“I’m going to hit the bathroom.”
“Is the car unlocked?” he asks.
I push the little button on the key fob and the Volvo’s lights flash. “Is now. Be right there.”
I’m only inside a couple of minutes. The woman behind the counter nods and mumbles, “Haveagoodevenin’” as I push the door open to head back to the car. Her voice is tired, the words almost a snore.
The first thing I see is Deo’s strawberry tea. The bottle is crushed, the pinkish liquid still oozing onto the concrete. I run to the Volvo, but he’s not inside. His phone is there, however, stuck in one of the cup holders between the seats. His silver ear cuff is clipped to the top of the phone.
I turn around and scan the parking lot. “Deo! This isn’t funny!”
But I know he’d never do anything like this. Especially not after the past few weeks.
I race back into the store. “My friend . . . the boy who paid for gas just now. He’s gone. Did you see another car pull in?”
Her brow creases slightly. “Think maybe I heard a car turning around out there, but no. I didn’t see anything.”
She’s not going to be any help, Anna. The woman’s eyes are barely open even now.
I’m relieved to hear Molly’s voice. It sounds much calmer than my own and helps to stomp down the panic that’s starting to build. Not much, but at least enough that I don’t start screaming.
The door clangs behind me as I run back to Deo’s abandoned drink bottle. Thick tire marks spread the liquid a few feet. I follow the tracks, but they don’t go far enough for me to see whether the car turned left or right at the highway. Or maybe it turned down the other road?
No taillights are visible in any direction.
Get back in the car! We’re totally exposed out here.
Molly’s right. I know she is. But I still stand, squinting in all directions, hoping against hope that I’ll see a glint of red, a breadcrumb for me to chase after.
Aside from a few streetlights, and a pair of headlights from a truck that’s now moving past me, all four directions are dark.
Call Aaron.
“I don’t know where I put his number. I think Deo has it.”
Then my shoulders start shaking and tears stream down my face. My fault. This is totally my fault. I should have never gotten involved. I should have told Molly no.
Pull out your damned phone, Anna. Come on! Work with me! You’re not doing Deo any good just standing here.
And then my hand is pulling out the phone, and my legs are running back to the car. Molly slides us behind the driver’s seat and dials a number.
Taylor answers, annoyed.
“Where the hell are you, Anna? Aaron’s been driving around for the last—”
“Tay? It’s me. Could you get Aaron to the phone?”
“Like I just said, Molly. He’s not here.”
My voice, my phone. And somehow, despite that, Taylor picks up that it’s Molly.
“Then call him! Tell him to call me back at this number. They’ve got Deo!”
The connection ends and it’s less than a minute before the phone rings.
“Anna?”
“No,” Molly says. “It’s me. Anna’s kind of freaking out right now.”
“Why did she leave? I had the place staked out, like I said I would. Daniel had a cruiser circling by every hour. If anyone had—”
What if it had been Badea, flashing her badge or card or whatever? I’m pretty sure any creds that allowed her to question me in the middle of a police station would have been sufficient for her to haul me and Deo off in the middle of the night.
Molly ignores me and focuses instead on catching Aaron up to speed. I barely hear what she says because I’m mentally replaying the past hour, trying to figure out where I went wrong. We weren’t followed after we left the city. Once we were out of Upper Marlboro, there were stretches where I didn’t even see another car. So they got the info some other way. I didn’t see anyone turn down the road behind the cab when it dropped us at Kelsey’s place, although if Marietta put out an alert, the driver might have told the police where he dropped us. I don’t think Kelsey would have told the police where we went, and I know she wouldn’t have told anyone else. Not unless—
Molly! I have to call Kelsey.
But Molly is still ignoring me. She sets my phone aside, and dumps the contents of Deo’s backpack onto the backseat. Her fingers run around the inside of the bag, and after a few seconds, she pulls something out.
Then she grabs the phone again. “Found it! At least, I can’t think what else this would be.”
“Okay,” Aaron says. “Do the same thing to Anna’s backpack. If you find another one, leave them both in a place we can locate them, outside the store.”
She looks around. “There’s a propane tank stand. I’ll leave them behind the right rear leg.”