He snorted. “Uh-huh? And these other families that stayed. You know them?”
“Like I said, I think they’re gone now.” She paused. “There is one guy at the far end of town who used to work at the hotel but he’s a loon. You don’t want to go anywhere near him. The guy is off his meds. Anyway, who cares. Who are you? Where are you from, and are you in the habit of kidnapping fifteen-year-old girls? What do you plan to do to me?”
“I…”
“Oh so I have to answer twenty questions but you don’t?”
He chuckled. “I’m not going to harm you. Have you seen me before?”
“No.”
“What about a woman and a dog?”
She narrowed her eyes, looking as if she was mulling over the question.
“I might have. What’s it to you?”
“I wish I knew.” Colby took a deep breath. “All right. How about you show me where this guy lives?”
“The loon?”
He nodded. She immediately threw up her hands. “Hell no. You don’t want to go over there. There’s a reason why he’s still here and everyone else has left.”
“Except you.”
Her features twisted.
“Just show me.”
She threw up a finger and jabbed it at him. “All right. But I warned you.”
They exited the mobile home and he followed her south on Comet Road. The street took them beyond low-budget mobile homes into cookie-cutter neighborhoods. “Did you go to that school?” he asked as they got closer to the elementary. She didn’t answer.
They continued past empty houses. It was odd. The whole town had an eerie feeling to it. Like a forgotten world or a test site for a nuclear device.
Colby contemplated what Jeb had said about Spider — that he’d gotten caught up in the sex trafficking industry and had been using hotels to pimp out girls online. The whole thing made him sick to his stomach. One look at the kid ahead and he couldn’t imagine why anyone would do it. Where was their empathy? It couldn’t have all been about money. No one could want money that bad. Or maybe that wasn’t what they were being used for. In the back of his mind, a memory stirred from the muck of amnesia.
Young people trimming marijuana.
Why am I seeing this?
“So why do you want to see this guy?” Eva asked.
“I was here four days ago. I was told I broke down but I don’t remember that. I figure he might know something. I figure he might be able to help.”
“With what?”
“What do you know about the house north of here? A single two-story.”
“Oh… those two crazy fuckers? I dodged the bullet with them a few days after the evacuation. Tried luring me in with food. Yeah, I saw through that ruse. They don’t live there. The owner of that house was Terri Jones. She was shot in a home invasion in the first week. All I know is they have something to do with that hotel. I’ve seen them coming and going from it.”
“Did this Terri have a granddaughter?”
“No. She worked for the school. No kids.”
Colby squeezed his eyes shut. No wonder that goth girl had said nothing. She was more frightened of what they’d do to her than of him. Now he had to wonder what else they’d lied about. What had happened that night he was picked up? And what were those guys talking about — a woman and a dog. Who were they?
“Oh shit,” she said. As they made their way down Luis Avenue, Eva quickly darted sideways and climbed over a fence, dropping down behind it.
He followed, assuming she’d taken a wrong turn.
She hadn’t.
“Eva. What the…?”
She put a finger up to her mouth as an old truck came rumbling around the corner. “They patrol the streets every few hours.”
“Looking for what?”
“Me of course. I’ve been a thorn in their side since they arrived.” She took out a knife. “I’ve stabbed a few tires, helped one girl escape by creating a distraction.” She looked at him as if expecting a pat on the back. As soon as the truck was gone, they climbed over and continued.
“So how come they haven’t bothered this guy?”
“They have. You’ll see.”
“What’s his name?”
“Hector. He’s missing a few screws, that’s for sure.”
Hector’s home was one of two located in a developing cul-de-sac on the southwest side of town. It was surrounded by desert plains. Nothing more than wiry California shrubs and undulating landscape. There was construction machinery nearby, and piles of dirt where they were building new homes. All of it had been abandoned. The closer he got to the house, the more Colby could tell it was unlike any others he’d seen. It wasn’t so much the house was different as it was its surroundings.
Numerous stalled vehicles had been rolled into place to create a barrier around his home. There were large sharp pieces of construction rebar jammed into the ground in areas where he couldn’t get a vehicle in place. Like straws in a cup, sticking out in every direction.
“He did this,” Eva said. The lower windows were barred and in front of the rear and front entrance were more metal spikes inserted into large chunks of cement to stop anyone from trying to charge into his house. The only way Colby could see a means of entry or exit was through one of the upper windows, but that would require some effort to reach. Colby had a feeling that by the time someone managed to get that close, they were already dead. He noted several bodies nearby, rotting in the afternoon sun. A vulture picked away at sinewy flesh then soared away.
“What the hell is this?”
“I told you. He’s loco.”
“No, he’s scared. There’s a difference.”
Eva stopped short of the neighbor’s house. “This is as far as I go.”
Colby nodded and pressed on toward a vehicle. “Hector!” His voice vanished in the wind. He called out again but got no answer. He would have to get closer to be heard. Making his way over to the first line of vehicles, he was about
