Page 35 of The Fix

Rex heard Cami release an exhale as the man who’d brought Cyrus food closed the door behind him, leaving the child there. And damn it, he’d picked up the bag and tossed it out the door far too quickly for them to glimpse more of the red logo.

“Whoever is coming to pick him up will be there tomorrow,” she said, bringing her hand to her midsection and holding it there.

He looked back to the road, worry a steady buzz beneath his skin. “We’re close,” he told her. “We’ve gotta be.”

She gave a jerky nod and chewed at her thumbnail. “What do you think about that pancake thing?”

“That struck you too?” It had raised his hackles, and he wasn’t sure why.

He’d only gotten to know the kid by observing him through a video lens, and yet he felt like he was beginning to learn his small cues.

Like the way his eyes had narrowed very slightly as he waited for the man to agree to pancakes.

Cami looked back at the screen, where Cyrus was laying out the cards on the floor. “Yeah. I’m not sure why, though, other than he hasn’t seemed that interested in food before this. He eats whatever the guy leaves and hasn’t requested anything.”

“And he didn’t seem especially curious about who was coming to collect him,” Rex said. Which might mean several things. One being the kid was simply too scared to ask.

Rex glanced out at the coast, his gaze flitting over the lush natural landscape. The views on their drive so far had been ridiculously beautiful, and yet he’d only vaguely processed them. Maybe someday, he could return and really enjoy this perfect slice of nature.

But for now, he could only see this paradise as a muted backdrop. Because somewhere out there among the towering pines, and beyond the crashing waves, a little boy was in imminent danger.

Rex’s cell rang, breaking him from his troubled thoughts, and he reached for it. “It’s my buddy,” he told Cami before taking the call. “Joaquin.”

“Yo. Do you have a picture available to send me from right now?”

“Uh, yeah.” He looked at Cami, who was already on the job, pulling her phone out and then holding it as steady as possible to snap a picture of the laptop. “I’ll text it to you,” Rex said.

“Great. I’m pretty sure the location is within sixty miles of Soledad, California.”

His heart sped. He’d seen that town on the map. It was somewhere up ahead, which meant they were on target. “Can you narrow it down any more than that?”

“I’m trying, but anything more to work with would be helpful.”

Cami gave him a chin tilt, indicating that she’d texted the photo to Rex. “I’m going to send the photo to you now. Hey, Joaquin, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this. It could be a life-and-death situation.”

“I gotcha, buddy.”

He thanked Joaquin again and then hung up. Next to him, Cami was on her phone. “We’re about an hour from Soledad now. Should we get a little closer and find a hotel and wait for more information from your friend?”

“Yeah, and while we wait, we can drive around and see if we spot a store with a logo that resembles what we could see on the bag. Or maybe a place that sells comics.”

“Okay, hold on.” Cami spent a few minutes typing and scrolling on her phone.

“There aren’t a lot of hotels in the area.

It’s mostly Airbnbs, cottage and cabin rentals, and camping.

There’s a pretty big state park nearby.” She paused as she scrolled for another minute.

“Monterey and Carmel-by-the-Sea are an hour west of Soledad and are much more populated.”

“It doesn’t seem like that cabin is in a populated area,” he said.

“I think it’s a better bet to stop somewhere close and see what we come across.

” He tapped on the steering wheel. Sixty miles was a big distance, but it also narrowed things considerably.

He’d pull up a map when they stopped and rule out a few directions if possible.

“A cabin or a campground it is,” Cami murmured.

“I’ve done my fair share of roughing it for a good cause,” he said to lighten the moment.

And also, to move his mind immediately away from visions of them together in the small space of a nylon tent under a moon in the wilderness.

Not helpful, Lowe. He wanted to curse his own mind for going there against his will.

Or better judgment. “But we need electricity.”

“There are a few towns nearby, but they’re tiny. One only has ten residents.”

“We don’t need a lot of residents. Just a couple of restaurants who offer to-go orders in brown paper bags.

The food items we saw Cyrus eating will help too.

A burger and fries and a cup of chili and a baked potato.

