Marnie could quickly tell that Johanna had a quandary. “What’s up?”
Quickly Johanna told her the problems with Thomas, the story, and how he’d gotten her phone number.
“Let’s do this. I’ll call Lilly and ask about Thomas. Then if that checks out, we can try the ride service together. It’s one thing to hijack one person. It’s another matter to be outnumbered.”
Before Johanna could answer, Marnie had dialed a number on her phone. She spoke with Lilly for a few minutes and then hung up.
“He’s legit,” she began. “Not well-loved by the entire family, but he’s definitely Jessica’s cousin, second or third cousin, and so many times removed. So now, let’s call the ride app.”
Johanna shook her head. “I want to call from the park’s parking lot. I want this to trigger some memories for him. If he picks us up here, it’ll just be another ride. From there, I’m hoping we can start a conversation with him—without seeming too much like we’re forcing it.”
When they returned to the car park, Jessica’s vehicle was gone. Johanna looked around the lot, but she found nothing to ever indicate the car had been here. “I guess they must have towed it home, or someone came to get the car?” Johanna asked of her friend. “I’m just surprised that they left it here.”
Marnie looked around and said, “Well, just be sure to lock your car. We don’t want any murders in the backseat while we’re on this adventure.”
“Already done,” Johanna replied. “Now we just have to wait for this guy.”
Marnie had looked up the driver. She’d found Alexander on the app and specifically requested him. Johanna assumed that the man lived close to the park, which would explain why he would drive to the remote area for a driver gig.
The car pulled up in the lot, and Alexander rolled down the passenger window. “I’m guessing you two are looking for a ride. It’s an easy guess when you’re the only two here.”
Marnie took the lead. She approached the car and said, “Our car broke down. We need to let it sit, and I bet it’ll start when we come back. However, we have to be somewhere soon, and we can’t wait.”
She slid into the backseat and encouraged Johanna with an arm wave. “Get in. I don’t want to be late.”
Johanna did as she was told to do. She slid in and tried to lean back, not wanting to appear too tense.
“So you’re off to your place?” he asked. He glanced at the GPS on his phone. “I guess we’ll be about thirty minutes or so.”
They had decided on Johanna’s place, wanting to have enough time to ask questions and hopefully get some answers from this man.
“I bet you don’t get many people wanting a ride from a park parking lot. I mean, that’s where your car should be, right?” Marnie laughed as if this was a big joke to her. Johanna gave a small laugh, but her mind was on other things.
“You’d be surprised,” he said. “I take men down here to cruise the park. I pretend like I don’t know what they’re doing.”
Marnie looked like she didn’t know what that meant, so Johanna mouthed the word “later.”
“You two confuse me, though. You can’t belong to that group, so I don’t know why you’d need a ride home.”
Johanna breathed a sigh of relief that the man was this chatty. “Not many women? I’m sure it’s probably been months since you had a woman coming from the park.”
He didn’t speak for a second, and Johanna was concerned that maybe she’d pushed too far, too fast.
Finally, he said. “No, it was three days ago, I think—in the last week for sure. The lady said her car had broken down. She needed a driver to take her to an appointment she had.”
“Not home?” Marnie asked. “I just want to go home and try to sort out this situation. I think I’d cancel the appointment.”
This time, he laughed. “She was adamant. The appointment was with a lawyer.”
Marnie raised her eyebrows at Johanna and gave a little fist pump.
“Do people tell you their life stories? Like a bartender?” Marnie asked.
He laughed again. “Sometimes, but this time the old lady didn’t need to. She had me drop her at the lawyer’s office. I’d have to be blind not to see that, and blind is not a good trait for a driver.”
“I wonder what she wanted? Maybe she was drawing up a will—or maybe someone had left something to her in their will.” Johanna decided to join in and play the game with them.
He smiled at them in the rearview mirror. “She’s more the type to be writing a will. She was old. If you don’t mind paying, I can drive you past the place. It’s only a turn on Main and then on to Court Street. Say another $20?”
Marnie spoke first and pulled a bill from her wallet, which had been stuck in a back pocket.
They drove past a lawyer’s office on Court, and Johanna took great pains to memorize the lawyer’s name. She would be paying a visit to them—or more likely giving the name to Detective Dempsey so he could ask them questions.
The driver dropped them at Johanna’s place and gave them a wave. Marnie looked at her friend. “So what comes first? Should we get your car first, or call the police and tell them what we’ve learned?”
Johanna opted to get her car first, in case the police requested that she come to the station.
They were dropped back into the parking lot of the park. Even in the midday sun, the lot was shaded throughout. Another car had parked in the far corner of the lot. Johanna took that moment to explain the concept of cruising to Marnie, who shrugged and
