Page 16 of Grave Stone

“No, more like she was already running from something, or she has something to hide. She didn’t go to the cops; she ran. That says a lot.” He shrugged. “I think we’re wasting our time trying to find her.”

“We don’t know that she didn’t go to the cops.”

“We’d know by now if she did,” he pointed out.

“Here you go,” Kat said as she placed our plates on the table. “Can I get you anything else?”

“No. This looks great.”

“It is,” Tomb said with a mouth full of food.

“All right,” she said and placed our ticket on the table. “Let me know if you need anything. Enjoy your meal.”

“Thank you,” I said and waited until she went back behind the counter. “Since we’re trying not to draw attention to ourselves, maybe don’t eat like you just got out of prison.”

He wiped his mouth with his bare arm and sat back. “Maybe I’m just hungry.”

“You have mustard running down your arm.”

He grabbed a napkin and wiped it off quickly. Then he wadded it up and threw it at me. “If you’d get busy with your own food, you wouldn’t know what the fuck I was doing with mine.”

I laughed to myself as I picked up my hamburger. For as long as I’d known him, Tomb loved to eat.

I took a few bites of my burger and thought about what Tomb said. “You think we should go back?”

“It doesn’t matter what I think. Prez told us to look for her, so we’ll look for her.”

“I’m asking what you think.”

“Unless we’re gonna go door to door knocking, I think we should wait until we have a more defined search area. Like I said, I think it’s intentional, so I don’t think we’re going to just happen upon her.”

He had a point. She avoided being killed by the Wood brothers, escaped from the crematory, and disappeared with very little trace. “I think you’re right.”

“It doesn’t matter what you think either.”

“Right,” I sighed. “At least we’ll be in the area if they find something.”

Tomb snorted. “If they find something.”

While we finished eating, I tried to think of ways to locate Whitney, but I was unable to come up with anything. I couldn’t explain it, but I wanted to find her more than I wanted anything in a long time.

* * *

The next day, I drove back to Montgomery Ridge by myself, declining Tomb’s offer to join me. I wanted to spend some time alone to clear my head, because I was sick of seeing Whitney’s blue eyes turn into Kim’s dark ones every time I fell asleep.

Two hours later, I was tired of thinking about what happened with Kim. I would never know the truth, unless I found her. And I had spent enough time and money searching for her during the first two years after her disappearance.

I thought the time would be better spent checking on my niece. I’d been keeping closer tabs on her since she called earlier in the summer and asked me to get rid of a body for her. I couldn’t believe it. The little girl who was once frightened by the thought of the club had grown up to become the manager for a mainstream band, and she wasn’t afraid to get rid of the bodies—literally. I couldn’t have been prouder.

“Call Mia.”

“Hey, Uncle Stone.”

“Hey, Mia. Where are you today?”

“Why? Trying to plan ahead in case I call you for another pickup?”

“Does your mother know you talk to me like this?”