And a spot where comic books and cards might have been purchased.

Then again, those items could have been bought in advance.

The food is the only thing we know for sure is local. ”

She was frowning down at her phone. “That could still be a whole lot of places.”

“I know. But if we can find the red logo near other diners or burger stands or whatever, we’ll know Cyrus is within twenty miles.

Then we’ll be even closer.” It was all about narrowing and then narrowing some more.

“We can likely rule out a few directions right off the bat.” They knew he was close enough to the ocean to hear it—even if distantly—from inside the cabin.

Rex’s mind had started whirring. With the information they had, they could find him.

He was certain they could. Even if Joaquin wasn’t successful in getting them any closer than he had, they had several other pieces of information to use.

There was also the pancake breakfast the man had promised.

If they could figure out the most likely place the man would go to pick up a to-go order like that, they could follow him back to the boy.

That would be a huge victory but would also require another set of choices.

Was he willing to kill the man who was keeping Cyrus locked in that room if it came to that?

Jesus. What had he gotten himself into?

He considered calling the police again, rolling the logistics around in his mind for a minute before rejecting the idea.

He and Cami were so close. And Rex felt competent as far as extracting the boy, if they could just figure out where exactly he was.

Right now, they had the benefit of surprise.

Not only might calling the police cause some trigger he couldn’t anticipate, but the police would want to be brought up to speed.

And he and Cami would likely be detained.

No, right now, the authorities would only slow them down. And they couldn’t afford to slow down, even a little.

Again, the question of what he’d gotten himself into repeated in his brain.

Would you change your original offer to help if you could? Would you back out?

No. No, I wouldn’t.

The car surged around a bend, the ocean a vast jewel sparkling below.

So that’s that.

The only house Cami had found that offered a last-minute rental and was close by was far too big and had many more amenities than they required.

They set their bags down in the open two-story foyer and looked up at the gargantuan chandelier.

She gave him an apologetic smile. “It’s ridiculous.

Late summer, apparently, is a popular time to visit Big Sur.

” She paused. “But not for parties of twenty.”

He laughed, and she did, too, and for a moment they smiled at each other, he, at least, glad for the moment of levity amid the stress they were under.

“Anything with a roof and an outlet and Wi-Fi works.” He took the laptop to the kitchen and set it on the granite island and plugged it in.

Outside the picture window, they had a view of the ocean, and he could see hikers in the distance, taking the trail that led down the cliff and onto the sand.

As Rex well knew, evil could exist anywhere, even in glorious places, but here it still seemed particularly wrong somehow.

“God, this area is stunning,” Cami said as she, too, looked out the window at the picturesque scene. “I wish we could enjoy it.” He saw her blink. “I mean ... well, you know what I mean—”

“I do,” he said, rescuing her and then turning to look at the laptop. It’d become second nature in the last day and a half. He wondered how long, once this was over and solved, he’d be compelled to look for a little boy on a screen that was no longer there.

He couldn’t wait to find out.

“Should we let that charge for a while and then head out and drive around?” she asked.

“Yeah, sounds good.”

“Do you mind taking a ten-minute shift while I go wash off the travel dust? I also want to check in with my work quickly.”

“Not at all.”

Twenty minutes later they were in the car and back out on the road. On the laptop screen, Cyrus was sitting in his spot on the bed again, staring into space, every now and then looking over at the door as though he expected someone to walk through it.

“How’s your business making out without you there?” he asked.

“Amazingly well, sadly for me. It seems I’m far less necessary than I thought.”

“That just means you hired good employees and trained them well.” He shot her a wink.

She let out a soft laugh. “I appreciate the pep talk.”

On their drive, they stopped in any and every establishment that served food and asked if they did carryout in paper bags.

They received several strange looks and only two employees answered in the affirmative, but when they showed them a blown-up picture of the man who was guarding Cyrus and bringing him food, they both reported no recognition or memory of packing up the orders they described.

Which might mean the man hadn’t been there or might mean the employee who’d helped him wasn’t working.

Or that the man just hadn’t been very memorable.