Back Track (11 page)

‘Oh. Well, I can’t talk now, this is our busiest period. You’ll have to wait until my next break.’

‘Okay. When’s that?’

She paused, chewing on her inner cheek as she studied him. ‘Well, if you’re out back in about an hour, we can talk for as long as it takes for me to finish my cigarette.’

‘I’ll be there,’ he said.

Gloria took a Marlboro Light, placed it between her lips and lit the end with a match. ‘I didn’t get your name,’ she said, blowing out a plume of smoke as she shook the match out.

‘Bishop,’ he said. They were in the rear car park, out by the dumpsters. Gloria had come out a few seconds ago, nodded once to Bishop and slid a brick over to keep the rear door from closing. As far as Bishop could see, they were alone out there.

She leaned back against the wall, one arm tucked around her waist. ‘So what makes you think Selina’s missing? She could have just taken off, you know. No law against it.’

‘Did she seem the spur-of-the-moment type to you?’

‘Not really, but then I only knew her for a short time.’ She offered him her pack of cigarettes. He shook his head and she said, ‘Don’t blame you, it’s a bad habit. I gave the same warning to Selina, but I didn’t need to. One drag was enough for her. Poor girl almost coughed up a lung.’

‘But you still shared breaks.’

‘When we could. She kind of latched on to me for some reason, but I didn’t mind. I liked her. She was shy as hell, but she had this mystery about her, too, like she’d experienced plenty already. Not that she ever talked about it.’

‘She wouldn’t.’

Gloria arched an eyebrow. ‘Bad?’

‘She only just got out in time. This was a fresh start for her.’

‘And that was thanks to you?’

‘I helped.’

She looked at him for a moment as she took a long drag of the cigarette. ‘Must be nice to have a friend like you. All right, so what do you want to know?’

‘How long had she been working here at Tod’s?’

‘Just over a week, I guess. Eight or nine days.’

‘And then on May 16, she just didn’t turn up for work?’

‘Was that the date? Then yeah. I tried calling her cell to see what was up, but all I got was an “out of service” message. I do remember thinking it was weird she never came to pick up her last few days’ pay, though.’

‘When you talked, did she seem worried about anything? Or did she mention any problems?’

Gloria pursed her lips and slowly shook her head. ‘To be honest, she let me do most of the talking, which was fine by me. She was pretty quiet on the whole, although she did tell me she was only doing this until she figured out what she really wanted to do, and that she might apply for an evening class at some point and learn a skill. But I think she just liked listening to me, you know?’

Bishop turned as an SUV containing a family of four pulled in, looking for a space. ‘Was she seeing anybody that you know of?’ he asked.

‘Guys, you mean? She didn’t mention anybody, but that might not mean anything. We never really reached the diary-sharing stage.’

‘But women talk about the men in their lives, don’t they?’

‘Not all of them, Bishop. Give us some credit.’

He smiled. ‘Sorry. What about customers? Any of them give her special attention?’

Gloria snorted and smoke exited her nostrils. ‘She wasn’t exactly short of admirers, if that’s what you mean. You should have seen some of the tips she was getting from our male regulars. Unbelievable. Although I don’t think she ever really understood why. She didn’t mind putting it all into the kitty either, which made her better than okay in my book.’

‘And nobody sticks out in your mind? Somebody who showed more than casual interest in her?’

Gloria chewed her inner cheek again, then took another drag. She watched the father lock the doors of the SUV and follow his wife and two kids as they walked round to the front entrance. Then her eyes narrowed.

‘Something?’ Bishop asked.

‘There
was
a guy, but I couldn’t tell you his name or anything. He came with some workmates one lunchtime shortly after Selina started. Then all of a sudden he’s in here every lunchtime on his own. Always sat in Selina’s section too. Good-looking guy.’

‘What was he, an office worker?’

‘Not unless they suddenly dropped the dress code around here. Auto mechanic would be my guess. He wore dark overalls with the sleeves rolled up, probably so he could show off his muscles. His pals were wearing them too. They were all pretty loud, I remember.’

‘And did he come in on the day Selina didn’t show?’

