“Pig.”

“Jock.”

“Fuckboy.”

“Whore.”

A convertible drove past Hog Hollow Hocks, the top down, a Kesha song bumping, and the girls in the back seat screamed and waved at Shaw and North. Shaw waved back, and they screamed even louder, and then the car disappeared into the night.

“I really thought we’d find him,” North said. “Normally, we’re pretty good at this job, but things have been fucked up on this case since the beginning.”

“We can still find him.”

“I know.”

The door to Hog Hollow Hocks opened, and the pair of ladies—the ones who had been using their breasts to hoist the beer bottles—stumbled out into the night. One tripped at the berm and tumbled into a boxwood shrub, her ass in the air, her legs waving until her friend pulled her out, and then they both shrieked with laughter and staggered to their car.

“You smell like ribs,” Shaw said, his body rocking into North’s as he burrowed under North’s arm and shivered again.

Maybe a minute passed. Maybe it was five. North’s ass was frozen solid; his legs had gone numb. For all he cared, though, they could stay that way the rest of the night. There was something on North’s tongue like a mouthful of pop rocks, sparkling and crackling and snapping, and he didn’t know what it was. Questions, maybe, but he didn’t know what he wanted to ask. Maybe not questions. You could do other things with your mouth than talk, after all.

“I guess we should go look for him,” Shaw said.

“Back to square one. At least we can get you something warmer; it’s definitely going to rain.”

“No, I mean, we should look around here.”

“I already did, Shaw. He was here last night. It’s not like he left a trail of clues. He’s gone.”

“He might have left the restaurant last night, but his car’s right there.”

“What?”

Shaw pointed across the lot to a blue Ford Fusion. “That’s his.”

“How do you know that?”

“It’s on the personal property record. At least, that’s the car registered at his address.”

“How long have you known that?”

“Since, oh, five minutes after you walked inside Hog Hollow Hocks. I checked my phone. You should be proud: that’s what you always do, and I just copied you.”

“And you didn’t think you needed to tell me?”

“I was hungry. And his car was right there. We were watching it. I mean, he’s got to come back sometime, doesn’t he?”

North didn’t say anything.

“A guy trying to keep a low profile,” Shaw said. “A guy trying to stay out of sight, he wouldn’t leave his car, would he? He wouldn’t leave it out in the open. He’d stash it out of sight.”

North rubbed Shaw’s shoulder.

“He’s probably dead, isn’t he?” Shaw said.

North wet his lips. “He’s on the run. Maybe he ditched that car and borrowed a friend’s.”

“Did he meet someone here last night?”

“If he did, the waitress didn’t remember it.”