Chapter 38
Three hours later, with an almost-empty gas tank, Matt saw a sign flash by that welcomed him to Lake Charles. A minute after that, he followed the Mercedes off the interstate and into the first gas station. While Melinda went inside, Matt took the opportunity to fill up. He left his sunglasses on and grabbed a battered fishing cap from the passenger seat that probably belonged to his neighbor. He pulled it low over his eyes and got out to start the pump. Watching the numbers roll by on the tank, he wondered what Melinda was doing in Lake Charles. She didn’t have any family that lived nearby anymore. When her parents died, she and her younger brother, Adam, went to live with their grandmother in Metairie. Now Melinda’s grandmother lived in an assisted living facility in Chalmette. He didn’t know of any other living relatives or friends that Melinda had in Lake Charles. But then again, he was learning new things about Melinda every minute.
Keeping one eye on the door and the other on the tank, he managed to fill the tank all the way up. Ten minutes had passed, and Melinda still hadn’t come out. He wondered what the hell she was doing. He craned his neck to see inside the store and caught a glimpse of her holding her phone to her ear. It was just like her to talk on the phone in a public place and not care who she bothered. Just then, she quickly turned, came outside, and got back in her car. She reversed into the stall next to him to get gas. Taking that as his cue to leave, Matt slowly pulled the truck around to the side of the store, where he could still see the exit out of the gas station.
Matt turned down the radio and called his brother’s cell phone. It went straight to voice mail.
“Hey, it’s Matt. Just calling to see how the depo went. Also, I wanted to let you know that I decided to go to Baton Rouge for the night. Going to hang out with a few buddies. Check in with ya later.” He thought better of telling his brother what he was up to. If Melinda turned out to be innocent and Matt had revealed his terrible suspicions to his brother, Chris might not ever forgive him. Best to wait and see how it panned out. Within a couple of minutes, he saw the Mercedes pull out of the gas station parking lot.
He followed Melinda a couple of miles down the two-lane highway. She pulled off the highway onto a road that had a sign that indicated a dead end. Matt decided to play it safe and keep going and then double back. He went down another mile and then turned around. Making a left onto Terre Belle, the dead-end street where Melinda had turned, he looked for her car. Eventually he found it. There were only four houses on the street. All of them looked like they had been built in the late seventies, and only one looked currently occupied. Her car was parked in the driveway on the right side of the street. She had already gone inside. Matt drove down to the end of the street, which faced a lake. He got out his iPad and visited a website that he used a lot at the office. He plugged in the address of the lake house and waited for the search results. If he knew the owner, maybe he could find out why Melinda was here in Lake Charles, so far from home. Less than thirty seconds later, the information was uploaded onto his screen.
He was blown away.