Page 67 of Hudson
“Yes. I’m Whitman. And I don’t know anything.”
“About what?” Hud asked.
“About anything.”
Hud looked at Creed. “ID.”
Creed fished the wallet from the man’s back pocket, flipped it open and held it up. “Tanner Whitman.”
“Having my ID doesn’t mean I know anything.”
“You worked at Big Sky Tires,” Hud said. “You were part of the operation.”
Whitman’s head came up. “I wasn’t part of any rustling. I didn’t steal anything.”
“Who said anything about rustling?” Hud asked.
The air seemed to go out of Whitman.
“You switched tires on three different semis. Barely used tires. You want me to believe you never wondered why?”
Whitman was quiet for a moment. “Harold White told me to do it. First time I told him those tires were practically new. He told me to shut up and change them.” He looked at the ground. “After that I stopped asking.”
“Who else was involved?”
“I don’t know. He never told me anything and Ididn’t want to know.”
“Why did the shop close?”
“White just showed up one day and said he was shutting it down. We got into it pretty good about that. I walked out and never went back.”
Luke crouched beside him. “Why’d you shoot at us?”
Whitman looked up. “I thought you were White’s men. I don’t trust that man. Haven’t for a long time.”
Hud looked at Creed, then back down. “Three trucks, three sets of tires swapped out, and you never put it together?”
Whitman shook his head slowly. “No.”
“I don’t believe you. You just said rustling. Nobody mentioned that word but you.”
Whitman said nothing.
“We’ll call Saunders,” Hud said, looking at Creed and Luke. “He can take him to the local jail.”
They both nodded.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Whitman said.
“You fired on law enforcement. Even if you weren’t involved in the rustling, you almost killed one of us. That’s a felony.”
“I told you, I thought you were White’s men. I was protecting myself.” He looked up at Hud. “I don’t want to go to jail.”
“So, White’s men wear Kevlar vests with livestock agent stitched on them?” Creed asked with a smirk.
“I didn’t even notice the vests. I was too scared. I just saw someone at my door. Honest to God. Please, I can’t go to jail.”
“Cooperate and we’ll see what we can do about the shooting.”
