What She Saw (14 page)

“Thanks, but I have a boyfriend.”

He lifted a brow. “That trucker guy?”

She managed to feign impatience. “Yes, that trucker guy.”

“So he’s hanging around because of you?”

“Is that so hard to believe?” Her temper was starting to come to her rescue.

He appeared a little embarrassed. “None of my business,” he said. “Well, I can understand why he’d hang around for you.”

“For a while anyway,” she said, pushing a lock of stray hair back behind her ear. “Look me up if you’re still here when he’s gone.”

“Haley,” Hasty said. “Back to work now.”

To her vast relief, Jim didn’t stay to eat. He said a simple good-night and walked out.

She turned to go to the bathroom, but Hasty jabbed a thumb toward the back door. “We’re talking
now,
” he said firmly.

“You’ve got to cook.”

Hasty scanned the emptying restaurant. “Claire, I’m going out for a smoke,” he called. “Five minutes. Will you handle it?”

“Sure, Hasty. I just need some cobbler. I think I can cut it myself.”

Feeling somehow like a child who was about to be scolded, Haley followed Hasty out back. Damn, she hadn’t even had an opportunity to call Buck yet, and God only knew what that other driver was doing.

Outside it was chilly. Hasty pulled a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his breast pocket, pulled out a slightly crushed one and lit it.

“Haley.” He said her name as if to get her attention.

“What? You told me to take a minute.”

“I’m not mad about that. I could see you had to talk to that guy for a minute or two about Ray. I remember Jim Liston.”

“Okay. So?”

“I’m worried. You’re dating a driver you barely know and then you told Jim to look you up if he was still in town after the Devlin guy leaves. What the hell are you thinking?”

“Maybe I’m not,” she admitted glumly. The urge to call Buck right this instant crawled over her nerve endings like insects, making her tense and uneasy.

“That’s my point. But what’s worrying me now is that you were asked about what you saw in the lot that night. And what’s more, I heard Claire talking about it. What the hell did you see?”

“Next to nothing. Like I said, you can hardly see out those windows at night. You know that.”

“But you told the cops something different.”

Haley’s heart began to sink. “I also told them I wasn’t sure what I saw. The more I think about it, the more I think I heard some sounds and interpreted them that way.”

“Maybe so. But it seems to me too many people are getting interested in that little bit of non-information, if you get my drift.”

“I’m not sure I do,” Haley insisted, hoping Hasty couldn’t see through her. “I’m not sure I saw anything. I heard something that the cops didn’t even think was relevant.”

Hasty jabbed his cigarette at her. “
Somebody
seems to think it’s relevant. I got Claire telling me to let you know they were just shifting a box headed for Gillette if I see you before she does. Why, Haley? Were you worrying about it?”

“Absolutely not. I never mentioned it again after the cops.”

“And now I see Jim Liston come in to ask the same question. To my way of thinking that makes it important somehow. Best to watch your step, girl. Something’s going on around here.”

“But I have no idea of what!” It wasn’t true, but Buck’s warnings were enough to keep her mouth shut. “I don’t even know what happened out there. Everybody else is asking me questions I can’t answer.”

“And about Ray seeming okay—”

She interrupted him. “He did seem okay. But what do I know? All I could say was what I thought, and it’s not my concern anymore.”

Hasty frowned, took another drag on his cigarette, then ground it out beneath his heel only half-finished. It joined a scattering of his other butts on the pavement.

“Watch it with that trucker. He’s probably a nice enough guy. Most of them are. But that’s something else you don’t
know.
” His frown deepened, then his face softened little. “Haley, I like you. I kinda feel like an uncle toward you. Something’s going on and I just want you to be careful. It’s almost like I can feel it.”

His concern touched her. “Thanks, Hasty. I’ll be careful. It would be a whole lot easier if I had any idea what I needed to be careful about, though.”

He hesitated, reached for his cigarettes again, then tucked the pack back into his pocket. “I’ve been running this truck stop for thirty-five years. You get a feeling sometimes. Something ain’t right. You need me, you know where to find me.”

