Page 95 of Iron

“What happened?” Midori asked her sister once they broke apart.

The girl started sobbing hard as she explained everything to her, giving more details and throwing out names of people I didn’t know.

I looked up at Garen and he got my silent message. He pulled out his phone and started typing on the screen. He would get the information I wanted but he wasn’t going to leave the room.

Neither one of us knew this girl and she wasn’t to be trusted. There were problems coming our way and though she didn’t know it, she’d given us the heads up. She also had been part of those problems, but I didn’t think she even realized it.

“Did you see them? Did Cody and Buck come for you?” her sister asked.

Midori hesitated. I saw it. Garen saw it. But I wasn’t sure if her sister did too.

Rolling her lips between her teeth, Midori shook her head.

“No, Amy, I haven’t seen them since I left,” she finally said.

“Oh,” her sister said and her body sagged with disappointment.

She was young, I would have put her around sixteen or seventeen. Maybe she wasn’t aware of what kind of person her brother was. And from the sounds of it, their father wasn’t any better. It sounded like the mother knew and had finally reached her breaking point.

“You have to go home. You have to tell Teddy’s dad that you didn’t see them. Maybe something happened to them along the way.”

I resisted the urge to rub my temples. I had no clue why this guy’s dad was so important and what he had do to with the situation.

“I’m sure Sheriff Douglas has it handled,” Midori said to her sister but her eyes slid over to look at me.

With a small nod, I let her know I was following along now.

So she was from some small town. That was the feeling I was getting from listening to her sister talk.

That might have actually worked out in our favor. Small towns often didn’t have the money and resources to give a case like this the right attention. My hope was that they would try to find something and give up when they hit a few dead ends. But I was also smart enough that you couldn’t ever count on hope.

“So, what is this place?” Amy said. Clearly, she wasn’t going to let it go. I hoped Midori would give her enough to kill the curiosity without explaining too much. Or even a complete lie. As long as she didn’t have any real clue as to what was going on beyond this door.

Thankfully, I’d turned the feeds off.

“Oh, it’s a bar with upscale meeting rooms,” Midori said easily enough that it wouldn’t raise suspicion. At least she had that lie nailed down.

“That sounds neat,” Amy said but I could see she didn’t really understand or care to. “So you like serve drinks, then?”

Garen cleared his throat and I cut my eyes to him. He didn’t look the least bit sorry.

“How did you get here?” Midori asked her sister not bothering to answer the question.

“I drove Mom’s car. I got my driver’s license a few months ago.” She was proud of that fact. Oh, to be so young and without worry. “I’m tired. Is there any way I could take a nap at your place?”

Midori stiffened, her eyes going from me to Garen, and then back again.

I gave a tiny nod to let her know it was fine.

Garen slipped out the door and I knew he was going to keep the hall clear of anyone that might come out of the rooms wearing things that would set off alarm bells even in this wide-eyed girl’s head.

“Come on, I’ll walk with you,” I said, slowly rising.

Midori looked nervous but I wasn’t going to acknowledge it.

The path up to her apartment was clear. I left them alone for now, meeting Garen in the hallway.

“Everything we could get is on your tablet,” he told me in a low voice as he scrolled through something on his phone. “The town isn’t even a dot on the map. They have a sheriff and two deputies. That’s all. They have one official car to share between the three of them.”