by Holly Rayner
***
It had been nice to stop and take a break, but talking to her aunt and uncle had left Morgan feeling drained.
Why was it that a woman couldn’t be single without people looking at her like she was a freak?
Morgan had enjoyed being alone most of her life. There was nothing wrong with her. She was a fully capable person, making a living and benefitting society in her own way. Why was it that she had to be in a relationship before anyone considered her to be of any value?
Morgan pondered this as she drove on, her mind wandering as radio station after radio station faded out and she had to scan for a new one each time. One couldn’t live in Texas and not like country music, so Morgan enjoyed the twanging banjo of her favorite artists, rolling the windows down as she drove on and on across the deserted Texas landscape.
She glanced at her file in the passenger seat, sneaking another look at Hassan’s picture. Keeping her gaze on the road, which was bare except for her car, she stashed her phone in its hands-free mount and used voice recognition to find the phone number of the Bledsoe Police Department.
Rolling up the windows to keep the wind from blowing into the receiver, she dialed the number.
“Bledsoe Police Department. How can I direct your call?” A woman’s voice answered.
“Hi there. I’m looking for anyone who might know a man named Hassan Al-Khali,” Morgan said.
The woman scoffed. “Hassan Al-Khali? You really think anyone by that name is going to be out here?”
“That’s why I’m calling, yeah.”
“Goddam time-wasters,” the woman grumbled, and the call ended.
Well then.
It was just about what Morgan expected. The more rural one got in Texas, the more uncommon Hassan’s name would become, and the more he would stand out. Morgan had figured he would choose some kind of nickname that would allow him to fly freely under the radar.
That would make her job more difficult, though. If Hassan was using an alias, she would have to be even more studious in pursuing his movements. His description matched any number of men that could live out here…except for the fact that he was stunning. A man like that wouldn’t go unnoticed, and Morgan took comfort in that fact as she continued to drive on toward her destination. She wondered just what kind of man Hassan was, that he would give up a lifetime of financial security to live in the middle of the Texan desert.
After all, what kind of man would do such a thing?