armpit, he walked her across the parking lot. By the side of his car, he let go of her and unlocked the passenger door. He put a hand on her shoulder as she climbed in. Then he swung the door shut.
Glad to be out of the wind, Sherry set her purse on the floor, then drew the seat belt across her chest and lap.
Toby hurried around to the other side. “Wild out there,” he said, dropping into the driver’s seat.
“You’re not kidding.”
“Hey, thanks for the tacos and Pepsi.”
“Thanks for helping me look for Duane.”
“Oh, that’s okay.” He fastened his seat belt, started the engine and put on the headlights. “Know what? Maybe it’s true what they say about the Santa Ana winds.” He drove out of his parking space. “You know, that they make people crazy.”
“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Sherry told him.
“Maybe that’s how come there was a naked gal in the john.”
“Right,” Sherry said. “Or maybe the wind blew her clothes off.”
Toby turned his head and smiled. “Yeah.”
“And the Santa Anas might easily be the reason she was so eager to go around and blow people.”
He laughed. “Like the wind!”
“Yep. Turnabout’s fair play.”
Shaking his head, Toby eased to a stop at the driveway’s exit. “Anyway,” he said, “it might’ve made her nutty enough to do something like that.”
“Could be.”
Toby waited for a few cars to rush by, then pulled forward onto Venice and turned right.
Toward the ocean.
A center divider prevented any left-hand turns, but Sherry reminded him, “We do need to go the other way.”
“I know. I’ll find a place to turn around pretty soon.”
Sherry nodded. “I guess you might as well take me back to the Speed-D-Mart.”
“What’ll you do?”
“See if the van’s still there.”
“What’ll you do if it is?”
She thought for a few moments, then said, “I don’t know. I’ve never had anybody…disappear before. I’m not sure what to do. At some point, if he doesn’t show up, I guess I’ll have to call the police. But that seems like it ought to be a last resort. Especially since I don’t know what happened to him. Wouldn’t want to get him in trouble.” She huffed out a laugh. “There we go,” she said, “a real-life catch-twenty-two.”
“Huh?”
“Since I don’t know what’s going on with Duane, I can’t call the police. If I did know, I wouldn’t have to call because I’d already know what happened to him. Catch-twenty-two.”
Toby looked at her. “I don’t get it.”
Sherry shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Just sort of a teacher thing.”
“Oh.”
“Anyway, it’s a bad idea to get the cops involved in anything unless you really have to. You can end up getting the wrong people in trouble. Even yourself.”
“Guess so.”
“We’re still going the wrong way, Toby.”
“Oh? Yeah, you’re right. I got so busy listening to you.” Laughing softly, he shook his head. “I’ll turn us around next chance I get.”
“Maybe you can pull a U at the next light.”
“Right.”
“Left,” Sherry said.
Toby laughed again. “Trying to confuse me?”
“Nah.”
Nearing the deserted intersection, he eased into the left-hand turn pocket. He pulled up to the crosswalk and stopped for the red light. Then he said, “Uh-oh. No U-turn.”
Sherry scowled at the sign.
“Should I make one anyway?” Toby asked. “Nobody’s around.”
“You’d better not. You never know. We don’t want to get pulled over. Anyway, it’s always better to play by the rules.”
“Another teacher thing?”
“I suppose.”
“What’ll I do?”
“Go ahead and turn left. Then we can just circle the block and come back to Venice.”
When the traffic signal changed to green, Toby swung through the intersection and headed up the sidestreet. This was a residential neighborhood, a mixture of homes and apartment buildings, both sides of the street lined by trees that shook wildly in the fierce winds.
Slowing down, Toby said, “Why don’t I just turn us around here?”
“That’d be fine.”
Though there was no traffic, he drove slowly past the first driveway. It was wide and well lighted. He drove past two more. Sherry wondered if he’d changed his mind; maybe he planned to circle the block, after all.
Then he swung to the left, crossed the empty lane and steered up the driveway of a small, stucco house. The driveway was narrow and dark and had a thick hedge close to the driver’s side.
Toby shut off his headlights.
Then he shut off the engine.
Chapter Nine
“What’re you doing?” Sherry asked.
Had she missed something? He was supposed to back the car out, not shut it off.
He turned his head toward her. Here in the driveway, so little light came into the car that Sherry could only