Chapter 10

I
t was too late to call Buck. The other driver was long gone, and so was Jim Liston. Another wave of truckers had begun to arrive, so Haley went back to work, her mind buzzing. Jim had questioned her about the crate transfer. Who had told him? And what was bugging Hasty enough to warn her to be careful? Just the fact that she was dating Buck? It hardly seemed like dating, although when she remembered the way he had made love to her that afternoon, maybe it was.

Claire, Jim, the Listons and now Hasty. She desperately wanted to hear what Buck had to say about all of this. Instead she had to focus on orders and trying to joke with the drivers and pretend nothing at all was going on.

Buck at last arrived around midnight, just an hour before her shift ended. He found a table near the window and sat. Haley was busy with another customer, so Claire went over to take his order.

He smiled and chatted with her. She put another omelet in front of him along with a tall takeout coffee, as if he didn’t plan to stay long.

Was he going to leave as soon as he finished eating? Haley hoped not, as it would make her feel awful. Hadn’t he enjoyed their time together earlier? Maybe he’d given her what she so obviously wanted, but he hadn’t wanted her at all.

How embarrassing and how depressing! After that notion occurred to her, it was hard to keep the smile plastered on while she worked.

Regardless, she had to tell him what had happened tonight. But the prospect was now daunting. What if he was just using her for cover, as he’d said?

The thought squeezed her heart with pain, but she could blame no one but herself. He’d been frank about using her. Then she remembered what he had told her here just last night, about how hot he found her. That lifted her spirits a bit and got her through her remaining hour.

At least until she saw him pay Claire and walk out. She glanced at the clock. Ten more minutes. And of course the place was dead, so she couldn’t distract herself.

“Why don’t you just go,” Hasty told her. “Connie comes on in ten minutes, and there’s nothing to do right now.”

With dragging feet, Haley made her way back to the lockers, threw her apron in the laundry, pulled her purse out of her locker, dug out her keys and headed outside.

A shadow separated from other shadows, and she gasped before she realized it was Buck. Then relief washed through her. Apparently he hadn’t decided to ditch her, whatever the reason.

“I need to keep watch on the lot tonight,” he said. “Think there’s any way you can get to the motel without being seen?”

“Car,” she said, pointing at her vehicle. “If I leave it there, Hasty will call out the cops.”

“Hell.”

She thought about it for a few seconds. “I can park behind the motel. I’ll be back shortly.”

She drove her usual way home, but after a few blocks, when she saw no one around, she turned and took a back street. Ten minutes later she pulled up behind the motel, ignoring the fact that she was blocking a loading door. That wouldn’t create a problem before morning.

Only then did it occur to her that she was still wearing her pink uniform. Darn it, she should have gone home and changed. If she walked around to Buck’s door, and someone glanced across from the truck stop she’d be immediately identifiable. She might as well wear a blazing-neon sign.

Then she remembered the survival kit she always carried in her trunk. Breaking down on a lonely road in the winter around here could be dangerous, and there were still a lot of places where a cell phone didn’t work, so a person couldn’t call for help. Safety dictated she carry blankets, candles, warm clothing and even some nonperishable food and a can in which to melt snow into water.

Well, she had a blanket back there. It would cover her enough. She climbed out, popped her trunk and pulled out an old quilt that had seen so many generations of use the dark fabric had nearly worn away in places. She closed the trunk, locked her car, then wrapped the blanket around her, covering her head like a hood and making sure it concealed her all the way to the ground.

A little bubble of humor burst in her as she realized how she was skulking. Even a few weeks ago she couldn’t have imagined herself doing something like this. Now she was avoiding tails and hiding her identity.

She had to admit it was a little exciting. From a very dull and ordinary life, she’d moved into the pages of a script for a play.

She saw no one at all as she made her way around to the row of rooms that faced the highway. When she reached Buck’s door, she knocked lightly.

A few seconds later he opened it, revealing that the room was in darkness, and his eyes widened. “Mata Hari?” he asked.

