Every Precious Thing (11 page)

“So, Mr. Harper, Mr. Martin, what can I do for you?” Hackbarth said as he dropped down in his own chair.

Logan set Diana’s envelope on the desk, Hackbarth’s name facing up. “To start, you can see what’s inside this.”

Hackbarth’s happy expression turned perplexed, then concerned. He leaned back. “Is it a subpoena or something like that?”

“No. Nothing like that. At least I don’t think so.”

“What is it?”

“That’s what we’re hoping you can tell us. We found it leaning against the door of a house we went to check.”

“What house?”

“Part of a duplex,” Logan said. “On Sage Lane.”

“At the corner?”

Logan nodded.

“I own that.”

“Then I guess that explains why the envelope has your name on it.”

Hackbarth looked at him for a second, then down at the envelope. Finally, he pulled open the flap and removed the letter. As he read, he grew visibly upset. When he reached the bottom, he put it down.

“One moment,” he said. He rose and walked rapidly back to the woman at the front of the room. Though he was obviously trying to keep his voice down, it was easy enough for Logan and Dev to hear him. “Call Frank. Have him go over to the duplex and check unit two. I think my tenant just skipped.”

“Which one’s that?” the woman said.

“Just call Frank.”

When he returned, he was having little luck masking his anger. “You found this against the door?”

“Yes,” Logan said.

Hackbarth shook his head and muttered, “Great.” He then looked at Logan again, his eyes narrowing. “So why exactly were you at my duplex?”

“We were looking for Ms. Stockley.”

“Why was that?”

Logan paused and looked briefly at Dev as if he were gauging whether he should say anything more. When he did speak, he drew it out, like there was more to what he was saying than the words coming out of his mouth. “She borrowed some money from our corporation, and has missed the last couple payments.”

Right on a cue they hadn’t discussed, Dev leaned forward, his face impassive.

“I guess you could say we’re on a collection call,” Logan continued. “My father isn’t going to be very happy when I tell him she’s gone.”

“Your father isn’t the only one,” Hackbarth said.

Logan was silent for a moment. “While I’m sympathetic with your situation, it’s of no importance to me.
Finding
the woman is. Any cooperation I get in doing so will, naturally, be appreciated.”

“Whoa,” Hackbarth said. “I don’t have any idea where she went.”

Logan kept his gaze steady and his voice calm, but direct. “Of course you don’t. If you did and didn’t tell us, that would just be stupid. And you’re not stupid. I can see that.”

The fingertips of Hackbarth’s left hand began to tap nervously on the desk. “I’d love to help you, but I’ve got my own problem to deal with right now.”

“That’s where we’re in luck. At the moment, our problems are similar,” Logan said. “And the few minutes you spend helping me would be helping yourself.”

“I don’t see what I could possibly do for you that would help.”

Logan allowed himself a quick, controlled smile. “I assume Ms. Stockley filled out a rental application, and perhaps other documents containing personal information.”

Hackbarth looked really nervous now. “Well, of course, but I’m not sure if I should—”

“Mark?” the woman up front yelled.

They all looked over. She was standing at her desk, a phone held to her ear.

“Frank was in the neighborhood, so he’s there now,” she went on. “Definitely looks like your renter cleared out. Says the place is a mess.”

Hackbarth took a deep, seething breath, and turned back to Logan. “Let me get her file for you.”

C
HAPTER
S
EVENTEEN

E
RICA SAT BEHIND
the wheel of her car and fumed. They had missed the woman by what couldn’t have been more than a few hours.
Unbelievable!

Though Erica had made good time at the rental agency at LAX, and Clausen and Markle—her two men—had arrived on schedule, it was still after four thirty in the morning when the three of them finally arrived in Braden.

She had decided during the drive that they could no longer risk simply observing the woman. Either the bitch knew something or she didn’t, and now that someone else was snooping around, Erica couldn’t prolong this irritation. She needed it sewn up, and she needed it done now.

That’s why she was here, to make sure no one screwed up this time.

