They waited in a poor excuse for an office, where nude pictures of women covered most of the walls, and a sickening smell rose into their nostrils. Morgan winced at the scent, unable to recognize it, and continued to pace around the small room.
“Will you sit down?” Gary said.
Morgan took one look at the dirty red leather, multiple stains emanating questionable smells. There was no way in hell he was sitting on that thing. He simply shook his head and carried on.
It wasn’t much longer before the door opened and two men filed in. One of them was the manager they’d spoken to on their arrival. The other was a dumpy man with grubby clothes and an equally grubby white beard. Morgan pictured him on the back of a Harley Davidson rather than behind the wheel of a truck, but he wasn’t about to argue career choices.
There was a bigger subject to tackle.
“Detectives, this is Ray Quidley,” the manager said, gesturing toward the man.
They all shook hands except for Morgan, who opted to stand in the corner and gnaw on his fingernails like a beaver. The anxiety was killing him. If he could just get the information he needed, he’d be on his way, but the problem came with having to ask the question. As with all questions, there came the risk of hearing an answer he didn’t want. He remained silent.
“If you need anything, I’ll be in the yard.” The manager shut the door and left them all alone together. There was a brief passing of seconds where nobody said a word. Ray looked as though he might be in some sort of trouble, but Gary put him at ease and broke the ice at the same time.
“There’s nothing to worry about,” he said, slipping his backside onto the graffitied desk. “My partner and I are just looking for information about the woman you gave a ride to. You won’t be in any trouble.”
“I won’t?” Ray’s voice was deep and strong, but there was a pang of concern in his tone.
“We convinced him it was an act of chivalry.”
“It was.”
Morgan rolled his eyes at the calming act and stepped forward. “Tell us what happened.”
“I saw a woman with an infant, thought I’d stop and pick her up.”
“Did she look like she needed help?”
Ray shrugged and fed his hands into his pockets in one smooth motion. “She was waving her hand around and struggling to hold her baby.”
“It wasn’t her baby,” Morgan said, taking note of the angry look from Gary.
“Wasn’t it?” Ray looked from one man to the other. “Look, I didn’t know anything about that. I just tried to help the lady out. If I’m in some sort of trouble, I’d rather know about it now. I don’t like being tricked.”
Gary stood up and placed a hand on the man’s shoulder as he passed him by and went to look out the office window that overlooked the yard. “You’re not in any trouble. Relax. Just tell us what she said.”
“She didn’t say much at all.”
“No indication of where she was going?”
Ray spun on his heel to answer Gary, but his head kept flicking back toward Morgan. It was as though he could sense there was a personal investment there. “I asked her a whole load of questions, but she didn’t answer any of them.”
“And you didn’t think there was anything weird about that?” Morgan pressed.
“Sure I did.”
“Then why didn’t you do anything about it.”
“I came back to explain, didn’t I?”
Gary cleared his throat. “You did, and that was the right thing to do.”
“Thank you. I came right back.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t do nothin’ wrong.”
“I know.”
The tension in the air was nothing if not uncomfortable. Morgan cracked his knuckles and held his hands together behind his back. Unable to keep them still, he then tucked them into his armpits and heaved a sigh. “Where did you take her, Mr. Quidley?”
“Oh, that’s the easy one,” Ray said. “It was on the side of the road. I tried to argue with her, but she said to let her out right then and there, just by a load of trees in the middle of nowhere. She was pretty insistent that I didn’t see where she was going.”
“We’re screwed, then,” Morgan snapped. “She could be living in the woods for all we know. You didn’t ask her? It didn’t cross your mind to follow her? Listen up, that was my baby she took with her, and you just let her go. So you better have something a damn sight more useful than a bunch of nonanswers.”
“Morgan—” Gary started.
“No, this man is wasting our time.” Morgan stormed past and went for the door.
But something stopped him.
“I was heading to Pittsburgh.” It was Ray’s voice.
Morgan turned. “Pittsburgh?”
“A town called Mt. Lebanon. It might not help, but…”
It helps all right, Morgan thought. The road they were racing down when they’d chased Erika in the Mustang was on the way to Mt. Lebanon. Why had she gone back there? Morgan paused by the door with one hand on the knob, thinking there must be some reason she was returning. If not for something in Pittsburgh, then perhaps for something en route.
“Buddy?” Gary’s voice from right beside him.
Morgan lingered in the doorway, weighing his options. The obvious thing would be to leave this to the police, but that was also the tougher choice. Once he stripped away the possibility of sitting and waiting for some kind of result, there was only one clear decision available. “We’re going to Pittsburgh,” he said in one short breath.
A moment later, he slammed the door.