Every Precious Thing

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Not wanting to leave Harp and Barney without transportation, Logan arranged for a rental car through the manager at the Desert Inn, then headed east on I-40, fifty minutes behind Dev. As he passed through Kingman, Arizona, his father called.

“Hi, Dad.”

“Logan? Barney and I want to go back to the hospital. You’ll need to give us a ride.”

“Just take the Cherokee.”

Harp paused. “I thought you said we weren’t supposed to drive it.”

“It’s fine now, Dad. The others are gone.”

“Gone? Where did they go?”

“Not sure yet.”

“Well, do you want to meet us for dinner?”

“I’m…um…following them. Not sure exactly when I’ll be back.”

“Following them? When were you going to tell me this?”

“Sorry. Had to move quickly. Didn’t have time.”

“Still not an excuse.”

“You’re right.”

Harp said nothing for a moment. “What about the letter?”

Logan cringed. “I said I’d give it to you the next time I saw you. I haven’t seen you yet.”

“It’s still with you?”

Logan could tell his father’s anxiety level was rising. “It’s still in the glove compartment. No one’s touched it.”

“It’s just…okay, the next time I see you.”

Logan hesitated, then said, “Do you want to talk about what’s inside it?”

“You didn’t look, did you?” Harp said quickly. “That’s my property. You shouldn’t look. You didn’t, did you?”

Out of reflex, Logan said, “No, of course not.”

Harp took a couple of loud breaths. “All right. Sorry. Um, if you need our help, you know where we are.”

“Thanks.”

An hour later Dev called.

“How far does this thing go when the needle’s on empty?” he asked.

“I try not to let it get there,” Logan said.

“Well, I’m about a hair’s width away from it. Kept hoping they’d pull over, but their car doesn’t eat as much gas as this one.”

“Where are you?”

“Almost to Flagstaff.”

“You still have them in sight?”

“At the moment, but I’m going to have to stop soon.”

Logan frowned. “You’ve got probably about twenty miles. Will that get you to Flagstaff?”

“Yeah.”

“Stay with them until you know if they’re stopping there, or heading farther east, then fill up.”

“Got it.”

Logan inched the rental’s speed up a few miles an hour, knowing it would never be enough to catch up with Dev in time.

Fifteen minutes passed before Dev called back.

“They got off in Flagstaff.”

Logan could feel some of the tension in his shoulders easing. “You know which way they went?”

“Yeah, not that it’ll do us much good. This place isn’t huge, but it’s big enough to get lost in. I’m filling up now. When I’m done, I’ll see if I can spot them, but I’m not holding my breath.”

“Don’t waste your time,” Logan said. “Turns out Diana used to work in Flagstaff. I have the address where she used to live. Give it a drive-by and see if there’s anything interesting.”

“You think that might be where she is?”

“I doubt our luck is that good, but we have to check.”

“Want me to knock on the door?”

“No. Not until I get there. If you have time, try to get an address for Harkin Services. That was her employer. I should be there in forty minutes or so.”

__________

AS THE LIGHTS of Flagstaff came into view, Logan checked in again with Dev, who suggested they meet at Diana’s old address.

“It’s not exactly what you’re expecting,” Dev said.

“What do you mean?”

“You’ll see.”

The first thing Logan spotted as he turned onto Diana’s old street was the El Camino parked at the curb with Dev standing next to it on the sidewalk. As Logan got out of his rental, he checked the addresses on the buildings until he found the one Diana had used.

It wasn’t a house. It wasn’t even an apartment building.

It was a business called Burrage Copy Box.

He walked over and looked through the window.

“Told you it wasn’t what you’d expect,” Dev said, coming up behind him.

Though Copy Box was closed for the night, there were enough security lights on to see inside. The place’s main features were half a dozen photocopy machines, several racks of shipping supplies, and a wall of private mailboxes, one of which had undoubtedly been used by Diana at one point.

“Just great,” Logan said.

“I’ve got something else you’ll want to see.”

“What?”

Dev tossed the El Camino’s keys to Logan. “Come on. I’ll show you.”

Following Dev’s instructions, Logan drove to the end of the block, turned right, and went two more blocks.

“Park anywhere,” Dev said.

“Where are we?”

As soon as they were stopped, Dev pointed at the office building beside them. In bold, white letters affixed to the brick exterior were the words HARKIN SERVICES.

“Checked out their website when I looked up their address,” Dev said. “They’re a contractor for the National Park Service.”

“Doing what?”

“Basically running some of the parks-concessions, tours, in-park motels, that kind of thing. El Portal is right outside Yosemite. And Flagstaff is only an hour or so from-”

“The Grand Canyon,” Logan finished for him.

The corner of Dev’s mouth moved up a bit. “Bet she worked as a bartender at motels in both places.”

Annoyed, Logan looked down the street toward where Burrage Copy Box was located. He was willing to bet a majority of the company’s mail service clients were Harkin employees who worked at the Grand Canyon. A small part of him had been hoping this was Sara’s hiding place. No such luck.

He got out and gave the building a once-over. Somewhere inside, either in a cabinet or on a server, would be a folder with all the information the company had on Diana Stockley-rather, Diana Baudler-including the address where she’d actually lived while working at the Grand Canyon. Maybe that would be another dead end. Still, he would love to get a look at the file.

For a second, he considered breaking in, but while he was sure he could get through the door, he was equally positive there would be an alarm system he wouldn’t be able to figure out how to deactivate in time. There were other ways to get the info, though. Perhaps Callie could help on that front.

Hearing Dev take a step behind him, he turned. “I think maybe we should-”

It wasn’t Dev.

In fact, it wasn’t just one person. It was two.

And both were aiming guns at his chest.