“No,” Tooney said quickly. “I…I might be wrong. And I don’t want to cause any…problems.”
“Well, when did she go missing?”
“I don’t know if she is missing. She was supposed to arrive this afternoon.”
“Here? In Cambria?”
Tooney nodded. “She goes to school in Los Angeles. She was coming up to spend a few days of spring break with me. But she not show up.”
“Well, you’re here,” Logan pointed out. “Maybe she’s at your house right now.”
“Alice and Glenda are over there,” Barney said. Glenda was Barney’s wife, and Alice was either Alan’s or Jerry’s, Logan couldn’t remember which. “They’ll call us if Elyse shows up.”
“That’s her name? Elyse?” Logan asked Tooney.
He nodded.
Logan looked at the clock on the wall. It was only a few minutes after six. “It’s early. She’s probably still on the way.”
Tooney looked unconvinced. “She supposed to leave at ten this morning. Even if she stop for lunch, she here by three.”
Glancing at the others, Logan asked, “Has anyone checked traffic? Maybe there was an accident on the one- oh-one that slowed everything down.”
“No accidents,” Alan said. “We also checked hospitals, just in case.”
That was going to be Logan’s next question.
“I been trying to call her all day,” Tooney said, “but only get her voicemail.”
“All day?”
“He wanted to tell her about this morning,” Harp explained quickly. “Didn’t want her to be surprised when she showed up.”
In Logan’s experience, people liked to delay news like that, especially if the other person was traveling so as not to worry them.
“We were thinking,” Logan’s dad continued, his voice now tentative, “maybe you could pop down there tonight. See if she’s home. You know, make sure she’s all right.”
Logan felt an uneasy tingling under his skin. “Go to Los Angeles?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Dad, I’ve got work tomorrow.”
“But I’m the boss. I’ll just have Alejandro take care of anything you’ve been working on. And whatever expenses you have…” He looked around the table. “We’re going split them among the group.”
“I would probably just pass her on the way down,” Logan argued.
“Great, then that would mean everything’s fine,” Harp said. “We’re only asking because Tooney wants to go himself. So far we’ve been able to talk him out of it. If you don’t do it, I’m afraid he won’t listen to us any more.”
A thousand thoughts swirled through Logan’s mind. Thoughts about his routine and the dream and the past. He looked at Tooney, whose eyes were full of desperation, and then at his father, whose eyes were full of hope.
“What’s her address?”
6
Logan went home to exchange the Rodeo for his own car, a 1969 electric blue Chevrolet El Camino. It was more vehicle than he needed, but it was in a hell of a lot better shape than the SUV.
Before leaving, he went up to his apartment, and found his travel bag at the back of his closet. He stared at it for a moment before taking it out. It was a backpack, small enough to be a carry-on, but large enough to hold everything he needed.
The thing was, it was part of his old life, back from when he’d been on the road all the time, before his ex-wife had walked out on him, and when his best friend had still been alive. He kept the bag pre-packed with things he knew he would always need: a couple of changes of clothes, paper, pens, batteries, passport, toiletries, and a few other odds and ends that had always come in handy. And though he hadn’t gone anywhere since moving back to Cambria, the bag sat ready to go if he ever needed it.
A year ago, that voice would have won out, maybe even six months ago, or three, or perhaps one. But when he grabbed the bag, he realized the balance had tipped at some point, even if just a bit. What that meant, who knew? Before he could dwell on it, he stuffed his laptop in the bag, and headed out to his car.
It took him forty minutes to reach the 101 highway. Once he was cruising south, he pulled out the picture of Elyse that Tooney had given him at his dad’s house. It was a high school graduation shot, so a couple of years old, but Tooney had said she looked the same. She had a warm smile, and intelligent, caring eyes, and was cute in that geeky, Comic-Con kind of way. She’d never be elected homecoming queen, but fanboys would have done whatever she asked if it meant they could hang out with her.
