Lonnie’s Market came into view on his left. He flew into the lot, seeing Piper’s vehicle parked alongside the building. He jammed the brakes, shut off the engine and got out in one fluid motion.
Just then his phone rang in the center console. He reached in and pulled it out, taking the call as he went to Piper’s vehicle and looked inside the windows. It was empty.
“It’s me,” Patterson said. “I can’t get ahold of the manager. They put me on hold and it keeps going to voicemail. I called back, and they put me on hold again.”
“I’m here, forget it.”
“Keep me posted.”
Wolf looked at the ground. It told him nothing. If there had been any indication of a struggle it had been erased by the rain now pelting the back of his neck.
He sprinted through the front door of the supermarket, heading straight to the first cashier.
"There was a cop in here, a woman, her name was Deputy Cain.”
The man behind the register stood straight, wide eyes. “I…I don’t know anything about that.”
"Where’s the manager’s office?”
“I’m the manager.” A woman said, walking quickly toward him. “What’s going on? I was just told you guys have been calling.”
“Did you speak to Deputy Cain this afternoon?”
“The woman with black hair?”
“Yes.”
“I did.”
He pulled his phone and flashed the picture. “I need to know the name behind this blur here. I need to see this screen in person.”
She put her hands on her hips. “I told her I probably needed to see a warrant to show her that. And she reassured me that if there was a next time, you guys would—”
Wolf cut her off. “I need to see this screen, and I need to see it now. Deputy Cain’s vehicle is still out in the parking lot, but she’s gone missing. I believe it’s a matter of life and death that you show me this.”
The manager’s eyes bulged wide. She swallowed and nodded. “Back here. Aisle seven.” She started walking, then began running when Wolf passed her at a full jog.
One of his feet slipped out from under him and he landed hard on his knee.
“Oh my gosh, are you okay?”
“Keep going.” He got up, limping hard on one foot, feeling like his kneecap had split in half, following her up the stairs and into a small room.
"Shoot. I just turned it off. I was going home."
Wolf was unsure what that meant until she turned on and watched the snail's pace at which the thing booted up. With each progress bar that appeared the tension ratcheted in his chest.
“She was checking the financial records,” the manager said.
“Look at T-Bone steaks,” Wolf said. “Monday.”
She typed in a date and the familiar spreadsheet appeared on screen. “That’s what she said, too. Here. We were here when she took the picture. I extended the name cells like this.”
There it was. Eagle McBeth.
Wolf bolted out of there, burying the pain of his knee.
Chapter 34
At some point Piper became aware of the noise.
Then her consciousness returned to her body, and with it a dull pain filling her skull.
When she opened her eyes she saw the familiar blue tarp again, but this time it was darker, almost black. A light flitted through the plastic, then disappeared. Then it came back. Vanished again.
With each shift of the light came the roar of a giant beast, some sort of prehistoric animal that howled with repetitive sound as it moved.
She clenched her eyes and opened them again, coming back to the moment. It was a diesel engine. She could smell it. And then there was the sound of metal scraping and clashing with the hard ground.
Again she felt the pull of tape around her mouth. She pulled her mouth open as wide as she could, which was not very much. She thought she might have felt a bit of give on the right side of her cheek. She pushed her tongue through her lips, tasting the adhesive as she pressed outward as hard as she could, but it was no use. The tape held.
The light swung in and out of view again, and the panic rose in her fast and hard as she realized exactly what she was listening to.
She began hyperventilating through her nose, sucking in shallow doses of the sickening diesel fumes. An earthmover was digging a hole, and the opening would be for her. Her next exhale became a whimper.
Another clank of metal on rock, this time even harder. She heard a pile of earth hit near the truck and felt it in her bones.
She pulled at her hands to no avail and tried to kick her feet, which were now bound as well.
Wriggling like a dying fish, she screamed beneath the tape, but her voice was a fly’s wings over a rock concert.
And then she stopped. She closed her eyes and inhaled, practicing the yoga breathing. She thought of David Wolf. Of his hard eyes and harder jaw line. Of his soft words.
Her eyes popped open as she remembered she’d been leaving a message for him when she was attacked. Hope surged through her, quickening her breath. Maybe he was coming to help her. Yes, he had to have heard her attack and he was coming.
Then again, maybe he had heard nothing out of the ordinary on the call. Maybe he thought it was just a bad connection. That something was wrong with her phone. The thought slapped down her optimism.
Tears flowed across her face and over the bridge of her nose. She sobbed, lost in misery. She was going to die. She was going to be put in the ground, probably so deep she would never be found again. She shut her eyes and saw her mother’s face, wrinkled with concern. She smiled reassurance and Piper wept even harder, pleading for her mom to wake her from this nightmare.
And then