She giggled. “I think she was a bit more provocative.”

He tugged her into the room, closing the door and locking it. “Nobody could be as provocative as you,” he said, then kissed her.

It was a hard, hungry kiss, and dissolved some of the doubts that had been troubling her. It was a kiss that said he hadn’t been lying when he told her how much he wanted her. The ache in her heart eased, and a different one started to grow, but before it could fully blossom, he tore his mouth from hers and stepped back a couple of inches.

“Work first,” he said sternly, but even in the faint light that reached into the room from across the highway and the red neon that lined the motel’s eaves, she could see his faint smile was wry, almost crooked. “I’ve got to watch that lot. You can sleep if you want.”

“I don’t feel like sleeping. She let the blanket slip from her and dumped it on the foot of the bed. “I’ll help watch. Besides, there are some things I need to tell you.” In fact, she was surprised the news hadn’t just come tumbling out of her mouth, considering how impatient she had been to call him.

His brow lifted. “Now I’m curious. But let me run across the way and get another coffee first. One for you.”

“You don’t have to. Besides, you already got one. That might look funny.”

“If you knew how much coffee I’ve been buying in that place... No, it won’t look funny. Just give me five and I’ll be right back. Then we can watch and talk.”

Sitting on the end of the bed, Haley had a decent view of the lot, a very different one from what she usually looked at. From here, little was hidden from view, including whether someone drove around behind the restaurant. She could see the gas pumps, which weren’t visible from inside the restaurant, and the entire lot. Right now about ten trucks sat over there, parked at an angle, ready to go when their drivers chose. Another was busy fueling under the bright lights of the pump overhang.

Buck emerged with another tall coffee, but he didn’t come straight back. He wandered over toward the parked trucks and fell into conversation with someone, probably a driver. From their postures she could see they were being friendly, and she even got the impression they laughed a few times.

It also, she realized, gave him a chance to scan every truck on the lot, including one that might be hidden toward the back, if there was one. Certainly she wouldn’t have been able to tell from here.

Coffee with an ulterior motive. She laughed to herself and waited, trying to restrain her impatience. Before he crossed the highway again, he’d talked to a couple more drivers briefly. Everything about the way he walked and held himself suggested a man who was having a good time.

But finally she heard the key turn in the lock and he stepped inside with her.

“Coffee,” he announced and passed the cup to her.

“Thanks. No odd looks?”

“I told you I buy a lot of coffee there. Besides, Claire was gone. Why would the other two waitresses even notice?”

“Good question,” she admitted. “Did you see anything behind the parked trucks?”

He looked at her with evident approval. “You’re catching on fast. No, nothing sneaked in back there during a moment of inattention on my part.”

“Do you have many moments of inattention?”

“Only when you’re around.”

That reply zinged straight to her heart and to the core of her womanhood. For a few seconds she felt nearly dizzy with delight. He pulled the table back from the window so that she could set her coffee on it while still sitting on the bed, and turned the one chair just a bit so he could both glance at her and keep watching the lot.

“So what did you have to tell me?” he asked.

“I
so
wanted to call you, but things kept happening. First, the driver who came in to get coffee with Ray that night was in again tonight for a meal.”

“Did he say anything?”

She shook her head quickly. “I pretended I didn’t even recognize him. I didn’t wait on him, and I didn’t look at him directly after the first glance.”

“Good for you! I think you’ve got a natural talent for this.”

“I also looked outside and couldn’t see a box truck, so he must have come some other way.”

“But this makes his third appearance at the restaurant. Claire talked to him the other night, and then there’s tonight. That must mean he’s staying in the area. I wonder where. I doubt it’s here, though, because I’m the only person who has stayed more than a night.”

“I don’t recognize him at all, so he can’t be local unless he just moved here.”

“That’s also good to know. Do you think you could describe him to a sketch artist?”

Haley hesitated. “Maybe. I could try. You said we remember faces better than almost anything.”

“It’s true.”

“I know for sure he’s stocky and balding. And he favors white T-shirts, to judge by the two times I actually saw him. Even though it was chilly tonight, I didn’t see him put on a jacket.”

