“Welcome to the Desert Dweller,” she said. “How can I help you? We got rooms tonight. Sixty bucks for a single.”
“Greatly appreciate it—”
The woman looked up when she heard Brigid’s accent.
“—but I’m hoping you can help me with something else.” Brigid pulled Lupe’s picture from her pocket.
The woman’s face fell and her attention drifted to the television when Brigid didn’t express interest in a room.
“I hate taking your time when you’re busy.” Brigid reached into her other pocket and pulled out her wallet. “If you could give me just a few minutes, that’d be lovely.” She pulled out three crisp twenties, the same cash a room would cost her. “For your time.”
“Oh.” The woman sat up. “Okay, sure. What’s up?” She glanced at the door behind Brigid. “You’re not a cop, are you?”
“No.” Brigid laughed ruefully. “But I am an investigator. I was hired by a mother in Los Angeles. I’m looking for her daughter who went missing last week.” Brigid held up Lupe’s picture. “She’s seventeen. Thin, medium height. Has long dark hair, and someone told us—”
“I know her!” The woman’s eyes lit up. “Dammit, I knew she was in some kind of trouble. You don’t hang out here by yourself for three days for no reason, you know what I mean?”
“So you remember seeing her?”
“I sure do, and you put that money away.” She shouted at the man in the corner. “Pop!”
The old man blinked. “What?”
“Remember that sweet little girl who was here last week? The one I had to threaten Tommy’s balls over?”
The old man frowned. “She okay? I knew we shoulda called someone.”
The woman looked at Brigid. “I’m Celeste, and I tried talking to her. I saw her two times, walking to the taco truck that pulls up at the gas station across the way.” She pointed out the window toward a brightly lit food truck with Tacos in flashing letters.
“Anyway, I tried talking to her, but she was real shy. Wouldn’t tell me why she was here. Just said she was with a friend and they were waiting to meet some other friends.” Celeste shook her head. “I don’t poke my nose into other people’s business—you just don’t do that in a place like this—but that girl was making all my alarm bells go off.”
Pop cleared his throat in the corner. “You know, most of these guys on the road, they’re good guys. But I heard stories of some truckers that’ll keep girls in their trucks and they threaten them to keep them there.” Pop shook his head. “I mean, it’s just stories, but I hear them a lot, and they even had a program on the news about it a while back. That’s the kinda thing that just gives ya nightmares, you know?”
“When was the last time you saw her?”
“She kept the room for three nights,” Celeste said, “and then she was gone. Left at night or real early I think, because neither one of us saw her. Just poked my head in the room when she didn’t answer for housekeeping, and all her stuff was gone. I worried, you know? Thought about calling someone, but who would I call?”
Brigid handed her a card with her mobile phone number on it. “Call me. If you see her again, you call me. You were nice to her?”
Celeste nodded. “I tried not to scare her, but I might have done it anyway. Didn’t mean to, I was just worried.”
“She might remember you if she gets in trouble. Might come back. If you see her, call me right away. I’m Brigid Connor. My name’s on the back, and her mum hired me and my husband.” Brigid wanted to scream. They’d been so close. “So about a week ago then? That was the last time you saw her?”
“That sounds right.”
“Did she make any calls from the room?”
“I can look, but I don’t think so. She hardly talked to me at all.” Celeste frowned. “She did ask if I knew about some hot springs though. I wasn’t sure which ones she was talking about. There are hot springs all over the desert, you know?”
“Hot springs?” Brigid asked. “Or the Springs? Like the place?”
Celeste’s eyes went wide. “Oh, maybe so.”
“Do you know the place I’m talking about?”
Celeste made a face. “I do, but I hope she didn’t head down there. Rough people if you know what I mean.”
“Right.” Brigid turned toward the door. “If she calls or you see her, call me right away. I really appreciate it.”
“I hope you find her!”
Brigid strode to the car, her boots kicking up dust as she approached the Bronco. She wrenched the door open and climbed inside. “She headed to the Springs. Probably called some of Daniel’s friends. Might have hitchhiked, they might have come and gotten her, but that’s where she was headed.”
