Kids were straight. Not overly bright but not druggies either. Got into a few scrapes with the law when they were young. Got out of high school okay, the parents took off for Mexico. The kids were going to a community college when they disappeared.”
He looked at Hope again, frowning. Hope stepped closer to Luke, an unconscious movement. Luke had to nail himself down not to put his arm around her. “The parents or the kids?”
“Kids. Told you the parents lit out for Mexico. Cheap weed. The kids just disappeared. Well, they weren’t kids, they were in their early twenties. But they were gone —” he snapped his fingers. “Like that. Never saw anyone ever again. It was right after the crash.”
Hope stepped forward, tense, fists clenched. “What crash?”
Luke held out another C-note between two fingers.
The man stared at her intently. His eyes widened, then his face closed up. He looked at them another moment, gaze lingering on Hope, avoiding the money Luke held out, then turned, walked back up to the porch, entered the shack and slammed the door shut. Dust puffed up from the shingles around the frame.
“Hey!” Luke shouted. He glanced at Hope then vaulted up the steps. He banged on the door with the side of his fist, making more dust puff out. Shards of wood and stucco fell from the overhang. They hadn’t said anything to make the geezer clam up. What had happened? He’d been happy to accept the first C-note, why didn’t he want the second? Just for a little information.
He pounded on the door for a full minute but there was silence. He was tempted, but the cop in him wouldn’t allow him to simply kick the door in. He’d done it before but only with probable cause. He didn’t have that here. And the man was definitely uncooperative now anyway. Luke wasn’t willing to beat intel out of him.
So Luke simply stood, staring at the unpainted door, completely frustrated.
“Luke?” He turned at Hope’s soft voice. His heart clenched when he saw her standing there looking so fragile and lost. “I don’t think he’s opening that door and I don’t think he’s going to talk to you.”
No, the geezer wasn’t going to open that door and wasn’t going to talk to him again. And short of kicking in the door and beating the geezer up, which wasn’t going to happen, there was nothing Luke could do.
“And you’re tired,” he said gently.
She nodded her head. “Yeah. Exhausted.”
The sun was behind the trees, casting dappled shade. For a moment, branches parted in the gentle breeze and the setting sun beamed a light on Hope’s face and all Luke could do was stare. She was exhausted and dispirited but also so incredibly beautiful. The sun lit her face like a spotlight, showing the pale perfect skin, fine bones, that spectacular forest green color of her eyes, the color of the trees around them. Then the beam of sunlight was cut off and what was left was a lovely young woman so tired there were smudges under her eyes.
There was more here to be learned after all, but Luke thought that she wouldn’t be the one to learn it. Whatever was here was traumatizing to her. He could come back tomorrow by himself but he didn’t want to leave her alone. A four-man team from Black Inc was working in Modesto, helping a bank beef up its security. Maybe they could detach a unit who could come and interrogate the old man. Maybe apply more pressure than Luke was willing to do in the presence of Hope.
Right now, she was close to breaking and he wanted her away from here. There was a connection, a definite connection. That was enough for the moment. They’d made progress.
“What kind of food do you like?” he asked, hoping to jolt her out of her despair and exhaustion.
“What?” Hope turned her pretty puzzled face up to his.
“When we get to the safe house, I’m going to order us a nice meal. I’ve got the menus of all the local restaurants on my ipad, courtesy of the Black Inc guys. I think there are more or less all the cuisines. And I think we need to have a proper meal. So what would you like? There’s even a vegan menu in there somewhere.”
Luke repressed a shudder. She liked meat, he knew that. But vegan menus were always high on the list for women. She could order the vegan menu if she