She twirled a finger around at the side of her head then pointed up.
Colby tried to get a bead on the guy without getting shot.
He could just make out a rifle barrel protruding from one of the upper windows, a figure moving back and forth. “Hector. My name is…” He paused for a second, unsure whether to believe what Matthew and Delores had said. “My name is Colby. I mean you no harm. I just want to talk.”
“And that requires you getting close?”
“I need your help.”
“Who are you?”
Colby looked at Eva. “Just a stranger.”
“Means nothing to me. I told that spider guy if he or his goons come near this place again what I would do.”
“I’m not with them. Look, I’m searching for a woman and a dog. And a kid here is trying to get her sister back.”
“And how’s that my problem?”
“It’s not,” he said, reaching up and using a broken side mirror to get a better look at him. Colby tilted it and saw the window. Hector was wearing a navy blue baseball cap, he had a round face, couldn’t have been a day over fifty. Hispanic, maybe? He could only see him from the chest up. “We could sure use your help. I’m told you worked at the hotel.”
“That’s right.”
“So you know it better than anyone else. Please. Can we talk?”
“We are.”
“Inside.”
“Nope. No one gets in.”
There was a long pause.
“I understand. Can’t be easy being locked in there. You got enough supplies?”
“That’s none of your damn business.”
Colby sighed and ran a hand over his head. He was thinking of leaving, but a glance at that kid and he couldn’t. Besides, there was a chance that whoever this woman was that he’d been seen with, maybe she could help him remember, maybe she was family. Frustrated, he groaned. “Look. I’m coming out. Unarmed. Okay?” It was a ballsy move. A trigger-happy guy like him could see it as a trap and get antsy and make a hasty decision, but if all he’d witnessed was deadly force, he wouldn’t respond to anyone armed. “Don’t shoot me.”
He unslung his rifle, lifted it so he could see, and then laid it down. He did the same with his handgun and placed that down before rising. Colby held up his shirt and turned so the guy could get a better look at him, then he waited a moment or two, hoping to God that he didn’t shoot.
Eva stared with bulging eyes as if he was crazy.
“I’m going to approach.”
“No. Stay right there.”
“Hector, c’mon man.”
“How do you know my name? Huh?”
He was testing him. He wanted to be sure.
“I told him!” Eva shouted, appearing from around the corner with her hands raised. Colby watched the guy turn the gun toward her. “I told him. Okay?”
“Who the hell are you?”
“Roger Nixon’s daughter.”
“Nixon from the Village Market?”
“That’s the one,” she said.
“What are you still doing here? Where’s your parents?”
Her gaze bounced between them. “Dead. Both of them are dead.”
Colby kept his hands up while observing the interaction. Now it was beginning to make sense. Her parents ran the only grocery store in Santa Nella. Upping and leaving their livelihood behind, or allowing someone like Bill Manning to take what they had, would have been out of the question. “They’ve got my sister.”
She walked out, joining Colby.
“I’m sorry to hear that. But there’s nothing I can do. You’d best be getting out of here. They patrol the area.”
Colby chimed in. “We know. Listen, all we need is to know a little more about that hotel, the entry and exit points, and a moment of your time. That’s all.”
There was a long stretch of silence, then a few more specific questions were tossed their way before he removed the gun from the window and looked down at them.
Hector eyed the street.
“Wait there,” he said before disappearing. A moment later the garage door groaned as it rose. Hector stepped out, shifted a few of the metal rebar posts out of the way, then beckoned them in. As soon as they were inside, he brought the garage door down.
Keeping his gun on Colby, he gestured for them to enter the house and go into the kitchen and take a seat on the stools. As soon as they were comfortable, Hector peppered Colby with questions. “Where are you from?”
“L.A. At least that’s what I’ve been told.”
“Why are you here?”
“I wish I knew.”
“That makes no sense.”
“Welcome to my world. If the people I met earlier were telling the truth, four days ago I arrived here, heading north. Presumably, I broke down and tried to get some gas. The rest I don’t know. They said my name is Colby Riker. I’m not sure if that’s true as I was found half-dead by a family in a field. I remembered a tattoo of a spider. That’s it. The man who found me told me his son is Bill Manning, the same guy that goes by the name Spider. Then, the men I shot in town said...”
He thrust a hand out. “Hold on a second. Shot? Who did you kill?”
Eva was quick to answer that. “Assholes. He killed three of them.”
“Hmmm.” Hector leaned back against the wall. “And why would you do that?”
“To avoid getting killed myself.”
“Good enough reason. Go on.”
“They said I was with a woman and a dog. You know anything about that?”
“No, but I do know those men are ruthless. If you had a sister or a friend,” he said, “they’re as good as gone.”
“How do you know that?”
“I don’t know for sure but I’ve seen the way they treat people who resist. My neighbors were killed, so was their daughter. She wouldn’t go with them peacefully.”
“What did you do at the hotel?”
“I worked in maintenance.”
“So you know where
