Every Precious Thing (6 page)

Logan had figured as much about all three. He was more interested in the phone calls. “And these?”

Fulkerson nodded. “We sent investigators to both places. Out of the two, Laguna seemed the most promising. There’s a thriving art community there, so it also checks that box.”

“And?”

“And we found nothing at either place.”

“How long were your investigators there?”

“Long enough.”

“How long?”

“A day at Laguna. A couple of hours at Braden.”

“Why only a couple hours?”

“It’s a small town, and chances were she was just passing through on the interstate, perhaps stopped to get some gas.”

“On her way to where?”

“That, we have no way of knowing. If she hadn’t made that call, we wouldn’t have even known she’d gone out that way.”

“Doesn’t seem to me like enough time spent in either place.”

Logan could sense Fulkerson trying not to glare at him. “You’ll have to take that up with Mrs. Johnson.”

“Why is that?”

“We recalled our people because she decided to put the investigation on hold.”

Emily again, Logan realized. Either Callie or Alan had begun to worry that the more Fulkerson and his team looked into things, the more likely word would get to the wrong people that the adoption wasn’t legitimate.

He glanced through the rest of the report, but didn’t see anything that needed clarification at the moment, so he smiled and stood up. “Thank you for your time. I’ll call you if I need anything else.”

The look on Fulkerson’s face was not what Logan would call excited.

C
HAPTER
E
IGHT

L
OGAN FOUND A
Starbucks, grabbed a cup of coffee, took the only empty table left, and then carefully went through Fulkerson’s detailed report. By the time he was done, his barely touched coffee was lukewarm.

While the notes on the investigation filled out a few things he was hazy on, it had provided no new information. What it did do was make Logan think more about the out-of-character phone calls Sara had placed from Laguna Beach and Braden. They were the only halfway decent leads. But were either of them important?

The only way to know for sure was to check both places, and given the distance between them, it would go a lot faster if he had help. While Harp and Barney might be able to assist Logan wherever he went, he was not about to send them off on their own.

He considered his options, then pulled out his phone.

“Yes?” a gruff voice answered after a single ring.

“Dev? It’s Logan Harper.”

“Logan,” Dev Martin said, brightening. “How ya doin’?”

“I’m okay. You?”

“I got nothing to complain about.”

Like Logan and Harp, Dev Martin also lived in Cambria. He was in his sixties, but looked at least ten years younger. A former Marine and Vietnam vet, he’d kept himself in great shape. There were few people, no matter their age, who’d want to mess with him. Dev and his network of former servicemen had proved extremely useful when Logan was looking for Tooney’s granddaughter, Elyse.

“Good to hear.” Logan paused. “Let me cut right to it. I’m wondering if you might be able to help me out with something.”

Dev let out a low laugh. “Didn’t think this was just a social call.”

Logan explained the situation and what he needed.

“Braden or Laguna Beach, huh?” Dev said. “Let me make a call, and I’ll get right back to you.”

“Thanks, Dev.”

“No worries.”

Less than five minutes later, Dev called back. “Chris Pepper,” he said. “Goes by Pep. He was Navy, but don’t hold that against him. Lives in Victorville, so could be in Braden in a couple of hours.”

“Thanks, Dev. That sounds perfect. ”

“Told him expenses would be covered.”

“No problem,” Logan said. “Give me his cell number and I’ll text him the picture we have of Sara. It isn’t great, but it’s all we got.”

“He’ll do what he can with it,” Dev said, and then rattled off the number.

“How soon can he get out there?” Logan asked.

“I assumed you wanted them out there right away, so I already gave him the go ahead. If he’s not on the road already, he will be soon.”

__________

I
T WAS ALMOST
six p.m. when Logan left the coffee shop. He thought Alan would still be at the office, but since he was close to the accountant’s house, he decided to try him there. When no one answered his knock right away, he guessed that he would have to come back later.

Then he heard a voice, distant and muffled. “Coming!”

A few seconds later, the deadbolt slid free and the door opened.

