He checked his watch, and thought perhaps it was broken. He glanced at the digital clock on the nightstand. It said the same thing-12:07 p.m. When Barney lay down, it had only been a little after eleven.
“Harp?” he said, holding his voice down so he wouldn’t wake Pep.
There was no answer.
He got to his feet and walked to the bathroom.
“Harp?”
No one was there.
But if that was the case, where was the water or the Gatorade?
Barney slipped on his shoes, grabbed his phone, and went outside. From the walkway he could see the store where Harp was headed, but Harp was nowhere in sight.
With growing anxiety, he called Harp’s phone.
Two rings, then voice mail.
“Hey, where are you?” Barney asked once the beep sounded. “Thought you were coming right back. Just… well…call me.”
Barney slipped his phone into his pocket and turned to go back inside, but he paused before grabbing the knob.
Yes, it did make sense, but…better to check, right?
He went down the stairs, peeked into the motel office in case Harp was in there, then walked across the street and into the market.
The cashier was sitting on a stool behind the counter, reading a copy of
Harp wasn’t there, and there was plenty of Gatorade in the refrigerated section.
“Excuse me,” he said to the clerk when he got back up front.
The guy looked up, startled, and jumped off his stool. “Sorry. Find everything you need?”
“Actually, I’m wondering if a man came in here about forty-five minutes ago and bought some water and Gatorade. He’d be about my age, an inch or two shorter than me, but with more hair.”
“No, not that I can remember.”
“You’re sure?”
The guy shrugged. “The only people in here during the last hour were a couple of my friends, and a woman with two kids. No older guy. And I haven’t sold any Gatorade all day.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
He looked up and down the block. There was a gas station with a little store attached on the neighboring corner, and another about a block down. Barney tried both, but no one had seen Harp.
No longer just a little worried, he called the hospital, but no one had been admitted all morning. He then tried the police, who’d had no reports involving an elderly gentleman.
Hurrying back to their motel room, he hoped that somehow they’d crossed paths without realizing it, but when he opened the door, everything was the same as it had been when he left.
He did the only other thing he could think of and called Logan, but like with the call to Harp, he was put through to voice mail.
“Logan, it’s Barney. Call me as soon as you get this. I don’t know, but I think something might have happened to your dad. I can’t find him. Call me. Please.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
The buzz sounded like it was coming from under Erica’s seat. It was rhythmic-on, off, on, off-and after the fourth buzz, it stopped.
She thought maybe something had gotten stuck beneath the car, vibrated against the undercarriage, and finally fallen free.
But then there were two more, both the buzzes and the gaps between shorter this time.
She pulled to the side of State Route 64, climbed out of the car, and checked to see if she could find the source.
Her first instinct had been right. It had been wedged beneath her seat. A cell phone.
She tried to activate the display but the cell was password protected. Not a big deal. There were ways of getting around that if need be.
She opened the back door. On the floor were the other phone and the men’s wallets and keys. She grabbed the second cell and put both of them on the front passenger seat. If they rang again, she wanted to see who was calling. That might come in handy.
She decided to check the tracking device before she pulled back onto the road, and was glad she did. Harper’s car was stopped about seven miles ahead. She watched it, waiting to see if it moved again, but it didn’t.
Ever since they’d turned off the interstate, Erica had known she’d made the right choice to follow them. If last night’s events had scared off Harper and his friend, they would still be on I-40, heading back to California. But a detour toward the Grand Canyon, the park where Diana had once worked? To her, that had to mean they were still on Sara’s trail.
She checked the monitor again. Harper’s car had not moved. Were they waiting for something? Perhaps Sara herself? There was no way she’d learn that from the device in her hand. She needed to see with her own eyes.
She pulled back onto the road, nearly cutting off a camper. The other driver laid on his horn and shouted silently at her through the window, but he disappeared as Erica sped away.
Every few seconds, she would glance at the monitor. When the dot was only a mile and a half away, she gazed ahead, trying to pick out the El Camino in the distance. But though the view was clear, there were enough dips and turns in the road to make it impossible to see the other vehicle. The terrain caused another problem, too. Once she was close enough to see the truck, she wouldn’t be able to pull over without the men noticing. Hell, just driving by would be taking a chance, but that was one thing she couldn’t avoid. She needed to know what was going on.
She sped up so that she was tucked in close to the car in front of her. Hopefully that would provide the shield she needed.
It wasn’t until she was half a mile away that the El Camino finally came into view, its blue exterior standing out in sharp contrast to the browns and tans and greens of the plain.
She hunched down in an effort to change her profile but it was unnecessary. Harper and Martin were sitting in the cab of the truck, talking.
And they were alone.
She kept going for two miles, then turned down a dirt road and stopped. She grabbed her phone and called Clausen.
“Update?” she asked.
“We’re on our way.”
