Conspiracies and Stuff: A Dreamland Junction Mystery (2 page)

I wondered if maybe she’d had a date with my ex. That was definitely enough to scare the life out of just about anyone.

Spencer leaned over and whispered. “Hey, I think I know her. That’s Molly … the new girl at Green Man Saloon.

Leave it to Spencer to know who the new employees were at the Green Man.

“How long has she worked there?” I asked under my breath.

Spencer shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe a month. She’s not from around here.”

I managed to get a couple more snapshots before I felt a firm grip on my arm.

“What do you think you’re doing here?” Moss asked, though it was more of a, your busted question, than an actual inquiry.

Brad Moss was Dreamland Junction’s only detective, and he took his job way too seriously.

Here it was almost four in the morning, and he was dressed in black suit. Who in the hell was dressed in a suit at such a ridiculous hour?

That was just one of the many questions I had about Detective Moss. There were others, like why he insisted on combing his brown hair straight back, and did he really think it was necessary to wear sunglasses all the time?

In fact, this was probably the first time I’d actually seen him without his sunglasses, and was surprised to find he actually had regular human eyes, though they were a strange green color. I was beginning to think he was auditioning for the next MIB movie.

“Excuse me Detective Moss, but I have every right to be here. In fact, it’s my constitutional right.” I threw him one of my, I dare you to fuck with me, scowls and jerked my arm away.

“Now you listen here, Kat Parker! You’re interfering with a homicide investigation and I could run you in for that,” he barked while wagging his finger at me.

“Freedom of the press!” I reminded him.

“I’m not sure that conspiracy theory website of yours qualifies you as a member of the press.”

“How do you know this is a homicide, and that she didn’t die of natural causes?” I asked, holding my voice recorder up so he could see it.

“No comment.”

“Have you identified the victim?”

“No comment,” he repeated, before grabbing my arm and forcing me away from the scene.

Spencer followed quietly.

“This is police brutality. I’m going to report you,” I threatened.

Detective Moss stopped abruptly and began sniffing the air. “Is that marijuana I smell on someone?”

Spencer made a sour face and sniffed the air. “I don’t smell anything. Do you smell anything Kat?”

“No,” I said, jerking out of Moss’s grasp.

I was getting Moss’s message loud and clear. Either I backed off, or Spencer would pay the consequences.

The threat of jail wasn’t working anymore, so he’d shifted to some very underhanded tactics by threatening my friend.

What a douche bag!

“You haven’t heard the last of me, Moss.”

“Oh I’m sure of it. Now get on home Kat.”

He sauntered back to the crime scene while I stood there with my arms folded, glaring.

“Let’s go,” Spencer urged. “We’re not going to get anything here. You can probably get any information they’re ready to release to the public, from your uncle.”

Spencer was right. Moss may be uncooperative, but Uncle Sonny was the Chief of Police, and he didn’t mind indulging me every now and again, but only if it was info they were willing to let the newspapers print. That meant that whatever I found out from Uncle Sonny, probably wouldn’t be all that helpful.

“It’s better than nothing,” Spencer said, as if he’d been reading my mind.

Turning narrowed eyes on Spencer, I asked, “How did you know what I was thinking?”

Spencer blinked several times, staring at me, as if he were looking at a crazy woman. “I didn’t. I was just saying,”

“Never mind,” I sighed. “Let’s get out of here. I need a few more hours sleep before I have to be to work.”

Even if Uncle Sonny wouldn’t give up info, there was bound to be a ton of gossip at work, and some of it might even be useful.

Chapter Two

“Two 51s,” Rube called from the kitchen.

Sidestepping around Lavern, the other waitress on duty, I made a beeline for the window that separated the kitchen from the waitress workstations.

Rube had placed two Area 51 Breakfast Specials beneath the warming lights.

“Thanks Rube!” I called, grabbing both plates.

“No problem
ma chica
,” he said over his shoulder as he was flipping more pancakes.

Ruben Torres was the dayshift cook, and probably the best cook in Nevada. Rube could have probably gone to work for one of the big Las Vegas casinos, but for some odd
reason, he preferred Dreamland Junction. All the waitresses loved him, including me. No matter how down I was, a little while with Rube and I’d be wondering why the world had seemed like such a messed up place.

