No wonder Duane had a thing for porn.
Jess agreed with me.
“Sounds like we not only need to get Duane out of the porn, just because it’s gross, or at least the amount he consumes is, but also into hugging a tree or something. His life is super narrow,” she remarked.
The picture of Duane changed to the picture of a relatively attractive brunette, probably in her early forties.
“Examination of Duane’s phone records shows frequent contact with this woman. Amy Small. Grocery clerk at the Food City where Duane does his grocery shopping,” Arthur said. “As I mentioned, this contact is frequent and includes phone calls that last anywhere from five minutes to an hour, but also texts.” A pause, then, “Amy has not been to work for the last six days, no call, no show. She’s missed four scheduled shifts.”
“Fuck,” Jess bit off.
“What you got on her, Artie?” Luna asked.
For a second, we all sat in suspended silence to see how Arthur would respond to this nickname.
Then again, Arthur more than likely wasn’t his actual name. Raye and Luna had given him that name, so he shouldn’t be offended.
Though, since we had no idea who he was, you never knew.
But Morgan Freeman’s voice was only amused when he said, “Thirty-eight. Single mother of a twenty-year-old son who is currently serving five years for aggravated burglary.”
“She started early,” Joey noted.
“And the son started his career of crime early,” Luna added.
“Life hasn’t been kind to Amy,” Arthur told us. “Her father disappeared soon after she was born. No contact since. Her mother barely made ends meet. Home life caused issues, or she was innately uninterested in school, either way, her grades were poor, and she barely graduated high school. Early pregnancy set her up to follow in her mother’s footsteps, and the father of her son disappeared just like hers did. A string of bad choices in men followed. She lives in a two-bedroom apartment in a rundown apartment complex between Food City on Thomas and the Sun Valley Motor Lodge on Roosevelt.”
And yet another indication from the universe for me to speed up my mom’s trajectory, get past the assholes, don’t wallow, look after myself and find happy.
“Duane said she was decent to him,” I pointed out. “Are they in a relationship?”
“Perusal of text exchanges lean toward friendly, not romantic,” Arthur shared.
“Poor Duane,” Luna muttered.
“Have you got anything on who might have her and what they’re doing with Duane?” Jessie asked.
“Nothing, which tells us they’re communicating with Duane either through a burner they’ve given him or by alternate means. There are cameras on the parking lot and aimed in reception at the motel. Examination of those for the last ten days has shown no unusual activity when Duane is on duty. Nothing unusual has come into his cell phone or email. We have no indications of untoward communication with him. And Amy’s cell is active, but there has been no activity on it, or her email, in the six days she’s been missing.”
Shit.
Not good.
“Anybody report her missing?” That was Joey.
“Law enforcement has received no notification about Amy’s disappearance,” Arthur said.
“What about him saying he’s being watched?” I asked. “Have you noticed any activity like that?”
“Luna,” Arthur said.
“Yeah, so,” Luna took up the reins, “Jinx said Mr. Sh…I mean, Duane wasn’t there Friday night. She reported that wasn’t unusual. The dude does have days off. But she called this morning and said he was there last night. She checks into her usual room before she hits her patch, but she said last night she could tell, before she even walked in, that he was warning her to keep her mouth shut. So she did. Considering she wouldn’t be good at what she does if she wasn’t aware of her surroundings, she definitely took in her surroundings and didn’t notice anyone lurking or in a car staking out the joint. She also didn’t notice any obvious cameras. But she said he was tense, even jumpy, and he wanted her out so bad, he practically threw her key at her.”
Even worse.
“And since she has keen spatial awareness,” Luna continued, “she said she hasn’t noticed anyone hanging around, visiting Duane, especially not a woman. She also hasn’t noticed anything hinky.” Pause, then, “And she got offended I asked because,”—she took off Jinx’s voice—“‘gringa loca, like I wouldn’t tell you that shit. Or at least call in Titus or Los Guapos.’”
I smiled because that was a good impression.
