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Mallory looked nervous as she sat in a seat on my private plane. We were about to take off, and I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d ever been on a plane before. Before leaving last night, Randy told me privately that Mallory and her grandmother were exceptionally close, but they didn’t have much when she was growing up. At least according to the county worker he’d spoken to. That would have explained why Mallory cleaned offices at sixteen years old. Most likely trying to bring in money to help her grandmother with living expenses.
I looked out the window at the mountains, which were still lightly dusted with snow, and silently thanked my parents for giving me the life I had. Chad and I had never wanted for a single thing. I’d never known struggle like so many people…including Mallory, if Randy’s source was correct.
Glancing over at Mallory, I reached for her hand. “It’s going to be okay.”
She gave a wobbly smile and closed her eyes as the plane started down the runway.
“I still can’t believe you have your own plane and mini airport.”
Laughing, I said, “It’s just a runway and a plane hangar, that’s it.”
Once we were off the ground, Mallory squeezed my hand. To say she was strong was an understatement. When the plane leveled out, she eased up on her hold and opened her eyes. She looked out the window and stared.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” I asked.
“Sobeautiful.”
The flight to Chicago would be a few hours, so I convinced Mallory to sleep for as much of the flight as she could. Meanwhile, I worked on my laptop, going over all the information Randy had sent me. The key was Mallory’s hometown of Arcola. If we could get answers there, then we could possibly retrace her last steps in Chicago. She’d had a job in Arcola, hopefully friends…and for my sake, hopefullynota man in her life.
When it came time to land in Chicago, I gently woke up Mallory.
“The landing was just as bad as the takeoff,” she commented, as Josh smoothly taxied to the area where we would offload, making me grin.
It was a quick trip to the rental car counter before heading down to Arcola. But first, I stopped and bought a phone for Mallory. I hadn’t had a chance to head back into town to buy her one in Montana. I didn’t plan on us separating, but just in case, I wanted her to be able to call me, and vice versa.
“How do I remember how to use an iPhone?” Mallory asked, glancing in my direction while at a stoplight.
I shrugged. “Does any of this look familiar to you?”
Looking around, Mallory sighed. “Nothing.”
“It’s what…about three hours to Arcola?”
“Yes,” she said as she set the phone on the console so I could see the map. I’d have to introduce her to CarPlay later.
“Are you hungry? We can stop somewhere and get something to eat.”
“Now that you said something, Iamhungry.”
“There’s a good pizza place I’ve been to before. We could go there. Have some good ol’ deep-dish Chicago pizza.”
“You’ve been to Chicago before?” she asked.
“Once, a friend of mine from college lives here.”
Turning toward me, she asked, “Are you going to let him know you’re in town?”
“Nah, we haven’t spoken in years, and last I heard, she was married with kids.”
“Oh,” she said, facing forward in her seat again. “It was afriendfriend.”
I chuckled. “I won’t lie and say I wasn’t attracted to her, until I found out she preferred women over men. We were tight all through college. I went to her wedding and met her wife. From what I could tell, they were very much in love. We slowly drifted apart after she married.”
“That’s sad. I say you give her a call. Maybe we can all go out to dinner.”
“We’ll see. For now, we need to concentrate on finding out more about Mallory Wilson.”
