The woman pours herself a coffee from the pot she was about to offer us, now fully comfortable with the two of us as she settles in beside me.
“A kid? Not that I’ve seen him with. He’s a bit aloof. There aren’t any kids around here; people move out here to get some peace from the bigger towns or cities. We’re quite the older generation, like a damn retirement village.” She scoffs.
I slide my gaze over to Regina, and her face is ashen, the colour completely drained from her already light complexion.
“Are you sure?” Regina asks her, mouth full, and I don’t think she’ll be able to swallow it, going by her face.
I cut in, “I thought someone around here’s husband took their kid away? I heard someone chatting about that in the gas station.”
This shit is getting weirder by the minute. I really shouldn’t have offered that partial bit of truth, it’s risky, but we need to know.
The woman shakes her head.
“No idea about that, and I hear everything that goes on in this town.” She looks over my head, the window behind our booth looking over the street. “But what I will tell you, is that the next town over? Two women have gone missing over the years. Vanished into thin air. Cops have done jack shit about it. Wouldn’t surprise me if what you heard came from there.” She leans back, pulling a knowing face to us both.
“That is weird,” I mumble, wondering what the fuck is really going on.
If the town is mostly older people, there’s no kids, and the next town over has two people missing, are we possibly in the wrong area?
Are we dealing with something a lot more sinister?
With the Sumus members’ crimes, I wouldn’t put it past them.
“I’ll let you girls eat in peace. Lord knows I love a chatter.” She smiles at us, then gets up to leave.
I glance at my food, my appetite no longer there, too many questions churning my stomach.
My eyes clash with Regina, her breakfast long forgotten too.
“Indie, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this? I didn’t like this before. Now, I really,reallydon’t fucking like it.”
I pull my wallet out of my gilet, tossing down bills to cover the food and a decent tip, seeing as the server provided us with a little bit of information.
Whether or not it’s useful, that’s up for debate.
Regina and I head to the car, running out the rain and sitting like statues as we process the conversation from the diner.
“Okay…” I say slowly, trying to think of a plan, “I think what we do is you contact Victoria, tell her that we were doing some digging to try and locate her ex, and that we want to check we’re in the right town.”
ReginaandIsitat the table in our motel room, deciding to get takeout rather than sit inside the diner again.
We haven’t heard back from Victoria since we got back to the room six hours ago, and impatience is getting the better of me.
“Send her a nudge,” I say, and Regina heads over to the living room, pulling the laptop out of charge and bringing it to the table.
“Done.”
She crosses her arms, and I wrap my knuckles off the dark wooden surface.
We decided to take a walk around the main town once the rain calmed down, seeing as Regina outright refused to let me go onto the cabin’s grounds.
It didn’t take long, almost an hour in total to get back to the car. And just like the woman said, no children in sight.
I decide to flip open my own laptop, looking at the feeds. The sun is setting, and the heavy rain has managed to stay atbay, but it’s still drizzling. The SUV is still parked in the cabin’s driveway, and I haven’t had any motion alerts that John has left the premises.
The lighting is fucking terrible on these, but I can see him moving around every so often.
He seems to always be in the bedroom, and I think he’s on a laptop right now, but all I ever get is his back.