Half an hour before they arrived in town, she had called Cecil Frisk, the man who had been watching Diana, and told him to meet her at the woman’s house. Though Frisk had obviously been half asleep when they talked, he was wide awake and parked a block away from the woman’s place when Erica and her team arrived.

It should have gone nice and smooth. At nearly five a.m., even a bartender would be asleep.

But when they went in, instead of finding Diana in her bed, she wasn’t even in the house.

How the hell did that happen?

Erica was the one who found the note. When she read it, she’d come very close to ripping it up on the spot. Extreme self-control was the only thing that helped her return it to its envelope.

It had taken her over two years to find Diana again.
Two years!
Once she had, she’d sent Frisk out to monitor her, with the hope that Diana would lead them to the other one. But then tonight, while Frisk
slept
, Diana had skipped town.

Incompetency!

Frisk was lucky she didn’t have him killed on the spot. Once more her cool nature prevailed, and all four of them retreated to her car where they would wait and see what happened.

Now, for the thousandth time since the sun had risen, she looked down the street at Diana’s duplex.

“You all right?”

Erica glanced at Frisk in the passenger seat. “I’m fine.”

“You look a little…pissed off.”

She locked eyes with him. “Really? And that surprises you?

“No…I…I—”

“Company,” Clausen announced, pointing between the front seats and out the window. He and Markle were sitting in the back.

A Jeep Cherokee had just pulled to a stop in front of the duplex. Momentarily forgetting her anger, Erica watched as two men exited the car and walked up the pathway to Diana’s place. One of the guys was probably not much more than thirty, while the other was older and harder to pin down.

She wondered if one of them was the landlord mentioned in Diana’s note.

“You want us to get in closer?” Clausen asked.

“Do it,” she said, nodding.

Clausen and Markle got out of the car and disappeared into the neighborhood.

“Maybe I should go, too,” Frisk suggested.

“
You
stay here.”

At the house, the two new arrivals stepped over to the door, then the younger one took a quick look around the street, obviously making sure no one was watching. Erica froze as the man’s gaze moved in her direction.

“Hold still,” she ordered Frisk.

Given the distance, the guy wouldn’t be able to discern them from the rest of the car if they remained motionless. Apparently satisfied, the man pulled something out of his back pocket—a piece of cloth or paper— and used it to cover his hand as he grabbed the doorknob.

That certainly wasn’t landlord behavior.

She watched the men step inside the house. Their visit wasn’t a long one. When they came back out, the younger one was carrying something that looked very much like the envelope Diana had left behind.

Erica called Clausen.

“Yes?” he answered, his voice low.

“Where are you?”

“In the backyard.”

“You don’t have to whisper. They’re getting into their car.”

“I thought it sounded too quiet in there.” Clausen’s voice returned to normal.

“I think they took the note. Check, then meet us back at the motel.”

“Will do.”

Erica waited until the other car left, then pulled onto the street to follow them.

C
HAPTER
E
IGHTEEN

I
NSTEAD OF MAKING
Logan and Dev go through the documents there, Hackbarth let them photocopy everything so they could walk out with their own set. Once they finished, they headed for Mary Ralston’s place.

It turned out she lived in a trailer park in the northwest corner of town. Surprisingly, it was the most well-maintained neighborhood Logan had seen in Braden, the trailers showing little sign of the wear and tear the nearby permanent homes displayed.

Mary Ralston’s place was a white double-wide right in the middle of the park. Since there was no car in the driveway, Logan thought she might not be home, but as Dev turned off the engine, the trailer door opened, and a woman around Dev’s age stuck her head out.

“So are we going all Sopranos again?” Dev asked. “Or trying something different?”

“I guess that depends on whether or not our friend Mark Hackbarth has called and told her about us.”

It turned out that Hackbarth had called, but hadn’t said anything about Logan and Dev, just that Diana had left town.

“I figured it was going to happen someday,” Mary said. She was sitting in a cloth-covered recliner, while Logan and Dev sat on the couch. “Diana’s always been kind of the restless sort.”

