Chapter Forty-Eight

David stopped at every all-night gas station and convenience store on the road between Albuquerque and Belen, but no one had seen either his aunts or a runaway. As he drove, his eyes moved back and forth, alert to signs of a road mishap. With one ear tuned to his police scanner and the other to his phone, he tried to keep from thinking of all the things that could have happened to his aunts and the little girl.

He walked into the last all-night gas station before Belen just as a young male employee was clocking out. The tired-looking young man pulled a backpack from under the counter, slung it over his shoulders, and headed for the door.

“Excuse me,” David said. “Are you the night clerk?”

The young man nodded. “I’m on my way home. If you need something, you’ll have to talk to the manager. She’s in the back.”

David pulled out his identification and held it up for the clerk’s benefit. “Actually, it’s you I need to talk to. Have you seen two elderly women, one in a red sports car and the other in a tan coupe? That would have been either last night or this morning.”

“Yeah, the one in the red convertible. Nice ride. Is she your grandma?”

David’s heartbeat sped up. “Did you talk to her?”

“Not really. She fell asleep in her car over by the air pump. Scared the hell out of me.” The young man eyeballed David. “Did she do something bad, like rob a bank?”

“She’s missing. When did you see her, at about what time?”

The kid grew thoughtful. “Oh, I’d say it was about five or six this morning. I thought she was in trouble or something, so I went out to her car and tapped on her window. I think I woke her up.”

“Was she alone, no little girl in the car with her?”

“No, she was by herself. I thought, you know, she might be senile or something and just forgot where she was, but she seemed okay.”

“Did she happen to say where she was going?”

The kid shook his head. “Like I said, we didn’t really have a conversation.”

“Did you see her leave, notice which direction she went?”

“She drove south, towards Mountainair.”

“Thanks for your help.”

“No problemo.” The young man headed for a motorcycle chained to an upright metal pipe cemented next to the door. “Good luck.”

David hurried back to his car. A southerly route meant his aunt had either been headed to the Elliott place or the Ross farm.

I’m right behind you, Auntie Dix.

He pulled his cell phone from the holder attached to his dashboard. He needed to update his aunt Lil as well as find out where she was.

He prepared to punch in his aunt’s number, but his phone’s flashing green light announced he’d missed a call. Berating himself for forgetting to take his phone out of silent mode earlier, he tapped the screen to retrieve a message from his Aunt Dix’s phone.

But static and an occasional dead interval made his aunt’s message nearly impossible to decipher.

…at the Elliott place…Dix’s car’s here…deserted…held captive in the shed…

His stomach doing a pirouette and heart pounding, David replayed the message several times in hopes of making sense of it. Then he tried to call Dix’s number again, but it went immediately to voice mail.

…held captive in the shed…

The snippet of message sent a chill up his back. Had that garbled message been Aunt Lil’s call for help? Had his aunts been locked in that shed during his visit? No, that didn’t make sense given neither of his aunts’ cars had been there at the time of his visit.

David sucked air through his teeth. Had he been so caught up inside his own head that he’d driven past one or both of his aunts’ vehicles on the highway?

He’d noticed that shed earlier, had even considered looking into it. But because of the Elliott woman’s offhand attitude about it, he’d dismissed it as being inconsequential.

David pounded his palm against the steering wheel. One step forward, two steps back—like fighting his way up the side of a steep sand dune. If anything happened to his aunts or that little girl because of his short-sightedness, he’d never forgive himself.

David called dispatch and gave Betts an update.

“What’re you going to do?”

“I’m going to find my aunts and the runaway.”

“Do you need backup?”

“If I do, I’ll be in touch.” David ended the call

He pulled onto the road that would take him back to the Elliott house.