Page 13

THIRTEEN

P enny relaxed in the driver’s seat of the car. Might as well get comfortable if she was going to be here a while. She pulled out her telephoto lens camera and set it on the dash. She popped a piece of minty fresh gum in her mouth and settled in.

Situated on the edge of town, out on the state highway, the biker gang bar across the street from her was one of the last things on this road before people hit the interstate. The rusty metal siding gave the building the appearance of an old warehouse, while the colorful neon signs for various brands of beer beckoned people in. A few Harleys leaned heavily on their kickstands near the door while a semitruck without a trailer shaded them from its parking space at the edge of the lot.

“Come on, Emma. Give me something here.”

As she lifted the camera up, her phone rang. Jude.

“Hey, how’s Denver?” she asked him on speaker phone.

“I’m in Georgia now. Leading some training. How are things going there?”

“Well, I’m outside the Highway to He?—”

“Lemme guess, the biker bar?”

“Yeah. Tony’s CI said he saw Emma here. I’ve been scoping it out the last few nights.”

“Must be getting impatient, huh?”

“You know me well. So what do you know about this place?”

“There’s a group of people very concerned about their Second Amendment rights that frequents the place, but they tend to go a little radical. They call themselves Soldiers in Arms. I haven’t had any specific run-ins, since they keep to themselves, but they made quite the fuss over the last DA election.”

“Why was that?” Penny blew a bubble with her gum and let it pop.

“They thought the guy who won was too soft on criminals.”

“Enough to want to take justice into their own hands?”

“They have some strongly worded social media posts about driving out gangbangers and drug dealers, but they’re not dumb. No real names or pictures. I just know they frequent the bar there.”

“Good to know. If I go in, I’ll try to look the part.”

“Is your CI a biker?”

“No, just a kid, really. I’m not sure how trustworthy he is. But I’m drawing a blank on ways to track down Emma. If she doesn’t show in the next hour or so, I’ll go scope things out.”

“Good luck with that.”

“When are you back in town?”

“Taking the red-eye tonight. Let me tell ya, it’s not soon enough. I miss my wife.”

“TMI, Brooks. So, back to Emma, nothing I saw in her background sounds like she would come to this kind of place. What do you think she’d be doing here?”

“What do you know?”

Penny snapped a few pictures of a couple of guys going into the bar. “She’s a ghost, really. A ghost without much of a past. She and her brother bounced around from family member to foster care after their parents died when they were young. But still. How did they get from California to way the heck out here in the middle of nowhere?”

There was a reason they called this place Last Chance County.

“No clue. Guess you get to find out. Just be careful out there. Maybe you should have one of the officers on the task force go in with you. You seemed to hit it off with Anthony.”

“Stick to the ATF and not matchmaking.”

“That’s not what I’m doing. I just think it would be safer if you had backup.”

“You know I can take care of myself.”

“But maybe you shouldn’t have to.”

“I’m leaving now. Call me if you find anything or if Emma’s brother finally talks.”

“Doubtful. Stay safe though.”

“You know it.”

Penny continued to take pictures of anyone going into or out of the club, but there weren’t that many. A couple hours into her stakeout, she had a few pictures of people and a growing pile of pistachio shells, but no sign of Emma. Time to go inside. And hopefully the establishment had a restroom.

Penny slipped a black crop top with an eagle on it over her tank top. She’d have worn the black leather jacket to hide her gun if it weren’t torn and still reeking of smoke. The light-wash denim jacket would have to do. She tied a red bandana around her head as the finishing touch and walked in.

The light was dim despite the bright afternoon sun outside. Smoke from the kitchen grill hovered over the bar. Penny could easily picture the place filled with cigarette smoke back in the day. Rusted license plates covered one wall, a big elk head surrounded by smaller deer mounts graced another. Classy. She refrained from grimacing at the decor as she quickly used the bathroom and approached the bar. A wiry woman with big hair and a gray tank top filled a mug with beer from a tap and handed it to the big man at the end, perched on a stool. The legs of the stool creaked every time he moved. Hopefully the thing held.

