We follow her to the counter and take our seats. “You want anything?” Oli asks Andre.
“Something to eat, please. Something with a shitload of carbs.” Oli smiles as Andre walks off to the bathroom.
“What can I get you fellas?” Still irritated, she holds out her pad.
“I’ll take a coffee and the biggest, sloppiest breakfast sandwich you can make.”
“Make that two. And another coffee.”
“Coming right up.” She turns to the back to put our order in, then to the coffee pots, before bringing us over two mugs.
“You going to eat?” I ask.
Oli shakes his head. “I ate on the plane. I’m fine.” He thanks her as she pours coffee for us. He puts a little creamer into the cup then takes a sip. Burnt coffee singes my tongue. “Fuck, that’s terrible,” he whispers, taking another sip. “So, what’s the plan?”
“Snap Steven’s neck—no, wait, choke him until he passes out, revive him, then rip out his spine and beat him with it. Then watch him bleed out at my feet.”
“Vivid.” Oli smirks.
“If it were Andre?”
“I would burn this town to the fucking ground until he was safe in my arms,” Oli says quietly. “I support the neck snapping. Don’t let the judgmental tone fool you.”
“Whose neck are we snapping?” Another younger waitress asks, resting her elbows on the counter and batting her lashes at us. “Come on now. I won’t tell a soul.”
This is a small town, and we’re less than thirty minutes out from the town in his journal. Maybe she knows him. Or knows something. “We’re looking for someone.”
“Oh, sounds treacherous. Why not call the cops?”
“Because he is the cops,” Oli supplies, grimacing with another sip of coffee. She looks at his mug, shaking her head. “What?”
“Melinda pour that for you?” She laughs. I’m assumingMelinda is the other irritated waitress. “Here.” She grabs our cups, dumping the contents and rinsing out the cups, then she grabs a different pot and pours us fresh coffee.
Cautiously Oli grabs his, taking a sip. “Oh, shit, that’s better.” I take my own and I have to agree.
“Don’t mind her. She doesn’t like strangers. So, who are we looking for? What’s his name? The closest barrack is in Cherry Hill and that sounds unlikely.”
As soon as she says it, I remember Steven’s badge. Cherry Hill. That’s it. “Why is that?” I ask.
She shrugs. “Small town, our area isn’t the biggest. The closest division is about forty-five minutes north. Sometimes the staties come down, but it’s mostly the sheriff here and a few of his troopers. It’s a quiet town.”
“If I showed you a photo of someone, do you think you’d recognize them?”
She snaps her gum. “Worth a shot.” I pull out my phone, showing her a screenshot of Steven I saved from the security camera when he came to my house the first time. Even then I knew he’d be a problem.
I see the recognition in her eyes. “Yeah, I know him.” She frowns. “Why the hell are you mixed up with him?”
“Why? What do you know?” She pulls out her phone, tapping something, then faces it toward me as I catch Andre joining us back at the counter. What shocks me isn’t the photo of Felix’s ex; it’s the sex offender registry he’s on. “That’s him!”
“Steven doesn’t work for the precinct anymore. It’s been, I don’t know, a few years now.” She looks at the registry. “It says he was arrested four years ago. He was under investigation for some time before that.”
How did Felix not know this? We didn’t talk much about him, but how do you hide that from the person you live with? “What did he do?”
She shakes her head. “He was caught soliciting a minor. Then a few other students came out with their own stories. He um, he assaulted one of them. Lost his job, but they gave him a fucking severance package if you can believe it.”Oh, I can believe it.
“Did he get arrested?” She cocks her brow. “Take that as a no.”
“They let him go with a slap on the wrist.” She shakes her head. “This was years ago. Why are you looking for him now?” she asks.
