“How is that useful?”
I burst out laughing at the unfiltered question.
“Those blankets we just dropped off are for new babies of families in need.Sometimes it’s blankets or it can be hats or scarves for homeless people.It’s useful to them.”
“Cool,” he mumbles before silence settles in the truck.
We don’t talk much the whole ride, and the odd time we do, it tends to be Remi asking something car-related.I don’t broach the subject of his teacher, and he doesn’t volunteer anything.Which is fine, I’m happy just driving.
It’s a nice day; the sun is out and has melted some of the snow from the road.Just past Crystal Falls on Hwy 20, about twenty miles out from our destination, I point out a small herd of elk up on a hillside.Remi seems to get a kick out of that, and for the rest of the drive, he asks about all the different kinds of wildlife out here.
The gates are open when we pull into the junkyard, so I drive right up to the small shack Wally uses as his office.Normally, he’d either be sitting on the small porch or come out at the first sound of a vehicle approaching.Today the porch is empty and the door stays closed.
The moment I get out of the truck, I notice the absolute, cold silence.Even without looking, I already know no one is here.Still, I walk up to the small building to check the door.Tucked under the corner of the doormat I notice a piece of paper sticking out.
It’s a scribbled note.
Had to run out.Go ahead and look for yourself.Check northwest corner.
Back soon.W
“Okay,kid.Looks like we’re on our own.”I point in the direction Wally indicated.“Let’s head that way.”
As far as junkyards go, this one is pretty organized.The Shirks have been able to maintain paths running north and south, as well as east and west, cutting the entire junkyard into smaller, easier to navigate parcels.
The breeze blows in over the open fields around the yard, freezing the little hairs in my nostrils.Damn, it’s even colder out here than it is in Silence.
I glance over at the kid, who is pulling the hood of his coat over his head.I only have the ball cap I’m wearing, but I pull up my collar and hunch up my shoulders.You can tell how cold it is by the way the snow crunches under our feet.The only other sound is the occasional creak of metal as some of the junk shifts and settles.
“I’ll take the first path, you get the next one,” I suggest when we reach the farthest northwest corner.“It’ll be faster if we work the grid lines.You know what we’re looking for, so keep your eyes peeled.”
If we keep pace, we can keep visual contact with each other, while covering twice the amount of real estate.I really don’t want to waste more time out here in these freezing temperatures than we need to.
In some of these older sections, vehicles are piled on top of vehicles at some points, creating a mountain of mangled, rusting metal.It isn’t always easy to identify what you’re looking at, and easy to lose track of your surroundings.
We’re onto rows three and four—as I pass through such an area where the metal is piled so high, I can’t see beyond—when I lose sight of Remi.By the time I get to the crossroad, he’s not there to meet me.I look down the row the boy was checking to see if he’s just lagging behind, but I don’t see any sign of him.
“No!Clem!”
I freeze at the strangled quality of Remi’s voice.It appears to be coming from the other side of the rows; the far north side where the property ends.
Then I start running, only to get hit by a massive jolt to my back, knocking me flat on my face.
The last thing I hear is the soft buzz of a battery-operated vehicle before the lights go out.
Chapter25
Tessa
“I’m sorry,he is not in today.”
Deputy Heather Solingate is manning the front desk today and is on the phone when I walk into the station.
I’m just coming back from an accident scene in the church parking lot of all places.
It’s busy for a Sunday, with two domestic calls, an attempted overnight break-in at the pharmacy, a statue in the park depicting the town’s founder defiled by vandals, and a neighbor dispute heating up between two bordering ranches north of town; and it’s only just after noon.
Which is why I went to the church when the accident call came in to the office; there were no deputies left to send out.Luckily, it was fairly easily and quickly resolved.The drivers involved were unharmed, but disputing responsibility.Fortunately, since church just let out, there were ample witnesses to the actual sequence of events.By the time I left twenty minutes later, things had calmed down, the parties had exchanged insurance information and were on their way home.