Carwyn looked over his shoulder at Daniel. “How far from here?”
“Maybe three hours?”
He started the car. “You point, I’ll drive. Let’s go.”
Chapter Twelve
The desert took on an eerie glow under a full moon. Carwyn, Brigid, and Daniel drove back out to the highway, cutting south at what looked like the last service station on earth. The roads grew narrower and the saguaro cacti grew taller. Joshua trees and prickly pear dotted the landscape, and tumbleweeds gusted across a road illuminated by blue-white halogen bulbs.
Carwyn watched the highway with half his attention and listened to Brigid with the other half. She was speaking with Beatrice, but he only got snippets of the conversation.
“…on the seventh? Yeah.” She scribbled something in her ever-present notebook. “What did the records show about…? No, I don’t think so. Oh aye, that makes sense if she’s just exchanging numbers.”
Carwyn took comfort in the fact that someone had been using the phone Daniel gave Lupe. If they could confirm it was Lupe making the calls, that would be better.
“Gerald Jorgenson,” Brigid barked at Daniel. “Ring a bell?”
“Gerald?” Daniel looked confused. “That could maybe be Jitters? I think someone said his name was Jerry, but that could be short for Gerald, right?”
“Could be.” She flipped the pages in her notebook. “She didn’t make many calls, but that one was the day she left the hotel, and it was the longest call she made. Nearly ten minutes.”
Carwyn spoke up. “Who’s Jitters?”
“He’s an old guy, but he’s like the unofficial head of the Springs. Kinda. If people want to do something big, like invite a bunch of people in or have a concert, stuff like that? They ask him.”
“And you gave Lupe his number?”
“Yeah.” Daniel shrugged. “I figured if something happened to me—”
“Something did happen to you,” Carwyn said. “And you told a defenseless seventeen-year-old to call an old man in the desert instead of going home?”
“Hey, Lupe is the one who planned this, okay? She came to me. She was determined.”
“And seventeen-year-old kids always know the right thing to do?” Brigid looked over her shoulder. “You should have known better, Daniel. You’re the adult.”
“Dude, I didn’t know that Scarlet was gonna find me. Or that you two would, for that matter. Do you know who Scarlet is? She’s not just any vampire.” Daniel uttered the words as if they were some kind of warning.
Carwyn laughed. “Boy, do you know who we are? I’m not worried about a grifter trying to make a bit of coin in the middle of nowhere.”
“Who did Scarlet tell you she was?” Brigid asked.
His voice was subdued. “She told me—she told everyone—she was like the head person in charge of all of California, you know?”
Carwyn muttered, “Soft in the head.”
“How’s he to know?” Brigid was smiling. “Daniel, she was exaggerating to scare you. Scarlet isn’t any kind of authority in California. Maybe in Palm Desert, but Don Ernesto Alvarez is the vampire lord of Southern California and a good stretch of Northern Mexico too. We know Ernesto. If he found out Scarlet was calling herself the VIC out there—”
>
“Vic?”
“V-I-C,” Carwyn said, spelling it out. “Vampire In Charge. She’s not the VIC, and saying she is would piss Ernesto off.”
“But right now, let’s focus on Jitters, shall we?” Brigid looked at Carwyn pointedly. “After all, Lupe is the priority, and the day she left the hotel, she called Jitters. Would he come pick her up?”
“From where the hotel is?” Daniel shook his head. “No way.”
“A taxi?” Brigid asked. “How did she get out there?”
“Probably hitchhiked,” Daniel said.
“You better pray she didn’t.” Carwyn kept his eyes on the road. In the distance, he saw a half-crooked sign. It was too far away to make out. “We still on the right track?”
“Yeah,” Daniel said. “We’re almost there.”
As the sign came into view, Carwyn saw what it spelled out.
“Liberty Springs.” Tacked on with a smaller board was a less faded sign.
This is public land.
Strangers welcome.
Troublemakers are not.