“But you couldn’t tell what vehicle he got into?”

She shook her head. “Sorry. I was in a hurry. I needed to dump off some dishes and then I was going to call you right away, but before I could something else happened.”

She almost enjoyed watching him straighten. “There’s more?”

“Some, anyway. I dumped my dishes and I was going to go to the ladies’ to call you. Except Jim Liston was waiting for me.”

“
Waiting
for you? Are you sure?”

“He had to have been. He didn’t even buy a coffee.”

He gave a low whistle. He glanced back to the parking lot, then said, “Hold that thought. They’re pulling out and I want to see if anything is left.”

She sipped coffee, restraining herself, watching the lot along with him. One by one the big rigs roared back to life and began to file out of the lot. At this time of night there wasn’t a lot of other traffic to slow down their exits. She watched them turn sharply, most of them heading southeast, but a few going the other way. Finally, there were only two semis left. They might be spending the night, or they might be taking a little longer with dinner. It wasn’t as if these trucks exactly moved in convoys.

“Okay,” Buck said presently. “Jim Liston. Did he say what he wanted?”

“He wanted to ask me about Ray. The same questions. But then he said the thing that really got my attention.”

“Which was?”

“He asked me about the exchange I’d seen in the parking lot.”

“Hell.” Even in the dark she could see that Buck turned as stiff as a board. “How did he hear about that?”

“I don’t know, but I couldn’t ask him. He said someone had mentioned it. I lied and said I hadn’t really seen anything. Just that I’d heard something and that’s what it sounded like to me.”

“Good thinking.” He swore quietly. “That shouldn’t be getting around.”

“No, it shouldn’t. The cops dismissed it as irrelevant. But then Claire goes and asks that other driver about it, and apparently she told Hasty it was just a crate on the wrong truck—”

“Wait,” he interrupted. “How did Hasty get into this?”

“I was getting there. Let me finish with Jim. Anyway, he asked me out. I said I was dating. He knew about you—that doesn’t mean anything. From what I can tell, the entire county knows I’m seeing you. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”

“Not to this degree.”

She shrugged, trying to keep her nervousness in check. Even as she related what had happened, it was beginning to sound even stranger to her than when she’d been going through it. “Anyway, he said if he was still around after you left town, he wanted to have dinner with me. And then he just left.”

“Did he ask about me at all?”

“Nope.”

“Okay. One question. When did the other driver leave? I need a time frame here.”

“He left while I was talking to Jim. Maybe just a minute or so before Jim left.”

He nodded. “So they might have been together.”

“I don’t know. I mean, the other driver had time to get his burger and start eating before Jim showed up.”

“But how long does it take Hasty to make a burger on his grill?”

“Not very,” she admitted. “Maybe four minutes?”

“So Jim wouldn’t have had to wait too long. We don’t know they were together, of course, but the timing is fascinating. Now how did Hasty get into all this?”

“That was interesting,” she admitted. “No sooner did Jim leave than Hasty told me he wanted to talk with me out back. So we went out and said he was worrying about me. And
he
mentioned the crate transfer. That’s when I found out Claire had mentioned it to him and told him to tell me if he saw me first.”

“She told him
that?
A very unimportant bit of information, all things considered, especially since you said you hadn’t mentioned it again.”

“I didn’t. I didn’t mention it to anyone after Sarah and Micah.”

“Hmm. Anything else from Hasty?”

“Yeah, he’s worried that Claire mentioned the crate to him and he thinks too many people are questioning me about the same things. In fact, he came right out and told me that I need to watch my step.” She paused. “Oh, and he said he’s been in this business a long time and could feel that something isn’t right.”

“He’s right about that.” Buck had turned away from the window now and was looking straight at her, the lot forgotten. She wished she could read his expression. “I’m worried about you. I was moderately concerned at the outset, but now I’m getting seriously worried. Attention seems to be focusing on you, and the only reason that could be is that the wrong people know you might have seen that crate transfer.”