He got out of the car anyway. The day was cool, the air in the diner warm and smelling of bacon and stale coffee. The murmur of conversation paused when he stepped inside, but when the customers realized he was just heading to the counter to order, it started up again.
The woman who took his order wasn’t wearing a name tag, so he didn’t know if she was one of the women Dani might have mentioned over the past two years, but…what the hell? He didn’t have todoanything with the answers to his questions.Ifhe even got them.
Gard smiled at the woman, trying to adopt a friendly manner. “Hey, I was looking for the day manager. I need to ask her a few questions if she’s got a minute.”
“That’s me.” The woman sized him up quickly. “Are you Dani’s brother?”
Gard’s smile faded. “Yeah, how’d you know?”
“She said her brother was a cop andFairhurstisn’t exactly a common last name,” the woman said, gesturing at his nameplate. “Is this about Dani?”
Gard tried to keep his expression neutral. “Sort of. I was wondering when the last time you’d seen her was.”
“The afternoon she quit. What was that? A month ago?”
“Wait.” Gard’s heartbeat sped up as he absorbed this brand-new information. “She quit her job here?”
“Yeah. I take it she didn’t tell you.”
“No.” And it left him…concerned, worried. Another check in theabnormalcolumn he kept promising himself he wasn’t going to fall for. Because she could have quit right before she disappeared because she’d already known she was falling back into old habits.
But it could also be…more. “Can you tell me what she told you about quitting?”
“She was apologetic, but she said she’d been offered a better job. She also told me she’d still cover some shifts if I needed her to, if it didn’t interfere with the new job. So I called her a few times since we’re always short-staffed. I left some messages, but I haven’t heard from her.”
Nothing about this was out of the ordinary. Sure, he was surprised Dani would quit because her job here had been the longest she’d ever been able to hold down—mostly because of the woman across from him. Dani had actually gotten along with her manager for once.
But why hadn’t she told him she quit? That she got a new job? He hadn’t even known she’d been looking for something different. Was this about the lack of money she’d been complaining about that Sammy had mentioned?
Maybe she’d been using for a while and he and Sammy hadn’t seen the signs. Maybe Dani had hidden it even better than usual.
Which meant he shouldstopthis. Instead, he asked more questions. “Do you know anything about this new job? Where it is or what it was?”
The manager shook her head. “Not really. All I know is that one of our customers offered it to her.”
A customer. So, not a lie. Something real. But hell if it didn’t sound fishy. And again, not unlike Dani to fall for something fishy. Because if it was on the up and up, she would have told him about it. So this wasn’tabnormal. It was right on track with her behavior when she was using.
And still, he didn’t let it go. “Do you think you could get me the name of that customer?”
“One of my waitresses might know.” The woman’s expression was serious. She leaned forward. “Is Dani okay?” she asked in a low voice.
Gard hesitated. He didn’t want too many people to know she was missing. But… There was just too much potential the peoplewho worked here might have a lead, especially if Dani talked to any of them about this new job. “I’m not sure. I haven’t been able to get a hold of her. So I’m trying to track her down and make sure she’s okay. Anything you can tell me would be a big help.”
“I’ll ask around. See if she told any of the girls she worked with about it. Do you want to wait, or…”
God, did he, but he had work to do, and Sammy would not approve of any of this. Better to treat it as a nonemergency. Since that’s what it was. All it could be.
He pulled his business card out of his wallet. He scribbled his cell number on the back. “Call me with anything you find out. Please.”
“Sure. Dani talked about you and that daughter of hers like you two hung the moon. I’ll help however I can. She’s a sweetheart.”
Yeah, she could be. When she wasn’t using.
But if she’d had a new job… Better pay? Enough to quit the restaurant? How would drugs factor in?
There were drugs in that house. Don’t let this fool you.
He wouldn’t. No. No getting his hopes up. Just…doing his due diligence. So that when Dani came crawling back, he could help her in whatever ways she needed.
