A concerned expression spread across the waitress’s face, and she shook her head.
Zo? ignored the look and plowed on. It paid to keep going. “It would have been fifteen months ago. I was here with my friend.” She held up the picture of Holli. “My hair was longer back then.”
The waitress kept shaking her head. “Hon, do you know how many people I’ve waited on in that time?”
“I’m sure we would have been memorable.”
“Memorable or not, I don’t recognize you.”
“But you were here back then,” Zo? said, pouncing on the implication. It was one of those things that worked to her advantage. In towns like this, away from the big cities, job turnover wasn’t high.
The waitress put her hands on her hips and frowned. “Look, I don’t mean to be rude, but do you want to be seated?”
She was losing this woman, and she needed to pull her back in. “I don’t mean to take up your time, but it’s important. My friend and I were abducted on the way home. I have no memory of what happened. I’m trying to piece together our movements for the police.”
She spotted a heavyset guy who was wearing a Smokehouse polo shirt, carrying half a dozen dirty plates, and looking their way. He handed his load off to a busser and headed for them. His frown said she was about to be kicked out. She needed to make an ally.
She pulled out a newspaper clipping and showed it to the waitress. “I got away. My friend was killed. Are you sure you don’t remember us?”
Shock entered the waitress’s face.
“Do we have a problem, Karalee?” the heavyset guy demanded.
“No, Tom,” Karalee said. “She needs help, that’s all.”
Zo? couldn’t tell if Karalee meant general help or mental assistance.
“Are you the owner?” Zo? asked.
“No, the manager.”
She handed Holli’s photo and the newspaper clipping to Tom and hit him with the bare facts. His gaze remained on the article. She knew how she sounded. She could be a crank, but it was hard to ignore that story.
“What do you want?” Tom asked with a mix of caution and helpfulness.
“To ask your staff if they remember me or Holli. Is there anyone here who was working here back then?”
“Three or four of my staff. But look, I don’t want you upsetting our customers. As you can see, we’re busy.”
Despite their size, the place was close to two-thirds capacity.
“I promise to be discreet and quick.”
Tom exhaled and said to Karalee, “Sit her at the bar, and I’ll send them over one at a time.”
Zo? took Tom’s hand. “Thank you. You don’t know what it means.”
“Yeah. Great.”
Karalee sat Zo? at the end of the bar. The bartender came over and put a paper napkin down along with a menu.
“This is Andrew. He was here,” Karalee said. “Andrew, this is Zo?. She has some questions. Please help her.”
Andrew took the cryptic request in stride. “Sure. I can do that. Can I get you something to drink, Zo??”
“Coffee. I’ve got a long drive.”
“Coffee, I have,” he said and retreated to a coffeemaker.
Andrew was somewhere in his thirties and not bad looking. He had an untidy thatch of blond hair, which needed a good brushing, but it worked for him. Zo? put it down to his laid-back manner.
He put a cup before her. “You have questions?”
She slid the clipping over to him. “I’m trying to find out if I was here fifteen months ago. I was traveling with my friend, Holli.” She handed him the photo. “My name is Zo?. Someone kidnapped us and killed Holli.”
“It says here that she’s missing,” Andrew said without scorn or judgment in his voice.
“Trust me, she’s dead. The cops just haven’t found her yet.”
He handed back the photo and the clipping. “And you’re trying to find her?”
“If I can, but what I’m really trying to do is give the police a better account of what happened. I want to help lead them to the bastard who did this or to anything that’ll assist.”
Andrew stared at her, expressionless.
“My hair would have been longer then. I was driving a VW Beetle.”
“I remember you.”
The remark caught her off guard. She was so used to people having no recollection that a positive answer had thrown her.
“You do?”
“I don’t remember the date or anything, but I remember you and your friend.”
A sudden rush of elation swept through her. This was a start. It was more than that. It was the beginning of the end for him—her kidnapper and Holli’s killer.
Zo? hoped Andrew wasn’t bullshitting her.
“How do you remember us?”
“You both made quite a spectacle while you were here.”
She felt herself flush.