Every Precious Thing

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Logan and Dev reached theWilliams turnoff just before nine thirty a.m. They followed Diana’s instructions and headed north on State Route 64. Logan had been hoping to hear back from Ruth by now, but she hadn’t called.

Around the twenty-minute mark, Dev started glancing at the odometer. Finally he said, “That’s twenty-eight miles.”

Logan focused on the edge of the road, looking for the white X, but there was only a solid white line, three feet from where the asphalt ended.

“Twenty-nine,” Dev said, slowing some more.

Still nothing.

“Twenty-nine and a half.”

White line.

“Twenty-nine point seven…point eight…point nine…and here comes-”

“There it is,” Logan said, spotting the marker.

“-thirty,” Dev finished. He pulled the El Camino to the side of the road.

Logan had seen similar Xs on roads before, and knew precisely a mile ahead they’d find a second one. The Xs were markers highway patrol helicopters could use to gauge a car’s speed.

Logan looked around. The area was covered with low shrubs for as far as he could see. In the distance, hills and mountains sporadically jutted up from the ground, altering what would have been an otherwise flat horizon.

Logan checked his watch. It was a few minutes shy of ten a.m., more than thirty minutes left on Diana’s deadline. He’d been hoping she was waiting for them, but unlike in Flagstaff where the forest surrounded the road, there was nowhere here for anyone to hide. Logan and Dev were the only ones around.

Logan opened the door and got out to stretch. Though he couldn’t see it from here, not too much farther to the north was the Grand Canyon. The only real indication of this was the constant traffic on the road.

He looked at his watch again and then chastised himself. Checking the time wouldn’t bring Diana here any faster.

If she’s coming at all.

He gritted his teeth and tried to push that thought away, but it wouldn’t disappear completely. He walked several feet into the brush and considered giving his dad a call. He did owe Harp an update, but his pay-as-you-go phone didn’t come with call waiting or voice mail and he didn’t want to chance missing Ruth. He looked back at the unevenly spaced traffic on the road, each car merely another blob of paint and metal racing by.

“Come on, Diana. Where are you?”