“Logan,” Alan said, surprised. “Come in. Come in.” He moved out of the way so Logan could enter, then shut the door behind him. “Sorry. Emily took a late nap, and I guess I fell asleep in the chair.”

“I didn’t mean to wake you,” Logan said.

“Are you kidding? I shouldn’t be sleeping at all. I’ve got too much work to do.”

“Yeah, I was beginning to think you were still at the office.”

Alan hesitated before saying, “Emily goes to this nursery school in the mornings. She’s been attending since…well, before, so I thought it best that she kept going. While she’s there I go into the office. Then, unless there’s no way around it, I work the afternoons here.”

Alan could have easily afforded a nanny, but Logan could see that wasn’t even an option for him. He was trying to make Emily’s life as unchanged as possible, and while Sara was no longer there for her after nursery school, he was.

“I won’t take up much of your time,” Logan said.

“Whatever you need.” Alan smiled. “Callie told me you’d agreed to help.”

“I’ll do what I can, but don’t get your hopes up. The agency Callie used to try to find Sara seems pretty first rate. I don’t have their resources so I may not find out anything at all.”

“I realize that,” Alan said. “I’m just happy someone’s trying.”

There was an awkward moment, then Logan said, “I’m here because I was hoping I could borrow the letter Sara left for you.”

Alan looked surprised. “Why do you want that?”

“I just want to make a copy of it. I’ll bring it back to you in the morning.”

“Okay,” Alan said, drawing the word out. “I still don’t understand why, though.”

“It’s the only good sample of her handwriting that you have. I may not need it at all, but in case I do…”

Alan nodded. “Of course. Wait here and I’ll get it.”

He returned a little while later with the letter. Logan held out his hand to take it, but Alan hesitated.

“Please,” he said, finally giving Logan the note. “Don’t let anything happen to it. It’s…the last thing, you know?”

“I understand,” Logan said. “Thank you.” He took a step toward the door.

“What are you going to do now?” Alan asked.

“Check a few things Callie’s PI was working on.”

“And if that doesn’t work?”

“I’ll figure that out then.”

Logan walked through the entry and opened the door.

“If you need me for anything, anything at all, just call,” Alan said.

“I will.”

“I don’t mean just questions. If Sara’s in trouble, I want to help.”

“Let’s find out what’s going on first. I promise—if there’s something you can do to help, I’ll let you know.”

The answer didn’t seem to completely satisfy Alan, but he nodded as if he knew it was the best he would get.

Logan wished there was something more encouraging he could say, but he wasn’t going to lie. So instead, he nodded a good-bye then stepped outside with the note.

C
HAPTER
N
INE

C
HRIS “PEP” PEPPER
dove into the search for the runaway mom with focused determination. Dev had warned him that things might not be as they appeared, so he should avoid any preconceived notions.

While Pep understood what Dev was trying to say, there was no way his own past couldn’t help but influence his feelings. His childhood was fine enough, his mother distant but physically there. It was his brother Marko’s kids that he couldn’t keep out of his mind.

Pep’s sister-in-law, Ann, had not run off unexpectedly. She’d been killed while crossing a street to get change for a parking meter. Just like that, Marko’s kids lost their mother. Pep had seen how her absence affected them. Marko had tried to do the best he could, but his kids would always be living with that absence.

Pep knew Ann would have given anything to stay with her children, but that wasn’t a choice she’d been given. Sara Lindley, on the other hand,
did
have that choice. Whatever trouble she might be in, how the hell could the best answer have been abandoning her child? No matter how much he tried to rationalize it as he drove across the Mojave Desert, he couldn’t come up with a good answer.

He arrived in Braden at around eight thirty p.m., and spent the first two hours going around to restaurants and motels showing the picture Logan Harper had sent him. It was obvious the image of the woman had been cropped from a larger photo and enlarged to focus on her. She was a bit fuzzy and not fully facing the camera, but it was enough to get a pretty good idea of what she looked like. Unfortunately, no one had recognized her so far.

As the night grew late, he switched his focus to the several bars scattered around town.