Gloria furrowed her brow again. ‘Hey, now you mention it, no, he didn’t. And I can’t remember seeing him since then, either.’

‘Can you remember what he looks like?’

‘Um. Well, he’s shorter than you. Maybe five-nine. Stocky with round shoulders. Fairly muscly. Light brown hair, shaved at the sides. He looked pretty intense, I can tell you that.’

‘Do you recall seeing any kind of logo on the overalls? Like the name of a tyre, or a garage? Something?’

Gloria sighed and said, ‘Hey look, I’m not out there taking notes, you know. I’m too busy trying to solve earth-shattering problems like why there’s an onion ring in someone’s fries, and what am I gonna do about it. Or why somebody got rye instead of white bread, when I know for a fact he specifically ordered rye in the first place. I don’t have time to notice everything.’

‘I understand. Well, thanks, anyway.’ Bishop turned to go.

‘Hey, Bishop,’ she said, and he stopped and looked at her. ‘I didn’t mean to snap. It’s just been a busy day, okay? Busier than usual, I mean. Hold on for a minute while I think.’

‘Sure.’

Bishop leaned against the dumpster and watched the cigarette. There was about an inch to go before she reached the filter, but people rarely let it get that far. She took another lungful and looked skyward as she breathed out. It would sure save time if she could give him something more to go on. But if she couldn’t, it was no big deal. It just meant he’d have to keep working the streets like any good investigator until he found the guy. And he
would
find him. He was just deciding in which direction to start when he felt Gloria staring at him. He looked up at her.

‘Jennings,’ she said. She was smiling.

‘Jennings?’

‘Or Pennings. Something like that. On his chest pocket. In green. Not obvious from a distance. I remember passing by his table and wondering whether it was his name or not. But it looked more professional, like for a company.’

Jennings or Pennings
. Bishop smiled and took a twenty from his pocket. He folded it lengthways and offered it to her. ‘Thanks, Gloria. I really appreciate your time.’

‘Hey, I didn’t talk to you for profit.’ She dropped the remains of her smoke and stamped on it. Pulling the door open, she nudged the brick aside with her foot and smiled at him. ‘Promise you’ll let me know when you find her and we’ll call it quits, okay?’

‘I promise,’ he said, and watched the door close behind her.

Bishop crossed Saracen Road, then walked two blocks before going east down West Central Avenue. He’d driven down here before, back when he was scoping the place out for Selina, and remembered this was where the majority of the local government buildings were located.

It took him less than ten minutes to find the public library. It was a modern, hundred-foot square, single-storey adobe building with four matching pillars out front, two on either side of the tinted glass entrance.

Bishop liked how almost everything around here was single-storey, with the occasional two-storey building here and there to break things up. But then, Arizona had the luxury of plenty of space to play with. It made a refreshing change from New York, though, where construction only ever went in one direction: upwards.

He passed between the pillars and entered the building. Once inside, his first thought was that they’d accidentally set the air-conditioning to freezing, but after a few seconds his body decided it wasn’t that bad. He slowly scanned the room until his eyes landed on the reference section in the north-west corner. He walked over, passing some female students and an old guy carrying a stack of military tomes, found himself a local Yellow Pages and took it to an empty table.

He opened it up and went straight to the
Automobile
section near the front. There were lots of sub-sections and he started with the first:
Body Repairs & Painting
. It was always best to be thorough, and he knew many of these places employed their own team of mechanics. There were seven businesses listed in the Saracen area, but none of the names came close to sounding like Jennings. He kept turning the pages.
Automobile – Dealers. Automobile – Parts & Accessories. Automobile – Rentals
. Nothing.

But
Automobile – Repairs & Servicing
presented him with a real possibility. Twenty-four businesses were listed, but it was the second one that caught his eye.
Bannings Automotive
.

Bishop thought it wasn’t too big a leap to get to Jennings. Or Pennings. Gloria had said she only got a quick look, after all. He carefully scanned the whole page. There was no display ad for Bannings, only a listing with the address –
17 E. Richards Ave., Saracen
– and a phone number. He memorized them both and kept turning the pages, reading through the
Automobile – Tires
and
Automobile – Wash & Detailing
sections to make sure. Nothing else even came close.