“Turn in past the big cottonwood.” Daniel scooted forward from the back seat and began to point. “People are probably all in bed by now. It’s midnight, you know?”
“Then you can wake them up,” Brigid said. “And hope they can tell you where Lupe is.”
Carwyn had a sneaking suspicion this was going to be another dead end, which bothered him. Brigid was usually the pessimist, not him. Something about this case was getting to him.
He maneuvered the Bronco over uneven dirt roads that led between multiple makeshift encampments. There were old trailers and tents. Lights strung up and potted plants resting in the cool night air. In the distance, there was a flickering light as if a fire was burning.
Daniel steered them away from the fire and toward a large compound in the center of the settlement. There were tarps stretched from an old metal-clad trailer to trees along the perimeter. A ring of cacti formed a fence around the compound, and a makeshift gate marked the entrance.
Next to the gate, beneath the stand of cottonwood trees, there was an old water pump and a concrete pad.
“Looks like they have water,” Brigid said.
“The Springs sits on an aquifer,” Daniel said. “That’s what Jitters says. I think he’s probably right because everyone drinks the water and it’s good. No one gets sick.”
Carwyn parked next to the water pump and turned the car off. He could already see lights flickering in the trailer. They walked through the gate, which squeaked loud in the midnight silence. A second later, the lights flipped on.
After the cool light of the moon, the artificial beam nearly blinded Carwyn.
“Daniel? That you?”
“Hey, Jitters.” He stepped forward. “Sorry I didn’t call.”
The old man was clearly half-asleep. “What are you doing out here? You lose your keys?”
“I’m not staying here anymore,” Daniel said. “Remember? I moved to be close to my sister.”
The old man was standing on what passed for a porch, wearing an old T-shirt and boxers. His stringy white hair fell around his shoulders, and he looked—if Carwyn had to describe him—like a harmless old man who was maybe homeless or maybe just didn’t care anymore.
“Bad idea.” Jitters shook his head. “You being so close to LA. Too many drugs and nightlife. If I was you, I wouldn’t move there.”
“I already did.” Daniel walked closer. “I been gone about two years, Jitters. Remember?”
Jitters rubbed his eyes. “What are you doing back here now?” He spied Brigid and Carwyn. “You all lookin’ for a place to hide for a while? We’re off the grid, so you’re welcome. If you don’t have a place to crash, there’s the church for tonight and we can get you set up tomorrow with something better.”
Brigid walked forward. “We appreciate that,” she said. “I’m so sorry to wake you, but we’re hoping you can help us.”
Jitters chuckled a little. “Little lady, I’ll be able to help you better in the morning when I had some coffee.”
“What about if we got you some coffee now?” Carwyn asked.
Jitters kept smiling through missing teeth. “Well, I guess if you can’t wait—”
“We’re looking for Lupe Martínez,” Brigid said. “Daniel gave her your number, and we have a record of her calling you last week. Do you remember her?”
Jitters scrunched up his face and waved them closer. “Course I remember that girl.” He sighed. “Daniel, you can’t keep telling outsiders about the Springs. It’s going to attract the wrong kind of people.” He opened his screen door, and it slammed shut behind him.
Daniel motioned them to follow him. “Jitters, I only told Lupe about this place ’cause we were trying to do something important. Something you’d like, you know?”
He flipped on a switch just inside the door, and overhead lights illuminated the narrow galley-style kitchen. To the right, a living area dominated the trailer. The extension that usually popped out on the side had been removed, and a large deck extended the space. There was no door separating the outside, just curtains, so the evening breeze swirled the air and kept the interior from feeling stuffy.
Carwyn wasn’t usually comfortable walking around in trailers—he always bumped his head—but he followed the old human into the living area and sat in the chair where Daniel pointed.
The old man stretched out on the couch and lit a cigarette from a pack on the coffee table. “Lupe,” he said. “Guadalupe. You know what that name means?”
“No.” Brigid sat next to Carwyn.
“It’s Spanish,” Carwyn said. “More precisely, a mix of later Latin and Arabic that was common during the Moorish conquest of Spain. Wadi-lupe, the wolves’ river.”
