Everything happened at once. Joule heard her email ding just as she watched her brother freeze at the window. Then her phone let her know with an incoming text that the Walkers were about five minutes away.
She quickly tapped a message back to them.
— The car we followed returned and it’s definitely the man from 104.
— That's good.
The two words came back quickly and didn't need any more explanation.
Joule felt as if she were pulling at threads on a sweater. Pull for a little while and more things came to light, then suddenly, it would tangle. The police should be helping . . . but nothing. The man from 104 wasn’t on any documents, but he was driving out into the desert. What did it even mean?
Another knot had to be untied or another thread found that could be pulled. She was determined to unravel it. They had to find Sarah—Joule couldn’t even entertain the thought that they might never know what had happened. She fought back the base level of fear that thrummed through her blood.
What if it had been her?
What if it had been Cage?
Her brother had asked her to trade places, but now that the white car had returned and lunch was coming, that didn’t seem like the thing to do.
He headed over to the table to sit next to her, but he didn't open his laptop. “We should clear this off so we can sit down and eat. Maybe have a discussion as we go.”
Joule agreed, but there were a few minutes left and she wasn't quite ready to close up. She pointed to her screen. “Look.”
The email had been addressed to both of them, but Cage seemed to have not spotted it in his own inbox yet. Clicking it open, she saw Ivy had sent them the information they requested. Probably Kayla had found it, but Ivy was in charge of communication.
Joule read out loud, so her brother didn’t have to lean over. “The car was registered last year to one Salvador Torres.” She looked up at him. “That’s the same last name as the one on the lease.”
“Do you think it's his father on the lease?”
Joule had checked out the first name as best she could. “Grandfather, likely. There are almost fifty years between them. And—if I've got everything right—the lease was last signed three years ago. Hard to tell if it changed hands or not. But the grandfather, Pablo Torres, died two years ago.”
She had no idea if Salvador was the legal renter on the apartment now. Judging from the looks of the building itself and the surrounding lot, she wouldn’t be surprised if they were still signing paper documents that were kept in a metal file drawer in a garage. If they were kept at all . . .
“Here’s a picture of Salvador.” She pushed her laptop around. They’d have to clear the table in a minute.
Cage leaned over and nodded along. “That’s definitely our guy.”
His hair was longer and tied back in the picture.
Joule mused out loud, “So Salvador Torres in apartment 104 knew Sarah. He saw her on a semi-regular basis and no one else seems to know about it.”
“That just doesn't sound like Sarah.” Cage said.
Joule agreed, but a second thought flitted through her mind. She and her brother knew Sarah from work. They'd lived with Sarah in the same unit on more than one job. The first time had been Sarah and Joule in one room and Cage and Deveron in the other in Alabama. But the four had remained friends.
Or had they?
Were they just “work friends”? Having a twin that she'd consistently gotten along with as a child had maybe spoiled her or altered her understanding of how normal friendships worked. She knew that people were often grouped into friend categories, like friend-friends, family, coworkers. And that there were coworkers you liked and coworkers you didn't. Most coworkers weren't roommates, too.
Maybe Sarah had only considered Cage and her as “work friends,” and had simply not included other parts of herself when she spoke to them.
Joule wondered now what else might exist in the person that she knew was hard working and loyal? Sarah was very much one who followed the rule of “when you know better, do better” in both her life and her work. But what else might she have been involved in?
As the front door opened, the Walkers headed into the small apartment that belonged to none of them. Joule didn’t want to touch things or mess anything up—not any more than she already had. But it was now past two o'clock and she felt her stomach rumble. She'd barely made it since her paltry breakfast. She’d been so upset this morning that she simply pushed a handful of crackers into her face to say she’d done it.
The twins showed the Walkers the new information that had come in while the older couple set bags of fast food out on the table. They plopped tall, sweating sodas next to them, both of theirs already partially drunk.
The room was quiet as tiny packs of ketchup were handed out, along with little cardboard boxes of fries, and paper wrapped burgers. The logo on the food wasn't even a name that Joule recognized, maybe not even a chain. The town was small like that.
Hardly waiting for everyone to sit down, Joule began asking the questions they’d stockpiled. “Are the police tracking Sarah's phone?”
Mr. Walker nodded, but Mrs. Walker quickly filled in. “However, they said it's going to take several days to get all the paperwork through to get that information out of the phone company—”
“Several days?” Joule cried out, once again startled and upset by the speed with which the system failed to work. “Can you go directly to the phone company and ask them?”
The two frowned at each other but Mr. Walker said, “I pay the bill. We've always thought of it as her phone, but it was cheaper to put it on a family plan.”
For a moment, Joules’ heart twisted at the idea. She and Cage had been in high school when they'd lost their parents. They’d never made it to an adult phase where their parents might still simply pay their phone bill because it was cheaper to have it all together.
Then Cage next asked about Sarah having any tracking apps on her phone.
The Walkers didn't know.
“You can maybe find that out from the phone company, too.” Joule wasn't sure but it was worth asking.
The twins went through their list, still none of the answers were completely satisfying. However, building a to do list made Joule feel more comfortable. She might not get what she needed, but she needed to know what to do next, who she should talk to, something besides wandering off to bed tonight, waiting for a friend who might not come back.
When the questions ran out, the table grew silent.
Aurora looked to Malcolm, and he gave a small nod.
Joule looked between them, but she didn’t have to wait.
With a deep breath, the woman started talking. “Sarah told me a while ago that she’d taken up a volunteer position a couple of nights a week.”
That was news to Joule. When she glanced at Cage, she saw he hadn't heard about it either. Though, why would they? She was just glad Sarah had told her mother.
“She said she was volunteering at the local Y.”
For a moment, Joule thought nothing of that. It seemed perfectly reasonable. But then she caught the question in Mrs. Walker's eyes.
There was no local YMCA. The town was hardly big enough for a drive-through burger place.
So, why had Sarah lied?