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Sandy said in her matter-of-fact voice, “Where’s Gary?”
“Staying with his sister in San Diego for a while.” Da
Sandy and Co
“Left all this trouble for you to clean up.”
“Now that’s not fair. He’d help if he could.”
“He ran out on you before.”
“He came back. What about Gary? Is he coming back?” Sandy asked.
“Let me know when you find out,” Co
“Oh, so that’s how it is.”
“I’m workin’ at least. In the cashier cage at the CalNeva. Right up the road at Crystal Bay. Gary has the car, but the bus goes right there.”
“Good money?”
“Enough to keep this place going. When you comin’ back to Tahoe?”
“Pretty soon. I’ll see you at the powwow in August.” Co
“So you’re chasing my son,” Co
“Nobody knows but these two,” Sandy answered, waving a hand at Paul and Nina. “They just want to stop him.”
“He loves kids. You’re crazy if you think he’d hurt a kid.”
“Maybe,” Sandy said.
“He kidnapped two kids? You’re sure about that?” She paused, then went on, “I guess you wouldn’t drive all the way up here if you weren’t sure.”
“If we find him and there aren’t any kids, that’ll be great. But see, the kids are gone and it looks like Da
Co
“He let everyone think he was dead,” Sandy said. “How did he explain that?”
“It wasn’t a big plot. I asked him, and he said nobody really cared one way or another. I told him I did, and he just said, ‘Well, you.’ ” She swallowed and put one bony hand over the other, as if to hold it still.
“I hate to say it,” Sandy told her, “you know I hate to say it. But if we don’t find him right away somebody really could die.”
Co
“Tell us what happened when he came,” Sandy persisted.
Co
“He did,” Sandy said, nodding.
“He was always lonely. We moved so much. Two months here, six months there… Da
“Led him straight into trouble,” Sandy said, “that time they set the tree on fire.”
Nina bit her lip. So Da
Co
“Ben found that job for him at the car-repair shop in Carmel Valley. He was good at that. He loved cars. I really thought things were looking hopeful for him finally.”
“I hear he was good at it,” Sandy said. Her calm kept them all calm, especially Co
“Then the business got sold. But Wish had come to town by then, and Ben says he was happy to have a buddy again. But then Ben says Wish decided to part ways with Da
“He did. I won’t say he didn’t.”
“Another time things that could have gone good went bad,” Co
“Stop. Stop it. You took the best care of him you could. You’re still taking care of him by helping us get ahold of him. That’s being a good mother. You know it.”
“He’ll hate me.”
“Don’t-”
“It’s all right. He will hate me, because he’s got a soul-sickness, but that’s how it has to be. You know, we had a funeral for him. Flowers and speeches. Twenty-one years old, and we thought he was dead. We laid him in the ground. I suffered through my boy’s death. I can’t quite believe he’s still alive. But seein’ as how he is, I want your word that you won’t bring in the police if I tell you what I know.”
“I can’t swear that, he’s so far gone,” Sandy said. “But tell me anyway.”
After a long silence, Co
“How much did you give him?”
“Everything I had. Three hundred dollars.”
“What was he driving?”
She thought. “I thought he came in his car. It was overcast, and he must not have parked right out front.”
“You didn’t see any children with him?”
“I guarantee when you find him, you won’t find any kids with him. Not unless they wanted to go along,” she added, in a testament to her own uncertainty.
“Did he take anything besides money?”
“He keeps a lot in that closet.” Co
Paul got up quietly. “Mind?” he asked as he opened the door to the cupboard. Clothes and bed linens were wadded and stuffed into every shelf. Paul searched for a few minutes while the women watched. He emerged with a lantern and a ball of netting. “Camping gear,” he said.
Co
“Kerosene?” Nina asked.
Co
“How much?”
“Half a gallon.”
“Mrs. Cervantes,” Paul said, “where is he?”
She didn’t resist the entreaty in his voice any longer, but pulled out a creased map and showed them Da
Paul got the address for the cabin.
“You think that’s where he’s gone?” Nina said.
“He wouldn’t stay in the cabin. He never liked being inside when he could be outside. Also, he talked like he was going camping. Took wood from the stack behind the house for campfires. I really don’t know. I’m guessing where he might be. He also likes to camp above Cave Rock, and over by Spooner Lake.” She showed them two other spots. “Go ahead,” she said, “track him down like an animal.” Now Nina could hear the anger coming up in her, the anger at herself and Da