Page 56 of Desperate Creed

“Gary checked in but the new guy’s gone silent.”

Willis glanced up at Paul. “He’s the one that was driving alongside it, right?”

“Yeah.” Paul shrugged. “Maybe his equipment got knocked out.”

“His cell phone would still work.”

“Mia just got some info. A cell tower went down.”

Willis was protective about their chasers. Most of them were volunteers. He still trained a good deal of them. “Keep trying to get him, okay?”

“Absolutely,” Paul told him and left.

Willis hated that the kid’s name wasn’t at the tip of his tongue. He remembered he was set to graduate in May from Auburn, but he hadn’t grown up in the south. He’d come down to college from Kansas.

“Kansas...Simon.”

Now Willis remembered because he tried to explain to Simon how Tornado Alley was different than Dixie Alley. The young man had spent his teenaged years racing across Kansas and Nebraska chasing funnels.

“On the plains,” Willis told him, “you can see them in the distance. You can watch them form and drop out of the clouds. Here, the trees hide them. And half the time so does the rain.”

Simon had nodded and said, “I guess I’m not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.” Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. It became a running joke.

The NWS monitor started pinging out another warning. It didn’t stop at one.

40

Southern Blessings

“Both men were in the vehicle?” Maggie asked.

“I believe so. The big guy with the scar on his neck was driving.”

“You could see the scar?”

“No, but I recognized his profile.” Frankie lowered her voice and leaned closer over the table. “He has a block-shaped head and big, square shoulders.”

“Is he here?”

Maggie saw a spark of fear in Frankie’s eyes before her chin jutted up and her eyes darted around the restaurant. It only took a few seconds, because Maggie had already noticed that the woman had been watching the door.

“No, he’s not here.”

Maggie was trying not to be distracted by her food, but somehow she had managed to fork her way through half of her Conecuh blackened chicken. The waitress had talked her into adding a side of cheese grits and those were almost gone, too.

“This food is delicious,” she told Frankie who munched on her sweet potato fries but had barely touched her pecan-crusted catfish.

“Hannah and I used to come here when we were kids.” She smiled. It was the first time since Maggie sat down that she saw the woman relax.

“How about the other man?” she asked, quiet and calm, trying not to jumpstart Frankie back into panic mode.

“I’ve never seen him.”

“Not even a glimpse on the phone screen when you were talking to Tyler?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Think about it. Just for a minute. Go back to your conversation. Close your eyes if you need to. Relax and try to replay it in your mind.”