First Girl Gone(32)

Time passed. Charlie finally ate the Snickers bar she’d bought at the gas station, more out of boredom than hunger. The peanuts were stale, but it was still decent.

The bouncer’s flood of phone calls seemed to recede to nothing all at once. He was quiet now. Perched on his stool like an owl. His eyelids looked heavier than before. Saggy. Charlie watched as slow blinks assailed his face, each closing of his eyes growing just longer than the last, until his chin sank to his chest.

“Hilarious,” Allie said. “Maybe he was talking so loud to keep himself awake. Like how they blast Metallica at prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. They should send this guy in there to describe some movies he’s watched recently. The terrorists would start talking within minutes.”

Charlie took another sip of coffee, and movement caught her eye. The first wave of patrons came streaming out the front door. Good. She checked her phone. Only about a half hour until closing time now, so the exodus should be pretty steady from here on out.

Men of all ages poured out of the Red Velvet Lounge and stumbled over the wet asphalt of the lot—some clean-shaven, some bearded, a scant few with mustaches. One guy just had big mutton chops, which seemed to amuse Allie a great deal.

“’Ello, guvnah!” she said in a horrible British accent, guffawing at the end.

The men fanned out to reach their cars, most of them probably heading home to slide into bed next to a wife who had no clue what they’d been up to. A few came dangerously close to the SUV, getting Charlie’s hopes up, but none of them went for it.

“Nada,” Allie said. “You know this guy ain’t coming out until the last possible minute, right? That’s how this kind of thing works.”

“Maybe. It’s not much longer either way.”

“Easy for you to say, guzzling coffee and wolfing down a Snickers and all. As it happens, I’m bored as hell, and it’s past my bedtime.”

“Oh, really? Big plans tomorrow?”

That shut her up.

The flow of foot traffic slowed some as the clock ticked down. The bouncer kept falling asleep and waking himself up again, shaved head sinking and jerking back up like a bobber at the end of a fishing line.

When the driver came out at last, he was alone. Charlie sat forward in her seat upon seeing him, fingers lacing around the steering wheel. Some gut instinct told her this was the guy. No doubt in her mind. Even Allie kept quiet as they watched him traverse the blacktop.

The shadows swirled around him in such a way that she couldn’t see his face, but he looked tall and skinny—all shoulders and elbows. He looked younger than she’d imagined, too, an adolescent scrawniness still visible in the way his deltoids stuck out from the rest of his stick frame.

He veered around a couple of mud puddles as he got close, the crook of his jaw entering the light for just a second. Dark stubble shrouded the flesh there. Charlie couldn’t make out much else.

He climbed into the SUV, the dome light glowing over messy dark hair. It looked like maybe it’d started out spiky but had gotten trampled over time. When the light clicked off, he shifted into gear and drove out of the lot.

Charlie waited a few beats and then followed, her heart picking up speed along with her car.





Chapter Twenty





Charlie followed the SUV out into the sticks, going back the way she’d come. The lights winked out all around them as the vehicles wound their way deeper on the rural roads, leaving civilization behind. The traffic likewise died off until they were the last two vehicles on the road for mile after mile.

Her heart thudded along, a firm beat she felt in her neck. Steady for now.

She struggled to find a good balance here. She wanted to keep him in sight without getting so close as to be obvious. He opened up as they got out into the middle of nowhere, though, eventually creeping toward eighty miles an hour. When she almost lost him after the first big swell of speed, she decided she’d better stay closer. The potential upside made it worth the risk.

It became clear almost right away that they were headed for Salem Island. Nothing much else existed out this way, save for trees and soybeans. Anyway, it made sense, Charlie thought. This SUV had apparently been spotted tearing around town just the other night, and now he was headed back. Did that mean he was a local?

Just as they hit the outskirts of town, Charlie’s phone rang. She pressed a button on the steering wheel to pick up via Bluetooth. Allie was aghast.

“You do know Oprah would be furious about this, don’t you? The hands-free crap? Not good enough!”

Charlie ignored her. She focused on the voice coming through the speakers: Zoe.

“Someone’s out late tonight, eh? I ran that plate for you.”

“And?”

“Stolen.”

“What the deuce?” Allie said.

“How often does that happen around here?” Charlie asked. She couldn’t imagine Salem Island was a hotspot for that kind of activity.

“Almost never. We get the occasional joyride scenario, where kids steal a car for a few hours or a night. If they don’t crash it, they usually abandon it somewhere. But this is obviously different. That car was reported stolen over two months ago, in Chicago.”

“Well, I’m following him now, so we’ll see where he goes next. I’ll report back.”

“Wait. I got something else for you. I searched the vehicle registry—no white Volkswagen Rabbits around here.”