“How long had she been in Braden?” Logan asked.

“About two years now. She and I, we’ve had our differences on occasion, but she’s a hell of a bartender.”

“Did she work for you the whole time she was here?”

“Yep. I ran an ad in the local paper. She called me up, I tried her out, and that was that.”

“So she
was
here before she got the job,” Logan said, thinking the woman had misunderstood him.

Mary shook her head. “No. She called me from somewhere in Arizona, I think. Can’t remember exactly. Think she said she found the ad on the paper’s website.”

“She have any friends here you know of?”

“A few different people. Lately she’d been hanging around with Tessie Carter, I think.”

Logan typed the name into a note on his phone, then accessed the picture of Sara. “Have you ever seen this woman before?”

Mary looked at the picture for a second, then glanced around until she spotted a pair of glasses on the coffee table. “Can you hand me those?” she asked Dev.

Dev passed them to her. “Here you go.”

“Thank you. My close-up vision is shot. Growing old sucks sometimes.”

“Tell me about it,” Dev agreed.

She gave him a smile, and looked back at the picture.

“You might have seen her with Diana about two years ago or so,” Logan suggested.

“She
is
familiar.” She continued to examine the photo. “Wait, wait. There was this…friend who visited her from out of town. What was her name?” She stared at the floor for a moment. “Sandy? Sally. I don’t know. Something like that.”

“Sara?” Logan suggested.

“Maybe.” She pointed at the picture. “That could be her, but I’m not a hundred percent.”

“And you haven’t seen her since then?”

“No. Don’t think so.”

“You see anyone else with them at the time?”

She thought for a moment. “If I did, I don’t remember.”

“Is there anything else about Diana that might help us find her? Something she might have said? Family she might go to?”

“No family that I know of. Certainly none in Braden. She said her mom died a few years ago, but otherwise…” She shrugged. “She’s a pretty private person. Never really talked much about herself.”

Logan hesitated, then said, “If you don’t mind me saying, you don’t seem as mad as I expected, given she just quit on you.”

“Annoyed that I’ll probably have to cover a few shifts myself, yeah, but I can’t be mad at her. Diana’s a good person, but I always felt like there was something missing, you know, like she was looking for something that she would probably never find.”

__________

A
S THEY WALKED
to the car, Dev tossed Logan the keys. “You drive.”

Logan gave him an odd look, but said, “Okay,” thinking that maybe Dev was just tired of being behind the wheel.

But as they exited the mobile home park, Dev swiveled in his seat and stared out the rear window.

“What is it?” Logan asked.

Turning back around, Dev seemed to contemplate something. Finally he said, “I think someone might be following us.”

Logan’s gaze flicked to the rearview mirror. “Who?”

“There’s a gray sedan about a block back.”

Logan searched the street behind them. “Okay, I see it. You sure?” The car was too far back for him to see the people inside.

“No, I’m not. Have you seen how many gray sedans there are in this town?”

“Then what makes you think we’re being followed?”

“It
looks
like the same one I saw when we visited the real estate place, and before that, not long after we left the woman’s house. But I don’t know.”

Logan frowned. He considered making a few quick turns to see if the car was really tailing them, but decided doing that might scare the person off. If they pretended like they hadn’t noticed, and just kept tabs on the other car, there was a better chance they might learn something useful. He told Dev what he wanted to do, and the former Marine nodded as if he’d been thinking the same thing.

Mary Ralston had told them Tessie Carter was working at the Wallace Wash Mini Market out near the interstate. As Logan pulled into the store’s small lot and parked, Dev positioned himself so he could see out the back without seeming too obvious.

“There they go.”

“They?”

“There’re two people inside.”

“Did either of them look this way?” Logan asked.

“No. Kept facing straight.”

“Recognize them?”

Dev shook his head. “Never seen them before. A man and a woman, both white. Her hair’s cut short.” Dev touched his neck about halfway between his head and shoulder. “About to here. Think it’s brown. But she was driving, so harder to see. The guy’s hair was close-cropped, lighter, almost blond.”