The ET Landing was packed, which wasn’t unusual for a Sunday morning. On Sundays, we got the occasional truck driver stopping in on their way to wherever, plus we got locals who would drop by for breakfast before their weekly trip to their various churches, though there were only two churches in town.

Averting a collision with a little boy running for the restrooms, I arrived at a table with two truck drivers who had been patiently waiting for their breakfast.

“Here you go guys,” I said, setting the plates down. “Two Area 51 Specials, with disk cakes.”

They nodded a thank you before I turned away.

The ET Landing was like no other truck stop - travel center in the country, which meant that curious tourists tended to stop by every now and again. The café area was shaped like a massive flying saucer, and actually looked like one from the outside. The interior was also alien themed. If it had something to do with extra terrestrials, you’d find it at the ET Landing Travel Center.

I spent fifteen minutes walking around with a pot in my hand, refilling coffee, before Lavern pulled me aside.

“Did you hear what happened to Molly Peterson?” she asked, her eyes as wide as silver dollars.

Lavern Meek was a curvy blond on the wrong side of forty. At one time she’d been an exotic dancer in Las Vegas, but like most from Dreamland, she came home when she hit her late thirties and the money began to dry up.

“Yeah, I heard about it,” I told her, taking a seat at the little table reserved for our breaks. “Spencer and I actually went out there. Still don’t know what really happened though … only that she was found dead in her car.”

Lavern slid into the chair across from me. “Molly is my neighbor … or
was
my neighbor,” she corrected. “I can tell you this … her little boy, Sean is missing. The police were knocking on everyone’s doors at six this morning, asking if anyone knew where the boy might be.”

“Really?”

Now this was interesting. A woman dies mysteriously on a dark highway, and now her kid is missing.

It almost sounded like an average day in Dreamland Junction.

“Maybe she left him with a friend … or his dad,” I offered hopefully.

Exposing strange conspiracies was one thing, but the thought of something happening to a kid was like getting punched in the stomach.

Lavern shrugged. “I didn’t know Molly that well. She moved in about a month ago and mostly kept to herself, but I did talk with her a couple of times. From what she said, her and the kid were on their own. She claimed his father was dead and she had no living relatives. I can’t imagine she would have known anyone in town well enough to leave little Sean with them.”

There was no time to comment. The buzzer that I had belted around my waist, began vibrating, which meant I had a new customer in my section.

“Hold that thought. We’ll talk some more on my next break,” I told her.

At least I hoped we would talk more on my next break. If Nikki didn’t make it in for her shift, we’d be lucky to get a break, and most of the time, Nikki didn’t make it in when she was scheduled to work on Sunday mornings.

I was pretty sure the only reason Rafe kept her on was because she was young and pretty, which meant she drew in the men.

The morning crowd was beginning to thin out. This made spotting my new customer easy. He was sitting in a corner booth, facing the window, with his back toward me.

Grabbing a menu and a glass of water, I made my way to his table.

When he looked up and smiled at, I nearly dropped the glass of water I was getting ready to set on the table.

“Hello there,” he said, his smile widening to reveal a set of perfect teeth.

“Hah?” I managed, as I forced my lungs to take in some air.

“I said hello,” he repeated.

“Oh yeah … a, hello.” I stammered as I tried to hand him the menu, but he held up his hand.

“I think I’ll just have a cup of coffee.”

“Sure. Do you take anything in it?” I asked, still not quite sure I could believe what I was seeing.

He had the eyes - the eyes from my dreams. I would have known those eyes anywhere. They were the most stunning color of blue, almost luminous.

“No, just plain.”

Running to get his coffee, I couldn’t help myself; I had to steal a glance at him over my shoulder.

Wow! Talk about a hottie. Just from what I’d seen, this guy had a body that wouldn’t quit, topped off with gorgeous, sun bleached blond hair that curled around his neck, and a deeply tanned complexion.

He was all male, and just being near him brought up thoughts better left in the bedroom, or a cold shower in my case.

But why had I been dreaming about him, or more accurately, his eyes?

