Brett Battles - Every Precious Thing

Maybe it was nothing. Braden was small, with only so many roads a person could use, and the route they’d just taken had been the logical route to the highway. They’d just have to see if the car showed up again.

The Wallace Wash Mini Market was a kind of low-rent 7-Eleven-older shelves, worse lighting, and fewer choices. Behind the counter was a woman with vibrant auburn hair and too much black eye makeup. Her clothes of choice were a Lady Gaga T-shirt and a short black skirt.

Logan caught Dev’s eye, then subtly motioned to the opening in the counter that allowed whoever was behind it to get out. With a single nod, Dev walked toward it as Logan grabbed a bag of beef jerky and approached the cash register.

The woman took the bag, scanned it, said, “Anything else?”

“Can I ask you something?”

She stared at him, bored.

“Are you Tessie Carter?”

A spark in her eye. “I don’t know you.”

“That’s right. You don’t.”

She pulled back from the counter. “Then how do you know me?”

Logan raised his hands in front of his chest, palms out. “I just want to ask you a few questions.”

“About what?”

“Diana Stockley.”

“Did that bitch send you?” she spat. “You can tell her that if she wants to talk to me, she should have the balls to do it herself.”

She moved toward the opening in the counter, but Dev was there, blocking her path.

“What the hell?” she said. “Get out of my way!”

“Diana didn’t send us,” Logan told her. “We’re trying to find her.”

“Does it look like she’s here? Her place is on Sage Lane. Try there.”

“We did.”

“Well, then wait until she goes to work. The Hideaway. She starts at six.”

“According to her note, she left town and isn’t coming back.”

Logan’s phone buzzed in his pocket, but he ignored it.

The anger on Tessie’s face morphed into disbelief. “What are you talking about? What note?”

“The one she left her landlord. Said he could sell whatever was left in the house.”

“No,” she said. “No, you’re wrong. She’s not gone. She probably just went on a trip.” She paused, her face hardening. “I don’t even know you. You’re probably lying.”

“I wish I was, but I’m not. You can ask Mary Ralston. She’s the one who told us you were a friend of Diana’s.”

“Mary…? No, no, you’ve got to be wrong. Diana wouldn’t leave, not without…”

Suddenly she whipped around and grabbed the cell phone that was sitting on the back counter. She found a number and called it.

“Mrs. Ralston?” she said a moment later. “Sorry to bother you. This is Tessie. Tessie Carter. Look, um, there’s some random guy here trying to tell me that Diana’s le-” As she paused to listen, her expression grew worried, then pained. “Are you kidding me?…No. No…All right. Okay…Okay.”

She hung up, and absently set the phone back down. Her eyes began to lose focus, and she leaned against the back counter, seemingly forgetting they were even there.

Logan and Dev shared a confused look. This was a much stronger emotional reaction than Logan had been expecting. It was almost as if-

Oh, damn .

He motioned for Dev to move out of the way so he could get behind the counter. He then stepped in next to her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize there was something going on between you.”

“Well, there’s not,” Tessie blurted out. “Not anymore.”

“What happened?”

“That’s none of your business!”

Logan paused. “We just want to talk to her. We think she knows a friend of ours we’re trying to find, a friend who’s in trouble. Diana might be able to point us in the right direction. That’s all. Anything you could tell us that will help us find her would be great.”

“I told you, I have no idea where she is. I haven’t talked to her in almost two months.”

Two months? “Is that when…?”

“When we broke up?” She tried to sound accusatory, but the sadness that had taken over her face wasn’t selling it.

“Yes,” Logan said.

She dipped her head and nodded. “She…she started going out of town on her days off. That was usually our time, you know. When I asked where she’d gone, she’d give me some half-assed answer that I knew wasn’t true, so one day I followed her.”

“Where did she go?”

“All the way to Riverside, of all places.”

The nape of Logan’s neck started to tingle. He didn’t trust his own voice, so he said nothing.

“She met with this other woman there. I watched them have coffee, but when they left, I lost them in the traffic. I drove around for a while, but couldn’t find them again, so I came home. That night I asked her if she was seeing someone else. When she said no, I told her what I saw.” Tessie looked at Logan. “She totally freaked out. Told me she never wanted to see me again. She hasn’t talked to me since.”

Not wanting to do so, but seeing little choice, Logan pulled out his phone and showed her the picture of Sara. “Is this the woman she met?”

Tessie stared at the image, her eyes welling with tears. “Fuck,” she said to no one, then nodded. “They ran off together, didn’t they? God, I’m such an idiot.”

Logan kept his voice soft. “I don’t think Diana was cheating on you with this woman. This is our missing friend,” Logan said, keeping his voice calm. He didn’t know if he was right, but he felt that he was. If Diana had been involved with Sara, then why hadn’t Sara been here with her?

“I saw them together.”

“You saw them getting coffee. That’s all,” he said. “Now think, Tessie. Do you know where Diana might have gone? Maybe she went back to where grew up?”

“She never talked about her past. I got the feeling it wasn’t all that great.”

“Were there any special places she mentioned? Places she liked to visit?”

She was silent for a moment. “Buenos Aires. Said she wanted to live there someday. She…she talked about us going together.”

Buenos Aires was a long way away, and if Sara was already there, he might as well pack up now and go home.

“Anyplace else?”

She thought about it, then shook her head. “Nothing that I can remember.”

If Logan wasn’t convinced before, he knew if he found Diana, Sara wouldn’t be far away.

“Our friends are back,” Dev said.

They were in the Cherokee again, with Logan once more in the driver’s seat. He looked in the rearview mirror. The same gray sedan was a block back, and Logan recognized the silhouettes of the driver and her passenger.

He stuffed his hand into his pocket and pulled out the keys to the El Camino. “Here,” he said, handing them to Dev. “I’ll try to lose them for a few seconds near the motel. You jump out, but make sure they don’t see you.”

Dev smiled. “Then I follow them.”

“Exactly.”

“They’re going to wonder why there’s suddenly only one of us.”

“No, they won’t,” Logan said. “Lean your chair back as far as it will go, but take your time so they can see what’s going on. Then lie back, and get them used to seeing only me.”

“Ready?” Logan asked as they neared the motel.

Dev grabbed the door handle. “Ready.”

Logan checked the rearview mirror again. The other car was still a full block behind them.

“Don’t worry about trying to catch up right away,” Logan told him. “Call me once you get going and I’ll tell you where we are.”

Just beyond Desert Inn was a small intersecting street that was mostly blocked from view by one wing of the motel. Keeping their pace steady, Logan flipped on his turn signal so as not to alarm the other driver with any sudden movements.