“Just a chill.” Max narrowed her eyes, and Stormy hurried on. “That would be a likely place for a stranger in town to stop, don’t you think?”
The visitor center was behind them now, but Max looked back at it. “Good point. We should check it out.”
Stormy nodded, glad that Max was now distracted from worrying over her. She watched as Max rummaged in her shoulder bag for a notepad and jotted something on it. Probably a reminder to snoop around that visitor center.
They drove on through the town, which seemed to be little more than a few houses, leading up to a strip that apparently comprised the “business district.” They drove by a gas station/convenience store, a doughnut shop, a hardware store, a small grocery, a pharmacy and a post office. Lots of brick buildings—nearly all of them were brick, in fact. It made for a neat, orderly facade, even if there were weeds and grass sprouting between the sections of sidewalk. One of those brick buildings seemed to house several offices, including the one that had Endover Police Department painted on the pebbled glass in the door.
There was little traffic, only one light. A handful of people walked along the sidewalks in groups of two or three.
The short strip of businesses came to an abrupt end, with a handful of homes, the elementary school and a long, winding strip of nothing. Trees lined the road, and now and then she caught glimpses of the ocean beyond them.
She glanced down at her driving directions. “That motel should be coming up in a couple of miles. I’ll call Jay and tell him we’re nearly there.”
“No you won’t,” Max said. She held up her cell phone, to show her the screen. “No reception. Hasn’t been since we got into town.”
“Makes you wonder,” Lou said, “how Jason’s sister managed to call him from here.”
Max tipped her head to one side. “There could be spotty reception somewhere. Or maybe she has a different company or a more powerful phone than any of ours.”
“Or maybe she was never here.”
Max was already a little irritated with him, and by the way her face darkened, Stormy knew she’d just shifted that up a notch. He should have stuck to his policy of keeping quiet.
“What are you saying, Lou?” Max asked. “That Jason made it up?”
At her tone, Lou shot her a sideways look. “I’m not calling him a liar. He might just be mistaken.”
“Not likely. He’s got an IQ that falls somewhere between genius and freak. And he wouldn’t lie to me, Lou. He’s one of my dearest friends.”
“Was one of your dearest friends. You haven’t seen or heard from him in, what? Five years now?” He sighed. “People change, Maxie.”
“Not Jason.”
He pursed his lips, sent her a lingering look. “Maybe not. I hope not. I just want you to be careful.”
That was better, Stormy thought. If Max thought he was only being protective of her, she would let just about anything slide.
Then the idiot added, “Don’t go charging in half-cocked the way you usually do.”
Max’s jaw went tight, and she faced front, not saying a word.
Damn, Stormy thought. He blew it.
They parked the car in the lot of the North Star Motor Lodge. The L-shaped building that housed the guest rooms was tan with brown trim and seemed well kept. A concrete sidewalk unrolled in front of it, and each door had a gold number on the front. The motel office was a small square structure that stood apart from the rest. A freshly mown lawn spread out around the blacktop and held a handful of picnic tables. Behind the motel, she glimpsed a shaggy meadow backed by woods. But when she got out of the car, she could smell the ocean and knew it must be close.
The three of them strode up to room number two and knocked on the door.
Jason opened it, and Stormy sucked in a breath and then pressed a hand to her mouth. He sported a deep purple half moon under one swollen eye. His lower lip was split. A bruise on his cheekbone stood out darker than the rest of his skin.
“What the hell happened to you?” Maxie blurted. “You look like you went ten rounds with a bear.”
He lifted his brows, opened his arms. “Not even a hello before you start with the questions, Mad Maxie?”
Max hugged him briefly. Then she stepped back, and he turned to Stormy. “Long time, huh?”
“Too long,” she said. He embraced her—more tentatively than he had embraced Max, though. But suddenly white light blasted the center of Stormy’s brain—blinding and hot. She jerked her arms tightly around Jason in reaction and slammed her eyes closed against the flash, but the images came anyway. Fists pounded her face. She felt the blows, and the sharp toe of a booted foot in her rib cage. And then it was gone.
She released Jason, only to find him staring at her oddly. Sure he was—he couldn’t know why she’d hugged him as if trying to break him in two just now. She stepped awkwardly out of his arms. Lou extended a hand.
“Beck.”
“Hello, Lou. It’s good to see you.”
“I wish it were under more pleasant circumstances,” Lou said.
“So what happened to you?” Max asked.
Jason ran a hand over his nape. “Idiocy, that’s all. I was out in the woods, looking for Delia,” he said. “Not a real bright idea in the dark. I took a bad fall.”
Lou frowned, shooting a quick look at Max, his lips thin. Stormy didn’t think he believed Jason had gotten those bruises from a fall, and she knew damn well she didn’t. She didn’t know what was happening to her, but she was pretty sure that flash she’d just experienced had been a look at what had really happened to him.
“Why were you looking for her in the woods?” Lou asked.
“It seemed like as good a place to look as any.” He opened the door wider, stepping aside. “Come on in. Now that you’re here, maybe you’ll come up with a better idea.”
“Does that mean you want us on the case, Jay?” Max asked.
“That’s why I called you, Maxie. And I don’t expect a free ride, either. I’ll pay whatever you charge.”
“I’d do it for free.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to do that. I couldn’t, Max.”
“Then we’ll give you our special rate—for old friends and former members,” Max said with a wink. “Don’t worry, Jason. We’re here now, and we’ll find Delia. Doesn’t matter that we’re new to this—’cause we aren’t. Not really. Just new to doing it on an official level. And it doesn’t matter that a missing teenager isn’t our area of expertise. We’ll find her, because we care more than anyone else would. And that’s gonna make all the difference.”
Jason met Maxie’s eyes, but he couldn’t seem to hold her gaze for more than a beat or two. He quickly lowered his, then stepped aside so they could troop into his motel room. It was tiny, with a queen-size bed, TV stand and bathroom. Not a hell of a lot more. Jason had a map laid out on the bed, hand-drawn on a large sheet of white paper that might once have been a take-out food bag.
As they gathered around it, Jason leaned down and pointed. “This is the road into town. There’s an information center right here.”
Stormy nodded. “We saw it on the way here.”
Lou said, “Jason, what makes you think your sister is here, in Endover?”
He frowned as he looked up at Lou. “I … it’s where she was when she called.”
“Are