Every Precious Thing

Logan gave him an odd look, but said, “Okay,” thinking that maybe Dev was just tired of being behind the wheel.

But as they exited the mobile home park, Dev swiveled in his seat and stared out the rear window.

“What is it?” Logan asked.

Turning back around, Dev seemed to contemplate something. Finally he said, “I think someone might be following us.”

Logan’s gaze flicked to the rearview mirror. “Who?”

“There’s a gray sedan about a block back.”

Logan searched the street behind them. “Okay, I see it. You sure?” The car was too far back for him to see the people inside.

“No, I’m not. Have you seen how many gray sedans there are in this town?”

“Then what makes you think we’re being followed?”

“It looks like the same one I saw when we visited the real estate place, and before that, not long after we left the woman’s house. But I don’t know.”

Logan frowned. He considered making a few quick turns to see if the car was really tailing them, but decided doing that might scare the person off. If they pretended like they hadn’t noticed, and just kept tabs on the other car, there was a better chance they might learn something useful. He told Dev what he wanted to do, and the former Marine nodded as if he’d been thinking the same thing.

Mary Ralston had told them Tessie Carter was working at the Wallace Wash Mini Market out near the interstate. As Logan pulled into the store’s small lot and parked, Dev positioned himself so he could see out the back without seeming too obvious.

“There they go.”

“They?”

“There’re two people inside.”

“Did either of them look this way?” Logan asked.

“No. Kept facing straight.”

“Recognize them?”

Dev shook his head. “Never seen them before. A man and a woman, both white. Her hair’s cut short.” Dev touched his neck about halfway between his head and shoulder. “About to here. Think it’s brown. But she was driving, so harder to see. The guy’s hair was close-cropped, lighter, almost blond.”

“How old?”

“She could be anywhere from thirty to fifty. Sorry, best I can do. The guy’s younger, late twenties at most.”

“Where are they now?”

“They kept going straight through the next intersection, like they were going to get on the freeway.” Dev craned his neck. “Can’t see them anymore.”

Maybe it was nothing. Braden was small, with only so many roads a person could use, and the route they’d just taken had been the logical route to the highway. They’d just have to see if the car showed up again.

The Wallace Wash Mini Market was a kind of low-rent 7-Eleven-older shelves, worse lighting, and fewer choices. Behind the counter was a woman with vibrant auburn hair and too much black eye makeup. Her clothes of choice were a Lady Gaga T-shirt and a short black skirt.

Logan caught Dev’s eye, then subtly motioned to the opening in the counter that allowed whoever was behind it to get out. With a single nod, Dev walked toward it as Logan grabbed a bag of beef jerky and approached the cash register.

The woman took the bag, scanned it, said, “Anything else?”

“Can I ask you something?”

She stared at him, bored.

“Are you Tessie Carter?”

A spark in her eye. “I don’t know you.”

“That’s right. You don’t.”

She pulled back from the counter. “Then how do you know me?”

Logan raised his hands in front of his chest, palms out. “I just want to ask you a few questions.”

“About what?”

“Diana Stockley.”

“Did that bitch send you?” she spat. “You can tell her that if she wants to talk to me, she should have the balls to do it herself.”

She moved toward the opening in the counter, but Dev was there, blocking her path.

“What the hell?” she said. “Get out of my way!”

“Diana didn’t send us,” Logan told her. “We’re trying to find her.”

“Does it look like she’s here? Her place is on Sage Lane. Try there.”

“We did.”

“Well, then wait until she goes to work. The Hideaway. She starts at six.”

“According to her note, she left town and isn’t coming back.”

Logan’s phone buzzed in his pocket, but he ignored it.

The anger on Tessie’s face morphed into disbelief. “What are you talking about? What note?”

“The one she left her landlord. Said he could sell whatever was left in the house.”

“No,” she said. “No, you’re wrong. She’s not gone. She probably just went on a trip.” She paused, her face hardening. “I don’t even know you. You’re probably lying.”

“I wish I was, but I’m not. You can ask Mary Ralston. She’s the one who told us you were a friend of Diana’s.”

“Mary…? No, no, you’ve got to be wrong. Diana wouldn’t leave, not without…”

Suddenly she whipped around and grabbed the cell phone that was sitting on the back counter. She found a number and called it.

“Mrs. Ralston?” she said a moment later. “Sorry to bother you. This is Tessie. Tessie Carter. Look, um, there’s some random guy here trying to tell me that Diana’s le-” As she paused to listen, her expression grew worried, then pained. “Are you kidding me?…No. No…All right. Okay…Okay.”

She hung up, and absently set the phone back down. Her eyes began to lose focus, and she leaned against the back counter, seemingly forgetting they were even there.

Logan and Dev shared a confused look. This was a much stronger emotional reaction than Logan had been expecting. It was almost as if-

Oh, damn.

He motioned for Dev to move out of the way so he could get behind the counter. He then stepped in next to her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize there was something going on between you.”

“Well, there’s not,” Tessie blurted out. “Not anymore.”

“What happened?”

“That’s none of your business!”

Logan paused. “We just want to talk to her. We think she knows a friend of ours we’re trying to find, a friend who’s in trouble. Diana might be able to point us in the right direction. That’s all. Anything you could tell us that will help us find her would be great.”

“I told you, I have no idea where she is. I haven’t talked to her in almost two months.”

Two months? “Is that when…?”

“When we broke up?” She tried to sound accusatory, but the sadness that had taken over her face wasn’t selling it.

“Yes,” Logan said.

She dipped her head and nodded. “She…she started going out of town on her days off. That was usually our time, you know. When I asked where she’d gone, she’d give me some half-assed answer that I knew wasn’t true, so one day I followed her.”

“Where did she go?”