Chapters (89)
“Here’s a bit of advice for you: if I find out you had anything, and I mean anything, to do with that kid taking off, I will personally make sure they take your bar license, and I’ll prosecute you myself.”
He smirked and tapped my shoulder. “You’re just adorable when you’re angry. Take care of yourself. We wouldn’t want you having a heart attack before the verdict comes back, now would we?”
He started to walk away and then said, “Ever wonder what dogs taste like? Like spicy beef.”
“What?”
“I heard you love dogs. I’ve eaten dog before. Got to butcher it myself before the meal. They taste like spicy beef. I’ll have to take you to this little restaurant in Saigon so you can try some.”
I watched him walk away and knew I was too angry to be rolling around in a dune buggy. I got a call from Will just then and I said, “Give me something.”
“Officer up near Fremonton saw a blue sedan with a Chicago Bulls sticker on the back pulled over on the side of the highway. He’s there now. I was going to head up and check it out before I called you.”
“Will, I could kiss you. I’m heading up to Fremonton. Keep me updated.”
“Hey, did you hear about Jia?”
“One emergency at a time. Meet me up there.”
“You got it.”
72
72
Fremonton was about twenty miles out of town. On the way up, I saw two Utah Highway Patrol cruisers pulled over on the side of the road with a blue sedan in front of them. The sedan was packed so tightly with clothes and knickknacks the back window was completely blocked out. Will was with the troopers.
“Found the car abandoned on the side of the road,” one of them said. “Looks like they took off on foot.”
I eyed the desert around us. Sand dunes for as far as I could see. “With a ten-year-old kid? Seems like that’d be a last resort.”
Will was looking into the windows of the car. He opened the door and searched inside for a second. “No keys.”
“Which means he probably planned on coming back. Someone might’ve picked them up here.” I stared out in each direction and saw a dirt path leading up over a hill. “Where’s that go?”
“Nowhere,” the trooper said. “Nothing really out here. Some abandoned shacks against them mountains, I guess.”
I looked to the car and walked over. Clothes, food, a computer and television, and several framed photos. Things someone would grab if they didn’t plan on coming back.
“He left everything,” I said.
“Maybe he saw one of the troopers?” Will said.