CHAPTER

21

GARCIA FOLLOWED THE girl to the parking lot, watched as she pretended to ignore him and get into her car. Jamie Elders. Nineteen and going nowhere fast. There was nothing for a kid like her in Blind River and he guessed she probably knew it. A semi bore down the highway, its draft bending the grass in the field across the highway where a small black mare grazed behind a barbed-wire fence. Her tail and flanks twitched at the blast of air as the semi passed.

Jamie started the engine as he approached. He tapped on the window. “Let’s talk.”

She opened the window an inch and turned the radio down. “What’s left for us to talk about?”

“Plenty. Step out of the car.”

“Why?” She raised her chin in that typical insolent teenager way he hated.

“First thing you need to understand, when a cop asks you to get out of your vehicle, you do it.”

She turned off the engine and got out.

Another semi blasted up the highway and the mare pawed at the ground with her front legs. It was clear she wanted to run, but a lead tethered her to a fence post. It was distracting and bothered him. Who tethered a horse so close to the highway?

“Look,” he said, taking a notebook out of his jacket pocket, “I’ve known about your uncle for years. He’s got an operation, right?” He put his hand up and said, “Wait. Don’t answer that. Everybody downtown knows about it.” It was a guess but he would have put money on it. “He’s connected. Tight with the judge. Everybody looks the other way.” He opened the notebook, pretended to check his notes, wrote down the date for lack of anything better. He was sure she’d heard something from her mother or uncle that would help him find Bangor. He rubbed the spot between his eyebrows like he was frustrated and said, “Thing like that can change any minute. And changes? Well, you know how it is. Sometimes changes bring trouble.”

Her eyes danced sideways. He couldn’t tell if she followed his meaning. A girl like her could be thinking about anything—a boy, her next meal—and was unlikely to give up much on purpose.

“So, I’m wondering,” he continued, “maybe you could help me out.”

The wind pushed her hair across her forehead, and she pulled it behind her ear. “I’m just running errands. Doubt I can help much.”

Her tone revealed nothing, but she hunched up her shoulders and it dawned on him that she might be scared of her uncle. Maybe that was the crack he needed. A gentle tone might convince her to follow his lead.

“I know what you’re doing. I’ve been watching you all morning. I know these aren’t your gambling units and you’re not the one running things. Hell, by the looks of things, you’re probably not even getting paid.”

Her silence made him think he was on to something, but then she stepped away to wipe a smudge off the car window and the gesture caught him off guard. His ex-wife had hated smudges, was always wiping his fingerprints off windows, the fridge, the toaster oven. He took a deep breath and focused, made a mental note to run the plates on the car she was driving. He’d seen it around town.

“Look, that guy on the news?” He pointed back at the store. “He seems to be missing and that’s not good news for anybody in Blind River.”

“Big guy like that can probably take care of himself. Maybe he’s just having some fun on the down-low.”

“On the down-low?” He tried to laugh but knew it sounded fake. Sometimes he was shocked by what kids knew these days, so he kept talking. “What do you know about all that?”

She shrugged. “Gay Awareness Day in high school, sir.”

“Uh-huh. Sounds like you got an answer for everything.” Now she was being a smartass and that meant she’d seen through the good-guy shtick. He’d never been good at getting through to girls her age. It was time to switch it up. He looked up at the sky and snapped his notebook shut. “The thing is, his family says he’s never disappeared before. It’s not like him and they’re worried. We found his car but no one has heard from him.”

“Like I said, I wasn’t there that night. I never even met the guy.”

“But you know a few of the people who were there. You might’ve heard something that seems unimportant to you but might be a lead for me.”

“That’s not exactly my crowd, you know? So nope, no one said a thing to me.”

A police cruiser came over the top of the hill and the little mare danced until her butt was aimed at the highway. “You probably know more than you think.”

She just stared at him.

“All right. Play it your way, but just so you know, I am going to have to start paying more attention to details.” He handed her a business card. “You think of anything, call me.”

The cop inside the cruiser squeaked his siren as a greeting. The mare jumped and threw her head back so that her lead rope was pulled too tight over her shoulder and she couldn’t move her head.

Jamie turned to face the wind, her hair flipping in her eyes. She pointed at the mare. “What’s wrong with that horse? Why doesn’t it just back up?”

The sudden curiosity made her seem so naïve. “Horses can’t naturally walk backward. They don’t know how until they’re taught.”

“So she’ll stay stuck?”

“Yep. Lots of that going around these days.” He turned toward his car. “Horses are pretty but they’re a pain in the ass. I almost bought one once and I’m glad I didn’t.”

“Why didn’t you?” she asked.

The truth was he had arranged to buy a horse as an anniversary present for his wife, but that wasn’t this kid’s business. He’d hoped a gift like that would prove something to his wife, but she’d left him that same day and he’d never even told her about the horse. All those days and weekends she’d claimed to be working at her friend’s barn, teaching riding lessons, had been spent falling in love with another man.

“Why didn’t you buy the horse?” the girl asked again.

She was such a kid, suddenly nosy, convinced she was immune to the world’s trouble. He shook his head. She was just a girl looking at a horse, a kid who deserved better than what she was getting but living in a world that offered her few choices. He was losing his edge again. This girl and that little mare were bringing up things he’d worked hard to forget.

Then she looked him in the eye with such intensity that he couldn’t read her and he realized she was reading him. She’d sensed an old wound and wanted to poke at it.

“Huh.” He laughed at himself and walked to his car. “I guess I wised up in the nick of time.”