Jitters’s eyes lit up. “A man who knows what he’s talking about.”
“Why did you ask us about Lupe’s name? Is she here?” Brigid asked. “If she’s not here—”
“That little girl was askin’ to bring in the wolves.” Jitters shook his head. “I told her, you can stay here as long as you want if you need a place, but you gotta drop that nonsense. Hell, Didi got attached to her right away. Wanted her to stay.”
“Didi’s like the chef here,” Daniel said quietly. “She has kind of a restaurant on the other side of the well.”
Jitters took a draw on his cigarette. “Didi’s the one who brought her into town.”
Brigid leaned forward. “When?”
“About… five, six days ago? Your girl got lucky,” Jitters said. “Someone gave her a ride out to Dillon’s Corner, and Didi happened to be in town to get food. She was askin’ about the Springs and Didi heard her.”
“How did she know to get to Dillon’s Corner?” Daniel asked.
“Well, she called me.” Jitters sat up and rubbed the back of his neck. “But you know I don’t like driving at night these days. My eyes and all. I told her if she could find a ride to the Corner, someone from the Springs could come pick her up.” He looked up. “And they did, so it worked out.”
“You just left a seventeen-year-old girl to find her way to a random petrol station in the middle of the desert on her own?” Brigid was nearly vibrating. “Did you even think about how she was supposed to get there? I don’t think buses go out that far.”
“She could hitch,” Jitters said. “That’s how a lot of people make it here. And walking.”
Every time someone mentioned hitchhiking, Brigid groaned.
Carwyn wasn’t interested in blame at this point. He had a sinking feeling that Lupe had already moved on from this place, which meant they were spinning their wheels again.
“Is she here?” he asked. “Is Lupe here right now?”
“No. She moved on about three days ago. Stayed here for a time, trying to convince people that you were coming. Some of your old buddies talked to her, trying to figure out what she was wanting to do, but she clammed up. Said she needed to wait for you.”
“She d
idn’t mention anything about an immigration detention center?” Brigid asked.
Jitters’s eyebrows went up. “Nah. I’d remember that. Was that what she wanted to knock over?”
“Knock over?” She looked at Daniel.
“He means rob,” he said. “Jitters, there were some kids being held by government people. Immigrant kids who’d been taken from their parents.”
Jitters shook his head. “Fuck no. Nothing like that. Why would she even think we could help with an operation like that? The boys are good at blocking roads and maybe blowing up the odd piece of mining equipment sometimes. Breaking into a detention center? That’s like, armed resistance, man. I don’t think even Wash would be into something like that.”
Carwyn looked at Daniel. “Who’s Wash?”
“He’s a crazy fucker,” Jitters said. “That’s who he is. And he hates the government something awful. The government and car salesmen.”
“Car salesmen?” Brigid asked. “Why car salesmen?”
“Honestly, I’m not quite sure.” Jitters took another drag on his cigarette. “The girl mentioned Wash’s name, but I told her to avoid him. Not sure if she did or not. You know Wash is curious about new blood in the Springs.”
Daniel at least had the sense to look embarrassed. “I thought I’d be here when she met him, so…”
And you would have completely forgotten Lupe existed if you’d been stuck to that vampire’s hip any longer. Carwyn gave Daniel a derisive glare before he turned his attention back to Jitters. “Where did Lupe go? Did she say?”
The man shook his head. “I don’t know. Didi might know, but no point in trying to wake her up at this hour.”
Brigid frowned. “Why’s that?”
Jitters looked at Daniel. “You explain it.” He rolled over and pulled up a blanket. “I’m going to sleep. You want more help, I’ll get you in the morning. Right now I’m old and I’m going back to sleep.”
Daniel rose and walked Carwyn and Brigid to the door.
“Didi drinks a lot,” Daniel said. “Mostly at night. So unless you grab her before she starts in, she’s gonna be wasted or passed out until morning.”
Saint’s Passage: Elemental Covenant Book One Page 10