the ordinary happened. He forgot about that finally, it was clear to him that he had gotten away scott free. Sarah kept the house like she always did, and even reached for him from time to time, but it was almost like she was thinking about something else. That was fine, Darin was thinking about something else also. He had some plans for the fucking bitch, bad enough she cheated but planning his murder? By God he was going to see about that. He had to be careful though, after all, a half million in life insurance would mean inspectors were going to check everything. +++ The big steel trailer he bought for only $450.00 had a lift bed, hydraulics on it. It was rusty, nasty looking but he didn't care. He had no plans to ever actually use the thing. He towed it home and parked it in the driveway half way up the hill to his garage, angling it so the rear of it was against a big gate post. It was early on a Sunday morning when he asked Sarah to help him hook it up so he could haul it to the shop, she grumbled but he told her he couldn't do it by himself. "I need you to tell me when it is lined up so I can drop in onto the towing ball, OK?" He said. "OK, honey." Sarah was still in her bathrobe when they went out, Darin sat and watched her in his mirror. She stood off to the side so he yelled at her. "Look straight down from the hitch, it has to be exact." He called out the side window. Sarah stepped in between the front of the front of the trailer and the rear of the truck. Just as her head vanished when she leaned down, Darin floored the throttle. There was hard jolt, a short scream and then silence. Pulling back ahead, Darin set the brakes and jumped out. "Oh my God! Oh my God!" He screamed over and over as he looked down. The heavy rear bumper had gone right over the top of the trailer's tow bar, and jammed Sarah between the front of the steel trailer and the truck. The trailer brakes were locked, that plus the big corner post on the fence meant it didn't even budge. There was no one around in sight, so he quit with the pretend screaming. She was still alive but barely. The impact had done it's job. Darin looked down. "So you planned to kill me, bitch?" He told her. "Oh, my God. NO! Honey, help me." Sarah managed, but then she was gone. +++ Darin was horribly distraught when the police arrived. A crew came and cleaned up the mess, removed his wife's body. Then a detective arrived, he made Darin go inside the house and wait. Looking out, Darin saw a tow truck come and hook onto his rig. He laughed to himself, it was just a simple accident, there was no way for them to decide anything else. He knew he had played the part of being stricken by grief perfectly. He didn't even feel all that bad, it had come down to him...or her. He was reasonably sure that if she tried it once she would try it again, so during that time he kept as close an eye on her as possible. Now it was over, he could relax. That million dollars was going to allow him to quit working, sell the shop. As he waited, he added up all of his accounts in his head, smiling to himself, knowing it would be enough. +++ When she found out that Dennis had been killed, Sarah had a feeling that somehow Darin was involved. She didn't care about Dennis, not really, but it spoiled her plans. Now she was stuck once again. He wasn't a bad guy, not really. It was just that she wanted finer things, freedom. When she got the idea about the insurance policy, at first she had no idea at all how to go about it. One afternoon that Dennis man suddenly appeared at their fence, Sarah very nearly got up and went inside. But then she spotted his obvious interest, and Sarah knew very well how to manipulate men. It didn't take long, a bit of teasing and soon he was sitting there talking. He almost could not take his eyes off her breasts, even though the outfit she had on was conservative. A few days later, the outfit she had on was not conservative at all and Dennis appeared right on que. Even though the idea was distasteful, she allowed the man to seduce her. He was on the hurried side, not the kind of lover Sarah would ever choose but she didn't care about that. From there, the rest was easy. There was one tiny upset when Darin came home and caught them sitting outside. He was upset but Sarah managed to smooth that over. Then that day when she and Dennis had barely finished a sex session, they heard Darin outside. Dennis had bailed out the bedroom window just in time. Thank God she always made the man use a rubber, or that one could have been very bad. Now Dennis was dead and Sarah was fearful that Darin knew more than he let on. Yet Darin acted perfectly normal in every respect except for the few times she had caught him looking at her. One Damn Fine Truck That expression? It gave her a feeling that he knew something, although she could not see how. Worried, Sarah knew she had to act, and she had to do it herself. What was it that Dennis had told her? Open the valve to the pizza oven, there was a hoist sump inside Darin's shop that would fill with the Propane gas. Plus Darin's shop was well insulated and tight, over several hours it should fill nicely. Then turn on the igniter, when Darin switched on the power into his shop like he did every morning, it would set off the gas. She knew he always turned off the power at the main switch to save money, that was his flaw, he was so damned cheap. She knew Darin had refilled his Propane tank, but it was a much later than he had told her? She knew that because she had snooped and seen the invoice. That meant he somehow knew, and that also meant she had no other choice now. She drove down to the shop that Sunday, went inside and checked on the switch to the pizza oven. That would create continuous sparks to keep the oven lit when the power was on. She made sure it was off. Then she opened the valve to the oven, and quickly left and went home. Just like she thought, Darin was still asleep when she slipped back inside the house. That night in bed, Darin reached for her. Sarah willingly responded, knowing it would be the last time. It was so good, she very nearly changed her mind. +++ "Come outside and give me a hand, honey? I need to tow the trailer down to the shop so I can work on it." Darin called out to her. It was a full hour earlier than normal, Sarah was still sleepy. But she got out of bed to help him. "OK." Sarah pulled her bathrobe tightly around herself and went out there. Still in the fog of sleep, and her body still feeling good from the lovemaking of the night before, Sarah did not suspect a thing. +++ Darin went in to his shop later that same day, he had no plans to do any work at all but he couldn't sit at home and think. What Sarah had looked like lying there all bloody like that was bothering him even though it had all worked out exactly as he had planned. Still, he found himself drifting from complete anger at her and that Dennis son of a bitch, and the way she was during the fine times. The vision of her lying there on the ground just would not leave him. His eyes filled with tears at the thought, but he managed to shake that off. It was over. He hopped into the Mazda and drove down to his shop. Sitting in his office, answering phones would take his mind off things. Darin didn't even notice the white unmarked car that followed him, it parked down the street half a block. The detective watched as Darin went to the front door and unlocked it. The office lights came on, then through the window he saw Darin go into the rear of the building. "How in the hell can this silly bastard go to work like everything is normal when his wife was just killed in an accident?" The detective thought, reaching for his notepad to write down the time. The building exploded with a thunderous roar, glass and debris showered down all over the street, some even landing on his car. "Jesus Christ!" The detective exclaimed. +++ The two men sat in the Chief's office down at the station. "Yea, we can close this one. It is obvious what happened here, when they found the camera in that Darin's guy's truck that pretty much explained it." "Why did it take so long to find it?" The chief asked. "The guy was pretty good, the thing looked like it was part of the vehicle, it wasn't until one of the techs found that extra wire from the spare battery that they traced it." "I can't believe the stupid bastard actually got himself on video, he must have had his head in his ass." One of the detectives muttered. "Criminals do stupid things, but this one takes the cake." The other one said. "So you are telling me we have a case of homicide, and these two did each other in?" "Yep, Chief, that's about it." "That means it probably was that Darin guy that put the first jerk over the bank, right?" "Yea, that's what we figure. Even that is on the damn video, except it is all out the back and side window." "Crazy shit, just crazy. Hey, when is the auction?" "You mean for the truck? Next Friday, why?" The detective asked. "That's a damn nice truck." The Chief grinned. The detective frowned at that comment. Yea, that was a damn nice truck, he was thinking of bidding on it himself. Oh, well. He would just have to see how that went.