He rose and put the directory back where he’d found it. Then he went to the maps section on the next shelf along. He pulled out one of the street maps of the town and unfolded it. East Richards Avenue was out on its own near the southern tip of the town. Three miles from here, according to the scale. He memorized the directions and replaced the map.

Then he left the library and went back for his vehicle.

Bannings Automotive was a flat-roofed, prefabricated steel building and the last structure before East Richards Avenue came to a natural end. There was a narrow dirt track that continued left, but past that it was just sagebrush, cacti and fenced-off desert until you got to the mountains far off in the distance. On the other side of the road was a fenced playground with a hoop at each end. A couple of kids were dribbling a ball around without much enthusiasm as they watched Bishop’s car make a U-turn and come back.

Bishop parked the Chevy on the side of the road and got out. He walked towards Bannings and saw a single door entrance for customers on the far left, next to a small window. Further down were three large, shuttered entrances from which the sounds of engines, drills and hydraulic machinery could be heard.

Since the closest neighbour was a flat, windowless building Bishop had passed fifty yards back, he figured they probably didn’t get too many complaints about the noise.

He peered into the first shuttered entrance. There was a pick-up on a lift. A guy in dark blue overalls stood underneath, using a drill on something on the underside. He wore a moustache and looked Hispanic. Bishop felt sure Gloria would have mentioned that so he tried the next one. This had another car on a lift – an old BMW this time – but at ground level. One mechanic was in the driving seat, fiddling with something under the steering wheel. Bishop could see he was too skinny to be the one. Another guy was leaning over the engine, shining a pencil light at something. Bishop stepped inside for a better look.

The man saw Bishop’s shadow and raised himself up. He was in his early twenties and had the right height and build, but Bishop immediately discounted him. Gloria had said the man he was after was good-looking, and this guy most definitely did not qualify. He had a large, bulbous nose and there was a lopsided quality to his features that was hard to ignore.

‘Help you with something?’ he asked.

‘No thanks,’ Bishop said and moved on. The third area had a lift, but was otherwise empty. Bishop could see through to the rest of the garage inside. It was a vast open space, half of which was taken up by stacks of old tyres. Hundreds of them all over the place. Numerous vehicles lay in various states of repair and Bishop could hear a loud radio playing some kind of death metal over the machinery noises. He began to walk in that direction.

‘Where you going, mister?’

Bishop stopped and turned. The same man was glaring at him from the entrance, fists against his hips.

‘Inside,’ Bishop said. ‘I’m looking for somebody who works here.’

‘
I
work here.’

‘You’re not the one I want to talk to.’

‘Oh, yeah? What’s the matter, don’t you like my face or something?’

Bishop raised an eyebrow. ‘No comment.’

The man’s eyes grew smaller and he pointed at a sign attached to the wall that read
Employees only past this point
. ‘See that? It means you better come back here. Right now.’

‘What, before you turn ugly?’

The man took a step forward and said, ‘Shit, you looking to get your ass kicked, is that it? ’Cause I’m the man for that.’

Bishop sighed and turned away, carrying on past the lift and into the garage’s main work area.

The lighting in here wasn’t great, but Bishop could see well enough. He was watching the ground. Specifically the shadows. When he saw a long shape extend from the shadow following him, Bishop swivelled and grabbed the hand just about to land on his shoulder. With his other hand, Bishop gripped the man’s index finger and pushed it back as far as it would go, stopping just before the bone was due to snap. The man grunted and quickly fell to one knee to stop it going any further.

‘We don’t have to do this,’ Bishop said, keeping the pressure on while the man clamped his lips shut. ‘A broken finger’s no good to a man who works with his hands, and I doubt you get medical coverage in this place. So why don’t you just go back to what you were doing and forget we ever met? How’s that sound?’

‘Good,’ the man said with gritted teeth.

‘Excellent,’ said Bishop and let go. He watched as the man gripped his finger and got to his feet. Then he turned and walked back to the BMW. His skinny partner who’d been watching the proceedings quickly darted back inside the car before he was noticed.