I was sure I’d never seen him in the Landing before. He was definitely the kind of guy you’d remember; at least you would if you had any female hormones running through your body at all.

I quickly came to the conclusion that I must have had some ESP going on or something. It wasn’t unusual for me to get glimpses of the future, but usually they came in the form of a flash picture, instead of dreams.

If my dreams were really my ESP kicking in, it must mean that meeting him was important for some reason or another.

Returning to his table, I set the cup in front of him and poured his coffee.

“Thanks.” He gave me another heart-stopping smile.

“You’re welcome.” It was all I could think to say.

What was wrong with me? I usually didn’t act so goofy around guys. Sure he was hot, but still just a guy.

I figured it might have something to do with the earth shattering orgasm this guy had given me the night before. Well, at least someone with the same eyes had been responsible for me having one heck of a good time while I slept.

Finally I got up the nerve to ask, “Do I know you from somewhere?”

The laughter I saw in his eyes was both unnerving, and made my heart flutter.

“I don’t know … do you?”

“Are you from around here?” I asked, trying to ignore the butterflies in my stomach.

He shook his head. “No, but I come through here sometimes.”

There was something odd about the way he talked, like he had an accent, though I couldn’t place it for the life of me.

“Well maybe I saw you one of those times you were coming through,” I offered, though I didn’t believe it for a minute. If I’d seen him before, I wouldn’t have forgotten.

Lavern walked by and poked me in the arm. “Table five needs a coffee warm up.”

Pretending like I hadn’t heard her, I turned to the stranger. “Well I’ll be back to give you a warm up. Enjoy your coffee.”

A few minutes later I managed a little time to slip away to the ladies room.

While washing my hands, I glanced in the mirror and felt the blood rush to my cheeks. I was a mess.

By brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail, but there were stray hairs flying everywhere. My lack of sleep showed by way of the dark shadows beneath my blue green eyes, and my shirt was full of wrinkles. That was kind of my own fault for letting it sit in the clothes basket for two days, instead of hanging it up.

The Landing’s waitress uniforms were quirky at best, but mostly I thought they were downright ridiculous. The short skirt was neon green, which was only somewhat bad, but when you added the t-shirt with the little green alien standing outside a circular spaceship, that upped the ante a little. Wearing it made me feel a little childish.

I was really wishing I’d taken the time to put some mascara and lip-gloss on before coming to work. It was all Spencer’s fault. If he hadn’t have woke me with his silly alien abduction nightmare, I wouldn’t have been tempted to chase that homicide call, and if I hadn’t have gone out to the ET Highway, I wouldn’t have been so tired when I got up for work.

Yup, that worked. I’d just blame Spencer.

Smoothing my hair out as much as possible, I rewashed my hands and mentally prepared to get back to the grind, and face Mister Awesome Perfect.

Imagine my disappointment when I looked at his table and he was gone.

“Did the guy in table ten leave already?” I asked Lavern, though it was obvious he had.

“Yeah. He walked out about three minutes ago. Left you a hell of a tip though.” Lavern winked.

Lavern was right. When I went to clean his table, there was a twenty-dollar bill sitting there. That had to be the largest tip I’d ever gotten at the Landing, especially for someone who’d only ordered coffee.”

When I picked up the money, I saw that there was a paper napkin beneath it with some writing on it.

Not extremely unusual. Some people tended to doodle on anything. Didn’t happen all the time, but it did happen.

This was different. There were actual words on the napkin.

Meet me at the crossroads by the alien statue at ten. I have information on something you are investigating.

Hell yes! I was going to see him again.

That was my first thought, but then visions of serial killers began to intrude on my newly discovered, happy place. I started to have some doubts.

How did he know I was investigating anything, especially when I hadn’t really started investigating yet? That wouldn’t really begin until I was off work, and had a chance to talk with Uncle Sonny.

If he really did have information, why hadn’t he shared it with the police?

Well I had until ten to decide if I’d take the guy up on his offer. Just the chance of seeing him again was tempting enough, but what if he really did have information about Molly Peterson and her missing son?

What if he was the one responsible for Molly’s death?

The one thing I did know was that I sure the heck wasn’t going out there to meet him alone.