“Yeah, I guess. Sure. What can I do for you?” He turned so that I couldn’t see his pocket bulging with coins.

“The fellow at the cash register said you might be able to help.”

Hector rolled his eyes, as if his fellow employee was always fobbing things off on him. “Yeah, what is it?”

“I’m trying to find someone who was in here for gas recently.”

“Oh yeah?” Hector, taking a few steps in my direction, had figured by now that maybe I didn’t care about his skimming a few quarters off the top. He’d come close enough to the front of the bay to see the pumps, and I pointed to Trixie’s car.

“She would have been driving that vehicle,” I said. “On Thursday. I have a picture.” I handed him the clipping.

Hector held on to the paper as if it allowed him to touch Trixie directly. “Whoa, no wonder you’re looking for her,” he said, leering. Then he wiped the expression from his face and said, “She’s not your wife, is she?”

“No.”

He smiled and relaxed. “I didn’t want you to think I’d be speaking disrespectfully of your lady or something. But since she’s not your wife, I gotta tell ya, that’s a fine piece of ass.”

There was a bit of a whiff coming off Hector, and I suspected his involvement with members of the opposite sex was limited to discussing them as lecherously as possible, with other men.

“Oh yeah,” I said. “That’s for sure. Nice-looking lady. Why do you think I’m looking for her?”

Hector grinned. “I hear ya. She was driving that car?”

“That’s right.”

“So, like, how come you’re driving it now?”

“Long story,” I said, but decided I could give it a smutty twist to keep Hector interested. “Let’s just say she was happy to provide a few services for the chance to borrow it from me for a while.”

Hector snorted. He pointed to a rusty pickup beyond the kiosk. “I don’t suppose she’d like to borrow that for a weekend?” He laughed, then added, “Fuck, she could keep it!”

Now we were both a couple of dirty guys having a good laugh.

“So, do you remember seeing her?” I asked, trying to keep things on track.

“Sure, I remember. Don’t see a lot of girls like that around here, you know? Be hard to forget her. Black leather coat, these black high-heeled boots. Instant boner material, you know what I’m talking about?” He looked at me to see if I really did know what he was talking about. I nodded. “She pulled in, pumped the gas herself. I’d of been more than happy to do the pumping myself, if you get my drift.” Another grin.