With Don wheelchair-bound and Brad imprisoned on suspicion of killing Lila, or at the very least being involved in her disappearance, there was no way Fletcher was going to turn down his buddy’s request that he look into things. As much as he sometimes felt Brad was a useless lump, Don knew that Brad loved Lila and there was no way he’d ever do anything to harm her.
Fletcher’s own daughter, Wendy, was only a few years younger than Lila, so he fully understood Don’s worries. And after the sacrifice Don had made for him in Afghanistan, he’d agree to anything his friend and savior asked of him. As Fletcher had listened to Don’s request, he’d been fingering the locket he always wore. It held pictures of his daughter and murdered wife. After Wendy herself, the locket was the most precious thing in his life.
Rather than stick to the interstates as they traveled through Georgia, Brad and Lila had decided to travel along a series of back roads so they could see more of the country. It was a simple decision, made with good intentions, although it seemed it may have cost Lila dearly.
Don and Fletcher had already shared several theories as to why Lila had disappeared, but, as it appeared the town had closed ranks, none of their ideas had filled either man with hope.
As for why Brad hadn’t been taken by whomever had snatched Lila when he’d gone outside to join her, they’d agreed that his size was a factor. At over six and a half feet tall and carrying the best part of four hundred pounds, Brad was a big guy who wouldn’t be easy to move somewhere he didn’t want to go. Fletcher didn’t know him well, but he’d met Brad enough times to know that he wasn’t the type of person who’d throw his weight around, regardless of the circumstances. But others wouldn’t know Brad was a gentle soul, and being the size he was, he was an unlikely target for abduction.
It was the first time Fletcher had been to any part of Georgia, let alone a backwoods town like Daversville. His first impression was the report from Brad had exaggerated the place’s menace.
Fletcher entered the diner and looked for the server Brad had described to Don. According to Brad the girl was in her late teens or early twenties, shy to the point of nervousness and slight of build; but then again, anyone who didn’t weigh in excess of two hundred and fifty pounds would be slight in Brad’s eyes. A hair color would have been helpful, as would a description of her looks, but Brad hadn’t been sure of these things, so Fletcher had ignored his attempts to guess. Better to not know and work from scratch than to go off bad intel. Too many things could go wrong if you based your course of action on wrong information. He’d learned the importance of accurate intelligence in the Royal Marines and he still worked on the same principle.
There was no sign of a young server, so Fletcher ordered a coffee and a burger from the short order cook working behind the diner counter and prepared to wait. Maybe the girl was out back, or not on shift. Time would tell. He needed to speak to her. Had a few questions that needed answering. Number one of these questions was why she’d warned Brad that he and Lila ought to leave town at once because it wasn’t safe for Lila.
Fletcher had been in a hundred roadside diners like this one. Like a corporate chain, they all served fried food with a salad garnish and coffee with a refill. This one was better than some and worse than others. The tables were clean and the seats weren’t sticky, but the menu had long since had the idea of nutritious meals knocked into submission.
The few patrons in the diner paid him no heed, apart from an old man who sent him toothless grins in between failed attempts to worry at a burger.
When it came Fletcher’s coffee was strong without being stewed. Likewise his burger was cooked to his liking and the fries on the side of his plate were crisp and grease-free. Fletcher appreciated the pride the short order cook so obviously took in his work.
With his burger eaten and his coffee on the second refill, Fletcher summoned the elderly server across with a wave and what he hoped was a disarming smile. The girl he was after was neither her nor the short order cook, so he guessed she was off shift.
“How c’n I help you?”
The query was polite enough but something about the way the woman’s eyes assessed him told him that she was hoping he didn’t want anything more taxing for her than another refill of coffee. A worn name badge bearing the name “Agnes” sat lopsided on her washed-out pinafore dress.
“A colleague’s daughter passed through here last week. My colleague said she’d been here and had a great bite to eat, but she’d left her purse and had to come back for it. She said a young server had found it and put it behind the counter for safekeeping. She didn’t have any cash on her at the time, so she asked me to drop the girl a thank-you.” Fletcher pulled a fifty from his pocket. “I don’t suppose she’s working today, is she?”
“Just me today.” The woman’s eyes fixed on the fifty in Fletcher’s hand. “If you give it to me, I’ll make sure she gets it.”
Fletcher could tell the woman’s intentions to pass on the tip were as genuine as the garbage he’d just spouted about the lost purse.
“That’s very kind of you, but I’m around tomorrow so can come back in if she’s on shift then?”
A pause for thought then an eye roll to the left. Whatever came out of Agnes’s mouth would be a lie. “She ain’t workin’ tomorrow. Got herself the whole week off. Best you leave it with me.”
“Sure.” Fletcher passed across the fifty and then removed a photo from his shirt pocket and gave it to the server facedown. “Give her this as well if you could. It’ll remind her who she helped.” Fletcher watched with interest as the server turned the picture over and saw Brad and Lila. He saw the fractional narrowing of her eyes and the way her mouth tightened before she recovered her poise. “They never got the girl’s name. What is it?”
Agnes left herself a pause for consideration, then gave a short nod to herself. “Mary-Lou Henderson. These look like a nice couple of folks.”
“They sure are.”
Fletcher turned back to his coffee as Agnes walked away. He didn’t fail to notice that by the time she was at the swing door into the kitchen her pace had picked up.
He’d gotten what he wanted from her. The server’s name, and most important of all, he’d gotten a reaction when she’d seen the picture of Brad and Lila. This was at odds with what the local cops had reported, as according to what had been fed back to Don, nobody in the diner had admitted to having seen Lila.
It was a shame that Mary-Lou had time off, but he was confident he’d be able to track her down in the small town.
Chapter Two
With his quest in the diner at a temporary standstill, Fletcher took himself outside and waited to see what happened next. As he waited, he walked along the sidewalk and tried to get a feel for Daversville.
The town’s main street was wide enough for the lumber trucks that would roll through it with regularity, but short as befitted a town whose population would do well to top six hundred. On his walk he came across two bars, a mom-and-pop store and a tiny police station. Fletcher reckoned that a place the size of Daversville would have a solitary deputy who’d be on permanent call. He also came across a small school and a church large enough to hold the entire town’s population. None of his finds surprised him. Like in so many small towns, the locals would all know each other, and when they were as far off the beaten track as Daversville was, they’d be self-sufficient in a lot of ways.