“What’re you drinking?” the bartender asked. It was the third bar Pep visited.

“Just want to show you something, if you don’t mind,” Pep said.

He already had his phone in his hand, so he brought up the picture and turned it so the bartender—an old, leather-skinned guy who looked like he’d been birthed from the desert itself—could see it.

“Ever see her before?”

The man looked at the screen, shrugged, and said, “I have no idea. People come in and out of here all the time.”

Pep would have missed it if he hadn’t been looking at the man’s face when he glanced at the picture. For a brief second, the man’s eyes widened. He
had
seen the woman before.

“You sure?” Pep asked.

The man stepped back from the bar. “Yeah. I’m sure.”

Pep frowned and shook his head. “You’re lying.”

“Hey, buddy. I don’t like being called a liar.”

“Then tell me the truth when you answer the question. Have you seen her before?”

The bartender shrugged noncommittally.

So that’s how the guy wanted to play it. Pep pulled a twenty-dollar bill out of his pocket and set it on the bar. “Tell me,” he said, his fingers securing the bill in place.

The guy looked at Pep, then at the twenty, and smiled. “I don’t know. She looks like someone who came in here a couple times.”

“Looks like, or is?”

Another shrug, but one that seemed to indicate the latter more than the former.

Pep picked up the twenty and folded it as if he were going to put it back in his pocket.

“Hey, what are you doing?” the bartender asked.

“I don’t pay for guessing games.”

“A twenty’s not that much.”

Now it was Pep’s turn to shrug. He stepped toward the door.

“Wait a minute,” the bartender said.

Pep paused.

“Yeah. I’ve seen her.”

Walking back to the bar, Pep asked, “When?”

“A year or two ago. Came in a couple times.”

That was not the answer Pep had been expecting. “A year or two? Why would you remember someone who came in here a couple times that long ago?”

“She, um, came in with someone I know.”

“Someone here in Braden?”

“Maybe.”

Pep took a step back like he was going to leave again.

“Okay, yes. Your friend there came in with a woman named Diana Stockley.”

“And who is she?”

“Works at The Hideaway. It’s another bar. She should be there if she’s working tonight.” He held out this hand. “So can I get my twenty now?”

__________

T
HERE WAS A
woman behind the bar at The Hideaway when Pep walked in. From the other bartender’s description, she had to be Diana Stockley.

The Hideaway was packed, so the woman was kept busy, running around and making drinks. Pep took a seat at the bar. Over a twenty-minute period, he started up a conversation with her without ever letting on he knew her name or of her potential connection to Sara. Finally he showed her the picture, but unlike with the old man, there wasn’t even a hint that she’d ever seen Sara. So had the other guy been pulling a fast one just to get the money out of him? Or was this woman the one who was lying?

“Sorry. Who is she?” Diana asked.

“You don’t know her?”

She shook her head. “No. She a friend of yours or something?”

“Hey, Diana. How ’bout another beer?” someone called from the far end of the bar.

“Excuse me,” she told Pep, and walked off.

Pep hung at the bar for another quarter hour but was unable to grab any more time with the woman, so he began showing the picture around to the customers. Those that paid him attention showed no sign of having ever seen Sara. Finally, he decided he wasn’t going to get much further that night. He’d go find a room, come back early the next evening before the place got busy, and maybe he could have some quality time with the bartender to find out for sure if she knew anything or not.

The parking lot of The Hideaway was small, and had been packed when he arrived, so he’d had to park along the side of the road a block away. When he got to his car, he unlocked the driver’s door and pulled it open.

“You’re looking for Sara?”

Pep turned. The voice had come from down the gap between two abandoned buildings, but it was too dark to see anyone.

 “Who’s there?” he called out, instantly alert. He’d only been showing Sara’s picture, not giving out her name.

“I…I know where she is.”

“Tell me who you are,” Pep said.

“I can’t. They’ll kill me if they find out I’m here.”

“Who’ll kill you?”

“Never mind. I…I shouldn’t have…shouldn’t have come.”