Page 2 of Tripp

I heard a voice, faint. My cell was in my hand. Who was talking to me?

“What?” I called out as I scrubbed a hand over my face. My jaw cracked as I yawned. Fuck, I needed coffee.

“Tripp, man, you there?”

It took a second, but then it registered what was going on. I knew that voice.

“Scooter?”

“Yeah, man, look, we have a problem.”

“What? You okay?”

“I’m okay. It’s Casey.”

“Casey…” I was awake for sure now. “What happened?”

“She’s been no contact for over twenty-four hours. That’s not normal. Especially not now.”

I crawled over the seat, landing with a thump. “Fuck.” I jostled myself and tossed the boot I’d sat on into the floorboard.

“Man, what the hell are you doing?”

“Waking up, asshole. What time is it anyway?”

“Depends on where you’re at.”

I scrubbed a hand over my face and started the Jeep. The cool air that slapped me in the face was welcome. “I’m on the way to see my boy. Made it to the south end of Dallas sometime early this morning. I drove for about sixteen hours and just couldn’t go any further.”

“Damn, man. Then it’s just a little after 8:00am here.”

I’d only been asleep for about six hours. I’d gone longer and done worse on less sleep. I pulled my map back up on my phone and found my exact location. I plugged in the address I had for Phoenix and hit start. At first, I was confused as hell. Then I realized I’d hit walking instead of driving. I shook myself, blinking to wake up fully.

Who in their right mind would walk to anywhere in this state. Was that a real option?

“Are you alright to drive?”

“Yeah. I’m leaving here, heading to Burke. The GPS says it’s about three hours from where I am.” I looked around at the truck stop parking lot. “Where are you now? Where is Casey?”

“In Diboll. I’m back now for good. I moved in with Casey, we are just outside of Burke.”

“Okay. Okay, good.”

I wanted to ask more, but the man knew me well. “I came back to help her out. She’s working as a PI now, so she’s gone quite a bit. She needed me to help out around the house.”

“The last time I was there—it’s been three years or so. She was working on herself then. But I only got to see here that one night, then I had to get back to Vegas.”

“Yeah, after I left to find myself, she got—She’s a different person now. And she’s why I’m calling you, man. I’m worried. You’re the only one I know to call.”

I knew my old friend well. There was something that he wasn’t telling me. Maybe that was for the best. As it was now, I planned on getting down there as fast as I could. Thinking logically, I tried to reassure him. “If she’s on a case, she could be in a situation where she can’t make a call. That isn’t inherently a bad thing. I’ve had that come up a few times in the last few months myself.”

“Trust me when I tell you, she always calls to check in anytime she is gone. There’s been no exception to that since I got back here. No matter the time of day or night, she lets us know where she is and if she’s okay.”

“Okay. We’ll figure it out when I get there.”

The last time I’d seen Casey was a night I thought about often. I’d been out drinking my sorrows away when she walked into the bar. Her eyes had been puffy, her cheeks red. That night ended with me waking up in a bed alone, the sheets cold and my heart broken. I hadn’t earned her trust back. That was my fault. I’d left her when she needed me most. I would rectify that. I’d get to her and make sure she really was okay.

“You there, man?”

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