“What can I get you?” the bartender asked without looking at her. She continued to stack clean mugs from a rack into a cooler.

Penny ordered a drink she could sip slowly without standing out. “Got a food menu to go with it?”

The woman slapped a laminated paper menu in front of Penny and then turned to the guys at the billiard table off to the side. “If you’re gonna order something, get it now before Hank closes down the grill.”

Penny ordered a burger and fries when the bartender came back and plopped her drink in front of her.

“Have you seen Emma Kemper around lately?”

“Don’t know that name.”

Penny showed her a picture off her phone. “She’s my cousin. My mom was worried about?—”

“Look, just because I’m behind the bar doesn’t mean I have time for people’s sob stories. I don’t know the chick.” She spun on her heel and pushed through the door leading to the kitchen.

Whoa-kay. That was a bust.

“Don’t mind Mo.” The big guy at the end of the bar slid closer.

“Mo?” Penny asked.

“Short for Moira. She’s ornery, but she keeps her beer cold and is generous with her shots. I’m Bobby, by the way.”

Penny gave him a flirty smile. She could definitely get further with this guy than the bartender. “Good to know. Well then, have you seen Emma?” She showed her phone to him. “We think she’s out here with a guy, but we never met him. We’re just worried about her, ya know?” Penny twirled her hair around her finger and conjured a worried look.

“Don’t know that I’ve seen her, but I’m on the road a lot. Only come around here every few weeks.”

“Oh, are you from Last Chance?”

“Born and raised.”

“And you think it’s safe here? I mean, I heard about gangs moving in. I’m wondering if Emma got caught up in one of them.”

Bobby’s brows furrowed. “Them gangbangers don’t stand a chance.”

“How do you know? I mean, I heard there was a drive-by shooting last week. And then I saw that restaurant fire in the news. I’m worried.”

He moved in closer, puffed out his chest a bit. “No need to be, doll. We got us a concerned group of citizens that’s gonna make sure they don’t settle here.”

“The police and sheriff’s office?”

Bobby waved off the thought. “They don’t do nothin’. These guys are selling drugs and shooting up buildings and the law don’t do a thing.”

Oh, this was too easy sometimes. “That’s not right.”

“Darn right it isn’t. That’s why regular folks need to wake up and do somethin’ about it.”

Penny took a sip of her drink. “That sounds kinda…noble. Something I’d like to be a part of.” Penny gave him her best doe-eyed innocent look and laid a light hand on his arm.

“Oh, well, I dunno. I mean, no offense and all, but we don’t know you. And we got things handled. Just you wait and see.” He gave her a toothy grin. “You won’t have to worry about a thing.”

She tried not to cringe at the tobacco-stained teeth. “Well, I’m glad there’s people brave enough to do something about a problem. But what about my cousin? What if she’s in one of these gangs?”

Bobby leaned in low. “Then I suggest you find her and get the heck out of Last Chance. Soon. Real soon.”

He stood, threw some bills on the bar, and saluted the guys at the pool table before he walked out.

Well, that was interesting.

The food arrived. Mo plopped a plate in front of her without a word and went back to the kitchen. Penny quickly ate her burger and left over half her drink on the bar top when she walked out into the bright sunshine again.

She ignored a call from Anthony Thomas. She had her own lead and needed to follow it. The less distractions the better.

She drove to the public library and used their free Wi-Fi to quickly type Bobby’s license plate from the big rig that had been parked at the bar into the database she used. Looked like Bobby Prescot had had a few minor run-ins with the law, nothing huge. But it was another name that popped up that grabbed her attention.

Conway Prescot. His name sounded familiar. A quick public-records search showed Conway owned a good chunk of land east of town. On her navigation app, it looked like only one road led out there. Satellite feed showed a main house with a lot of outer buildings. Good places to hide things. But it would be tricky to get in there undetected. Even if it wasn’t the main hub of this group, her gut said she’d find something related to the case. If Bobby was to be believed, they didn’t have a whole lot of time to figure out what was going on.

Looked like she would have to move her stakeout to Conway Prescot’s place and see what she could find.