When they stepped into the office, the smell of chamomile met them; a mug of tea, now cold, sat on Grace’s desk. Theo shut the door, waited until they were both seated, and said, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Auggie, you’re obviously upset.” Theo cast back, trying to remember when things had changed. Auggie had been bragging about his essay, and they’d been joking about Doritos or something, and then Theo had said something about adding a double major with English. “Hey, if I made you feel like I didn’t think your internet thing was important, that was not what I meant.”
“No,” Auggie said, but he was sniffling now, and his voice was thick with the need to cry.
“Then what? Come on, I did something or said something, right? Is this about the sign? Are you mad I didn’t tell you? Did that asshole—did he come back, and you didn’t tell me? Did he hurt you again? Your family? Geez, Auggie, you’ve got to tell me because you’re freaking me out.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Auggie said, wiping his eyes, “can you just not be so fucking nice about it? Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
“Nice about what?”
“Never mind.”
“Auggie—”
“I’m fine. I am totally fine. This is a personal thing, and it doesn’t have anything to do with my major or with Robert disappearing or anything. It’s just something I’m dealing with.”
After a slow breath, Theo said, “Do you want to talk about it?”
Auggie burst out in a wet laugh that was more like a sob. “Oh fucking Christ, no. Please, no. Tell me about the sign.”
Someone on the quad shrieked with laughter; even through the window, the sound startled Theo, and he shifted in his seat as prickles ran down him.
“What company is it?” Auggie said.
“It’s a chain of gas stations. They’re all out of business actually. Gas ’n Guzzle.” Theo browsed on the computer for an image and showed Auggie.
“That’s not the same,” Auggie said, wiping his face and leaning closer. “It’s the right color and the right size, but—”
“But, here’s the thing. Show me that picture of Robert’s apartment again.”
Auggie held up his phone next to the monitor. “See, they’re not—”
“Flip it in your head.”
“What?”
“In Robert’s picture, that’s a reflection. From the windows on the other side of the street, see? So you have to flip it. And it’s cut off, so we couldn’t even see the whole thing.”
Auggie zoomed in on the picture. “Holy shit.”
“Right?”
“I am so fucking stupid.”
“I didn’t see it either,” Theo said. “But I drove home over the weekend, and I passed one of these. I saw the sign in my rearview mirror and boom. I recognized it immediately.”
“Where is this place?”
“Well, like I said: it’s a chain. And they’re out of business. I tried searching Google Maps, but nothing shows up.”
“So we’ve got multiple possible locations and no way of knowing where they are.”
“I taught you better than that. We had lessons on research and scholarship.”
Auggie rolled his eyes, but he said, “Ok, this isn’t exactly the same thing as doing a search in JSTOR. What do you mean?
“We know what we’re looking for. We know the general location. We just have to do the work to find it.”
“You want to wander around until we find one of these Gas ’n Guzzle places, just by sheer luck, and then match it to Robert’s building, by sheer luck, and then get into his apartment, by sheer luck. Is that it?”
“Research is two things. Ok, three. One: smart choices. Two: hard work, just grinding it out. Three: luck. You did it when you were looking for the signs, right? You narrowed down to a set of archives, and you plowed through them.”
“And I didn’t turn up anything.”
“Luck,” Theo said. “Take a look at that picture again. Narrow it down. I’ll give you a clue: Gas ’n Guzzle was a chain of truck stops.”
“Ok,” Auggie said, looking at the picture of the inside of Robert’s apartment again. “So he’s near a state highway, or, also possible but less likely, a major road.”
“Good.”
A little of the shine came back into Auggie’s face, and he looked more carefully at the picture. “You can count the floors on the building across the street. His apartment is on the third floor. And we know it faces the street.”
“Very good.”
“It’s an older building; I can see a radiator. And it doesn’t look like it’s been kept up. The fire escape has a lot of rust, the outlet plate is missing. I’m guessing it’s low rent. No, hold on. He’s running an extension cord through the window. So, what? He doesn’t have power and he’s stealing from somewhere nearby? He’s squatting in an apartment that doesn’t have the electricity turned on. Maybe the whole building is abandoned.”
“Very, very good.”
Auggie flicked a glance up; for a moment, he was glowing. Then he said, “So where are we going?”
“A neighborhood called Smithfield.”
“Uh, I’ve heard about Smithfield.”
“You’ll be fine.”
“I’m not worried about me. I’m worried about you limping around on your bad leg when somebody tries to knife us.”
Theo had practiced this part; a fist was crushing his chest, but he managed to keep his voice even. “I think it would make sense for you to drive us.”
“Theo—”
“It’ll be fine.”
“No. I can go to Smithfield myself.”
“Absolutely not.”
“This isn’t a good idea.”
“Why not? I’ve ridden in cars since the accident. I don’t have a panic attack every time.” Theo managed a brittle
